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Group Development and Integration in a Cross-Disciplinary and Intercultural Research Team

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Abstract

Cross-disciplinary research is necessary to solve many complex problems that affect society today, including problems involving linked social and environmental systems. Examples include natural resource management or scarcity problems, problematic effects of climate change, and environmental pollution issues. Intercultural research teams are needed to address many complex environmental matters as they often cross geographic and political boundaries, and involve people of different countries and cultures. It follows that disciplinarily and culturally diverse research teams have been organized to investigate and address environmental issues. This case study investigates a team composed of both monolingual and bilingual Chilean and US university researchers who are geoscientists, engineers and economists. The objective of this research team was to study both the natural and human parts of a hydrologic system in a hyper-arid region in northern Chile. Interviews (n = 8) addressed research questions focusing on the interaction of cross-disciplinary diversity and cultural diversity during group integration and development within the team. The case study revealed that the group struggled more with cross-disciplinary challenges than with intercultural ones. Particularly challenging ones were instances the of disciplinary crosstalk, or hidden misunderstandings, where team members thought they understood their cross-disciplinary colleagues, when in reality they did not. Results showed that translation served as a facilitator to cross-disciplinary integration of the research team. The use of translation in group meetings as a strategy for effective cross-disciplinary integration can be extended to monolingual cross-disciplinary teams as well.

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Acknowledgements

We wish to thank the respondents for their time and considered thoughts. Thank you also to Felipe Aron and Alejandra Escandon for help with translation. We wish to acknowledge funding from the National Science Foundation (grant number withheld to preserve th anonymity of respondents) and a Cornell University Latin American Studies Program Tinker Grant. Kirk-Lawlor was supported by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship. We would like to thank the Human Dimensions Graduate Seminar at Cornell University for feedback on the research design and interview questions. Thanks also to four anonymous reviewers for critiques that improved the article.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, 2120 Snee Hall Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

    Naomi Kirk-Lawlor

  2. Department of Natural Resources, 102 Fernow Hall Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

    Shorna Allred

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  1. Naomi Kirk-Lawlor
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  2. Shorna Allred
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Correspondence to Naomi Kirk-Lawlor.

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Kirk-Lawlor, N., Allred, S. Group Development and Integration in a Cross-Disciplinary and Intercultural Research Team. Environmental Management 59, 665–683 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00267-016-0809-9

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