Work Unit's Knowledge Processing Style: An Empirical Examination of its Determinants

Intraorganizational units play a critical role in KM processes of acquiring, creating, exchanging, and utilizing knowledge assets. While much attention has been directed to effective knowledge strategies for supporting organizational KM processes, there is a lack of insightful research on knowledge strategy and its implementation at the work-unit level. This study examines two types of work unit knowledge processing styles (i.e., codification and personalization) and explores the relationship between critical determinants (i.e., task, organizational culture, and technology) and knowledge processing styles. The results showed that task variety and task analyzability were strongly associated with both knowledge processing styles. Interestingly, task interdependence and autonomy were significantly related only to personalization, whereas IT support was strongly associated with codification. The findings from this study suggest that the unit’s organizational variables should harmonize appropriately with its knowledge processing styles.