Knowledge Management in Interaction: Transactive Knowledge Systems and the Management of Knowledge

The rationale behind the existence of organizations may be seen — among other reasons — in the advantages of the division of labour (Crozier and Friedberg, 1980). At the same time, size and structure of organizations require a subdivision among members along functions, tasks and duties. The larger an organization, the more departments and members will have to be co-ordinated. In order to ensure disparate parts and divisions are able to pool their efforts and their expertise, actions as well as knowledge need to be synchronized and co-ordinated. Knowledge management is a means to co-ordinate what is known in an organization, whereas organizational learning describes the change of that organizational knowledge. In a globalized environment characterized by hypercompetition and knowledge-intensive processes (D’Aveni, 1994) knowledge management and reflection on organizational learning become increasingly a necessity in organizations because they may be generators of competitive advantages (Penrose, 1995; Spender, 1996; cf. Becker et al., 2002).