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Knowledge Transfer between Practitioners and Academics in New Zealand. Joel A. Kline Associate Professor of Business and Digital Communications Lebanon Valley College June 4, 2008

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Overview <ul><li>What I did… </li></ul><ul><li>Why the Conversation? </li></ul><ul><li>Literature Review </li></ul><ul><li>What did I research? </li></ul><ul><li>Methods </li></ul><ul><li>Quantitative Results </li></ul><ul><li>Qualitative Results </li></ul><ul><li>Metaphorically Speaking </li></ul><ul><li>Audience Engagement </li></ul>

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What I did… <ul><li>Researched Technical Communication practitioners in New Zealand (NZ) </li></ul><ul><li>Focused on the transfer of knowledge between academic and practitioner communities </li></ul><ul><li>Pilot study for future research </li></ul><ul><li>Important to the conversation between the communities </li></ul>

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Why NZ? <ul><li>Much smaller overall population </li></ul><ul><li>A sample size of about a 100 would be much more representative than in US </li></ul><ul><li>Stratification of academic institutions between research Universities and applied Institutes </li></ul><ul><li>Very little research has been done on the TC community – accommodating subjects </li></ul><ul><li>I was there… </li></ul>

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Why the Conversation? <ul><li>Mirel and Spilka note “…professionals from both worlds contribute to the substance and identity that technical communicators hold dear…” </li></ul><ul><li>Many TC professors have never practiced TC (or taken coursework in TC) </li></ul><ul><li>To build our own BOK </li></ul><ul><li>Who cites us? </li></ul><ul><li>Excess vs. Incest </li></ul>

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External A/I Conversation <ul><li>“ Moving outside of the organizational sciences, Louis, Blumenthal, Gluck, and Stoto (1989) and Cohen and coauthors (1998) reported that the most successful academic researchers in the biological and physical sciences also tend to have the highest levels of interaction with practitioners… </li></ul><ul><li>… Similarly, Pelz and Andrews (1976) found that corporate researchers who spent at least part of their time working on assigned (rather than self-chosen) problems and who took boundary-spanning roles (in management, for example) in addition to conducting research were also the most productive... </li></ul><ul><li>… Thus, a preponderance of the evidence suggests that collaborations between researchers and practitioners increase research productivity and, in some cases, quality as well.” </li></ul><ul><li>Rynes, Bartunek, et al. </li></ul>

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Literature Review <ul><li>Literature is non-existent on the 2 communities in NZ </li></ul><ul><li>Limited research on TC knowledge transfer (Palmer and Killingsworth, Mirel and Spilka, Windsor) </li></ul><ul><li>Extended organizational sciences research on the gap between communities from Beyer & Trice (also Rynes, Bartunek, et al) </li></ul>

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My WhoGARA Moment <ul><li>Began as a quantitative and qualitative study of TC practitioners in NZ </li></ul><ul><li>Assumed the exchange of information between the communities is valuable </li></ul><ul><li>That lasted until one practitioner asked “why should I care what academic researchers are doing?” </li></ul>

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Methods – Survey & Interviews <ul><li>Online survey </li></ul><ul><li>Recruited members of Technical Communicators Assoc. of NZ (TCANZ) </li></ul><ul><li>Interview Sample size of 90 </li></ul><ul><li>Questions: Demographics, Knowledge Transfer, Metaphor </li></ul><ul><li>25 Qualitative Interviews </li></ul><ul><li>Seek more detail on why the two communities don’t exchange information </li></ul><ul><li>Has led to insight on mechanisms of transfer (i.e. alumni events) </li></ul><ul><li>End interview with questions about whether an online or virtual solution could improve the exchange of information </li></ul>

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A/I Interaction Locus Model Academia Industry Face-to-Face Interaction Publications Virtual Interaction Figure 1: Academic/Industry Interaction Locus Model

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Sample Quantitative Results <ul><li>Most common answer for virtual meeting place between communities (blogs, wikis, etc) was “None of These” (43%) </li></ul><ul><li>Highest scoring academic journal read by practitioners was Technical Communication with only 28% </li></ul><ul><li>Practitioners rated academic sources of knowledge as the lowest </li></ul>

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Virtual Intersection between A/I

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Publications

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Sources of Knowledge

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Metaphorically Speaking 20.8% 16 My own metaphor (enter below) 13.0% 10 Finding Unity in Difference 29.9% 23 Meeting in Overlapping Spaces 20.8% 16 Narrowing Gaps and Differences 15.6% 12 Building Bridges

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Locations Preferred by Industry Each Less than 10% Teaching Papers (courses) Serving on Advisory Board Mentoring College Students Academic Consultants in your Workplace 10.8 % None of these 17.5% Seminars 20.1% Membership Organizations 22.2% Conferences Practitioners Prefer Location

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Qualitative Results <ul><li>Interviews conducted over the telephone </li></ul><ul><li>All practitioners agreed that good relationships with the academic community was important </li></ul><ul><li>Most felt that there was a significant disconnect, especially with the research universities </li></ul><ul><li>Asked about metaphors from Mirel and Spilka book Reshaping Technical Communication for the 21 st Century… </li></ul>

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Reward Systems <ul><li>“ Practitioners are bottom line oriented. This doesn’t encourage innovation. Academics perform research that is innovative” Interviewee #1 </li></ul><ul><li>“ Sometimes it seems like academics get rewarded more easily than practitioners. And the rewards are not appropriate. Maybe it’s a wee bit of jealousy between practitioners and academics.” </li></ul><ul><li> Interviewee #2 </li></ul>

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Briefly Characterize… <ul><li>“ Hmm. I suppose there is some, but not a lot of communication between the two camps.” </li></ul><ul><li>“ I would say my first thought is that there is none. But then I would say that there must be, surely teachers would want to go and socialize with other Tech Comm. people, especially the ones that are out there practicing it. But, as far as I know, except for say TCANZ, there is no interaction. I’ve certainly never interacted with an academic.” </li></ul><ul><li>“ I’m not sure if it is all that tight. “ </li></ul>

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A Typical Qualitative Quote <ul><li>“I have to admit I have no contacts to academics at the moment, personally. And it’s just, you never thought of it actually. I think it’s an important thing to have and it would make life easier. I think as a technical writer, I get my information mostly from management within the company. It would be fruitful to connect to academics outside this – beyond the company level.” </li></ul>

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Self-made Metaphors (direct quotes) <ul><li>Joining theory and practice </li></ul><ul><li>Binding agent in cement/plaster </li></ul><ul><li>Walk AND Talk </li></ul><ul><li>Making the usable out of the incomprehensible </li></ul><ul><li>Living together </li></ul><ul><li>Walk in each other's shoes </li></ul><ul><li>Research-based practice </li></ul><ul><li>Transitions: from the theory to the practice </li></ul><ul><li>I LOATHE this kind of thing </li></ul><ul><li>Communities of Practice (CoP), term from Organisational Development </li></ul><ul><li>Providing Resource </li></ul><ul><li>twin pillars supporting business </li></ul><ul><li>working together </li></ul><ul><li>Ships in the night </li></ul><ul><li>Marriage </li></ul><ul><li>Inhabiting seperate [sic] planets </li></ul>

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Conclusions <ul><li>The practitioner community does not read much of what is written by the academic community in NZ </li></ul><ul><li>NZ practitioners do not believe the academic community is a resource for their work </li></ul><ul><li>The use of online or virtual communities for exchanging information between the academic and practitioner communities is not productive </li></ul>

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What Can We Do? <ul><li>Knowledge portal project </li></ul><ul><li>A/I communication initiatives </li></ul><ul><li>Computer Mediated Platform </li></ul><ul><li>Acquire more data </li></ul><ul><li>Recognize then overcome the obstacles a intersections: </li></ul><ul><ul><li>Physical </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Virtual </li></ul></ul><ul><ul><li>Publications </li></ul></ul><ul><li>Work towards an integrated model and set of best practices </li></ul><ul><li>Build a case for strong A/I community interaction </li></ul>

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Bibliography <ul><li>Beyer, J. M., & Trice, H. M. (1982). “The utilization process: A conceptual framework and synthesis of empirical findings.” Administrative Science Quarterly , 27. 591-622. </li></ul><ul><li>Palmer, J. and Killingsworth, M.J. (2002). Research and Consulting in Technical Communication. Technical Communications Quarterly 11.4. 389-409 </li></ul><ul><li>Maxwell, J. A. (2005). Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach (2nd Ed). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. </li></ul><ul><li>Mirel, B. and Spilka, R., Eds.(2002). Reshaping Technical Communication. New Directions and Challenges for the 21 st Century. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Inc. </li></ul><ul><li>Reynolds, A. (2002). “Ashes or Phoenix? Technical Communication or Information Design?” STC 2002 Conference Proceedings. Retrieved online from: http://www.stc.org/confproceed/2002/PDFs/STC49-00002.pdf </li></ul><ul><li>Rynes, S.L., Bartunek, J.M., & Daft, R. (2001) “Across the great divide: knowledge creation and transfer between practitioners and academics.” Academy of Management Journal , 44(2). 340-355. </li></ul>

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