Date of Award

2022

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Education (EdD)

First Advisor

Brian Taberski

Second Advisor

Colette M. Taylor

Third Advisor

Trenia Walker

Abstract

Many organizations rapidly shifted to remote work operations as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. This quantitative research study investigated how knowledge sharing within a public library system changed as a result of remote work operations and identified impacts to knowledge sharing, including barriers and catalysts. The participants in this study included staff within a large public library system, including librarians, regional managers, and members of the library system leadership team. Participants provided demographic data and responses to Likert scale agreement questions related to the concepts of communication, connection, and knowledge sharing. This data were analyzed using correlational and ANOVA tests. Additionally, participants provided narrative responses related to their experience with knowledge sharing during the transition to remote work. Responses were quantified based on inductively identified themes using an organizational learning framework as the basis for the analysis. Correlational analysis found that asynchronous communication had a positive relationship with knowledge sharing, while connection to staff outside the team and the organization was negatively related to knowledge sharing. Analysis of variance showed no statistically significant difference in ratings of knowledge sharing based on demographic groupings; however, the contextual theme analysis did indicate that participants experienced knowledge sharing in remote work operations differently across demographic factors. The study findings led to five recommendations for leaders of the partner organization and other leaders navigating organizational crisis onset by the abrupt transition to remote work operations coinciding with the COVID-19 global pandemic.

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