| Title: | MANAGING KNOWLEDGE ACROSS THE BOUNDARIES OF A VIRTUAL ORGANIZATION |
| DOI No: | 10.1142/9789812701527_0041 |
| Source: | KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT: NURTURING CULTURE, INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY (pp 479-490)
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| Author(s): | SUSAN GASSON
This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. IIS-0347595. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
College of Information Science and Technology, Drexel University, 3141 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-2875, USA
EDWIN M. ELROD
College of Information Science and Technology, Drexel University, 3141 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-2875, USA
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| Abstract: | This paper examines the knowledge-sharing and knowledge-management behaviors exhibited in a field study of the eCommerce systems group of a global service firm. The study demonstrates the mixture of virtual and physical mechanisms employed for distributed knowledge management, when these cross functional and organizational boundaries. The contribution of this paper is to provide a framework for how such groups manage distributed knowledge in practice and to suggest a fifth type of boundary object in addition to the four forms originally identified by Star (1989). The findings of the study have significant implications for how we design virtual systems for distributed management collaboration, as they suggest that many knowledge-sharing forms are not amenable to support within a computer-based system environment. Formal knowledge-sharing systems must operate within a context of informal, social networking and information exchange. |
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