WORK GROUPS AND KNOWLEDGE SHARING IN A GLOBAL ORGANIZATION.

A field study of 182 work groups in a Fortune 500 multi-national corporation suggests why knowledge sharing outside of the team, rather than solely inside of the team, can enhance group effectiveness. This research indicates that global organizations can benefit when work group members share knowledge with external sources, non-team employees inside the division, non-team employees outside the division, and the customer. Based on ideas about external group activity, I hypothesized and found that knowledge content (measured as general overviews, specific requirements, analytical techniques, progress reports, and project results) shared through member relationships outside of the group, rather than the mere amount of non-team communication, was related to higher performance. Furthermore, based on ideas about social network structure, I hypothesized and found that the interaction of external knowledge sharing and work group distribution (i.e., members in different geographic locations), as well as the intera...

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