Mechanisms For Integrating Distributed Knowledge

Organizations need to effectively combine and utilize knowledge resources that are distributed amongst the employees and groups in the firm. This paper examines the use of knowledge-sharing mechanisms to leverage on the learning, experience and expertise of employees to create capabilities that transcend beyond individuals and teams. In this paper, we specify an overall framework that provides a typology of the types of knowledge-integrating mechanisms used by project-based organizations. We build an overall picture by identifying two important dimensions of knowledge-sharing mechanisms and the key knowledge-sharing mechanisms illustrating each quadrant in the framework. The first dimension is personalization vs. codification. If knowledge is shared through a codification strategy, knowledge is carefully codified and stored in databases and documents. If knowledge is shared through a personalization strategy, it will be closely tied to the person who developed it and shared mainly through direct person-to-person contacts. The second key dimension in our typology is whether the mechanisms facilitate knowledge sharing through integration processes at the individual and group levels, or whether the mechanisms facilitate knowledge sharing through processes institutionalized in various organizational routines, artifacts, or organizational structure. The interaction of these two dimensions provides a typology of knowledge-sharing mechanisms used by project-based organizations. To examine the usefulness of the typology, we conducted empirical studies in two project-based organizations. We observe that the organization that is smaller in size and less mature makes use of predominantly integration and personalization knowledge-sharing mechanisms, while the organization that is bigger in size and more mature makes use of predominantly institutionalized knowledge-sharing mechanisms. This typology highlights that organizations can institutionalize both codification and personalization-oriented knowledge-sharing mechanisms. The mechanisms in all the four quadrants can also be used in a complementary manner to one another.