Interdisciplinary Research Team Dynamics - A Systems Approach to Understanding Communication and Collaboration in Complex Teams

ISBN-13: 9783836453646 / Angielski / Miękka / 2007 / 324 str.

Jessica Thompson

Opis

This book investigates communication and collaboration in an interdisciplinaryacademic research team. The author uses grounded practicaltheory and a systems perspective to identify structures, processes anddilemmas influencing collective communication competence and capacity forcollaboration in a team. The communication structures include: trust, presence,humor, encounter talk, language, boredom, challenging statementsand reflexive talk. The structures influence four communication processes:debating expertise, shared learning and language use, shared vision andinterdisciplinary products. The team also encountered four communicativedilemmas or tensions: selecting measurement sites, negotiating the tensionbetween simplicity and complexity, negotiating the tension between socialand natural science paradigms, and learning how to write collaboratively. Theauthor used participant observation and qualitative methodology to identifythe structures, processes and dilemmas. The ethnographic analysis was thebasis for a systems model of interdisciplinary team dynamics. The systemsmodel is a reflective communication tool for interdisciplinary team membersand facilitators and provides a dynamic understanding of communication andcollaboration behaviors embedded in interdisciplinary research teams.