IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/socres/v15y2010i3p119-132.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Modelling Dimensions of ‘the Social’ in Knowledge Teams: An Operationalisation of Habermas’ Theory of Communicative Action

Author

Listed:
  • Elizabeth Quinlan
  • Susan Robertson

Abstract

The introduction of knowledge teams, as a new form of work organisation, is one of many institutional transformations associated with the knowledge economy. The research on the effects of this new form of work organisation on the social processes by which knowledge workers exchange, create, and apply knowledge is limited. The research that does exist uses various communication theories to explain the social interactions within knowledge teams. We offer an alternative theoretical framework, based on Habermas’ theory of communicative action. In this paper, we operationalise the theory using dynamic agent-based modelling to perform a series of ‘virtual experiments’ on the temporal dynamics of knowledge exchange within teams. The modelling results are used to critically reflect on the theory and draw conclusions regarding the lifeworld rationalisation within knowledge teams. The paper closes by specifying areas of future work and suggesting that a practical outcome of the completed research agenda will be an evaluation tool to be used by knowledge teams to assess how effective they are at communicating and producing knowledge.

Suggested Citation

  • Elizabeth Quinlan & Susan Robertson, 2010. "Modelling Dimensions of ‘the Social’ in Knowledge Teams: An Operationalisation of Habermas’ Theory of Communicative Action," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 15(3), pages 119-132, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:15:y:2010:i:3:p:119-132
    DOI: 10.5153/sro.2189
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.5153/sro.2189
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.5153/sro.2189?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Jürgen Klüver & Jörn Schmidt, 1999. "Topology, Metric and Dynamics of Social Systems," Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation, vol. 2(3), pages 1-7.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Elizabeth Quinlan & Susan Robertson & Tracey Carr & Angie Gerrard, 2020. "Workplace Harassment Interventions and Labour Process Theory: A Critical Realist Synthesis of the Literature," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 25(1), pages 3-22, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Michael D. Cohen & Rick L. Riolo & Robert Axelrod, 2001. "The Role Of Social Structure In The Maintenance Of Cooperative Regimes," Rationality and Society, , vol. 13(1), pages 5-32, February.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:socres:v:15:y:2010:i:3:p:119-132. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.