Inspección in situ: equipo de almacenamiento de la leche

BEHAVIOUR

In this chapter, the discussion focused on collaborative information behaviour in general and showed how certain elements in the context, and in the personal dimension of individuals and team members, give rise to both collaborative and individual information

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needs. In turn, information needs prompt information activities such as information seeking, information sharing and communication.

The contextual elements that influence the collaborative information behaviour of project teams, as well as individual team members, seem to include organisations,

organisational culture, social norms, social networks, resources, projects, work roles and tasks. One of the elements, namely social networks, seem to hold some

advantages for project work or team work, being a potentially important source of task- related information.

Furthermore, it seems important to note that each project team develops its own organisational culture and social norms. Also, project teams’ culture and norms can be influenced by individual team members’ organisational cultures and norms as well as the culture and norms of the organisation in which the project is being developed. Successful collaboration is therefore dependent on the team’s ability to arrive at a

shared understanding (common ground) of the task or problem that needs to be solved. In addition to organisational culture and social norms, the organisational structure of a project team also seems to be important. The discussion showed that team leaders who dominate the team tend to inhibit the team’s communication and information-sharing activities as well as their creativity. Dominating team leaders also tend to cause information overload.

The discussion on social networks in section 5.4.4 also showed that the social relations that develop among team members persist irrespective of whether their organisational contexts change. Established social relationships among team members therefore could promote productivity, stimulate the development of new ideas, and provide the

foundation for current and future collaboration.

Elements in the personal dimension of individual project team members that seem to be important are their personal knowledge, their ability to develop plans, motivation to collaborate, have coping skills, and be able to transfer across cultural boundaries. Also, team members must have the ability to solve their interpersonal problems.

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The information needs that emanate from the relationships between people (e.g. the relationship between project team members) can be individual needs and needs imposed on them by a third party. With this in mind, it seems as if project teams can become complex information environments.

Lastly, the discussion focused on collaborative information activities such as information seeking, communication and information sharing. As with information needs, information seeking in a collaborative environment can be both an individual and a group activity. Information sharing can only be a group activity, which does not necessarily involve information seeking, whereas communication is the means used by team members to make their contributions to the team. This is apparently when they share their

knowledge, expertise and the information they have sought.

5.9 CONCLUSION

Whereas the discussions in Chapter 3 and Chapter 4 focused on the information behaviour of engineers and consulting engineers, this chapter focused on their collaborative information behaviour. To facilitate such a discussion, Wilson’s (1999; 2000) encapsulating definition for information behaviour was once again taken as a point of departure. The aspects that underlie Wilson’s information behaviour definitions also underlie the definitions for collaboration that was proposed by Sonnenwald (2003: 68; 2008: 645) and Reddy and Jansen’s (2008) definition for collaborative information behaviour. These aspects are people, contexts, information needs that arise from the interaction between people and their contexts, and information activities such as seeking, sharing, and communication.

From the literature reviews reported on in Chapter 3 to Chapter 5, it seems as if very little is known about consulting engineers’ information activities within a work team. The focus in the studies conducted by Du Preez (2008), Gralewska-Vickery (1976) and Ward (2001) mainly reported on the type of information consulting engineers sought, shared and used. These three studies, as well as other studies discussing engineers’ information behaviour in general, reported that engineers work in teams and that their personal contacts are important sources of engineering information. However, a few

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studies focused on engineers’ collaborative information behaviour and the factors that influence their collaborative information behaviour. These include the studies by Bruce et al. (2003), Hirsh and Dinkelacker (2004), as well as a number of studies by

Sonnenwald and her colleagues. Unfortunately, these studies did not address engineers’ social networks per se, and the role of social networks in providing for engineers’ information needs. This is despite the advantages social networks seem to have for team work. Therefore, in view of the gap in the information behaviour literature focusing on social networks, as well as the need to test the potential benefits of social networks empirically, the purpose of this study is to investigate consulting engineers’ social networks and collaborative information behaviour. Such an investigation could contribute to a better understanding of the role of social networks in a professional setting.

This chapter concludes the literature review for the study. With the empirical component of the study in mind, Chapter 6 will focus on the research methodology that will be followed.

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CHAPTER 6

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

6.1 INTRODUCTION

In order to investigate the role of social networks in consulting engineers’ information behaviour, an appropriate research approach needs to be selected. Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to discuss the qualitative research approaches as well as the narrative inquiry strategies and techniques that were employed to collect and analyse the empirical data for the study. Aspects such as the validity and reliability of the data and research ethics will also be addressed.

6.2 BACKGROUND

The empirical component of a research project is guided by the research method that is followed. According to Sutton (2009: 4381), research methods are the “systematic procedures that researchers use to collect and process data in order to put their theories to the test which in turn leads to the development of new theories”.

As explained by Sutton (2009: 4381), the research process involves three different levels of analysis, which are philosophy and theory, methods and techniques and data. In turn, these three levels of analysis are guided by the research approach that is followed, which could be quantitative, qualitative or a combination of quantitative and qualitative research approaches.

Sutton (2009: 4382) also explained that the nature of the study determines the research approach and the research methods that are employed. The nature of the study is determined by the subject field, which provides the theoretical underpinning for the study, as well as the research questions that need to be answered. The current study is an information behaviour study which derives from the field of information science and “how”, “what” and “why” questions need to be answered in order to answer the research question.

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In order to make an informed decision on the best research approach and research methodology for the current study, it is necessary to learn from the literature which research approaches and methods are mostly used for information behaviour research.