Abstract
This paper contributes to our understanding of the process of knowledge creation in organisations. Based on a process model, the paper develops propositions relating to factors facilitating knowledge creation in cross-functional work teams. These propositions relate to the constructs of cognitive diversity, transactional memory, trans-specialist knowledge and their contribution to new knowledge development through knowledge boundary spanning.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Adams JS (1976) The structural dynamics of behavior in organizational boundary roles. In Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology (DUNNETTE MD, Ed), pp 1175–1199, Rand McNally, Chicago.
Akbar H (2003) Knowledge levels and their transformation: towards the integration of knowledge creation and individual learning. Journal of Management Studies 48 (8), 1997.
Ancona DG and Caldwell DF (1992) Demography and design: predictors of new product team performance. Organization Science 3 (2), 321–341.
Argyris C and Schon DA (1996) Organizational Learning II: Theory, Method and Practice. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.
Bhatt G (2000) Information dynamics, learning and knowledge creation in organizations. The Learning Organization 7 (2), 89–99.
Bogenrieder I (2002) Social architecture as a prerequisite for organizational learning. Management Learning 33 (2), 197–212.
Boisot M (1998) Knowledge Assets: Securing Competitive Advantage in the Information Economy. Oxford University Press, New York.
Brown JS, Collins A and Duguid P (1989) Situated cognition and the culture of learning. Educational Researcher 18 (1), 32–42.
Brown JS and Duguid P (1991) Organizational learning and communities-of-practice: toward a unified view of working, learning and innovation. Organization Science 2 (1), 40–57.
Brown JS and Duguid P (2001) Knowledge and organization: a social-practice perspective. Organization Science 12 (2), 198–216.
Bryant S (2005) The impact of peer mentoring on organizational knowledge creation and sharing: an empirical study in a software firm. Group and Organization Management 30 (3), 319–338.
Burt R (2004) Structural holes and good ideas. American Journal of Sociology 110 (2), 349–399.
Carlile PR (2002) A pragmatic view of knowledge and boundaries: boundary objects in new product development. Organization Science 13 (4), 442–455.
Carlile PR (2004) Transferring, translating and transforming: an integrative framework for managing knowledge across boundaries. Organization Science 15 (5), 555–568.
Chang J, Choi B and Lee H (2004) An organizational memory for facilitating knowledge: an application to e-business architecture. Expert Systems with Applications 26 (2), 203–215.
Clark H (1996) Using Language. Cambridge University Press, New York.
Cohen WM and Levinthal DA (1990) Absorptive capacity: a new perspective on learning and innovation. Administrative Science Quarterly 35 (1), 128–152.
Conner KR and Prahalad CK (1996) A resource-based theory of the firm: knowledge versus opportunism. Organization Science: A Journal of the Institute of Management Sciences 7 (5), 477–501.
Corti E and Storto C (2000) Knowledge creation in small manufacturing firms during product innovation: an empirical analysis of cause–effet relationships among its determinants. Enterprise and Innovation Management Studies 1 (3), 245–264.
Cramton CD (2001) The mutual knowledge problem and its consequences for dispersed collaboration. Organization Science 12 (3), 346–371.
Crossan M, Lane H and White R (1999) An organizational learning framework: from intuition to institution. Academy of Management Review 24, 522–538.
Cummings JL and Teng BS (2003) Transferring R&D knowledge: the key factors affecting knowledge transfer success. Journal of Engineering and Technology Management 20 (1–2), 39–68.
Dachler HP (1992) Management and leadership as relational phenomena. In Social representations and the social bases of knowledge. Swiss monographs in pscyhology, Vol. 1 (VON CRANACH M, DOISE W and MUGNY G, Eds), pp 169–178, Hogrefe and Huber Publishers, Lewiston, NY.
Dacin MT, Beal BD and Ventresca MJ (1999) The embeddedness of organizations: dialogue & directions. Journal of Management 25 (3), 317–356.
Davenport E and Bruce I (2002) Innovation, knowledge management and the use of space: questioning assumptions about non-traditional office work. Journal of Information Science 28 (3), 225–230.
DeDreu C and West M (2001) Minority dissent and team innovation: the importance of participation in decision-making. Journal of Applied Psychology 86 (6), 1191–1201.
DeGeus A (1988) Planning as learning. Harvard Business Review 66 (2), 70–74.
Dimaggio P (1997) Culture and cognition. Annual Review of Sociology 23 (1), 263–284.
Dimaggio P and Powell W (1983) The iron cage revisited: institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. Americal Sociological Review 48 (2), 147–160.
Dougherty D (1992) Interpretive barriers to successful product innovation in large firms. Organization Science 3 (2), 179–202.
Drach-Zahavy A and Somech A (2001) Understanding team's innovation: the role of team processes and structures. Group Dynamics 5 (2), 111–123.
Duncan RB and Weiss A (1978) Organizational learning: implications for organizational design. In Research in organizational behavior (STAW,B Ed), JAI Press, Greenwich, Conn.
Eisenhardt KM and Santos F (2002) Knowledge-based view: a new theory of strategy. In Handbook of Strategy and Management (PETTIGREW A, THOMAS H and WITTINGTON R, Eds), Sage, London.
Ensley M and Pearce C (2001) Shared cognition in top management teams: implications for new venture performance. Journal of Organizational Behavior 22 (2), 145–160.
Fleming L (2002) Finding the organizational sources of technological breakthroughs: the story of Hewlett-Packard's thermal ink-jet. Industrial and Corporate Change 11, 1059–1084.
Fong P (2003) Knowledge creation in multidisciplinary project teams: an empirical study of the processes and their dynamic interrelationships. International Journal of Project Management 21 (7), 479–486.
Gibson CB (2001) From knowledge accumulation to accommodation: cycles of collective cognition in work groups. Journal of Organizational Behavior 22 (2), 121–134.
Goodstein J, Gautam K and Boeker W (1994) The Effects of board size and diversity on strategic change. Strategic Management Journal 15 (3), 241–250.
Grant RM (1996) Prospering in dynamically-competitive environments: organizational capability as knowledge integration. Organization Science 7, 375–383.
Grant RM (1997) The knowledge based view of the firm: implications for management practice. Long Range Planning 30 (3), 450–454.
Hargadon A (1999) Group cognition and creativity in organizations. JAI Press, Stamford, Conn.
Hargadon A (2002) Brokering knowledge: linking learning and innovation. Research in Organizational Behavior 24, 41–85.
Hargadon A and Yellowlees D (2001) When innovations meet institutions: Edison and the design of the electric light. Administrative Science Quarterly 46 (3), 476–501.
Hargadon AB and Sutton RI (1997) Technology brokering and innovation in a product development firm. Administrative Science Quarterly 42, 716–749.
Houghton S, Simon M, Aquino K and Goldberg C (2000) No safety in numbers. Group and Organization Management 25 (4), 325–353.
Huang J and Newell S (2003) Knowledge integration processes and dynamics within the context of cross-functional projects. International Journal of Project Management 21 (3), 167–176.
Huber GP (1991) Organizational learning: the contributing process and the literatures. Organization Science 2 (1), 88–115.
Isaacs WN (1993) Taking flight: dialogue, collective thinking and organizational learning. Organizational Dynamics 22 (2), 24–49.
Janis IL (1973) Groupthink and group dynamics: a social psychological analysis of defective policy decisions. Policy Studies Journal 2 (1), 19–25.
Jarvinen A and Poikela E (2001) Modelling reflective and contextual learning at work. Journal of Workplace Learning 13 (7/8), 282–289.
Jehn K, Northcraft GB and Neale M (1999) Why differences make a difference: a field study of diversity, conflict and performance in work groups. Administrative Science Quarterly 44 (4), 741–763.
Jehn KA, Chadwick C and Thatcher SMB (1997) To agree or not to agree: the effects of value congruence, individual demographic dissimilarity, and conflict on workgroup outcomes. International Journal of Conflict Management 8 (4), 287–305.
Kogut B and Zander U (1992) Knowledge of the firm, combinative capabilities, and the replication of technology. Organization Science: A Journal of the Institute of Management Sciences 3 (3), 383–397.
Lawrence BS and Lewin A (1997) The black box of organizational demography. Organization Science 8 (1), 1–22.
McLoughlin I (1999) Creative technological change. Routledge, London.
Nemeth CJ and Nemeth-Brown B (2003) Better than individuals? The potential benefits of dissent and diversity for group creativity. In Group Creativity: Innovation Through Collaboration (PAULUS PB, Ed), pp 63–84, Oxford University Press, London.
Nonaka I and Konno N (1998) The concept of ‘ba’: building a foundation for knowledge creation. California Management Review 40 (3), 1–15.
Nonaka I and Takeuchi H (1995) The knowledge creating-company. Oxford University Press, Oxford and New York.
Nonaka I and Takeuchi H (1996) A theory of organizational knowledge creation. International journal of Technology Management 11 (7/8), 833–846.
Nonaka I, Toyama R and Konno N (2000) SECI, Ba and leadership: a unified model of dynamic knowledge creation. Long Range Planning 33, 5–34.
Pelled LH, Eisenhardt KM and Xin KR (1999) Exploring the black box: an analysis of work group diversity, conflict, and performance. Administrative Science Quarterly 44 (1), 1–28.
Peltonen T and Lamsa T (2004) Communities of practice and the social processes of knowledge creation: towards a new vocabulary for making sense of organizational learning. Problems and Perspectives in Management (4), 249–263.
Pfeffer J (1983) Organizational demography: implications for management. California Management Review 28, 67–81.
Piaget J (1969) The mechanisms of perception. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.
Polyani M (1966) The Tacit Dimension. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London.
Polyani M and Prosch H (1975) Meaning. University of Chicago Press, Chicago.
Postrel S (2002) Islands of shared knowledge: specialization and mutual understanding in problem-solving teams. Organization Science 13 (3), 303–321.
Randel A and Jaussi K (2003) Functional background identity, diversity and individual performance in cross-functional teams. Academy of Management Journal 46 (6), 763–774.
Reagans R and Zuckerman EW (2001) Networks, diversity, and productivity: the social capital of corporate R&D teams. Organization Science 12 (4), 502–517.
Rogers E and Shoemaker F (1971) Communication of Innovations. Free Press, New York.
Simon HA (1991) Bounded rationality and organizational learning. Organization Science 2, 125–134.
Simon HA (1993) Strategy and organizational evolution. Strategic Management Journal 14, 131–142.
Spender J-C (1996) Making knowledge the basis of a dynamic theory of the firm. Strategic Management Journal 17 (Winter Special Issue), 45–63.
Star SL and Griesemer JR (1989) Institutional ecology, ‘translations’ and boundary objects: amateurs and professionals in Berkeley's Museum of Vertebrate Zoology. Social Studies of Science 19 (3), 387–420.
Stasser G and Titus W (2003) Hidden profiles: a brief history. Psychological Inquiry 14 (3/4), 304–313.
Stasser G, Vaughan S and Stewart D (2000) Pooling unshared information: the benefits of knowing how access to information is distributed among group members. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Proceses 82 (1), 102–116.
Sutton RI and Hargadon AB (1996) Brainstorming groups in context: effectiveness in a product design firm. Administrative Science Quarterly 41, 685–718.
Swan J, Scarbrough H and Robertson M (2002) The construction of ‘communities of practice’ in the management of innovation. Management Learning 33 (4), 477–496.
Szulanski G (1996) Exploring stickiness: impediments to the transfer of best practice within the firm. Strategic Management Journal 17 (Winter Special Issue), 27–43.
Tan G (1998) Managing creativity in organizations: a total system approach. Creativity and Innovation Management 7 (1), 23–32.
Teece D, Pisano G and Shuen A (1997) Dynamic capabilities and strategic management. Strategic Management Journal 18 (7), 509–533.
Tenkasi RV and Boland RJ (1996) Exploring knowledge diversity in knowledge intensive firms: a new role for information systems. Journal of Organizational Change Management 9 (1), 79–91.
Tjosvold D and Sun H (2003) Openness among Chinese in conflict: effects of direct discussion and warmth on integrative decision making. Journal of Applied Social Psychology 33 (9), 1878–1897.
Tsoukas H (1996) The firm as a distributed knowledge system: a constructionist approach. Strategic Management Journal 17 (Winter Special Issue), 11–25.
Tsoukas H (2002) Knowledge-based perspectives on organizations: situated knowledge, novelty and communities of practice. Management Learning 33 (4), 419–426.
Tsoukas H and Mylonopoulos N (2004) Introduction: knowledge construction and creation in organizations. British Journal of Management 15 (1), 1–8.
Tushman MT (1977) Special boundary roles in the innovation process. Administrative Science Quarterly 22, 587–605.
Un CA and Cuervo-Cazurra A (2004) Strategies for knowledge creation in firms. British Journal of Management 15 (S1), 27–41.
Uzzi B (1997) Social structure and competition in interfirm networks: the paradox of embeddedness. Administrative Science Quarterly 42 (1), 37–69.
Vissers G and Dankbaar B (2002) Creativity in multidisciplinary new product development teams. Creativity & Innovation Management 11 (1), 31–42.
Yoo Y and Kanawattanachai P (2001) Development of transactive memory systems and collective mind in virtual teams. International Journal of Organizational Analysis 9 (2), 187–208.
Zahra S and George G (2002) Absorptive capacity: a review, reconceptualization and extension. Academy of Management Review 27 (2), 185–203.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mitchell, R., Nicholas, S. Knowledge creation through boundary-spanning. Knowl Manage Res Pract 4, 310–318 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.kmrp.8500113
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.kmrp.8500113