香港、新加坡、泰國和臺灣地區大學教師與館員協作文化之研究

Abstract

過去幾十年來，高等教育機構面臨了許多的挑戰與改變，如科技快速的發展、經費的縮減、人力的吃緊、嚴苛的評鑑制度及日益漸增的競爭等；另外也面對了不少教學方法、學習成果及機構績效的轉型等問題與壓力。鑑此，為了解決這些挑戰與問題，許多圖書資訊學界的專家學者一再呼籲，大學教師與館員間建立協作關係與實施協作專案的重要性。 建立協作關係與實施協作專案固然重要，但研究者認為能夠成功建立協作關係與推動協作專案的基本關鍵要素應該是「協作文化」。然而，過去卻很少有研究談到「協作文化」對大學教師與館員實施協作的重要，同時也極少看到有亞洲地區的研究學者或館員談論「協作文化」方面主題的文獻。 鑑此，此項研究臚列五項主要研究目的進行探究：(一)找出建構大學教師與館員協作文化內涵的要素；(二)探究香港、新加坡、泰國和臺灣等東南亞地區大學教師與館員協作文化的重視程度；(三)瞭解香港、新加坡、泰國和臺灣等地區大學教師與館員間協作的發展現況；(四)探討香港、新加坡、泰國和臺灣大學教師與館員的背景特性、與其之間協作文化程度、還有其之間協作發展情況的關係；以及(五)比較不同國家文化背景如香港、新加坡、泰國和臺灣等東南亞地區大學教師與館員協作文化的程度與其之間協作發展情況之差異。 為了蒐集資料，研究者自行設計並開發了二份調查問卷，一份名為「大學教師和館員協作調查—教師問卷」是給教師填覆的；另一份名為「大學教師和館員協作調查—館員問卷」則是給館員填覆的。但由於此項研究之調查對象含括了香港、新加坡、泰國及臺灣等幾個亞洲地區的大學教師與館員，因此每份問卷各有中文及英文二個版本。基本上，此問卷包括三大部分：第一部分是填答者的基本背景資料，共七題；第二部分是「大學教師和館員協作文化問卷」，係採李克特式五點量表來測量大學教師與館員的協作文化程度，共38題；第三部分則以調查香港、新加坡、泰國及臺灣等地區大學教師與館員協作之發展情況為主，包括瞭解發展大學教師與館員協作的原因、建立協作關係的方法、實施協作專案的模式、以及執行協作專案之成功因素與困難之處等；另在問卷第三部分的最後還有一個開放性問題，主要希望大學教師與館員能針對個人過去的協作經驗加以描述說明。 研究者利用SurveyMonkey線上問卷平台製作網路問卷，為了蒐集到更多的回覆，研究者透過香港、新加坡、泰國及臺灣等地的學者、教授、出版商及館員等，幫忙邀請當地的大學教師及館員回覆此網路問卷。於2015年12月到2016年5月期間，共收到612份回覆問卷，其中有效問卷共480份，有效問卷的回收率約為78.43%。 問卷彙整完畢後，利用SPSS第23版本統計軟體加以整理分析。採用之統計分析方法包括：因素分析及成分分析法萃取出構成大學教師和館員協作文化問卷的七個構面，百分比及平均數以了解受訪者對大學教師和館員協作文化的評價，以及對整體大學教師和館員協作發展的看法及其經驗；t檢定、ANOVA檢定、平均數及雪費事後檢定法以驗證不同背景特性的受訪大學教師與館員對大學教師和館員協作文化的評價，以及對整體大學教師和館員協作發展的看法及其經驗之差異性；另由迴歸分析檢驗香港、新加坡、泰國和臺灣大學教師與館員的背景特性、與其之間協作文化程度、還有其之間協作發展情況的關係，最後彙整大學教師及館員針對開放性問題之回覆，以了解受訪者們的意見與建議。 本研究結果探究出，有七個基本要素可以代表大學教師和館員協作文化的內涵，並開發設計了一份以這七個基本要素內涵為主且可測量大學教師與館員協作文化認知程度的「大學教師和館員協作文化問卷」。所謂七個基本要素包括：(一)組織的協作環境；(二)協作中的相互利益與責任；(三)協作的承諾；(四)協作的領導力；(五)相互瞭解與溝通；(六)相互尊重與信任；及(七)協作的關係與互動。 除此之外，此研究也發現，在香港、新加坡、泰國和臺灣等東南亞不同國家或地區的受訪大學教師與館員，其對大學教師與館員協作文化的認知程度，以及對大學教師與館員協作發展現況的經驗或看法，確實有達到統計上的顯著性差異。整體而言，大學教師和館員協作文化的概念在泰國及臺灣被大學教師與館員接受的程度略高於新加坡及香港；大學教師和館員的協作發展情況似乎也是泰國及臺灣比較新加坡及香港來得略為積極。 最後，研究者依據研究結果，為未來香港、新加坡、泰國及台灣大學教師和館員的協作發展提出了幾項啟示和建議。除此之外，研究者認為大學教師與館員間相互尊重、相互信任，以及有效的溝通與互動是成功發展二者協作關係的基礎；還有，一個協作能否成功的實踐，決定於館員是否有強大力量的使命感，以及教師是否有強烈動機與意願；另外，相互有利應該是激發大學教師與館員彼此共同協作的最大動力；最後，「組織的協作環境」(諸如領導者的支持、學校的鼓勵政策與措施等)，勢必需要加以改善，期能幫助香港、新加坡、泰國及台灣的高等教育機構，建立一個具有大學教師和館員的協作文化。Over the past few decades, due to various challenges and changes, such as the rapid development of information technology, cost reduction, manpower constraints, rigid evaluation, and increased competition, numerous faculty and administrative staff members in higher education institutions have come to recognize the problems and stresses involved in the transformation of teaching methods, and the tasks of enhancing student learning outcomes and improving institutional performances. As a result, collaboration has gradually become a beneficial approach for employees in numerous universities to coping with these challenges and problems. This study considers that “collaborative culture” is the basis for faculty members and librarians to work together in a higher education institution, and the key to the long-term collaborative relationships and successful collaborative projects. However, few studies have mentioned the importance of collaborative culture in collaborations between faculty members and librarians, and few studies on the topic of faculty–librarian collaborative culture have been conducted by librarians or scholars in Taiwan or other regions in Southeast Asia. In light of this, five research purposes are proposed in this study. They are: (1) to discover the elements that can be utilized to construct the concept of faculty-librarian collaborative culture; (2) to explore the value levels of faculty-librarian collaborative culture in the universities of Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, and Taiwan; (3) to understand the current development of faculty-librarian collaboration in the universities of Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, and Taiwan; (4) to investigate the relationships among the background characteristics of faculty members and librarians, the levels of faculty-librarian collaborative culture, and the current development of faculty-librarian collaboration in the universities of Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, and Taiwan; and (5) to compare the distinctions in faculty–librarian collaborative culture and the current development of faculty–librarian collaboration among different national cultural backgrounds, i.e., Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, and Taiwan in Asia. For this study, two survey questionnaires entitled “Faculty-librarian Collaboration Survey-- Librarian” and “Faculty-librarian Collaboration Survey-- Faculty” were designed and developed by the researcher to collect data. Due to the survey questionnaires should be distributed to different countries and areas in Southeast Asia region including Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, and Taiwan, each survey questionnaire has two language versions, Chinese and English. Basically, the questionnaire comprises three parts. The first part is demographic and background information, which includes seven question items designed to understand the personal characteristics of the respondents. The second part is Faculty-librarian Collaborative Culture Questionnaire (FLCCQ) with 38 question items. The third part is composed of five question items to explore the perceptions and/or experiences of faculty members and librarians regarding current development of faculty-librarian collaboration, including the reasons for developing collaborations, the methods for developing collaborative relationships, the models for implementing collaborative projects, success factors and difficulties for conducting collaborative projects between librarians and faculty members. Finally, an open-ended question is designed at the end of the third part to ask the respondents to talk about their personal experience in faculty-librarian collaborative projects. An online survey tool, Survey Monkey, was used to collect data via internet in this study. In order to get as many replies as possible, the researcher actively asked scholars, professors, publishers and librarians in Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, and Taiwan for helping distribute the questionnaires from December 2015 to May 2016. 612 respondents answered the online questionnaire in total. However, 132 responses were highly incomplete. That resulted 480 valid responses in an overall valid response rate of 78.43% for this study. The quantitative analysis of the final questionnaire was conducted using the SPSS 23.0 by several statistical analysis methods, such as descriptive analysis, t-test, ANOVA, factor analysis, principal component analysis, varimax rotation technique, Scheffe’s test and regression analysis, etc. This study explored seven key elements that can represent the content and concept of faculty-librarian collaborative culture and developed a Likert scale-based “Faculty-librarian Collaborative Culture Questionnaire (FLCCQ)” to measure the levels of collaborative culture valued by faculty members and librarians. The seven elements are: (1) Organizational Collaborative Environment, (2) Mutual Benefit and Responsibility in Collaboration, (3) Collaborative Commitment, (4) Collaborative Leadership, (5) Mutual Understanding and Communication, (6) Mutual Respect and Trust, and (7) Collaborative Relationship and Interaction. In addition, this study found that the responding faculty members and librarians among different regions of Southeast Asia such as Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, and Taiwan exhibited statistically significant differences in the levels of value regarding faculty-librarian collaborative culture and demonstrated the distinctions of their perceptions and/or experiences toward the current development of faculty-librarian collaboration. In general, the concept of faculty-librarian collaborative culture has probably accepted by the faculty members and/or librarians in Thailand and Taiwan slightly more than those who are in Singapore and Hong Kong. Moreover, the current faculty-librarian collaborations seem to have a better development in Thailand and Taiwan than in Singapore and Hong Kong. Finally, there are a number of implications and suggestions proposed by the researcher in accordance with the results of this study for the future development of faculty-librarian collaborations in the universities of Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, and Taiwan. On the other hand, the researcher believes that mutual respect, mutual trust, and effective communication and interaction between faculty members and librarians are the basis for developing faculty-librarian collaborative relationships. In addition, successful faculty-librarian collaborations rely on a powerful sense of mission from librarians and a strong desire from faculty members. Furthermore, mutual benefit is the best incentives to encourage faculty members and librarians to collaborate with each other. Finally, organizational collaborative environment, such as leaders’ support and institutional commitment (e.g. administrative formal policies and incentive rewards) needs to be improved most in order to create a faculty-librarian collaborative culture in the higher education institutions of Hong Kong, Singapore, Thailand, and Taiwan.