Date of Award
8-26-2025
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Business Administration (DBA)
Department
College of Business
First Advisor
Donald Schoffstall, Ph.D.
Second Advisor
Letta Campbell, D.M.
Third Advisor
Rex Warren, Ph.D.
Committee Members
Donald Schoffstall, Ph.D.; Letta Campbell, D.M.; Rex Warren, Ph.D.
Keywords
Collaboration; Organizational knowledge loss; Teamwork; Collaborative learning teams; Attrition
Abstract
Knowledge in organizations continues to be lost during attrition (Cox & Overbay, 2023). The Baby Boomers are retiring (Cox & Overbay, 2023), younger generations move (Brown, 2023), and self-interested employees hide knowledge (Ahmad & Karim, 2019; Anand et al., 2022) Collaborative learning teams (CLTs) increase knowledge transfer, which retains organizational knowledge (Ahmad & Karim, 2019). This mixed methods research was undertaken to investigate what contributors made a group in an organization into a CLT. Autonomy, competence development, group relatedness, psychological safety, shared goals and objectives, and leadership collaboration encouragement were explored for their relationships with being a CLT. Experiences were also researched that occurred in positively performing CLTs.
The Theory of Planned Behavior was used as a theoretical lens for the research to help understand the behavior of collaborative team knowledge sharing. Behavior can be predicted by attitudes, social influences, and perceived behavior control towards the behavior (Ajzen, 1991). The approach was utilized to understand what the primary contributors are for a group of employees to become a CLT and to understand what experiences occur in positively performing CLTs.
For the correlational study, 167 participants were surveyed, and eight of those participants were interviewed in a phenomenological study. The responses were grouped and placed into themes. The survey was used to correlate conditions of the contributors in the participants’ teams in relation to their level of being an effective CLT. The interview was used for further learning of the survey results.
The contributors, autonomy, competence development, relatedness, psychological safety, shared goals and objectives, and leadership collaboration encouragement were all found as significant when correlated to the level of being a CLT and were supported by the phenomenological research. In positively performing CLTs, collaboration can be lessened and use of the phenomenological research provided learning. Improving behavioral, normative, and control beliefs towards each contributor can motivate employees to be part of CLTs but leaders must continuously motivate towards the contributors and not take positive performance for granted. Leaders can use this research to create CLTs in their organizations, lessen organizational knowledge loss, and gain a competitive advantage over other organizations.
Recommended Citation
Lembree, Sandy Laurence, "Decreasing Organizational Knowledge Loss with Collaborative Learning Teams" (2025). JWU Dissertations & Theses. 27.
https://scholarsarchive.jwu.edu/jwu_etd/27
