Managing knowledge sharing: Emergent and engineering approaches

B.J. van den Hooff, M.H. Huysman

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

Abstract

We wished to determine how the process of knowledge sharing could be managed, seeing that it is a knowledge management dilemma. If knowledge sharing is crucial to an organization's interests, but is inherently emergent in nature, how can the organization still manage the process? In order to answer this question, a distinction was made between two approaches towards managing knowledge sharing: an emergent approach, focusing on the social dynamics between organizational members and the nature of their daily tasks, and an engineering approach, focusing on management interventions to facilitate knowledge transfer. While the first is central to today's thinking about knowledge, we used a field study in six organizations to show that both approaches have value in explaining knowledge sharing. Instruments that are part of the engineering approach create conditions for variables in the emergent approach, which in turn also exert a direct influence on knowledge sharing. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1-8
Number of pages8
JournalInformation and Management
Volume46
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2009

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Knowledge management
Knowledge sharing
Field study
Social dynamics
Knowledge transfer

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van den Hooff, B.J. ; Huysman, M.H. / Managing knowledge sharing: Emergent and engineering approaches. In: Information and Management. 2009 ; Vol. 46, No. 1. pp. 1-8.
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van den Hooff, BJ & Huysman, MH 2009, 'Managing knowledge sharing: Emergent and engineering approaches' Information and Management, vol. 46, no. 1, pp. 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2008.09.002

Managing knowledge sharing: Emergent and engineering approaches. / van den Hooff, B.J.; Huysman, M.H.

In: Information and Management, Vol. 46, No. 1, 2009, p. 1-8.

Research output: Contribution to Journal › Article › Academic › peer-review

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van den Hooff BJ, Huysman MH. Managing knowledge sharing: Emergent and engineering approaches. Information and Management. 2009;46(1):1-8. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.im.2008.09.002

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