Knowledge sharing in inter-unit cooperative episodes: The impact of organizational structure dimensions

We study how classic organizational structure dimensions should be altered to be more adapted to organizational knowledge sharing. In particular, we look at the dimensions: coordination, centralization, formalization, and specialization, in their relationship to the concept of knowledge sharing. Empirical data was collected by means of a questionnaire in two companies. Our findings indicated that expected relationships, such as the negative effect of centralization or the positive effect of lower formalization, were not found. Interdependency and knowledge complexity, caused by specialization, had an important interacting effect on the relationship between coordination and knowledge sharing. A comparison between the two companies revealed that the organization-specific context in which the coordination is applied influences the potential of this coordination for knowledge sharing.

[1]  Mark W. Lipsey,et al.  Design Sensitivity: Statistical Power for Experimental Research. , 1989 .

[2]  H. Scarbrough,et al.  Social capital and political bias in knowledge sharing: An exploratory study , 2006 .

[3]  Wenpin Tsai.  Social Structure of Coopetition Within a Multiunit Organization: Coordination, Competition, and Intraorganizational Knowledge Sharing , 2002 .

[4]  Harry Scarbrough,et al.  The role of inter-unit coordination mechanisms in knowledge sharing: a case study of a British MNC , 2006, J. Inf. Sci..

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

[6]  Liam Fahey,et al.  Diagnosing cultural barriers to knowledge management , 2000 .

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

[8]  J. Bonache,et al.  The Impact of Team Atmosphere on Knowledge Outcomes in Self-managed Teams , 2005 .

[9]  Richard L. Daft,et al.  Organizational information requirements, media richness and structural design , 1986 .

[10]  B. Kogut,et al.  Knowledge and the Speed of the Transfer and Imitation of Organizational Capabilities: An Empirical Test , 1995 .

[11]  Randy Stoecker,et al.  Evaluating and Rethinking the Case Study , 1991 .

[12]  S. Ghoshal,et al.  Interunit Communication in Multinational Corporations , 1994 .

[13]  A. V. D. Ven,et al.  Determinants of Coordination Modes within Organizations , 1976 .

[14]  Steven Postrel,et al.  Shared knowledge, “glitches,” and product development performance , 1999 .

[15]  H. Scarbrough.  Blackboxes, Hostages and Prisoners , 1995 .

[16]  Dorothy Leonard-Barton,et al.  A Dual Methodology for Case Studies: Synergistic Use of a Longitudinal Single Site with Replicated Multiple Sites , 1990 .

[17]  Børge Obel,et al.  Strategic organizational diagnosis and design : developing theory for application , 1995 .

[18]  A. Grandori.  An Organizational Assessment of Interfirm Coordination Modes , 1997 .

[19]  J. P. Peter.  Reliability: A Review of Psychometric Basics and Recent Marketing Practices , 1979 .

[20]  B. Nooteboom,et al.  Learning Groups: What Types are there? A Theoretical Analysis and an Empirical Study in a Consultancy Firm , 2004 .

[21]  C. Perrow.  A FRAMEWORK FOR THE COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS OF ORGANIZATIONS , 1967 .

[22]  J Ginsburg,et al.  Looking Ahead , 2011, Metabolism: clinical and experimental.

[23]  Rajiv Sabherwal,et al.  Organizational Knowledge Management: A Contingency Perspective , 2001, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[24]  B. Frey,et al.  Motivation, Knowledge Transfer, and Organizational Forms , 1999 .

[25]  Mani R. Subramani,et al.  Situated Learning and the Situated Knowledge Web: Exploring the Ground Beneath Knowledge Management , 2001, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[26]  D. Sandy Staples,et al.  Exploring Perceptions of Organizational Ownership of Information and Expertise , 2001, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[27]  Nicholas Argyres,et al.  Technology strategy, governance structure and interdivisional coordination , 1995 .

[28]  B. Delahaye,et al.  Influences On Knowledge processes In Organizational Learning: The Psychosocial Filter , 2000 .

[29]  Jon-Arild Johannessen,et al.  Mismanagement of tacit knowledge: the importance of tacit knowledge, the danger of information technology, and what to do about it , 2001, Int. J. Inf. Manag..

[30]  Julian Birkinshaw,et al.  Special Issue: Knowledge, Knowing, and Organizations: Knowledge as a Contingency Variable: Do the Characteristics of Knowledge Predict Organization Structure? , 2002, Organ. Sci..

[31]  Jay R. Galbraith.  Designing Complex Organizations , 1973 .

[32]  Mona V. Makhija,et al.  The Relationship Between Control and Partner Learning in Learning-Related Joint Ventures , 1997 .

[33]  A. Pettigrew.  Longitudinal Field Research on Change: Theory and Practice , 1990 .

[34]  Michael L. Tushman,et al.  Information Processing as an Integrating Concept in Organizational Design. , 1978 .

[35]  L. Prusak.  Knowledge in organizations , 1997 .

[36]  Carla O'Dell,et al.  If Only We Knew What We Know: Identification and Transfer of Internal Best Practices , 1998 .

[37]  George B. Cunningham,et al.  STRUCTURAL DESIGNS WITHIN AMERICAN INTERCOLLEGIATE ATHLETIC DEPARTMENTS , 2001 .

[38]  Roderick M. Kramer,et al.  Trust and distrust in organizations: emerging perspectives, enduring questions. , 1999, Annual review of psychology.

[39]  R. Cropanzano,et al.  The effect of organizational structure on perceptions of procedural fairness. , 2000, The Journal of applied psychology.

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

[41]  Fernando Claudio Prestes Motta.  Developing organizations: diagnosis and action , 1971 .

[42]  R. McDermott.  Why Information Technology Inspired but Cannot Deliver Knowledge Management , 1999 .

[43]  Chung-Jen Chen,et al.  How organizational climate and structure affect knowledge management - The social interaction perspective , 2007, Int. J. Inf. Manag..

[44]  Varun Grover,et al.  General Perspectives on Knowledge Management: Fostering a Research Agenda , 2001, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[45]  Margaret A. White,et al.  Learning and Knowledge Transfer in Strategic Alliances: A Social Exchange View , 2005 .

[46]  M. Aiken,et al.  Relationship of centralization to other structural properties. , 1967 .

[47]  Morten T. Hansen,et al.  Knowledge Networks: Explaining Effective Knowledge Sharing in Multiunit Companies , 2002 .

[48]  G. Stasser,et al.  Effects of information load and percentage of shared information on the dissemination of unshared information during group discussion. , 1987 .

[49]  J. Jarillo,et al.  The Evolution of Research on Coordination Mechanisms in Multinational Corporations , 1989 .

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

[51]  L. Argote,et al.  KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER: A BASIS FOR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE IN FIRMS , 2000 .

[52]  Alice Lam.  Embedded Firms, Embedded Knowledge: Problems of Collaboration and Knowledge Transfer in Global Cooperative Ventures , 1997 .

[53]  Gabriel Szulanski.  The Process of Knowledge Transfer: A Diachronic Analysis of Stickiness , 2000 .

[54]  P. M. Podsakoff,et al.  Self-Reports in Organizational Research: Problems and Prospects , 1986 .

[55]  S. Barley.  The alignment of technology and structure through roles and networks. , 1990, Administrative science quarterly.

[56]  Henry Mintzberg,et al.  The Structuring of Organizations , 1979 .

[57]  R. Burt.  The contingent value of social capital. , 1997 .

[58]  H. Tsoukas.  The firm as a distributed knowledge system : A constructionist approach , 1996 .

[59]  James D. Thompson.  Organizations in Action , 1967 .

[60]  Anna Grandori,et al.  Governance Structures, Coordination Mechanisms and Cognitive Models , 1997 .

[61]  P. Lawrence,et al.  Organization and environment , 1967 .

[62]  Jon-Arild Johannessen,et al.  Knowledge management and sustainable competitive advantages: The impact of dynamic contextual training , 2003, Int. J. Inf. Manag..

[63]  R. Peterson.  A Meta-analysis of Cronbach's Coefficient Alpha , 1994 .

[64]  J. Hair.  Multivariate data analysis , 1972 .

[65]  P. Drucker,et al.  Looking ahead: implications of the present. , 1997, Harvard business review.

[66]  Sarma R. Nidumolu.  A Comparison of the Structural Contingency and Risk-Based Perspectives on Coordination in Software Development Projects , 1996, J. Manag. Inf. Syst..

[67]  S. Newell,et al.  The Benefits and Pitfalls of Social Capital: Empirical Evidence from Two Organizations in the United Kingdom† , 2004 .

[68]  D. Krackhardt.  Assessing the political landscape: Structure, cognition, and power in organizations. , 1990 .

[69]  野中 郁次郎,et al.  The knowledge-creating company , 2008 .

[70]  William G. Egelhoff.  Information-Processing Theory and the Multinational Enterprise , 1991 .

[71]  P. Heugens,et al.  A Neo-Weberian Theory of the Firm , 2005 .

[72]  Henk W. Volberda,et al.  Co-evolution of Firm Absorptive Capacity and Knowledge Environment: Organizational Forms and Combinative Capabilities , 1999 .

[73]  Karen Ayas,et al.  Project-Based Learning: Building Communities of Reflective Practitioners , 2001 .

[74]  Moon Tae-Soo,et al.  Design and Implementation of Marketing and Sales Information System for Automotive Part Company Using Object-Oriented Methodology , 2004 .

[75]  G. Krogh.  Care in Knowledge Creation , 1998 .

[76]  P. Lachenbruch,et al.  Design Sensitivity: Statistical Power for Experimental Research. , 1989 .

[77]  Christopher Gresov,et al.  The Context of Interunit Influence Attempts , 1993 .

[78]  Lee Sproull,et al.  What's Mine Is Ours, or Is It? A Study of Attitudes about Information Sharing , 1994, Inf. Syst. Res..

[79]  Jean-Claude Thoenig,et al.  Rethinking the Firm: Organizational Approaches , 2003 .

[80]  E. R. Alexander Apd,et al.  A STRUCTURATION THEORY OF INTERORGANIZATIONAL COORDINATION: CASES IN ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT , 1998 .

[81]  Henry Mintzberg.  Mintzberg on management : inside our strange world of organizations , 1991 .

[82]  Alice Lam.  Tacit Knowledge, Organizational Learning and Societal Institutions: An Integrated Framework , 2000 .

[83]  E. Wenger,et al.  Communities of Practice: The Organizational Frontier , 2000 .

[84]  Michael Aiken,et al.  Structural and Process Constraints on Influence in Organizations: A Level-Specific Analysis. , 1976 .

[85]  M. C. Jensen,et al.  Specific and General Knowledge and Organizational Structure , 1995 .

[86]  Mie Augier,et al.  Understanding context: its emergence, transformation and role in tacit knowledge sharing , 2001, J. Knowl. Manag..

[87]  Angel Cabrera,et al.  Knowledge-Sharing Dilemmas , 2002 .

[88]  B. Frey,et al.  Motivation, Knowledge Transfer, and Organizational Forms , 2000 .

[89]  Gunilla Widén,et al.  Explaining knowledge sharing in organizations through the dimensions of social capital , 2004, J. Inf. Sci..

[90]  Danny Miller,et al.  Psychological and Traditional Determinants of Structure. , 1986 .

[91]  Martin Gargiulo,et al.  Trapped in Your Own Net? Network Cohesion, Structural Holes, and the Adaptation of Social Capital , 2000 .

[92]  Daniel A. Levinthal,et al.  ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON LEARNING AND INNOVATION , 1990 .