Details

Autor(en) / Beteiligte

• Chong, Jan Ning

Titel

Knowledge sharing and work practice

Ort / Verlag

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses

Erscheinungsjahr

2007

Quelle

ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I

Beschreibungen/Notizen

• Organizational knowing is rooted in the coordinated action of individuals within the organization. Such coordination requires that individuals possess shared knowledge of the organization, of the actions of others, and of the work itself. Research to date has primarily focused on mechanisms for knowledge sharing that are intentional in nature, such as explicit communication and codified knowledge repositories. This focus omits consideration of how knowledge may be shared through acts not explicitly intended to be communicative, such as work practice. Work practice is also contextual, making it a potentially richer medium for knowledge sharing. For work practice to be effective in this regard, however, the knowledge embedded in the practice must be visible. Not all work practices make knowledge equally perceptible. To examine how the degree of work practice perceptibility affects knowledge sharing and coordinated action within organizations, I conducted an ethnographic study of two software development teams that engage in very different software development methodologies and, hence, very different sets of work practices. The results of these observations demonstrate that the two teams differ substantially in the degree to which their work practices make knowledge perceptible. Differences in the degree of work practice perceptibility shape the ability of the teams to recognize and respond to contingencies, as well as the standardization of work norms. I then investigate, compare and contrast work practice to mechanisms for knowledge sharing identified in the organizational studies literature, discussing the effects of work practice perceptibility reflected in knowledge seeking and knowledge offering materials.