The role of informal groups in organisational knowledge work : understanding an emerging community of practice

Managers and researchers alike have sought new ways to address the challenges of sharing dispersed knowledge in modern business environments. Careful consideration by sharers of receivers’ knowledge needs and behaviours may improve the effectiveness of knowledge sharing. This research examines how sharers react to their perceptions of receivers’ knowledge needs and behaviours when making choices relating to sharing knowledge. The focus of this article is to propose and empirically explore a theoretical framework for a study of the role of the receiver in knowledge sharing — receiver-based theory. Data collected from two case studies highlight a key role played by perceived receiver knowledge needs and behaviours in shaping sharer choices when explicit knowledge is shared. A set of receiver influences on knowledge sharing is provided that highlights key receiver and sharer issues. The paper concludes that companies should develop better ways to connect potential sharers with receivers’ real knowledge needs. Further, the findings suggest that sharing on a need-to-know basis hinders change in organisational power structures, and prevents the integration of isolated pockets of knowledge that may yield new value.

Virtual communities of practice for regional small businesses: bringing informal networks online

Virtual communities of practice (VCoPs) are online business networks which are increasingly used by large organisations as a key strategy for creating value in the knowledge-based economy of the 21st Century.This paper examines the applicability of VCoPs to cross-industry regionally clustered small business networks. Interviews conducted with government and industry informants in two regional areas of Australia indicate that these strategies used for establishing VCoPs are applicable to such small business networks. Both regions had regional networks with active member involvement displaying CoP characteristics. Significant social capital existed on which VCoPs could be built, and there were viable alternatives to satisfy the roles of sponsors and leaders. There were, however, significant impediments that will have to be addressed before VCoPs can be  implemented such as the apparent reluctance of many SME owners to use the Internet and ICT generally, and the preference for informal networking. Funding to ensure that VCoPs are sustainable was also an issue. VCoPs appear to be extremely useful in linking small businesses in regional areas and in the development of viable regional clusters.

Weight management and weight loss strategies of professional jockeys

Jockeys are required to maintain very low body weight and precise weight control during competition. This study examined the weight loss and weight management strategies of professional horseracing jockeys in the state of Victoria, Australia. An anonymous, self-completed questionnaire was administered (55 % response rate, n = 116). Almost half (43 %) reported that maintaining riding weight was difficult or very difficult, with 75 % routinely skipping meals. In preparation for racing, 60 % reported that they typically required additional weight loss, with 81 % restricting food intake in the 24 hours prior to racing. Additionally, sauna-induced sweating (29 %) and diuretics (22 %) were frequently employed to further aid in weight loss prior to racing. These rapid weight loss methods did not differ between the 51 % of jockeys who followed a weight management plan compared to those who did not. The impact of these extreme weight loss practices on riding performance and health remains unknown.

Adult learners in the workplace: online learning and communities of practice

Seven in-employment postgraduate Master's level students in an e-learning unit participated in this research, designed to identify tensions between participation in a community of learning that was part of their studies, and participation in the communities of practice that they were engaged in at their workplaces. It was hypothesised that participation in both these forms of community in their different contexts may enhance each other, or could potentially have a disrupting effect on each. The research employed an interviewing technique. The students' perceptions of the impact of participation in the one form of community on their participation in the other was mixed, with some suggesting that it was enhancing, and others suggesting the contrary, or that there was no impact. The findings indicate that the enhancing effect of participation in communities of learning relevant to a learner's workplace community of practice occur when the learning tasks are designed to enable negotiation of tasks and collaboration with learners who have similar workplace issues.

Factors associated with functioning style and coping strategies of familes with a child with an autism spectrum disorder

A survey of parents/caregivers of a child with an autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was conducted to examine the relationship between ASD characteristics, family functioning and coping strategies. Having a child with ASD places considerable stress on the family. Primary caregivers of a child with ASD from a regional and rural area in Victoria, Australia (N = 53) were surveyed concerning their child with ASD, family functioning (adaptability and cohesion), marital satisfaction, self-esteem and coping strategies. Results suggest that these caregivers had healthy self-esteem, although they reported somewhat lower marital happiness, family cohesion and family adaptability than did norm groups. Coping strategies were not significant predictors of these outcome variables. Results highlight the need for support programmes to target family and relationship variables as well as ASD children and their behaviours, in order to sustain the family unit and improve quality of life for parents and caregivers as well as those children.

A trial of nurse practitioner scope of practice

Aims. The aim of this paper is to report a trial to investigate the feasibility of the nurse practitioner role in local health service delivery and to provide information about the educational and legislative requirements for nurse practitioner practice.

Background. Nurse practitioners have been shown to offer a beneficial service and fill a gap in health care provision. However, the lack of publications describing, critiquing, or defending the way that existing nurse practitioner roles have been developed may lead to a lack of clarity in comparing the nurse practitioner scope of practice internationally. In Australia, credible exploratory research is needed to realize the potential of nurse practitioners to bridge the divide of inequitable distribution of health services. A trial of nurse practitioner services in the Australian Capital Territory provided an excellent opportunity to investigate these scope and continuity issues.

Methods. This was an observational analytic study using multiple data sources. Four models of nurse practitioner service were chosen from a competitive field of applications that were evaluated according to efficacy, feasibility, and sustainability across specified selection criteria. Each model in the trial included a clinical support team, with the nurse practitioner candidate 'working-into-the-role' and collecting demographic, clinical practice, patient outcome, and health service and consumer survey data over a 10 month period.

Findings. The trial identified the broad potential of the nurse practitioner role, its breadth and limitations, and its impact on selected health services in the Australian Capital Territory. Data from individual models were compared highlighting generic elements, and formed the basis for the development of the scope of practice for the Australian Capital Territory nurse practitioner models.

Conclusions. This study has validated a research-based, iterative process for initial development of nurse practitioner scope of practice for any Australian specialization. Importantly, the study concluded with the scope of practice as a finding, rather than commencing with it a priori. Although general areas of health care need and under-servicing were identified at the outset, the process tested both the expansion and parameters of the roles.

Hope promoting strategies of registered nurses

Aim. This paper describes self-reported hope-promoting strategies used by Registered Nurses whilst providing care for older patients in acute and long-term care settings.
Background. The literature is replete with claims that Registered Nurses engage in hope facilitation with their patients. However, these claims are largely conjecture, with few studies empirically identifying the extent to which Registered Nurses use hope interventions with their patients. Further, some authors have questioned whether nurses have the necessary skills to undertake this vital aspect of care.
Methods. In this Gadamerian hermeneutic phenomenological study, undertaken in 2003 in Australia, we used in-depth audiotaped interviews to collect data with 14 Registered Nurses. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analysed using the Turner method.
Findings. Whilst participants clearly reported that they engaged in hope facilitation with older patients, there were differences between the reported strategies used by Registered Nurses in acute and long-term care settings. Further, the strategies reported were not unique to hope promotion and have been variously described in the literature on caring, presencing, holistic nursing and therapeutic nursing.
Conclusion. It is clear that participants considered hope promotion to be a vital aspect of their care. However, the strategies that they reported were limited and not inclusive of many and varied suggestions emerging from published studies on hope promotion. Therefore, we recommend that nursing curricula, professional development and in-service education programmes place hope facilitation on their agenda and foster a culture in which promoting hope is seen as a vital aspect of nursing care.

Foucault's 'What is an author' : towards a critical discourse of practice as research

A vexed issue for many artistic researchers is related to the need for the artist/researcher to write about his or her own work in the research report or exegesis. In the creative arts, the outcomes that emerge from an alternative logic of practice are not easily quantifiable and it can be difficult to articulate conclusions objectively given the emotional and ideological investments and the intrinsically subjective dimension of the artistic process. How then, might the artist as researcher avoid on the one hand, what has been referred to as 'auto-connoisseurship', the undertaking of a thinly veiled labour of valorising what has been achieved in the creative work, or alternatively producing a research report that is mere description or history?

In this paper I suggest that a way of overcoming such a dilemma is for creative arts researchers to shift the critical focus away from the notion of the work as product, to an understanding of both studio enquiry and its outcomes as process. I’d like to draw on Michel Foucault’s essay ‘What is An Author ‘ to explore how we might move away from art criticism to the notion of a critical discourse of practice-led enquiry that involves viewing the artist as a researcher, and the artist/critic as a scholar who comments on the value of the artistic process as the production of knowledge.

Foucault’s essay provides artistic researchers with a template for more objective and distanced discourse on the practice-led research process and its writing. It allows researchers to locate themselves within contexts of theory and practice and provides an analytical framework though which researchers might locate themselves and their work within the broader social arena and field of research, As I will show with reference to the work of Donna Haraway and a number of commentaries on Pablo Picasso’s Demioselles d’Avignon, an application of Foucault’s ideas need not negate those subjective and situated aspects of practice as research.

Scope of practice in forensic nursing

1. There is significant role variation, across the Western world, in relation to how forensic nurses practice. 2. The authors conducted a pilot survey of forensic nurses in Australia, New Zealand, the United States, and the United Kingdom to examine forensic nursing practice, role definition, and role boundaries. 3. Issues arising from the data include the visibility of forensic nurses, the client group, forensic-specific education, and role development.

Defining the scope of practice of the emergency nurse practitioner role in a metropolitan emergency department

This study examined the emergency nurse practitioner candidate (ENPC) scope of practice in a Victorian emergency department (ED). The emergency nurse practitioner (ENP) role is relatively new in Victoria and the scope of the ENP(C) practice is yet to be defined. International research literature regarding the ENP role has focused on outcomes such as patient satisfaction, waiting times and/or ED length of stay, accuracy and adequacy of documentation, use of radiography, and patient education, health promotion and communication issues. A prospective exploratory design was used to conduct this cohort study. There were 476 ENPC-managed patients between 14 July 2004 and 31 March 2005 with an average age of 29 years. The majority (77.2%) of ENPC-managed patients were discharged from the ED. The majority of the ENPC time was devoted to clinical practice (55%) and development of clinical practice guidelines (25%). Of patients managed by the ENPC, 49.6% required medications, 51% required diagnostic imaging and 8.6% required pathology testing during their ED stay. The most common discharge referrals were made to local medical officers (73.5%) and the most common referrals made for patients requiring admission were made to the plastic surgery (37.3%) and orthopaedic (35.5%) units. Extensions to the current scope of emergency nursing practice are pivotal to effective management of specific patient groups by ENP. The ENP model of care is an important strategy for the management of increased service demands in Victoria; however, little is known about the scope of the ENPC practice and many outcomes of the ENP care are yet to be defined. Further research to better understand the relationships between ENP outcomes is required if the contribution that ENPs make to emergency care is to be accurately quantified.

The comparative energetics and growth strategies of sympatric Antarctic and subantarctic fur seal pups at Iles Crozet

The period of maternal dependence is a time during which mammalian infants must optimise both their growth and the development of behavioural skills in order to successfully meet the demands of independent living. The rate and duration of maternal provisioning, post-weaning food availability and climatic conditions are all factors likely to influence the growth strategies of infants. While numerous studies have documented differences in growth strategies at high taxonomic levels, few have investigated those of closely related species inhabiting similar environments. The present study examined the body composition, metabolism and indices of physiological development in pups of Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella) and subantarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus tropicalis), congeneric species with different weaning ages (4 months and 10 months, respectively), during their overlap in lactation at a sympatric breeding site in the Iles Crozet. Body lipid reserves in pre-moult pups were significantly greater (t₂₈=2.73, P<0.01) in subantarctic (26%) than Antarctic fur seals (22%). Antarctic fur seal pups, however, had significantly higher (t₂₆=3.82, P<0.001) in-air resting metabolic rates (RMR; 17.1±0.6 ml O₂ kg^-1 min^-1) than subantarctic fur seal pups (14.1±0.5 ml O2 kg^-1 min^-1). While in-water standard metabolic rate (SMR; 22.9±2.5 ml O2 kg^-1 min^-1) was greater than in-air RMR for Antarctic fur seal pups (t₉=2.59, P<0.03), there were no significant differences between in-air RMR and in-water SMR for subantarctic fur seal pups (t₁₂=0.82, P>0.4), although this is unlikely to reflect a greater ability for pre-moult pups of the latter species to thermoregulate in water. Pup daily energy expenditure was also significantly greater (t₂₇=2.36, P<0.03) in Antarctic fur seals (638±33 kJ kg^-1 day^-1) than in subantarctic fur seals (533±33 kJ kg^-1 day^-1), which corroborates observations that pups of the former species spend considerably more time actively learning to swim and dive. Consistent with this observation is the finding that blood oxygen storage capacity was significantly greater (t₉=2.81, P<0.03) in Antarctic (11.5%) than subantarctic fur seal (8.9%) pups. These results suggest that, compared with subantarctic fur seals, Antarctic fur seal pups adopt a strategy of faster lean growth and physiological development, coupled with greater amounts of metabolically expensive behavioural activity, in order to acquire the necessary foraging skills in time for their younger weaning age.

Limitations of an established community of practice in developing online innovation

This research was undertaken to explore the effectiveness of an already established community of practice among staff at a small rurally-based training organisation as a vehicle through which to develop innovative practice in online collaboration and learning. The research was situated within that ongoing innovation, and used interview and observational techniques to generate the research data from staff and management personnel. Substantial limitations to using an already existing community of practice to develop innovative practice were shown in the research. Development of new behaviours was substantially inhibited by the power of already established behaviours and practices. Additionally, lack of sufficient experience among community members in online technologies was a further barrier to effective and orderly development. The research indicates that the achievement of innovative practice through communities of practice within existing workplaces may best be served by the strategic development of members of those communities, focusing on change from already established behaviours, and by ensuring a mix of skill and experience to support and lead less experienced participants.