Evaluating the Implementation and Impact of a Cluster‐Hiring Initiative at a Research University: How Causal Mechanisms Link Programmatic Activities and Outcomes

Abstract

“Over the past few decades American research universities have implemented a large number of costly interdisciplinary research initiatives, but they have done so without the benefit of much research showing how the processes used to implement these initiatives are affecting faculty research. This study of one interdisciplinary cluster‐hiring initiative shows how the ways participating faculty implemented the initiative affected its long‐term outcomes. A specific casual mechanism, reflective sensegiving, characterized the work of the participating faculty and was found to affect their formation of research collaborations through the initiative. This mechanism enabled faculty to cultivate their expertise but it also delayed their formation of research collaborations with other faculty in their clusters. These findings carry theoretical implications suggesting that sensemaking and sensegiving can be willfully made to be mutually constitutive, rather than being merely parallel, iterative, or corollary processes. The practical implications of this study regard the design of interdisciplinary initiatives as well as the methods of evaluation which can be used to better demonstrate links between the implementation and impact of these initiatives.”

Updating and evaluating a research best practices training course for social and behavioral research professionals

“…Future research may consider evaluating the impact of such training on study teams' engagement with and inclusion of minority groups in their research studies [41][42][43]. Moreover, the presence and support of underrepresented minorities working in academic medical centers helps to guarantee diverse research and mentorship experiences for junior investigators, helping to enhance critical representation in the workforce [44][45].…”

“…This hypothesis is based on well-established theories of adult learning and organizational change. The theory of sensemaking hypothesizes that the ways people understand new or different information they notice is greatly affected by what information they are already familiar with [19][20][21][22][23]. For this reason, we hypothesize that participants with experience conducting community and stakeholder engaged research will report the course to be more relevant and impactful than those participants without such experience.…”