Managing Distributed Knowledge Systems

The article argues that the growth of de novo knowledge-based organization depends on managing and coordinating increasingly growing and, therefore, distributed knowledge. Moreover, the growth in knowledge is often accompanied by an increasing organizational complexity, which is a result of integrating new people, building new units and adding activities to the existing organization. It is argued that knowledge is not a stable capacity that belongs to any actor alone, but that it is rather an ongoing social accomplishment, which is created and recreated as actors engage in mutual activities. This paper contributes to the research on organizations as distributed knowledge systems by addressing two weaknesses of the social practice literature. Firstly, it downplays the importance of formal structure and organizational design and intervention efforts by key organizational members. Secondly, it does not explain how communities connect to the whole organization, but rather how they are disconnected from the governing canonical perspectives. In response to this we develop a conceptual model IKAR (denoting corporate and departmental identities, knowledge, activities and resources) and show how its dynamics shape the emerging collective practices within and between organizational departments. We present a case of a de novo knowledge intensive firm to illustrate the model, and conclude with a discussion of emerging implications.