Research and development teams have a great need for knowledge and information. Not only R&D teams, but other departments and industries have become increasingly more dependent on
knowledge, leading to more and more knowledge workers. The ability of an organization to facilitate the sharing and usage of knowledge has been increasingly seen as critical for organizational
effectiveness.490 Organizational innovation depends on the presence of capabilities by which firms can synthesize and acquire knowledge resources as well as generate new applications from said resources.491
A knowledge worker can be seen as an employee whose main capital or product is knowledge, or a worker who “thinks for a living.”492 Knowledge work is characterized by non-routine problem-solving, which requires convergent, divergent as well as creative thinking.493 It can also be seen as anyone tasked with continual innovation and creativity.494 A knowledge worker usually has more flexible job boundaries, is empowered, is expected to innovate and change his roles in order to accomplish tasks
484 Hirst and Mann, 2004, pp. 156 485 Ishikawa, 2012b, pp. 271 486
Ishikawa, 2012a, pp. 252
487 Tushman and Katz, 1980, pp. 1083 488 Tushman and Katz, 1980, pp. 1080 489
Ishikawa, 2012a, pp. 248
490 Liu and DeFrank, 2013, pp. 1151
491 Calantone, Cavusgil, and Zhao, 2002, pp. 522; Celuch, Kasouf, and Peruvemba, 2002, pp. 552 492
Davenport, 2005; in Dekas et al., pp. 221
493 Reinhardt et al., 2011, pp. 1 494 Dekas et al., 2013, pp. 221
66 effectively, and works in a relatively flat organizational hierarchy.495 The amount of knowledge workers is increasing.496
Knowledge work is different from traditional work. Discipline and self-control are inherent parts of the job rather than discretionary elements, and informal conversations are how work gets done, innovations are made, and information is shared. All key elements of doing knowledge work effectively.497
Contrary from traditional work in which the work done is relatively predictable, knowledge work is not. Where a manufacturing organization focuses on production efficiency, a knowledge organization focuses on maximizing innovation.498
Knowledge exchange among employees greatly increases organizational effectiveness.499 In knowledge intensive industries, firm effectiveness is dependent on how well knowledge is shared between individuals, teams, units, and departments.500 There is also the possibility of spillover. This can happen when creative followers have new ideas that are transferable to other employees in the organization, which can use these ideas for themselves, which can lead to an increase in
innovativeness at the organizational level.501 An individual’s learning can positively predict group level processes and performance.502
Knowledge can be tacit or explicit,503 can refer to object, states, or capabilities. It can also reside in both humans and documentation. Because of this diversity, different approaches and systems have to be employed in organizations to effectively use this knowledge.504
For any knowledge to become a part of an organization, it has to be shared so that each member of an organization has access to it. This is how any information becomes part of organizational
knowledge, and can be seen as a form of organizational learning. Organizational learning can be seen as a collective capability based on both experiential and cognitive processes, which involve
knowledge acquisition, sharing, and utilization.505 Both internal and external learning have been shown to have a positive relationship with organizational performance.506 This also holds for different levels of learning. Learning at all organizational levels has a positive relationship with business performance.507
Literature on organizational learned has found a positive link between organizational learning and firm innovation, both directly as well as indirectly.508 Organizational learning is essential for
495 Dekas et al., 2013, pp. 221-222 496
Haag et al., 2006; in Dekas et al., 2013, pp. 2013; Davenport, 2005; in Dekas et al., 2013, pp. 222
497
Burt, 2000, pp. 389
498 Nonaka, 1991, pp. 96
499 Carmeli, Atwater, and Levi, 2010, pp. 257 500
Alavi and Leidner, 2001, pp. 112
501 Shalley and Gibson, 2004, pp. 43 502 Hirst et al., 2004, pp. 321 503
Nonaka, 1991, pp. 98
504 Alavi and Leidner, 2001, pp. 131
505 Zollo and Winter, 2002, pp. 339; Aragon-Córrea, Morales, and Cordón-Pozo, 2007, pp. 350 506
Schroeder, Bates, and Junttila, 2002, pp. 114
507 Bontis, Crossan, and Hulland, 2002, pp. 27
67 creativity, it inspires new knowledge and ideas,509 and increases the ability to both understand and apply this knowledge.510
Learning ability, information-processing capabilities, and technology capabilities are interrelated, which indicates that improvements in technology are difficult to sustain without a learning
orientation as well as the ability to manage information in an organization.511 The speed with which an organization is able to learn has a strong relationship with international diversity and mode of market entry, especially in organizations that undertook formal knowledge integration,512 which can lead to a higher performance.513
Team members that improve their own abilities and who acquire knowledge regarding their fields of expertise, are motivated to be more effective in their fields and contribute to the achievement of the team’s goals. They also tend to mutually influence each other.514
Oborn (2013) distinguishes knowledge transfer into knowledge exploration and exploitation. Exploration underpins the knowledge generation process, or doing research, where exploitation underpins service improvement and implementation activities, or implementation.515 Therefore there has to be a constant balance between creating and using knowledge.516
Knowledge sharing can be facilitated through various knowledge driven human resource practices.517 Collins and Smith (2006) found that commitment-based human resource practices such as training programs, reward systems, and incentive policies, produce higher levels of knowledge exchange.518 The presence of human resource practices has been shown to maintain higher levels of intention to share knowledge, even when self-interest was also high.519