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Article
Publication date: 18 July 2024

Hirou Karimi and Guita Farivarsadri

This paper aims to examine the barriers to adopting collaboration in architectural design studios from the instructors' perspectives and explore strategies to overcome barriers.

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to examine the barriers to adopting collaboration in architectural design studios from the instructors' perspectives and explore strategies to overcome barriers.

Design/methodology/approach

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 coordinators in architecture and interior architecture design studios to gather insights into their experiences and perspectives on collaboration. Thematic analysis was employed to identify key themes and patterns in the data.

Findings

The study reveals that collaboration is highly valued by instructors for its potential to enhance creativity, problem-solving abilities, and preparation skills among students. However, the study identified several barriers, such as student conflicts, coordination challenges, cultural differences, and technological constraints.

Practical implications

The instructors recommended specific strategies to promote collaboration in architectural design studios. These strategies include involving students in collaborative projects, providing training in collaboration skills, striking a balance between online and in-person activities, and developing supportive policies and skills. Implementing these strategies can help design programmemes that prepare students for professional success and future careers.

Originality/value

This study sheds light on the importance of integrating collaboration skills in architectural education. By exploring barriers and suggesting strategies, it provides valuable insights for educators and encourages further research into the implementation of these strategies. Design programmes can benefit from adopting a multifaceted approach to foster collaboration among students, thereby enhancing their learning experience and future prospects.

Details

Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2042-3896

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 2 October 2007

Eva‐Maria Kern and Wolfgang Kersten

The purpose of this article is to introduce a framework for internet supported inter‐organizational product development, which enables companies to efficiently configure their…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to introduce a framework for internet supported inter‐organizational product development, which enables companies to efficiently configure their development processes according to their needs.

Design/methodology/approach

Three ideal types of partner integration are identified and specific design guidelines for each type are proposed. Current approaches for product development collaboration are analysed. Based on their shortcomings the main approach of this paper evolves. Additionally the main results of interviews with experts are used to develop and introduce a framework which has been tested partially in the shipbuilding industry.

Findings

The paper identifies three types of partner integration and proposes specific design guidelines.

Research limitations/implications

The framework introduced in this paper provides guidance for future research in the area of product development collaboration.

Practical implications

The framework further supports managers in designing efficient and effective inter‐organizational product development collaboration by choosing the appropriate level of partner integration.

Originality/value

The paper presents a practical and usable framework for internet supported inter‐organizational product development collaboration. The main focus is on designing the partnership interaction.

Details

Journal of Enterprise Information Management, vol. 20 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1741-0398

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 June 2018

Thim Prætorius, Peter Hasle and Anders Paarup Nielsen

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how and with which mechanisms health care professionals in practice design for collaboration to solve collective hospital tasks, which…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how and with which mechanisms health care professionals in practice design for collaboration to solve collective hospital tasks, which cross occupational and departmental boundaries.

Design/methodology/approach

An in-depth multiple-case study of five departments across four hospitals facing fast to slow response task requirements was carried out using interviews and observations. The selected cases were revealing as the departments had designed and formalized their daily hospital operations differently to solve collaboration and performance issues.

Findings

Local collaboration across occupational and departmental boundaries requires bundles of behavioral formalization elements (e.g. standardized plans, resource allocation decisions, assigned formal roles, and handoff routines), and liaison devices (e.g. huddles, boards, and physical proximity), which are used in parallel or sequence. The authors label this “designed collaboration bundles.” These bundles supplement the central organizational structures, processes, and support systems less capable of ensuring fluent coordination at the front line.

Practical implications

Health care professionals and hospital managers can consider designing bundles of organizational design features to proactively develop and ensure collaboration capable of solving collective tasks and bridging departmental and occupational silos to improve health care delivery.

Originality/value

This research paper addresses the fundamental organizational challenge of how to achieve efficient collaboration by studying how formal structures and processes are used in combination on the hospital floor, thereby going beyond previous research that studies these mechanisms individually.

Details

Journal of Health Organization and Management, vol. 32 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7266

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 4 April 2016

Derek H.T. Walker and Farshid Rahmani

The purpose of this paper is to explore an interesting complex infrastructure construction case study project in which the initiation/design and delivery phases were managed…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to explore an interesting complex infrastructure construction case study project in which the initiation/design and delivery phases were managed differently, with diverse assumptions and workplace culture. It uses a recently developed collaboration and relationship-based procurement taxonomy to analyse the decision to commence a project and to deliver the project. The taxonomy tool reveals underlying assumptions and helps explain actions taken. The paper provides a window into the decision-making process. It also illustrates levels of innovation applied at the design and delivery phases.

Design/methodology/approach

A case study was undertaken, primarily using recorded and transcribed interviews, with five key senior participants in the project. This gathered a client, designer and contractor perspective that was subsequently analysed using a sense-making approach.

Findings

It is possible to start a project adopting a highly collaborative approach that maximises innovation, understanding complexity and developing a design that can then be delivered using a more traditional approach. The taxonomy used demonstrates that it is a useful visualisation tool for this purpose.

Research limitations/implications

The research was limited to the perspectives of only five individuals even though they were key decision-makers and had a robust overview of the project as a whole. The delivery phase was chosen as a matter of policy without the ability to break loose from that policy. The implications for beginning the initiation and design process in a highly collaborative hands-on mode influenced the understanding of all parties involved in the project in a positive direction. The case study was based in Australia, which has extensive experience of collaborative project delivery approaches.

Practical implications

The taxonomy and its ability to provide visualisation of the experienced collaboration presents a powerful tool in helping us understand how it may be useful and what limitations to collaboration exists.

Social implications

The paper illustrates the value of social interactions as alliance forms tend to consider triple bottom line issues and stakeholder engagement more highly than traditional, transnational approaches to project design and delivery.

Originality/value

The case study was unusual in its technical complexity; however, the main value of the paper is the application of the taxonomy and visualisation tool as a way to better understand how a project is being managed from a collaboration perspective.

Details

Construction Innovation, vol. 16 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1471-4175

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 27 October 2022

Xusen Cheng, Wanxin Liu and Yuanyuan Li

Collaboration is significant but difficult for the development of youth organizations, this research aims to explore whether the online collaboration process is suitable for youth…

596

Abstract

Purpose

Collaboration is significant but difficult for the development of youth organizations, this research aims to explore whether the online collaboration process is suitable for youth organizations' collaboration and improve their effectiveness and efficiency.

Design/methodology/approach

This research has applied a design approach using the collaboration engineering method, to design an online collaboration process for youth organizations to improve their effectiveness and efficiency. Using a self-developed group support systems (GSS) tool, the authors have tested the new collaboration process through an experiment among four youth organizations and conducted a survey afterwards.

Findings

The new process improves the collaboration effectiveness and efficiency. The research also identifies the detailed relationships among influencing factors in the online collaboration process.

Originality/value

There is little research in the context of computer mediated youth organization collaboration. This research designs an online collaboration process for the effective and efficient collaboration of youth organizations and has it tested among representative youth organizations, providing practical instructions for digital youth organization collaboration in the context of global pandemic.

Details

Journal of Electronic Business & Digital Economics, vol. 1 no. 1/2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2754-4214

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 6 June 2008

Togar M. Simatupang and Ramaswami Sridharan

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the architecture of supply chain collaboration and to propose a design for supply chain collaboration (DfC), which enables participating…

12150

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the architecture of supply chain collaboration and to propose a design for supply chain collaboration (DfC), which enables participating members to create and develop key elements of the proposed architecture.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper offers a concept for designing the five elements of the architecture of supply chain collaboration, namely collaborative performance system, decision synchronisation, information sharing, incentive alignment, and innovative supply chain processes. A case study was carried out to illustrate the applicability of the framework.

Findings

DfC was confirmed using a case to evaluate a supply chain system in which the chain members concurrently designed the architecture of supply chain collaboration. The findings show that design for collaboration facilitates the chain members to have a broader view to develop and ensure an effective collaboration.

Research limitations/implications

Secondary data were collected to describe the collaborative practice in the company. Future research is required to elicit primary data using interview or focus group representing key players of collaboration for the purpose of model enhancement and action research.

Practical implications

The concept of DfC can be used by the chain members in the discussion forum to (re)design appropriate settings of the five elements of the architecture that lead to better overall performance.

Originality/value

Previous research has indicated the emerging school of design for collaboration. However, current researchers pay little attention to integrating and revealing the interactions of key design elements that drive the effectiveness of the chain members to realise better performance. The paper, for the first time, offers a novel framework for understanding DfC.

Details

Business Process Management Journal, vol. 14 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1463-7154

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 21 December 2018

Marcelle Harran and Howard William Theunissen

In 2004, the Council for Higher Education (CHE) required a curriculum responsiveness to the teaching and learning of literacies at the programme level, which needed to be…

314

Abstract

Purpose

In 2004, the Council for Higher Education (CHE) required a curriculum responsiveness to the teaching and learning of literacies at the programme level, which needed to be addressed across all disciplines. This study aims to describe a situated higher education (HE) collaboration project between mechanical engineering and the Department of Applied Language Studies (DALS) at Nelson Mandela University from 2010 to 2014. The collaboration project aimed to develop the literacies levels of engineering students, reduce the first-year attrition rate and prepare engineering students to meet the high graduate attribute expectations of a competitive workplace amid employer concerns that engineering graduate communication competencies were lacking and insufficient.

Design/methodology/approach

The collaboration study used a mixed-method approach, which included student and lecturer questionnaires, as well as an interview with one engineering lecturer to determine his perceptions of the collaboration practices instituted. As the sample was purposeful, two mechanical engineer lecturers and 32 second-year mechanical engineering students from 2012 to 2013 were selected as the study’s participants, as they met the study’s specific needs. From the questionnaire responses and transcribed interview data, codes were identified to describe the themes that emerged, namely, rating the collaboration practices, attitudes to the course, report feedback provided and report template use.

Findings

Most of the student participants viewed the collaboration practices positively and identified their attitude as “positive” and “enthusiastic” to the language/engineering report collaboration initiative. The report feedback practices were viewed as improving writing skills and enabling the students to relate report writing practices to workplace needs. The engineering lecturers also found that the collaboration practices were enabling and improved literacy levels, although time was identified as a constraint. During the four-year collaboration period, the language practitioner increasingly gained report content knowledge, as well as unpacking the specific rhetorical structures required to produce the report text by co-constructing knowledge with the mechanical engineering lecturers.

Research limitations/implications

Studies have shown that language practitioners and discipline lecturers need to change their conceptualisation of academic discourses as generic transferable skills and autonomous bodies of knowledge. Little benefit is derived from this model, least of all for the students who grapple with disciplinary forms of writing and the highly technical language of engineering. Discipline experts often tend to conflate understandings of language, literacy and discourse, which lead to simplistic understandings of how students may be inducted into engineering discourses. Therefore, spaces to nurture and extend language practitioner and discipline-expert collaborations are needed to embed the teaching and learning of discipline-specific literacies within disciplines.

Practical implications

For the collaboration project, the language practitioner and mechanical engineering lecturers focused their collaboration on discussing and negotiating the rhetorical and content requirements of the Design 3 report as a genre. To achieve the goal of making tacit knowledge and discourse explicit, takes time and effort, so without the investment of time and buy-in, interaction would not be sustained, and the collaboration would have been unproductive. As a result, the collaboration project required regular meetings, class visits and negotiations, as well as a language of description so that the often tacit report discourse conventions and requirements could be mutually understood and pedagogically overt to produce “legitimate texts” (Luckett, 2012 p. 19).

Social implications

In practice, peer collaboration is often a messy, complex and lengthy process, which requires systematic and sustained spaces to provide discourse scaffolding so that the criteria for producing legitimate design reports are not opaque, but transparent and explicit pedagogically. The study also describes the organisational circumstances that generated the collaboration, as establishing and sustaining a collaborative culture over time requires planning, on-going dialogic spaces, as well as support and buy-in at various institutional levels to maintain the feasibility of the collaboration practice.

Originality/value

Literacy and discourse collaboration tends to reduce role differentiation amongst language teachers and specialists, which results in shared expertise for problem-solving that could provide multiple solutions to literacy and discourse learning issues. This finding is important, especially as most studies focus on collaboration practices in isolation, whilst fewer studies have focused on the process of collaboration between language practitioners and disciplinary specialists as has been described in this study.

Details

Journal of Engineering, Design and Technology, vol. 17 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1726-0531

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 5 July 2022

Ruchika Jain, Naval Garg and Shikha N. Khera

With the increase in the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI)-based decision-making, organizations are facilitating human–AI collaboration. This collaboration can occur in a…

2368

Abstract

Purpose

With the increase in the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI)-based decision-making, organizations are facilitating human–AI collaboration. This collaboration can occur in a variety of configurations with the division of labor, with differences in the nature of interdependence being parallel or sequential, along with or without the presence of specialization. This study intends to explore the extent to which humans express comfort with different models human–AI collaboration.

Design/methodology/approach

Situational response surveys were adopted to identify configurations where humans experience the greatest trust, role clarity and preferred feedback style. Regression analysis was used to analyze the results.

Findings

Some configurations contribute to greater trust and role clarity with AI as a colleague. There is no configuration in which AI as a colleague produces lower trust than humans. At the same time, the human distrust in AI may be less about human vs AI and more about the division of labor in which human–AI work.

Practical implications

The study explores the extent to which humans express comfort with different models of an algorithm as partners. It focuses on work design and the division of labor between humans and AI. The finding of the study emphasizes the role of work design in human–AI collaboration. There is human–AI work design that should be avoided as they reduce trust. Organizations need to be cautious in considering the impact of design on building trust and gaining acceptance with technology.

Originality/value

The paper's originality lies in focusing on the design of collaboration rather than on performance of the team.

Details

Kybernetes, vol. 52 no. 11
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0368-492X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 24 July 2024

Udechukwu Ojiako, Lungie Maseko, David Root, Senthilkumar Venkatachalam, Alasdair Marshall, Eman Jasim Hussain AlRaeesi and Maxwell Chipulu

We explore the design risk factors and associated managerial practices driving collaborative risk management for design efficacy in green building projects. By illuminating…

Abstract

Purpose

We explore the design risk factors and associated managerial practices driving collaborative risk management for design efficacy in green building projects. By illuminating project design risk as an important project risk category in its own right, the study contributes to our understanding of optimising design efficacies for collaborative project risk management.

Design/methodology/approach

The study comprises exploratory interviews conducted with 27 industry project practitioners involved in the design and delivery/implementation of Green Star-certified building projects in South Africa.

Findings

The findings discursively highlight seven sources of design risk. We also identify seven specific collaborative risk management practices for design efficacy emerging from a consideration of how risk environments vary in the Green Star-certified projects, each with its own project design risk implications.

Originality/value

The study advances our understanding of how collaborations emerging from particular relational yet context-specific practices can be optimised to strengthen project risk management.

Details

Engineering, Construction and Architectural Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0969-9988

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 April 2024

Raewyn Lesley Hills, Deborah Levy and Barbara Plester

Meetings with colleagues are an essential activity in workplace collaboration. The iterative nature of collaborative work demands spaces that team members can access quickly and…

Abstract

Purpose

Meetings with colleagues are an essential activity in workplace collaboration. The iterative nature of collaborative work demands spaces that team members can access quickly and easily. Creating suitable meeting spaces will become more critical if the hybrid work model continues and the workplace environment becomes the hub for face-to-face collaborative time, learning and training. Workspace and fit-out is expensive so it is crucial that the investment in meeting spaces supports employees’ collaboration activities.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper presents a case study of a corporate organisation undertaken in New Zealand to investigate how employees from two business units use their workspace to collaborate within their own team and across other teams in their organisation. The study uses ethnographic techniques, including participant observation and in-depth face-to-face interviews.

Findings

The findings show that the frequency and nature of small group work in collaboration was underestimated in the initial planning of the new workspace. Although participants found the design and fit-out of the formal meeting rooms supportive of collaborative work, the meeting rooms were in high demand, and it was difficult to find a room at short notice. The breakout spaces were confusing because they lacked key design attributes identified by the participants as conducive to small group work. Design shortfalls together with fit-out features perceived as supportive of collaborative work are identified.

Originality/value

The research reports on employees’ perceptions and experiences across two functionally diverse business units, reflecting their different needs and concerns.

Details

Property Management, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0263-7472

Keywords

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