Individualist and collectivist perspectives on knowledge in organizations: Implications for information systems research

Organization scholars differ in their understanding and application of the construct of ''knowledge'' in theorizing and empirical research. Over the past years, two perspectives have become prevalent in organization science. The individualist perspective assumes the locus of knowledge is people who learn, and that knowledge cannot extend beyond the physical limits of human beings. The collectivist perspective assumes the locus of knowledge is collective. Collective entities accumulate knowledge through forms of social learning. Boundaries of knowledge are drawn around social entities-groups, communities, networks, and organizational units, etc. Recent work in management and organization science has accentuated the differences, and argued against the widespread adoption of a collectivist perspective. This argument holds implications for information systems research. The current paper reviews selected contributions on the locus of knowledge, presents an argument for a combined collectivist and individualist perspective, and outlines future directions for information systems research. Drawing on two significant examples, I show that information systems research has a strategic role to play in greatly advancing this combined perspective.

[1]  J. Dutton,et al.  The Adoption of Radical and Incremental Innovations: An Empirical Analysis , 1986 .

[2]  Lynne P. Cooper,et al.  Knowledge Reuse for Innovation , 2004, Manag. Sci..

[3]  J. Mingers,et al.  Organization Theory and Systems Thinking: The Benefits of Partnership , 1997 .

[4]  Robert E. Cole,et al.  From a Firm-Based to a Community-Based Model of Knowledge Creation: The Case of the Linux Kernel Development , 2003, Organ. Sci..

[5]  I. Nonaka,et al.  The Concept of “Ba”: Building a Foundation for Knowledge Creation , 1998 .

[6]  Sebastian Spaeth,et al.  Code Reuse in Open Source Software , 2008, Manag. Sci..

[7]  Morten T. Hansen,et al.  The Search-Transfer Problem: The Role of Weak Ties in Sharing Knowledge across Organization Subunits , 1999 .

[8]  B. Kogut,et al.  What Firms Do? Coordination, Identity, and Learning , 1996 .

[9]  Christopher W. Allinson,et al.  Cognitive Style and the Theory and Practice of Individual and Collective Learning in Organizations , 1998 .

[10]  George Kingsley Zipf,et al.  Human behavior and the principle of least effort , 1949 .

[11]  D. Teece.  The Competitive challenge : strategies for industrial innovation and renewal : the Transamerica lectures in corporate strategy, School of Business, University of California, Berkely , 1987 .

[12]  J. Spender.  Making knowledge the basis of a dynamic theory of the firm , 1996 .

[13]  Yasmin Merali,et al.  Individual and collective congruence in the knowledge management process , 2000, J. Strateg. Inf. Syst..

[14]  G. Westermann,et al.  Connectionist approaches to language learning , 2009 .

[15]  Gary J. Miller,et al.  A Social Choice Perspective on Expertise and Authority in Bureaucracy , 1985 .

[16]  Karl R. Popper,et al.  The Open Society and Its Enemies , 1952 .

[17]  Georg von Krogh,et al.  Perspective - Tacit Knowledge and Knowledge Conversion: Controversy and Advancement in Organizational Knowledge Creation Theory , 2009, Organ. Sci..

[18]  Georg von Krogh,et al.  Open Source Software and the "Private-Collective" Innovation Model: Issues for Organization Science , 2003, Organ. Sci..

[19]  M. Hoegl,et al.  Knowledge Creation in New Product Development Projects , 2006 .

[20]  Haridimos Tsoukas,et al.  Do we really understand tacit knowledge , 2002 .

[21]  T Maillart,et al.  Empirical tests of Zipf's law mechanism in open source Linux distribution. , 2008, Physical review letters.

[22]  Marjorie A. Lyles,et al.  The Blackwell handbook of organizational learning and knowledge management , 2003 .

[23]  G. Hedlund.  A model of knowledge management and the N‐form corporation , 2007 .

[24]  E. B. Swanson,et al.  Information systems in organization theory: a review , 1987 .

[25]  M. Boisot.  Knowledge Assets: Securing Competitive Advantage in the Information Economy , 1998 .

[26]  I. Nonaka.  The knowledge creating company". Harvard Business Review : . , 1991 .

[27]  D. Teece.  Strategies for Managing Knowledge Assets: the Role of Firm Structure and Industrial Context , 2000 .

[28]  Matthew Semadeni,et al.  Value of Strong Ties to Disconnected Others: Examining Knowledge Creation in Biomedicine , 2009, Organ. Sci..

[29]  B. Kogut,et al.  Knowledge of the Firm, Combinative Capabilities, and the Replication of Technology , 1992 .

[30]  Dorothy E. Leidner,et al.  Knowledge management systems: emerging views and practices from the field , 1999, Proceedings of the 32nd Annual Hawaii International Conference on Systems Sciences. 1999. HICSS-32. Abstracts and CD-ROM of Full Papers.

[31]  S. Newell,et al.  Managing Knowledge Work , 2002 .

[32]  I. Nonaka,et al.  SECI, Ba and Leadership: a Unified Model of Dynamic Knowledge Creation , 2000 .

[33]  R. Grant.  Toward a Knowledge-Based Theory of the Firm,” Strategic Management Journal (17), pp. , 1996 .

[34]  F. Blackler.  KNOWLEDGE AND THE THEORY OF ORGANIZATIONS: ORGANIZATIONS AS ACTIVITY SYSTEMS AND THE REFRAMING OF MANAGEMENT* , 1993 .

[35]  H. Simon,et al.  Strategy and organizational evolution , 1993 .

[36]  Teppo Felin,et al.  The Knowledge-Based View, Nested Heterogeneity, and New Value Creation: Philosophical Considerations on the Locus of Knowledge , 2007 .

[37]  I. Nonaka,et al.  The Knowledge Creating Company , 2008 .

[38]  H. Tsoukas.  Complex Knowledge: Studies in Organizational Epistemology , 2004 .

[39]  H. Simon.  Bounded Rationality and Organizational Learning , 1991 .

[40]  Charles W. Krueger,et al.  Software reuse , 1992, CSUR.

[41]  Dorothy E. Leidner,et al.  Studying Knowledge Management in Information Systems Resarch: Discourses and Theoretical Assumptions , 2002, MIS Q..

[42]  T. Fenwick.  Understanding Relations of Individual—Collective Learning in Work: A Review of Research , 2008 .

[43]  David L. Deeds,et al.  The impact of stocks and flows of organizational knowledge on firm performance: an empirical investigation of the biotechnology industry , 1999 .

[44]  Jan Pries-Heje,et al.  The Design Theory Nexus , 2008, MIS Q..

[45]  I. Nonaka.  A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation , 1994 .

[46]  L. Donaldson.  The Ethereal Hand: Organizational Economics and Management Theory , 1990 .

[47]  K. Lyytinen,et al.  Information systems : the state of the field , 2006 .

[48]  Georg von Krogh,et al.  The quality of group tacit knowledge , 2008, J. Strateg. Inf. Syst..

[49]  J. Bonache,et al.  Assessing the team environment for knowledge sharing: an empirical analysis , 2003 .

[50]  M. Lynne Markus,et al.  Toward A Theory of Knowledge Reuse : Types of Knowledge Reuse Situations and Factors in Reuse Success , 2022 .

[51]  Allen C. Amason.  Distinguishing the Effects of Functional and Dysfunctional Conflict on Strategic Decision Making: Resolving a Paradox for Top Management Teams , 1996 .

[52]  Dorothy E. Leidner,et al.  Review: Knowledge Management and Knowledge Management Systems: Conceptual Foundations and Research Issues , 2001, MIS Q..

[53]  L. Suchman.  Plans and situated actions , 1987 .

[54]  Marvin D. Troutt,et al.  The knowledge management efficacy of matching information systems development methodologies with application characteristics - an experimental study , 2006, J. Syst. Softw..

[55]  B. Latour.  The pasteurization of France , 1988 .

[56]  U. Yeliz Eseryel,et al.  Knowledge management and knowledge management systems , 2005 .

[57]  I. Nonaka,et al.  How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation , 1995 .

[58]  J. Elster.  Social Norms and Economic Theory , 1989, Handbook of Monetary Policy.

[59]  I. MacMillan,et al.  Strategy implementation versus middle management self-interest , 1986 .

[61]  D. Leonard,et al.  The Role of Tacit Knowledge in Group Innovation , 1998 .

[62]  Brian Epstein,et al.  Ontological individualism reconsidered , 2007, Synthese.

[63]  Robert D. Galliers,et al.  Change as Crisis or Growth? Toward a Trans-disciplinary View of Information Systems as a Field of Study: A Response to Benbasat and Zmud's Call for Returning to the IT Artifact , 2003, J. Assoc. Inf. Syst..

[64]  Georg von Krogh,et al.  Enabling Knowledge Creation: How to Unlock the Mystery of Tacit Knowledge and Release the Power of Innovation , 2000 .

[65]  Noam Chomsky,et al.  New Horizons in the Study of Language and Mind: Acknowledgements , 2000 .

[66]  G. Krogh,et al.  An essay on corporate epistemology , 2007 .

[67]  M. Polanyi.  Chapter 7 – The Tacit Dimension , 1997 .

[68]  Terri L. Griffith,et al.  Information Technology and the Changing Fabric of Organization , 2007, Organ. Sci..

[69]  J. Brown,et al.  Organizational Learning and Communities-of-Practice: Toward a Unified View of Working, Learning, and Innovation , 1991 .

[70]  Tor Hernes,et al.  Implications of Self-Reference: Niklas Luhmann’s Autopoiesis and Organization Theory , 2003 .

[71]  I. Nonaka,et al.  Organizational Knowledge Creation Theory: Evolutionary Paths and Future Advances , 2006 .

[72]  Peter Lorange,et al.  Implementing Strategic Processes: Change, Learning and Co-Operation , 1993 .

[73]  M. Gordon,et al.  PUBLICATION RECORDS AND TENURE DECISIONS IN THE FIELD OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT , 1996 .

[74]  D. Teece.  Capturing Value from Knowledge Assets: The New Economy, Markets for Know-How, and Intangible Assets , 1998 .

[75]  Flávio S. Corrêa da Silva,et al.  Design issues for knowledge artifacts , 2008, Knowl. Based Syst..

[76]  R. Grant,et al.  Knowledge and the firm: Overview , 1996 .

[77]  Sebastian Spaeth,et al.  The open source software phenomenon: Characteristics that promote research , 2007, J. Strateg. Inf. Syst..

[78]  S. Winter.  Knowledge and Competence as Strategic Assets , 1987 .

[79]  R. Hirschheim,et al.  Critical issues in information systems research , 1987 .

[80]  E. Rosch,et al.  The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience , 1993 .

[81]  E. Durkheim.  Suicide: A Study in Sociology , 1897 .