Working through Boundaries

Learning mechanisms are viewed as a critical component of collaborative management research. In this chapter, the authors review the evolution of a variety of learning mechanisms within four streams of research. Three types of learning mechanisms-cognitive, structural, and procedural-are explored as both ends and means in collaborative management research. Utilizing a five-year research project with Skandia, the nature of the learning mechanisms tapestry, or combination of different types of mechanisms being used at any time, is described, and the role that it played in the collaborative management research is discussed. The last part of the chapter focus on the exploration of three challenges: The multiple roles of learning mechanisms in collaborative management research, the design choices in the formation of learning mechanisms and their potential consequences, and learning mechanisms and the voices of inquiry and practice.

This article explores collaborative management research (CMR). As one of the streams within the action research family, CMR is one approach that has been identified as a potent method for advancing scientific knowledge and bringing about change in organizations. The article proposes a hybrid model of the CMR research process in organizations. Following a brief introduction of collaborative management research, we advance an emerging, inductively derived, hybrid process model of CMR. Three critical clusters for achieving the intended outcomes of collaborative management research include: (1) contextual factors, (2) quality of the collaboration, and (3) the development of the collaborative research process itself. Within each cluster, concepts, variables, and processes were identified and linked together to form a hybrid model of CMR process. An illustration of a collaborative management research project that focused on the study of collective creativity with an Italian fashion and design company is followed by a reflective analysis. The discussion provides directions for future research and implications for practice.

BackgroundDespite recognition of the centrality of professional board-certified chaplains (BCC) in palliative care, the discipline has little research to guide its practices. To help address this limitation, HealthCare Chaplaincy Network funded six proposals in which BCCs worked collaboratively with established researchers. Recognizing the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in the development of a new field, this paper reports on an exploratory study of project members’ reflections over time on the benefits and challenges of conducting inter-disciplinary spiritual care research.MethodsData collection occurred in two stages. Stage 1 entailed two independent, self-reflective focus groups, organized by professional discipline, mid-way through the site projects. Stage 2 entailed end-of-project site reports and a conference questionnaire.ResultsEighteen professionals participated in the group discussions. Stage 1: researchers perceived chaplains as eager workers passionately committed to their patients and to research, and identified challenges faced by chaplains in learning to conduct research. Chaplains perceived researchers as passionate about their work, were concerned research might uncover negative findings for their profession, and sensed they used a dissimilar paradigm from their research colleagues regarding the ‘ways of relating’ to knowledge and understanding.Stage 2: researchers and chaplains noted important changes they ascribed to the interdisciplinary collaboration that were classified into six domains of cultural and philosophical understanding: respect; learning; discovery; creativity; fruitful partnerships; and learning needs.ConclusionsChaplains and researchers initially expressed divergent perspectives on the research collaborations. During the projects’ lifespans, these differences were acknowledged and addressed. Mutual appreciation for each discipline’s strengths and contributions to inter-professional dialogue emerged.

This chapter describes a values education project which formed part of a major intervention research study aimed at crime reduction in schools in Durban, South Africa. Written from a social work perspective, where values education mainly concerns professional training and clinical practice, it shows how attempts were made to integrate values education in three disadvantaged schools over a range of interventions relating to HIV and AIDS education, gender relationships, discrimination and racism, and the promotion of cross-cultural understanding. Rather than ‘values education’ as an add-on, it argues for values education to be integrated into all areas of school life from teacher education, through to educational content and behaviour management, as well as parent involvement and policy making. Furthermore, it argues that this is best achieved through interdisciplinary collaboration in research and practice, particularly in the promotion of practical, useful knowledge which directly addresses concrete social problems and enables teachers to address ‘values issues’ as they arise in the classroom, on the playground or in the broader community.

Collaboration has been shown to be beneficial when we have complex problems and highly specialized groups, such as in head and neck reconstruction. Otolaryngology, plastic surgery, and oral maxillofacial surgeons perform head and neck reconstruction research. While the specialties represent unique backgrounds, the degree of interdisciplinary collaboration and subtopic focus is unknown. We sought to describe the frequency of interinstitutional interdisciplinary collaboration and examine the association of specialty with research subtopics. Oral presentations from 2014 to 2018 focused on head and neck reconstruction or associated principles at the main reconstructive academic meetings in otolaryngology (American Head and Neck Society), plastic surgery (American Society for Reconstructive Microsurgery), and oral maxillofacial surgery (American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons) were reviewed. Author specialty and institution data were recorded. All abstracts were assigned a research subtopic, chosen based on identified themes. Subtopic frequencies among the specialties were compared. Thirteen of 88 (15%) US institutions participate in interdisciplinary collaboration in head and neck reconstruction research. Of the remaining institutions, 23 (31%) have researchers performing parallel work and not collaborating. Certain research subtopics were more often presented by each specialty, representing differing interests. Collaboration among head and neck reconstruction research at the US institutions is low compared with the potential. Specialties focus on different research subtopics, and therefore can benefit from working together.

This article analyzes the most important issues, concepts, and ideas in collaborative public management research and practice today. The issues, concepts, and ideas are (a) competing definitions of collaboration; (b) changes in the environment of public management that have encouraged the growth of collaborative public management; (c) “thinking DaVinci”—lateral thinking and interdisciplinarity; (d) the management challenges of working in networks; (e) the paradox of balancing autonomy and interdependence; (f) factors to consider before collaborating; (g) the importance of the individual; (h) the shifting leadership challenge; (i) weaknesses in collaborative public management research; and (j) the missing link between theory and practice. The authors conclude that the study and practice of collaborative public management is generally fragmented with low level of consensus. From a research perspective, it is a low-paradigm field. The authors close with a view to the future. To advance the study and practice of collaborative public management the authors urge (a) agreement on definitions of commonly used terms, beginning with the term “collaboration”; (b) agreement on pressing collaborative public management challenges and substantive research and practice questions; (c) more precise theoretical models of behavior; and (d) agreement on the measurement of relevant variables.

A gap between health services research and practice has been identified: research findings often do not find their way into practice. Our objective was to explore the potential of collaborative research to bridge this gap in one specific area, health promotion, and to determine factors that influence the development of theory-based practice and practice-based theory. This was investigated in an exploratory single-case study. First, we designed an analytical framework for collaborative research. Next, we used this framework to analyse developments in the Dutch Health Broker Partnership, which involved researchers, policymakers and practitioners. Data consisted of transcripts of the meetings of the Partnership over an 18-month period, as well as interviews with its 13 members. The development of theory-based practice and practice-based theory failed to progress beyond the initial stages, although practitioners' actions did become more comprehensive and researchers' thinking became more influenced by practical limitations and local contexts. The heterogeneity of the Partnership facilitated as well as impeded the progress of these developments. Although collaborative research may serve as a tool to narrow the gap between research and practice, discussing the collaborative process and partner heterogeneity among the partners at the outset may be a necessary prerequisite to achieving the full potential of any partnership, which is limited by the ambivalent influence of partner heterogeneity. Collaborative research may, therefore, additionally benefit from continuous cross-domain orchestration and boundary work.

The aim of this research was to explore the composition, contribution and arrangement of scientific disciplines, across the spectrum from, traditional waste management, to alternative, contemporary approaches, such as the zero waste and circular economy movements. The purpose of this research is to better address the challenge of waste by enhancing the understanding and future employment of interdisciplinary theory and practice. The first outcome of the review strategy employed in this research was to, illustrate a generic rubric of scientific disciplines and to highlight and discuss key disciplines most obviously connected to waste management. This graphic illustration was then overlain with the findings from systematically reviewing a diverse range of indicators and sources of insight and information on the disciplines and interdisciplinarity evident across the spectrum from waste to zero waste management approaches. The resulting final graphic illustrates the intense disciplinarity and hence, the significant interdisciplinary requirement of (zero) waste management. An observation emerging from this research is that, successfully managing the globalised complexity of waste issues and in this, addressing the challenges of climate change and sustainable development, requires cultivating synergy between multiple scientific and practical disciplines. The scope of this challenge increases with the adoption of more holistic, aspirational, countercultural approaches, such as zero waste. It is argued that, enhancing interdisciplinary training and collaboration in research, education and industry/community practice, will improve performance across the spectrum of worldviews, from waste to zero waste.

In 1999, Mary Morrissey called for interdisciplinary collaboration in research into early modern sermons, based on a common interest in sermons as discourse. Interdisciplinarity, however, can develop only on the basis of a systematic analysis of sermons as communicative events. All discourse is situationally embedded; analysis seeks to establish how the linguistic makeup of a sermon is related to the preacher's objective of communicating in a way that was situated, appropriate, and meaningful to the hearers. It thus helps to explicate the relationship between the sermon as text and its social, historical, literary, and theological settings. This article presents a methodology for such analysis, using a simple framework that embodies both language and communication. Sermons by the Scottish theologian, Robert Rollock, form the corpus of the analysis. It identifies clear patterning of linguistic forms and communicative acts, which are then examined in the light of the preacher's theological, hermeneutical, and pastoral concerns.

Despite considerable advances in the past few decades, there is no generally accepted "top theory or theories" of the etiology of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis (AIS). This article aims to provide an overview of the current main hypothetical "concepts" on the etiopathogenesis of AIS. An extensive literature review on hypothetical concepts on the etiology and etiopathogenesis of AIS. Concepts of etiopathogenesis in AIS were summarized and highlighted under 6 subgroups: genetics factors, abnormalities in nervous system, abnormal skeletal growth, hormones and metabolic dysfunction, biomechanical factors, and environmental and life style factors. An integrative model on the etiopathogenesis of AIS is proposed. The current knowledge is still fragmented and many fundamental questions have remained to be answered. In moving forward in the perusal of further advancement of our understanding of the etiopathogenetic mechanisms and future evidence-based prevention and management of AIS, multidisciplinary and multicenter innovative research collaboration is imminently important and necessary. With a relatively comprehensive review on the current understanding on the etiology and etiopathogenesis of AIS, the article would help to stimulate further innovative thoughts, research, and especially collaborative research in this area of great interest.

In undertaking interdisciplinary research, a team of behavioral scientists anticipated that the principal problems of collaboration would be due to their conceptual diffences. However, methodological differences, here characterized in terms of "clinical" and "quantitative" points of view, turned out to be the major barriers to collaborative effort and generated issues regarding such operations as choice of research problem, sampling procedures, kinds of data, and techniques for collecting them. Other problems arose due due to the adjustements in role required by team research. The conceptual framework and methodological strategy in process of development by the team seeks to take systematic account of these differences.

Working with the same filmed material from the perspective of anthropology and screen studies, the authors discuss their disciplines’ different approaches to academic filmmaking. This article presents two videos, Filming Out Loud and Whose Stories, made from the same raw footage shot by the two authors together at the garage Cedric Motors, situated close to Manchester University, UK, where they were taking a summer course in ethnographic filmmaking at the Granada Centre for Visual Anthropology in June 2022. After spending seven days at the garage, filming the workdays of the owner Pat Rafter and his main employee (who wishes to remain unnamed), this raw material was then edited separately by each author. Producing points of methodological comparison between videographic criticism working with “an archive of moving images and sounds” (Keathley and Mittell 2019) and the culturally situated “encounters with alterity” enacted through ethnographic filmmaking (Cox et al. 2016), the authors engage with the methodological differences and commonalities between their two disciplines and filmmaking practices. By focusing on how the unpredictability of ethnographic fieldwork generated a rethinking of received conventions, interdisciplinary collaboration in visual research is here framed as an opportunity for a “transmutation of sensibilities” (Csordas 2007) bringing into question both videographic criticism’s imperative of critical thinking articulated audiovisually (generally on archival material) and visual anthropology’s observational legacy. Scraping at the weld between disciplinary received knowledge, the authors reflect on the positionality and ethics of their research and on the task of elaborating a filmic narrative while accounting for different social or cultural worlds

Interdisciplinary collaboration in critical care alarm research: A bibliometric analysis

Purpose In recent years, scholarly interest in personality traits has grown significantly because of their potential to advance research and develop new strategies for enhancing business performance amid global uncertainty and rapid changes driven by artificial intelligence (AI). Among these traits, core self-evaluations have shown both scientific and practical relevance; however, their study remains limited due to the concept’s relative novelty and complexity. This paper aims to provide a comprehensive review of the literature on core self-evaluations, mapping its evolution, key publications, leading authors, primary research areas, major contributions and existing collaboration networks. Design/methodology/approach This study analyses 840 documents, including review articles, conference proceedings, book chapters and books, collected from the Web of Science database, covering publications from 1997 to 2024. Bibliometric mapping is conducted using bibliometric techniques with the VOSviewer software. Findings This study identifies key research directions on core self-evaluations that are highly relevant to organisations in today’s dynamic business environment. These include their role in fostering healthy and creative work conditions essential for business survival amid growing uncertainty; their potential economic, social and emotional outcomes in the era of AI integration; the genetic and non-genetic factors shaping self-appraisals and advancements in methodological approaches in this field. In addition, the study highlights opportunities for international and interdisciplinary collaboration in future research. Research limitations/implications Firstly, the authors justify the use of the Web of Science as the main database; the scope of this research may be limited; therefore, data collected from Google Scholar, Scopus and EBSCO may provide opportunities for future research. Moreover, the articles published not only in the English language can be taken for the research. Secondly, despite the fact that a bibliometric analysis has been tested and validated by the scientific community, it can be not enough for the literature review of multi-faceted and very developed topics. Thirdly, for future research, scholars could take a broader scope of keywords, for instance, to study the self-concept in general as a key factor influencing a personality. Here the authors should mention that scholars have already stressed the necessity to take into account not only the keywords proposed by the article authors, because it may lead to difficulty in capturing all significant ideas and information, but also titles, abstracts and full texts for a more complete and thorough exploration (Zhao et al., 2023). Practical implications The authors consider that this review will help business leaders understand better the role of their core self-evaluations and leadership in times of high uncertainty. The results of the research show that core self-evaluations have a great influence on leadership success and guide leaders who are interested in tackling it. The finding can help to create different human resource management (HRM) practices ensuring positive core self-evaluations. Social implications Core self-evaluations directly influence the relationships in work and family surroundings. These in turn will have a great impact on the social life. The research shows that social implications are highly significant: it defines the possibility to create and innovate, to build relationships and to support. Originality/value This research emphasises the role of core self-evaluations in company management and organisational psychology, shedding light on the mechanisms through which they foster business development, stability and competitiveness. In addition, it identifies research avenues for future exploration, offering valuable insights for both scholars and practitioners.

Joint American-French Collaborative Cancer Research Program Get access JNCI: Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Volume 73, Issue 2, August 1984, Page 553, https://doi.org/10.1093/jnci/73.2.553-c Published: 01 August 1984