Post Doc survey now open
Dr. Libby Hemphill and Dr. Stephanie Teasley of the University of Michigan, School of Information invite you to be a part of a research study that examines the experiences and preferences of post doctoral researchers (postdocs). The purpose of the study is to understand the kinds of experiences postdocs have and to design better support and training programs for postdocs and their advisors. We are asking you to participate because you are currently a postdoc.
If you agree to be part of the research study, you will be asked to complete a web-based survey about your experiences as a postdoc. We expect this survey to take 15 to 20 minutes to complete.
At the end of the survey, you will have the opportunity to enter a drawing for one of three $50 Amazon gift certificates. Researchers will not be able to link your survey responses to you, but you will be asked to enter your name and email if you wish to be included in the drawing for Amazon gift certificates. The survey software keeps your identifying information separate from the answers you provide to the survey.
We plan to publish the results of this study but will not include any information that would identify you. We will share anonymous, aggregated data with colleagues at the Arizona State University School of Public Affairs (ASU); Dr. Erik Johnston at ASU will use the aggregated data to inform agent-based models of research labs. These models will also help us understand and improve postdoc experiences.
Participating in this study is completely voluntary. Even if you decide to participate now, you may change your mind and stop at any time. You may choose to not answer an individual question or you may skip any section of the survey. Simply click “Next” at the bottom of the survey page to move to the next set of questions.
If you have questions about this research study, you can contact Libby Hemphill, Ph.D., University of Michigan, School of Information, 1075 Beal Ave., Ann Arbor, MI 48109, (734) 678-9748,libbyh@umich.edu.
If you have questions about your rights as a research participant, please contact the University of Michigan Institutional Review Board Health Sciences and Behavioral Sciences, 540 E. Liberty, Ste. 202, Ann Arbor, MI 48104-2210, (866) 936-0933 (toll-free), irbhsbs@umich.edu.
By clicking on the link below, you are consenting to participate in this research survey.
If you do not wish to participate, click the “x" in the top corner of your browser to exit.
Building Bridges: A Study of Coordination in Projects
On August 13, I successfully defended my dissertation. Today, I submitted my final, approved version to University of Michigan's institutional repository. That version won't be available until after I receive my degree in December, but you're welcome to read a nearly identical version of my complete dissertation.
Dissertation Abstract
In our efforts to understand how collaborative work can be accomplished, we often turn to discussions of “coordination” for help. However, the concept of coordination is inadequate for explaining the many interdependent processes at work within successful collaborations. In this dissertation, I examined a collaborative construction project – the Woods Avenue Bridge (WAB) Project – with many coordination demands. I used data from this project to develop the concept of adaptive capacity – the set of capabilities a team develops that enable them to adjust to internal and external stresses.
Through analyzing meeting minutes, interview transcripts, and documents the project team developed, I was able to identify behaviors and approaches the team took that may have enabled them to better respond to changes in their environment. I use a specific example of a time when the team successfully redesigned the structure they were building in the field to illustrate the kind of coordination work adaptive capacity enables.
From data about the WAB Project, I identified components of adaptive capacity including perspective taking, multimembership, affect, and social capital. Understanding these components and the adaptive capacity they can develop helps us understand what about a team enables them to accomplish coordination work. Without adaptive capacity, we lack an integrated explanation of the ways in which different components interact and how those components address coordination.
This dissertation contributes to our understanding of how collaborative teams accomplish coordination by refining the concept of adaptive capacity and integrating earlier literatures on coordination, collaboration, and adaptation. The concept of adaptive capacity helps us understand the resources collaborative teams develop that make it possible for them to find flexible and creative solutions to their coordination problems.
Current Research: Joining Virtual Organizations
People keep asking me what I'm working on now that I've defended my dissertation and moved to Arizona State. The answer is, "research!" More specifically, I'm working on a research project to understand and improve the experience of joining a virtual organization. My colleagues, Erik Johnston and Stephanie Teasley, and I are studying post doctoral researchers who joined (or are joining) virtual science research organizations. I've made a diagram of our research process to make this more clear (click the image for a larger version):
The red parts represent the inductive, qualitative portion of our study. I am primarily responsible for those stages of the project. I am currently collecting data, and that's why that piece looks different. Erik is primarily responsible for the deductive portions, those in blue. This diagram was inspired by process diagrams of grounded theory and deduction from
Gasson, S. (2003) Rigor in Grounded Theory Research: An Interpretive Perspective on Generating Theory from Qualitative Research. In Whitman, M.E. and Woszczynski, A.B., eds. The handbook of information systems research. Hershey, PA: Idea Group.
Gill, J. and Johnson, P. (1997) Research Methods for Managers, 2nd Ed., London: Paul Chapman Publishing.
The Wrongheadedness of Best Practice Thinking
I’ve come across a gem of a book introduction, and I’m writing to recommend that you read it. Yes, all of you. The introduction is from the book Strategic Procurement in Construction
Cox and Townsend argue in their introduction, and throughout the book, that best practice thinking is wrong-headed and leaves us playing catch up. One of my favorite bits of the introduction reads:
They will be searching for the ‘Holy Grail’ of best practice. By this one means practitioners are looking for the answer that provides the solution to all of the problems which they face managerially. Unfortunately, this desire to discover the single solution (best practice), that will allow the practitioner to avoid the need for thought and risk taking, is an illusion.
They go on to discuss concepts such as appropriateness and leverage and recognize that many practitioners would call their discussions “common sense.” Their response?
Some of the practitioners who read these pages may accept what has been said, and argue that this is just common sense (which it is), and that they already know this. If that is the case then this book may have little to teach them, however, because experience leads the authors to conclude that such a form of sense (in a business context) does not appear to be all that common.
I wish I’d written something like that in the paper Andy and I submitted recently that was rejected for having results that were not surprising enough. The results we found in our onboarding study were surprising because we found them and not necessarily in their content. For instance, it’s surprising that teams still behave as though new employees will be immediately productive even though the sense that onboarding takes time is apparently common. Much like Cox and Townsend find that strategic procurement is not all that common, neither are teams who smoothly onboard their new members.
My questions as I continue to read Cox and Townsend’s book are really about how one encourages strategic, reflective thinking over best practice thinking and how one should present research results that show just how uncommon common sense can be. See, one can learn things by studying construction projects. This message brought to you by my dissertation, a work in progress.
A Productive Summer
Andrew Begel and I had a very productive summer. We conducted 95 interviews with 26 people, and spent 7 days onsite observing new remote employees. We'll be presenting a poster titled, "How will you see my greatness if you can't see me?" at CSCW in November. The poster session is Monday night, Nov. 11. Come by to hear more about our study, especially our findings about how excellent work is and is not observable from a distance. Stay tuned; we're submitting longer papers to two other conferences, and I'll post here when they get accepted.
Related links:
Human Interactions in Programming Group at Microsoft Research
ACM's Computer Supported Cooperative Work Conference (CSCW08)
A new vocabulary
I'm lucky to be the kind of researcher I am. I get to observe and interview people who do really cool work and to learn about what they do. A couple years ago I learned how vaccines for Black Plague get made. My dissertation lets me learn about how bridges (real ones, not just metaphorical ones) get built. Now, at Microsoft, I learn how software is built. Over the last couple of weeks I've been interviewing managers of developers and testers at Microsoft in an effort to recruit them for my study on remote onboarding and to learn about what they do.
Years ago, before I came back to grad school, I had the illustrious title "Developer" at a web start up in Chicago with about 100 employees. A "software team" there was a project manager, a developer, an architect, and a designer. We built websites. My job was to write ASP code that made the designers and project managers happy. Towards the end of my career, I wrote ASP.NET code. Somewhat more complicated, still produced a website. "Developer" at Microsoft means something a bit different. Developers at Microsoft build stuff that matters - Windows, for example. They do it in teams using tools such as Source Depot, Razzle, test harnesses, RSOPs, WTT, and TFS. They meet in scrums, war rooms, Live Meetings, Office Communicator, one-on-ones, and code reviews. Those 12 phrases and acronyms are new to me. Not one of them had I ever heard before. I now know what 5 of them mean. I'll leave you to guess which 5 I know.
Learning the vocabulary of my subjects is just one part of my research, but it's been a while since I had so much specialized vocabulary to learn. The phrases and acronyms the engineers I study use seem a bit more intuitive to me, things like "pancake test" and "aggregate" are nearly self-explanatory. Granted, "code review" means about what you think it does but "scrum"? No, developers are not playing rugby.
Being a new employee while studying new employees is so meta I can hardly handle it. Perhaps next week when I meet my first new employee subjects I'll start to feel like I have a better handle on the situation. For now, while I'm meeting with managers, I'll just keep typing as fast as I can and hope that I'll know when to ask for help.
Faculty, staff, PhD students band together for ASB
SI has a rockin' alternative spring break program for MSI students. One way money gets raised for ASB is through an all-school Penny War in early February. This year, the Faculty, Staff, and Doctoral Students team came on strong in the last two days to completely dominate the Penny War. We were a dismal last place last year. Someone from the student affairs staff sends out nightly updates about the Penny War, and we came on strong in the final days after some goading from the Dean and strategy help from Jeff Mackie-Mason. The Penny War doesn't recognize individual performance, but all of SI can be proud of ourselves for raising $2086.91 this year. Nicely done. I hope ASB is as rewarding for this year's group as it has been in the past.