Development and test of a model of interdisciplinary competencies

ABSTRACT

Interdisciplinary work offers both innovative potential and challenges in collaboration. The present paper summarizes three studies intended to foster a psychological, competency-focused understanding of interdisciplinary work. In a qualitative interview study (Study 1) with expert practitioners of interdisciplinarity, we used the critical incident technique to explore which individual competencies support interdisciplinary collaborations and improve innovative outcomes. Focusing on competencies specific to interdisciplinarity, we derived a four-dimensional model. In Study 2, we tested the model dimensions (1) initiative for exchange, (2) target group-specific communication, (3) knowledge integration, and (4) reflection in a quantitative survey study among N = 315 employees who were experienced in interdisciplinary work using exploratory structural equation modelling. Finally, in Study 3, we studied the convergent and divergent validity of interdisciplinary competencies as well as their role in predicting team outcomes. Here, a dyadic sample of N = 448 target persons and N = 153 interdisciplinary colleagues were surveyed. We discuss possible applications for the new model of interdisciplinary competencies and the developed self-report instrument.

KEYWORDS:

• Interdisciplinary competencies
• critical incident technique
• exploratory structural equation modelling
• mixed-method
• validation

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. The critical incidents were rated in triplets by n = 89 people using the Repertory Grid Technique. Here, raters had to compare the three incidents and describe similarities between two incidents. Whenever “interdisciplinarity” was mentioned, the incident was included in this study.

Additional information

Funding

This research was made possible by a grant from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Germany [16FWN009] to the second author. We gratefully acknowledge this support.