Publication View

Knowledge Integration in Virtual Teams: The Potential Role of KMS (2001)

Abstract
Virtual teams are becoming a preferred mechanism for harnessing, integrating and applying knowledge that is distributed across organizations and in pockets of collaborative networks. In this paper, we recognize that knowledge application, among the three phases of knowledge management, has received little research attention. Paradoxically, this knowledge application phase contributes most to value creation. Extending communication theory, we identify four challenges to knowledge integration in virtual team environments: constraints on transactive memory, insufficient mutual understanding, failure in sharing and retaining contextual knowledge, and inflexibility of organizational ties. We then propose knowledge management system (KMS) solutions to meet these challenges. Finally, we identify promising avenues for future research in this area.

Publication details
Download http://gbspapers.library.emory.edu/archive/00000025/
pdf http://gbspapers.library.emory.edu/archive/00000025/01/GBS-DIA-2001-001.pdf
Repository Goizueta Business School Paper Series (United States)
Keywords Decision and Information Analysis
Type Working Paper

Publications citing this publication (1)
Knowledge integration in face-to-face communication and the moderating effect of a collaborative visualization tool (2006)

Cited publications (5)
Measuring competence? : exploring firm effects in pharmaceutical research (1994)
Coordinating expertise in software development teams /--by Samer A. Faraj. (1998)
Ikujiro Nonaka and Toshihiro Nishiguchi, eds.: Knowledge Emergence: Social, Technical, and Evolutionary Dimensions of Knowledge Creation (2002)
Managing Organizational Knowledge Integration in the Emerging Multimedia Complex (1999)
Co-evolution of Firm Absorptive Capacity and Knowledge Environment: Organizational Forms and Combinative Capabilities (1999)