G4alien's 365 & 1/4 的生活空間

I've been reviewing paper regarding tasks, teamwork and ICTs within these few weeks. Then I further develop my International Business research to associate with the concept of 'knowledge transfer' within MNCs under two dimensions, which are 'geotemporal boundaries and contextual distance 'and 'different levels of organisation network (nodal, dyadic and systemic levles)'.

Since my data resources provide an insightful understanding of individual behaviour, I could inspect the micro-foundation of knowledge sharing/learning during the process of knowledge transfer. Lately, I try to find a strategy to develop a 'codebook' to analyse my data resource from the theories. I study how Polanyi (1966) distinguished 'tacit knowledge' (or 'implicit') and 'explict knowledge', and then, adopt the concept of knowledge creation by Nonaka (1994) to review the four processes, which are: socialisation, combination, internalisation and externalisation.

In addition, Castillo's (2002) four dimensions of tacit knowledge (non-epistle, social-cultural, semantic and sagacious tacit knowledge) and Nonaka's (1994) concepts of knowledge creation help in understanding the mechanisms of knowledge transfer. The understanding of knowledge characteristics helps me analyse my data. It seems that I capture a vague idea to develop my codebook. I still need to find a way to present this work and write down sensible justification to convince the reader .

Well, it seems that I still need to do loads of thinking and work before writing a well-structured proposal. At least, Paul is happy with my progress and excited about this fashion study regarding how I could use a proper micro-foundation study to analyse the data resources. Although I wish I could develop my ideas within 3 days, I have to tell myself, 'be patient' all the time.

大家不停的詢問我何時回台灣，其實原本想說明年一月份應該可以，現在又落空了，主要是這邊有工作著落，昨天跟ESCEM的教授稍微說定，法國部份大概明年一月初才會定下何時會去當客座講師，英國也是明年一月中在學校內定下教學可能性與課程，或許英法兩邊都有工作。很多人不清楚學術界的世界，不是說隨時要有工作頭路，也不像是一般業界工作，丟履歷就有很多面試的機會。

現在預估大概復活節的時候才能回去了，昨天約克大學的高級講師跟我聊說，有機會就要好好把握，不要以為機會來的容易，很多人還是得花上半年以上的功夫找工作，或甚至找不著工作。他告訴我說：很有天份的人不一定有工作，因為單純個人在學術屆上若沒有關係，想利用單打獨鬥的方式找工作，除非他的表現是讓人震驚的好，不然一般初出茅廬的博士生一樣都很難找工作的。若你的背景有推手幫你推出去，那就是一個容易成功的開始。

看樣子不僅亞洲文化的關係盛行，到處哪裡都得要有關係網，他說主要我老闆喜歡我的工作，可以瞭解我的能力與工作計畫，不然很多教授若發覺學生的興趣與他沒有太多關聯，大概就放牛吃草了，口試後就隨學生自己計畫未來了，也沒太多的補助與輔導；也建議我跟著我的老闆，讓他來幫我拓展我的關係網與人際網。

其實這次的conference老師很積極的幫我到處推薦出去，要我自己也積極的去與多人互動，建立自己的人際網，畢竟發表文章靠自己單打獨鬥，發表的東西還是有限度的；若是找人合作一起建立發表關係，那麼年度發表的計畫就快些了，之後找工作也會容易許多。很多時候不是說，放下手邊工作，去玩樂，然後再回來找機會，機會都是稍縱即逝的。

g4上網讀了一些歸納(inductive)與演繹(deductive)的思考方式，以前學方法學時，就在歸納跟演繹這界線上有點模糊不清到底自己是走歸納還是走演繹的思考方式。上了Research Methods Knowledge Base看了一些研究方法跟過程，覺得還挺有趣的。

其實歸納跟演繹方法，就傳統的方式來解說的話很簡單；演繹(deductive)的思考過程就是將一般事件解釋推演到很細緻的過程(general->specific)，而歸納(inductive)就是把很細的東西最後分類總結成一種說法(specific->general)。

當然當代說法也有用不同的另種說法，表示歸納與演繹的方式，剛好與過去傳統的說法恰恰剛好相反，如（參考http://www.iep.utm.edu/d/ded-ind.htm）：

另種當代說法的演繹方式：
王家的三名成員：小胖，小明與小麗。
小胖有帶眼鏡，

Last week I have been reading methodological approaches and the definition of some philosophy due to the research methods. I found those philosophical theories very interesting, which explain many social structure and individual perspective. Although I would like to read into it and disclose my life views, it is also confusing and contradictive when I tried to decipher the ideas. The perspective from different researchers are different even they may be categorized in the same theory supporters. Yet, everyone has their own views to explain the circumstances and theories to frame their experience and form their thoughts towards life.

As Paul suggested, the point is that I need to find my stand to explain my research design and understand how I use them and what I have understood about the approaches that I adopted. According to my mixed methods in this virtual teamwork and networking research, critical realism is considered a safe explanation to describe my data analysis in qualitative and quantitative methods. Critical realism (the idea waiting to be discovered: any position that maintains that there exists an objectively knowable entity as a mental object and something that makes up awareness) is associated with positivism and constructivism; thus, qualitative and quantitative methodologies are considered appropriate within a critical realism framework (Healy & Perry, 2000). In other words, from a realist perspective, mixed methods are feasible to investigate the latent mechanisms that conduct actions and events. Methods such as case studies and unstructured or semi-structured in-depth interviews are applicable and suitable within the paradigm, as are statistical analyses (Bisman, 2002; Perry, Alizadeh, & Riege, 1997).

Also, I did some research on ontological and epistemological study. Due to my mixed methods on the data analysis approaches, I combined the ontological stand and epistemological approach to analyse and explain my data findings. Ontology in a simple sentence is to discover “what we know－knowledge” (what are the facts in the world) and epistemology looks into another aspect to discover “know-how” (how we perceive the world). For example, one knows that camera could take picture and one knows how to use camera to take pictures. It is very interesting to see the entity in different views and interpret it logically.

This week I start writing my final chapter: Discussion & Conclusion, which I think is the most difficult chapter so far. My literature review is still quite loose and incomplete. I only draft my other chapters as well. Paul is very positive and optimistic about my progress of thesis writing. We plan to finish and complete the thesis by April. Therefore, he believes that time should be enough for me to organise the structure and present my study in a logical order. It is better to make it right than make it fast. In this aspect, quality control is more important than the efficiency. Hopefully, I could finish my first draft of conclusion by mid January.

今天網路上跟老闆聊天（老闆加我在他ＭＳＮ名單內），談到買軟體與其他零零總總，花了他一千英鎊，好讓我這個愛花錢的學生好加以利用軟體分析所收集的資料；順便討論了我這幾天唸質分析理論下，兩種資料分析方法的困擾。我們這群博士學生聚在一起總帶給老闆沒啥好事，一下子是誰誰誰出問題，大家一起著急，然後大夥兒找他解決問題，看來我們這群學生把老闆這大羅神仙當奴才使喚，覺得有師萬事足，我也回老闆說，有麻煩才有生活刺激嘛，看樣子老師不是挺樂在刺激中。

老闆也順便歸納出一些到目前研究分析的細節，尤其我又是在跨（國）區域企業內部下，（虛擬）團隊與媒體應用的研究，這方面的研究都屬於科技媒體下的策略管理，從瞭解群體內部結構互動到偵測事件發生的媒體運用，分析到目前為止，老師跟我都相當期待最後分析結果，他也提到這是一個相當新潮的研究領域（如標題）。自己的成就感指標，當時一下子就衝的老高，差點破指數表，我應該在當下照照鏡子，看自己神氣了得的模樣。自己在這方面從不被認定到逐漸接受，尤其後期又是給予相當高的肯定，自己的努力被肯定總是特別興奮，精神氣色也額外開朗，即使這一星期來，睡眠品質低落，偏頭痛與胃痛干擾，一下子這劑良藥也打十足十；精、氣、神各項要點都提到最高點，顯得雄糾糾、氣昂昂，頓時間，我身心百病消弭，藥到病除啊！

這套軟體老師似乎也不是那麼熟捻，其實老師在量的分析是強項（有心理學背景的通常對統計都會相當拿手，應該都是在統計學上都是專家能力了），質的分析相比之下，老師似乎就比較欠缺軟體使用概念。之前我光做完量的分析，就把我腦筋整到不行，執行統計不難，難的就在於歸納整理上，找出合理的理論支持，若結果又是意外的預期，找理論又不知道得花上多久功夫。而我就是這種幸運兒，出了意外的結果，結果花了三週找可能的結果。還好老師定了新筆記電腦，也安裝了這套質分析軟體，外加找了畢業學姐回來教我們師徒倆這套軟體，好讓老闆可以順便提出修正結構過程中，分析的軟體是否可以將資料也可以保全，鏈接點是否會消除等等問題。

這兩天光看質的資料分析理論跟方法跟其他架構理論，搞得自己一個頭、兩個大，一個質的分析就有十五種分析方法（量的統計分析更是多的不可數）。上網查資料、翻書本、查期刊，一下子時間就過去了，然後還是沒結果；找了同博班的專攻質分析的同學諮詢，結果大家是半斤八兩，就怕是誰說了啥想法就呼嚨了誰。結果大家還是找回老闆，這就是為啥老闆老喊我們這群專找問題的學生統統是「麻煩一族」，真對老闆不好意思啦！每次在老師電腦，看到好幾個畢業同學寫信給老闆，都提到老闆的內心應該萬分慶幸，又是成功地踹開一名博士學生；看樣子，畢業那天，老闆肯定大大高興，又甩了我這名糾纏不清的好學學生了。

今天跟老闆（註一）Meeting又是一場勝利的戰役。其實跟老闆開會也沒什麼好擔心緊張的，就是把這一兩週分析過程跟細節說明一下，老闆順便會提出內容細節質疑，讓雙方釐清問題，其實都算是很普通的每周Meeting，主要是細節部份跟老闆談的挺籠絡，自己也相當開心。

不過今天這場戰役似乎說明自己的架構都確定了，也可以執行軟體計畫的開始，預估自己兩個月內要完成所有的質分析；若分析完整後，就可以先把博士論文部份分別將質與量的研究方法下筆說明了，也可以是開始作Paper發表的一個開始。從量的統計分析上，自己花了三個月專注在量的分析上，學寫給自己統計分析專用的Syntax好快速執行程式，從初步瞭解一個統計結果，到後期作比較精密分析，也探討深入到國情不同與經濟背景程度上的差異，似乎說明了影響企業內部溝通協調談判方式與衝突行為模式，分析跟探討過程相當有趣，同時也發現一些很有意義的數據結果。

這次質的初步分析似乎大為進展，結合了心理、科技、企業內部與跨國企業溝通層面，也建立了一個以客觀層面能說服自己與老闆的架構。老闆對剛開始對自己這個組織架構借用了國際企管的專有名詞（Psychic Distance）──關於文化差異層面，但是也借用了其他心理障礙問題，不是很表認同與讚許；主要是這專用名詞會誤導考官，也可能使閱讀者對論文內容方向質疑，自己後來深入瞭解這一詞的層面，才瞭解自己若真以此專有名詞為整篇論文骨幹，那麼會招來多少質疑與質詢。

Lately I've been searching for the information about evolutionary divergence between China and Taiwan. Due to the current statistic findings of my research－Conflict management through Computer-mediated Communication (CMC) in the work collaboration, the findings of media-switching request suggested significant difference in e-mail, audio and video use. In addition to psychic distance and relationship experience/quality, evolutionary divergence between different economic histories caused the media use difference, which is related to the traditional quan-xi building and western interaction.

I consulted with several friends who are Chinese mainlander employed in foreign-invested enterprise and Taiwanese working in China as a foreign-invested enterprise regarding the computer-mediated communication difference in media-switching for conflict management. A logical explanation of my current statistic findings for the media-switching request would be the past economic history difference: Capitalisation and Privatisation process. The statistic findings show some interesting result that under the same Chinese culture, the media adoption would be due to the difference of traditional quan-xi building and modern western interaction. Apart from the geographic and relational boundary (culture, language, time-zone and territoriality difference), I didn't expect that evolutionary divergence could be an influential reason to make sense of the CMC utilisation difference.

I really appreciate Wei Lin in Dell corp. to be interviewed with me and provided me so much valuable information and knowledge about the evolutionary divergence between China and Taiwan. Of course, there are many important helpers regarding my research that I would like to appreciate. This kind of appreciation would be individually elaborated according to the findings of qualitative data analysis afterwards.

週五跟塞普勒斯好友Gunce約了去聽自己Manchester Business School博士班每年一度的Conference，一方面是讓我解解悶，一方面是可以請presenter跟我交換一些參考資料。Gunce建議我來聽些conference，利用別人發表方式，可以自我檢視自己的過程架構整理；另一方面可以重新審視游移不定的研究，與定位自己的調查結果。

這次的conference對我而言，像是場自信心提昇的一個過程；而我不得不同意她的說法，無須為自己有趣的研究煩惱。我們聽了四五位的研究報告也幾乎一一地提出我們質疑與建議的觀點，Gunce也發揮她的長處，不停的發問與提供意見給演說者。

後期聽到一個新加坡博士同事提了用ICT（Information Computer Technology）來改變專案員工內的人際關係，與上司下屬間的合作方式。其中這位新籍同事以在同地不同辦公室，以這種Telework溝通方式改變人際，但我也不免質疑，那一般茶水間的應對模式又如何呢？在同地方不同辦公室的人員是否已經認識，公司的規模大小為何？面對面與利用媒體溝通又如何區別？員工是否為單一元化同國籍同語言無文化隔閡，還是多元化不同國籍以共通語言溝通？

自己一直在做CMC（Computer-mediated communication）的研究，資料也蒐集了不同規模的科技公司以跨區域，跨國際，文化與語言上為變因來加以研究人際關係影響，媒體轉換於衝突行為上得應用。所以也由這為博士班同事的報告中，學習如何清楚架構傳達一個研究的理念，與對企業內部溝通的貢獻。很有趣，也不停的執行統計程式、比對變因結果，期待看到自己統計數據下最後的取決點。

最近得用到NVivo 或是 Atlas ti軟體, 有誰有的可以借我Copy CD? 問了學校竟然那麼大的一個Manchester Business School竟然沒有！！！太誇張了！不能讓人相信！唉～為什麼學校沒有提供呢？學校似乎除了SPSS這種軟體最受歡迎外，就沒有其他比較專業的文字分析軟體嗎？

嗚嗚～有誰有的？可以借我好嗎？

昨天跟老闆又在網路作周報告，老闆說放我兩個月多在台灣是值得的；錢也花的值得。一堆研究進展到我的coding frame的架構已經讓我筋疲力盡；聽到老師說他對我的進展非常滿意，外加我的研究是一個有價值的研究，這評論無端讓我快樂飛上天！

接著問我想不想回英國了，是不是該回英國好好專心做好分析報告；論文也要開始寫下time table，好準備完成博士畢業論文，我的心理原本不安穩的似乎也平息不少。也很高興假期也有休息，報告也有進展。老師也表明他對我的研究getting more and more excited，也想準備跟我一起發paper，心理無限歡欣（希望不是說說而已）。

每天都想著作點東西好有進展，一天專心一小步，也不要貪心，也不要有太多內心情緒干擾問題；慢慢地，一步步地走向自己的計畫。也不要想結果，就是自己告訴自己，有沒有都無所謂，盡力就好；沒天份或是沒本事也是自己證明自己盡力的過程了。這樣子就少有怨尤，也少有慌亂的情緒影響研究的步伐。

過了這步，我也得好好計畫下步人生的去留問題；我想若老師要我留，我應該會留守英國兩年吧；接下來再來考慮下步人生了。