| Communities of Practise in a High-Technology Firm: The Impact of Internal and External Sources of Knowledge on Individual Performance |
| | Teigland, Robin | Institute of International Business | robin.teigland@hhs.se | 46-08-736-9507 |
| | Birkinshaw, Julian | London Business School | Jbirkinshaw@lbs.ac.uk | (44)-171-262-5050 |
| | This paper describes the preliminary findings from a study of the patterns of individual-level knowledge flows in Icon Medialab,
a Swedish IT firm, and the impact of those patterns on individual performance. Building on the knowledge management
literature, and specifically the work concerned with "Communities of Practise", we develop propositions linking various
sources of knowledge (internal vs. external, tacit vs. codified) to individual performance. Using data collected from 209
employees in Icon Medialab, we show that creativity is associated with social contact and Internet-based communities,
while on-time delivery of results is associated with the use of codified internal sources and negatively related to use of
Internet-based communities. Implications for the community of practise theory, and for practise, are discussed. |
| | Keywords: Community of Proctise; Knowledge Management; Internet |
| Creating Shared Meaning Across Occupational Communities: An Ethnographic Study of a Production Floor |
| | Bechky, Beth A. | U. of Pennsylvania | bechky@management.wharton.upenn.edu | (215)-573-8385 |
| | This paper describes how knowledge is transferred between different constituencies within organizations. In particular, I examine the role of
occupational communities in the transfer of information between engineers, technicians, and assemblers on a production floor. I suggest that
the communities' understandings of the product range from conceptual and abstract to applied and concrete, and demonstrate that these
different understandings have implications for learning across these groups. The findings indicate the significance of language barriers between
occupational communities and illustrate how members of these communities resolve interactional difficulties during information transfer. |
| | Keywords: work and occupations; organizational learning |
| Knowledge Management of Management Scholars: Pluralism, Collaboration, and Knowledge Productivity |
| | Skilton, Paul F. | Arizona State U. | pskilton@asu.edu | (602) - 965-4530 |
| | Glick, William H. | Arizona State U., Main | Bill.Glick@asu.edu | (602) 965-7586 |
| | Wiseman, Robert M. | Michigan State U. | wisema13@pilot.msu.edu | (517) 482-8896 |
| | Knowledge management of management scholars is often guided by a simplistic additive model of research productivity:
successfully attract, retain, and financially support more faculty who are highly productive individuals. An alternative, yet
complementary approach, relies on concepts from knowledge management for innovation. Research productivity of a group
of management scholars can be enhanced by structuring a pluralistic environment that constructively fosters collaboration.
This synergistic model is based on the assumption that the unit of production is the group, rather than just the individuals.
This paper develops and empirically tests two complementary models about developing a more highly productive group of
management faculty. The first model is a simple additive model including the effects of faculty size, attraction of highly
productive researchers, retention of highly productive researchers, and financial support. The second model relies on synergy
between group members and includes the effects of pluralism, internal collaboration, and external collaboration. We focus on
management scholars for two reasons. First, management is an openly pluralistic field, deeply concerned with knowledge
production from a diverse base. + |
| | Keywords: Knowledge Management; Pluralism; Academic Productivity |