Integrating knowledge in organizations: examining performance and integration difficulties

ABSTRACT This paper builds a theoretical model and decision-making flow chart for optimizing the integration of knowledge from individuals to units, and predicting when the desired integration process will be relatively easy or difficult to implement. We argue that the integration process most likely to lead to higher unit-level performance depends on the degree to which knowledge is learnable, while the ease of implementation depends on the degree to which knowledge is tacit. Implementation challenges occur when there is a mismatch between these two dimensions. Organizations would benefit from targeting knowledge management investments at these mismatched situations.

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