joel kline presentation
DESCRIPTION
My Society of Technical Communication presentation in summer 2008 on my New Zealand research about Information Design practitioners.TRANSCRIPT
Knowledge Transfer between Practitioners and Academics in New Zealand.
Joel A. KlineAssociate Professor of Business and Digital CommunicationsLebanon Valley CollegeJune 4, 2008
Joel A. Kline, Lebanon Valley College 2
Overview
What I did… Why the Conversation? Literature Review What did I research? Methods Quantitative Results Qualitative Results Metaphorically Speaking Audience Engagement
Joel A. Kline, Lebanon Valley College 3
What I did…
Researched Technical Communication practitioners in New Zealand (NZ)
Focused on the transfer of knowledge between academic and practitioner communities
Pilot study for future research Important to the conversation between the
communities
Joel A. Kline, Lebanon Valley College 4
Why NZ?
Much smaller overall population A sample size of about a 100 would be much
more representative than in US Stratification of academic institutions between
research Universities and applied Institutes Very little research has been done on the TC
community – accommodating subjects I was there…
Joel A. Kline, Lebanon Valley College 5
Why the Conversation?
Mirel and Spilka note “…professionals from both worlds contribute to the substance and identity that technical communicators hold dear…”
Many TC professors have never practiced TC (or taken coursework in TC)
To build our own BOK Who cites us? Excess vs. Incest
Joel A. Kline, Lebanon Valley College 6
External A/I Conversation
“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…
…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...
…Thus, a preponderance of the evidence suggests that collaborations between researchers and practitioners increase research productivity and, in some cases, quality as well.”
Rynes, Bartunek, et al.
Joel A. Kline, Lebanon Valley College 7
Literature Review
Literature is non-existent on the 2 communities in NZ
Limited research on TC knowledge transfer (Palmer and Killingsworth, Mirel and Spilka, Windsor)
Extended organizational sciences research on the gap between communities from Beyer & Trice (also Rynes, Bartunek, et al)
Joel A. Kline, Lebanon Valley College 8
My WhoGARA Moment
Began as a quantitative and qualitative study of TC practitioners in NZ
Assumed the exchange of information between the communities is valuable
That lasted until one practitioner asked “why should I care what academic researchers are doing?”
Joel A. Kline, Lebanon Valley College 9
Methods – Survey & Interviews
Online survey Recruited members of Technical Communicators Assoc. of NZ
(TCANZ) Interview Sample size of 90 Questions: Demographics, Knowledge Transfer, Metaphor
25 Qualitative Interviews Seek more detail on why the two communities don’t exchange
information Has led to insight on mechanisms of transfer (i.e. alumni events) End interview with questions about whether an online or virtual
solution could improve the exchange of information
Joel A. Kline, Lebanon Valley College 10
A/I Interaction Locus Model
Academia Industry
Face-to-FaceInteraction
Publications
VirtualInteraction
Figure 1: Academic/Industry Interaction Locus Model
Joel A. Kline, Lebanon Valley College 11
Sample Quantitative Results
Most common answer for virtual meeting place between communities (blogs, wikis, etc) was “None of These” (43%)
Highest scoring academic journal read by practitioners was Technical Communication with only 28%
Practitioners rated academic sources of knowledge as the lowest
Joel A. Kline, Lebanon Valley College 12
Virtual Intersection between A/I
Virtual Intersection
05
10152025303540
STC VirtualChapters
Message orDiscussion
Boards
NewsGroups
Email ListServLists
IM NONE ofTHESE
13
0
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
45
50
Jour
nal o
f Bus
iness
and
Tec
hnica
l Com
mun
icatio
n?
Techn
ical C
omm
unica
tion
Quarte
rly
Techn
ical C
omm
unica
tion
Jour
nal o
f Tec
hnica
l Writ
ing a
nd C
omm
unica
tion
The B
ullet
in of
the
Assoc
iation
for B
usine
ss C
omm
unica
tion
Busine
ss C
omm
unica
tion
Quarte
rly
Jour
nal o
f App
lied
Comm
unica
tions
Res
earc
h
Jour
nal o
f Com
mun
icatio
n M
anag
emen
t
Man
agem
ent C
omm
unica
tion
Quarte
rly
Knowled
ge M
anag
emen
t Res
earc
h & P
racti
ce
Inte
rnat
ional
Jour
nal o
f Kno
wledge
Man
agem
ent
IEEE T
echn
ical W
riting
Jour
nals
Comm
unica
tion
Jour
nal o
f New
Zea
land
ACM S
IGDOC Jo
urna
l
Inte
com
(STC)
South
ern
Comm
unica
tor J
ourn
al
ISTC C
omm
unica
tor J
ourn
al (U
K)
Other
(plea
se sp
ecify
)
Pu
blic
atio
ns
14
Sources of Knowledge
Very
Useful
Neutral
Rarely
Never
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
Col
leag
ues
Indu
stry
trad
epe
riodi
cals
(new
slet
ters
/mag
azin
es)
Aca
dem
ic p
erio
dica
ls(jo
urna
ls)
Con
fere
nces
Con
tinui
ng e
duca
tion
(pap
ers/
cour
ses)
Sem
inar
s/tr
aini
ng/1
day
clas
ses
Inte
ract
ion
with
acad
emic
s (p
rofe
ssor
sin
stru
ctor
s le
ctur
ers)
Virt
ual (
onlin
e)co
mm
uniti
es
Mechanism
Res
po
nse
s
Joel A. Kline, Lebanon Valley College 15
Metaphorically Speaking
Building Bridges 12 15.6%
Narrowing Gaps and Differences
16 20.8%
Meeting in Overlapping Spaces
23 29.9%
Finding Unity in Difference
10 13.0%
My own metaphor (enter below)
16 20.8%
Joel A. Kline, Lebanon Valley College 16
Locations Preferred by Industry
Location Practitioners Prefer
Conferences 22.2%
Membership Organizations 20.1%
Seminars 17.5%
None of these 10.8 %
Teaching Papers (courses)
Serving on Advisory Board
Mentoring College Students
Academic Consultants in your Workplace
Each Less than 10%
Joel A. Kline, Lebanon Valley College 17
Qualitative Results
Interviews conducted over the telephone All practitioners agreed that good relationships
with the academic community was important Most felt that there was a significant disconnect,
especially with the research universities Asked about metaphors from Mirel and Spilka
book Reshaping Technical Communication for the 21st Century…
Joel A. Kline, Lebanon Valley College 18
Reward Systems
“Practitioners are bottom line oriented. This doesn’t encourage innovation. Academics perform research that is innovative”
Interviewee #1
“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.”
Interviewee #2
Joel A. Kline, Lebanon Valley College 19
Briefly Characterize…
“Hmm. I suppose there is some, but not a lot of communication between the two camps.”
“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.”
“I’m not sure if it is all that tight. “
Joel A. Kline, Lebanon Valley College 20
A Typical Qualitative Quote
“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.”
Joel A. Kline, Lebanon Valley College 21
Self-made Metaphors (direct quotes)
Joining theory and practice Binding agent in
cement/plaster Walk AND Talk Making the usable out of the
incomprehensible Living together Walk in each other's shoes Research-based practice Transitions: from the theory to
the practice
I LOATHE this kind of thing Communities of Practice
(CoP), term from Organisational Development
Providing Resource twin pillars supporting
business working together Ships in the night Marriage Inhabiting seperate [sic]
planets
Joel A. Kline, Lebanon Valley College 22
Conclusions
The practitioner community does not read much of what is written by the academic community in NZ
NZ practitioners do not believe the academic community is a resource for their work
The use of online or virtual communities for exchanging information between the academic and practitioner communities is not productive
Joel A. Kline, Lebanon Valley College 23
What Can We Do?
Knowledge portal project A/I communication initiatives Computer Mediated Platform Acquire more data Recognize then overcome the obstacles a intersections:
• Physical
• Virtual
• Publications
Work towards an integrated model and set of best practices
Build a case for strong A/I community interaction
Joel A. Kline, Lebanon Valley College 24
Bibliography
Beyer, J. M., & Trice, H. M. (1982). “The utilization process: A conceptual framework and synthesis of empirical findings.” Administrative Science Quarterly, 27. 591-622.
Palmer, J. and Killingsworth, M.J. (2002). Research and Consulting in Technical Communication. Technical Communications Quarterly 11.4. 389-409
Maxwell, J. A. (2005). Qualitative Research Design: An Interactive Approach (2nd Ed). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.
Mirel, B. and Spilka, R., Eds.(2002). Reshaping Technical Communication. New Directions and Challenges for the 21st Century. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Inc.
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
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.