HOW SHOULD "KNOWLEDGE BASES" BE ORGANISED IN MULTI-TECHNOLOGY CORPORATIONS?

JONATHAN D. SAPSED
2005 International Journal of Innovation Management  
This paper addresses a key interest in Keith Pavitt's later work; the organisational arrangements for co-ordinating technological knowledge. It also concurs with Pavitt's insistence on the constraints on managerial agency and his nihilistic amusement at frustrated plans. The paper considers Pavitt's conceptualisation of knowledge bases as technical disciplines and argues that there is an inconspicuous sub-level of specialised knowledge base associated with tools, products, project experience
more » ... requirements that may hamper the intents of higher-level organisation design. Two contrasting case studies are analysed of organisations attempting to manage transitions that are aimed at improving co-ordination processes. The first has moved from organisation around functional disciplines to product-based, cross-functional teams, while the second has done the reverse. The paper reviews the effects of these opposing organisational solutions on the processes of knowledge integration within the firms, the effects on communities of practice and the ways in which the systems have developed and adapted in response to the reorganisations. The paper challenges some of the simplistic prescriptions offered in the literature and provides further fuel for the debates over organisation design and the knowledge integration task. 75 76 J. D. Sapsed Knowledge Bases in Multi-Technology Corporations 77 sharing more or less likely? What are the effects on technical advancement in the disciplines? However, the paper is not a deductive study testing the proposition of crossfunctional knowledge sharing associating with performance. Rather, it takes a step back to examine the first part of the proposition; it asks what quality of knowledge sharing is effected by cross-functional or functional teamworking organisation. It takes an inductive approach to uncover the motivations, tools, effects and managerial issues involved with reorganisation to cross-functional teams. The paper analyses two case studies of organisations attempting to manage transitions aimed at improved co-ordination processes. These are similar firms in hightech, multi-technology, knowledge-intensive businesses. Both are project-based, in the same geographical region and about the same size, yet they have taken their organisations in contrary directions. The first has moved from organisation around functional disciplines to product-based, cross-functional teams, while the second has done the reverse. The paper reviews the effects of these different organisational solutions on the processes of knowledge integration within the firms, the effects on communities of practice and the ways in which the systems have developed and adapted in response to the reorganisations. In keeping with a Pavitt approach it challenges many of the simplistic prescriptions offered in the literature and provides further fuel for the debates over corporate initiatives and the knowledge integration task. The next section in the paper reviews the literature on cross-functional teamworking pointing out the controversy over its purported advantages. It shows that there are tensions generated by cross-functional team structures. The third section addresses these tensions by looking at the received theory on social identification and the more recent work on communities of practice. The fourth section outlines the method for the study; an inductive approach based on grounded theory procedures that attempt to guard against tautological research. The fifth section outlines five categories that were common across the two companies: organisational change; knowledge integration; loss effects and problems; deployment of expertise and evolution. The conclusions then end the paper.
doi:10.1142/s1363919605001174 fatcat:senfune325fmromxe5no73zfhm