Knowledge management and academic information behaviour. A preliminary study of metaliteracy among junior faculty staff in the digital environment

Published date15 July 2019
Date15 July 2019
Pages480-499
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-09-2018-0219
AuthorMarek Deja,Dorota Rak
Subject MatterLibrary & information science
Knowledge management and
academic information behaviour
A preliminary study of metaliteracy among
junior faculty staff in the digital environment
Marek Deja and Dorota Rak
Institute of Information and Library Science,
Faculty of Management and Social Communication,
Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Krakow, Poland
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of metaliteracy on collaborative and
individual information behaviour (IB) among academic staff. The goal is to observe the impact of these
competencies on knowledge management (KM) and IB in research tasks connected with the humanities and
social sciences.
Design/methodology/approach This paper presents an implementation of two combined frameworks
into a study on the IB of academics: metacompetencies described by Mackey and Jacobson in the metaliteracy
model and Burkes triple-A model. By using the Dervins micro-moment time-line interview framework,
authors try to observe the state of development of information literacy and other supportive competencies
among younger lecturers and researchers.
Findings Scientists develop patterns of collaborative behaviour based on seven metaliteracy areas in KM.
Research limitations/implications The study did not include students and other groups related to the
academic environment. Their involvement in information processes is a very wide issue and should be the
subject of a separate article.
Originality/value The paper contributes to research development in the area of information literacy as a
KM efficiency factor. IB in this paper is a broad concept, in which the development of metaliteracy is an
important aspect of lecturersand researchersKM and collaboration skills.
Keywords Collaboration, Communication, Academics, Information management,
Knowledge management, Metaliteracy
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
In 1999, Brenda Dervin wrote that man is a complex combination of body, mind, heart and
spirit (Dervin, 1999). People have an unconstrained ability to produce information. This
goes beyond the understanding of information as a resource and contributes to the
phenomenological interpretation of information as a knowledge process or part of the
system in which awareness of users needs is crucial for understanding information
behaviour (IB). Dervins user-oriented framework has many implications in the digital
environment. Since the internet developed, the direction of information research has
changed, and over time, digital networks havebecomeabasicareaforthedevelopmentof
social media-orientated studies. The scientific community reacted very dynamically to
these changes. Trudi E. Jacobson and Thomas P. Mackey developed a metaliteracy model
which made online information and social network-orientated worlds more
understandable. They paid attention not only to the medium and content but also as
in Dervinstheoryto a user network collaboration capability.
Aslib Journal of Information
Management
Vol. 71 No. 4, 2019
pp. 480-499
© Emerald PublishingLimited
2050-3806
DOI 10.1108/AJIM-09-2018-0219
Received 24 September 2018
Revised 30 November 2018
13 January 2019
12 March 2019
Accepted 10 April 2019
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/2050-3806.htm
The authors would like to thank Professor Ian Ruthven for his great support andhelp on proofreading
and the anonymous referees for their useful comments on the original text. Finally, many thanks to all
junior facultystaff members and PhD studentswho patiently described their work to the authors.
480
AJIM
71,4
The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the influence of metaliteracyon collaborative
and individual cognitive IB among academic staff. The goal is to observe the impact of these
competencies on knowledge management (KM) in humanities and social sciences research or
teaching responsibilities.
Background
In Polish universities, the distinction between teacher and researcher is not simple. Most
employees work in academic-didactic(research-teaching) positions and perform both
functions. They need to balance their efforts between research and teaching responsibilities.
Faculty authorities in Poland are increasingly supporting their employees with various
types of courses that increase the effectiveness of their work.
Junior faculty staff (employees up to 35 years old) and doctoral candidates of one higher
education institution in Poland had the opportunity to participate in job-performance
improvement courses. These were part of an academic work-related innovation support
project which implemented the concept of Organisational Learning and had a strong impact
on the academic KM improvement among faculty staff. As teachers, we conducted a course
for junior faculty staff in the field of information and KM. We used this opportunity to check
the usability of metaliteracy and KM models in practice.
Following Easterby-Smith and Lyles (2003) we found that organisational learning is
focused on the teaching process (organisational knowledge development) or gaining
experienceamong staff, while KM is related to organisingthe content of work-relatedpractice.
King (2009, pp. 5-6) suggested that these processes are closely related to the notion of
continuous improvement through which an organization continuously identifies, implements
and institutionalizes improvements. The aim of the conducted course was to familiarise
junior faculty staffwith KM tools and practices that should improvetheir research work and
collaborationeffectiveness. The aim of this research is to observe thebehaviour patterns that
occur due to presented issues of KM,where employees are indirectlymotivated to engage in a
collaborative env ironment and present t heir metaliteracy s kills.
The university is an entity in which KM must be strongly developed (Rowley, 2000).
According to Davenport (1994, p. 125), KM is the process of capturing, distributing, and
effectively using knowledge. The concept of metaliteracy connects KM and organisational
learning issues due to the inclusion of cognitive IB to such issues as network collaboration,
knowledge sharing and the awareness of needs or resources. It is defined as a model for
information literacy which develops critical thinking in the area of social-oriented digital
environment ( Jacobson and Mackey, 2013).
Metaliteracy is a specific set of abilities metacompetencies. In a wide sense,
metacompetencies are described as competencies with some universal psychological core
(Chernyavskaya and Malakhova, 2016) or an over-arching input that facilitates the acquisition
of output competences(Delamare Le Deist and Winterton, 2005, p. 40). Metaliteracy as a
framework is a foundation for other literacy: information, media and digital literacy. It fosters
both critical thinking and participation via social media(Koltay et al., 2016, p. 98). There are
two ways of acquiring metacompetencies by studying in an educational institution or by
solving production tasks (Sopegina et al., 2016). In this study, both approaches ar eemphasi sed.
Metaliteracy contains the following elements: knowledge (general and specialized),
abilities (physical and intellectual), personality features, motives and self-images (Kanungo
and Misra, 1992). The last three elements are a part of reflection (gaining awareness) which
is the core of metacompetencies. The individual is obligated to develop his/her constructive
activity and self-realisation to work effectively.
Mackey and Jacobson (2011) rightly noticed that within the vast expansion of social
media communication, which also affects the academic environment, collaborative learning
becomes an important factor for self-development. They noticed that information literacy is
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