View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by UNF Digital Commons University of North Florida UNF Digital Commons UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations Student Scholarship 2016 Participant Perceptions of Knowledge Sharing in a Higher Education Community of Practice Shawn Whittaker Brayton University of North Florida, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/etd Part of the Educational Leadership Commons Suggested Citation Brayton, Shawn Whittaker, "Participant Perceptions of Knowledge Sharing in a Higher Education Community of Practice" (2016). UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations. 636. https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/etd/636 This Doctoral Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Scholarship at UNF Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of UNF Digital Commons. For more information, please contact Digital Projects. © 2016 All Rights Reserved PARTICIPANT PERCEPTIONS OF KNOWLEDGE SHARING IN A HIGHER EDUCATION COMMUNITY OF PRACTICE by Shawn Whittaker Brayton A dissertation proposal submitted to the Department of Leadership, School Counseling, and Sport Management in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctorate of Educational Leadership UNIVERSITY OF NORTH FLORIDA COLLEGE OF EDUCATION AND HUMAN SERVICES Summer, 2016 Unpublished work © Shawn W. Brayton i The dissertation of Shawn W. Brayton is approved: ___________________________________________ Date____________________ Elinor A. Scheirer, Ph.D., Chair ___________________________________________ Date____________________ C. Bruce Kavan, Ph.D. ___________________________________________ Date____________________ Luke M. Cornelius, Ph.D. ___________________________________________ Date____________________ Jennifer A. Kane, Ph.D. Accepting for the Department: ___________________________________________ ____________________ Christopher A. Janson, Ph.D., Department Chair Date Accepting for the College: ___________________________________________ ____________________ Marsha H. Lupi, Ed.D., Interim Dean Date College of Education & Human Services Accepting for the University ___________________________________________ ____________________ John Kantner, Ph.D. Date Dean of the Graduate School ii Acknowledgements To the SUS Registrars, thank you for your willingness to participate in this research study and for your candor during our one-on-one interviews. Your collective voice was instrumental to this endeavor. To my immediate family, for your support through this incredibly long journey. To my husband, Jeff, thank you for keeping me grounded and sane. To my best friend, Ann, thank you for providing me numerous opportunities to play without “pressure” to do so. To my sister, Karen, and my niece, Alicia, thank you for the long distance encouragement. To Sunny & Katie for rescuing me from my computer for happy hour in the yard playing fetch with the Frisbee. To Jack Flash for keeping me company while I was writing, and more importantly, for walking across the keyboard when I was at a loss for words. To my parents, thank you for teaching me to value education at an early age and for providing me with a debt free undergraduate college education. To Dr. Cheryl Fountain, thank you for forcing me to complete my master’s degree. I am grateful that you inspired me, through your gentle, yet, persistent nudging, to remove the doctorate degree off of my bucket list. To Dr. Bruce Kavan, thank you for your patience in graduate school as I struggled to write my first research paper, which turned out to be the foundation of my dissertation. To Dr. Elinor Scheirer, mere words cannot convey my gratitude for your willingness to be my partner throughout my dissertation journey. I am extremely appreciative of your thoughtfulness, patience, candor, and humor as you guided me though my qualitative research experience. Thank you for spending an enormous amount of one-on-one time with me to discuss strategies and concepts. To Dr. Luke Cornelius, thank you for keeping me entertained along my journey and for helping me to expand my understanding of higher iii education. To Dr. Jennifer Kane, thank you for stepping in to fill a vacancy on my committee and for your words of confidence in my ability to complete this journey. iv Dedication To my soul mate and love of my life, Jeff. Without your love, support, and patience this dissertation would never have become a reality—it would have remained a dream! v TABLE OF CONTENTS SIGNATURE PAGE………………………………………………………………………….i ACKNOWLEGEMENTS…………………………………………………………………….ii DEDICATION………………………………………………………………………………..iv TABLE OF CONTENTS……………………………………………………………………..v LIST OF FIGURES…………………………………………………………………………..viii ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………………………………..ix Chapter 1 INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………....1 Statement of the Problem……………………………………………………………..5 Purpose of the Study and Research Question..……………………………………….8 Significance of the Research………………………………………………………….9 Definition of Terms…………………………………………………………………...10 Summary……………………………………………………………………………...12 Chapter 2 LITERATURE REVIEW………………………………………………………….13 Economic Wealth—Paradigm Shifts…………………………………………………14 Human Knowledge…………………………………………………………………...19 Knowledge Management……………………………………………………………..22 Fostering a Knowledge-Friendly Institutional Culture……….………………………28 Communities of Practice……………………………………………………………...31 Conceptual Framework……………………………………………………………….39 Summary..…………………………………………………………………………….42 Chapter 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY……………………………………………….…44 Research Design………………………………………………………………………44 vi Site and Participant Selection…………………………………………………….…...46 Informed Consent and Confidentiality………………….………………………….…49 Researcher as Tool……..……………………………………………………….…….50 Data Collection…………………………………………………………………..…...51 Data Analysis…………………………………………………………………….…...56 Summary……………………………..………………………………………….……57 Chapter 4 DATA ANALYSIS………………………………………………………………..58 Data Analysis Process………………………………………………………………...58 Researcher Connoisseurship………………………………………………….59 Literature Review and Conceptual Framework………………………………60 Data Analysis Strategies……………………………………………………...61 Educational Criticism………………………………………………...62 Typological Analysis Approach……………………………………...62 Analysis of the Data………………………………………………………………….63 Data Transcription Process..………………………………………………....63 The Process of Educational Criticism………………………………………..65 The Process of Typological Analysis………………………………………...66 Presentation of Data Analysis………………………………………………..68 Community of Practice Typology……………………………………………………69 Characteristic of Domain……………………………………………………..69 Characteristic of Community…………………………………………………74 Characteristic of Practice……………………………………………………..77 The Integration of Domain, Community, and Practice………..……………...82 Knowledge Sharing Typology………………………………………………………..83 Knowledge Development Typology………………………………………………….89 vii Evaluation and Thematics…………………………………………………………….93 Summary……………………………………………………………………………...100 Chapter 5 SUMMARY AND DISCUSSION………………………………………………...102 Purpose of the Study……..…………………………………………………………...103 Summary of Research Significance…………………………………………………..103 Summary of Pertinent Literature……………………………………………………..104 Research Design and Methodology…………………………………………………..106 Credibility and Rigor……..…………………………………………………………..108 Summary of Data Analysis…………………………………………………………...109 Research Study Conclusions………….……………………………………………....111 Implications for Practice .………………………………………………………….…115 Implications for Leadership ..………………………………………………………...116 Limitations and Recommendations for Future Research……………………………..117 Summary……………………………………………………………………………...118 Appendix A…………………………………………………………………………………...120 Appendix B…………………………………………………………………………………...122 Appendix C…………………………………………………………………………………...123 Appendix D…………………………………………………………………………………...125 Appendix E…………………………………………………………………………………...126 References..………………………………………………………………………………..….132 Vita…………………………………………………………………………………………....144 viii List of Figures Figure 1: U. S. Shifts in the Source of Economic Wealth…………………………………….15 Figure 2: Late Industrial Era to Early Knowledge Era Transition Challenges for Public Institutions of Higher Education………………………………………………………………17 Figure 3: Community of Practice Characteristics……………………………………………..35 Figure 4: Conceptual Framework ………………………………………………………….....41 Figure 5: Organization of Data………………………………………………………………..66 ix ABSTRACT As the source of economic wealth continues to transition from a late industrial era to an early knowledge era, the foundation of success in the 21st century relates to a dependency on knowledge-based assets such as ideas, processes, and information (Alavi & Leidner, 2001; Sallis & Jones, 2002; Søndergaard, Kerr, & Clegg, 2007; Sveiby, 1997). During this transition, the emergent discipline of knowledge management in business and in education has evolved from a techno-centric approach (Alavi & Leidner, 2001; McAdam & McGreedy, 1999; McElroy, 2000) to a holistic social process oriented toward meeting institutional demands for new knowledge and geared toward learning and innovation (McElroy, 2003; Sallis & Jones, 2002). Prior research has indicated a need to examine the use of a community of practice model as a knowledge management strategy (Ramchand & Pan, 2012; Roberts, 2006; Ropes, 2009). This qualitative research study presented an examination of the knowledge-sharing perceptions of members of a public postsecondary