A systems approach to characterizing and understanding communication in interdisciplinary research teams

Entering the 21st century, society is faced with complex social and environmental problems. Examples abound around us, including: air and water pollution, loss of biodiversity, global warming, depletion of natural resources, and environmental injustice. Research has shown that tackling such problems requires integrated, interdisciplinary knowledge, spanning multiple types of expertise and specialization. This has led federal and private funding agencies to invest in interdisciplinary research teams to investigate such complex problems. Unfortunately most specialists and scientists are not trained to communicate and collaborate across disciplinary borders.; This dissertation is an investigation of how an interdisciplinary team communicates and collaborates. Grounded practical theory and a systems perspective were used to identify and examine structures and processes that impact an interdisciplinary team's collective communication competence and capacity for collaboration. This is an ethnographic case study of an NSF-sponsored interdisciplinary research team. Participant observation was supplemented with questionnaires, interviews, and analysis of electronic communication among group members to identify patterns of communication that constrain and facilitate interdisciplinarity. The major communication structures within the team were: trust, presence, humor, encounter talk, language, boredom, challenging statements and reflexive talk. These structures were the foundation for four communication processes: debating expertise and posturing for foundation for four communication processes: debating expertise and posturing for power, shared learning and language use, developing a shared vision and producing interdisciplinary products. These structures and processes were identified to be important in the team's evolution from a multidisciplinary group to a cohesive interdisciplinary unit. The team also encountered four dilemmas, identified through the grounded practical theory approach: selecting measurement sites, negotiating the tension between simplicity and complexity, negotiating the tension between social and natural science paradigms, and figuring out how to write together. The dilemmas are dialectical tensions that challenged the team members and their capacity for collaboration.; The ethnographic analysis was used to inform a systems model of interdisciplinary team dynamics. In response to existing research that suggests systems thinking enhances our ability to deal with complexity, this systems model is suggested as a reflective communication tool for interdisciplinary team members and facilitators and provides a dynamic understanding of communication and collaboration behaviors embedded in interdisciplinary research teams.