Knowledge Ingtegration in Large-Scale Organizations and Networks - Conceptual Overview and Operational Definition

Knowledge integration is an emerging discipline in organizational science where the central proposition is that the increasing complexity of products and services being developed and delivered, means that the knowledge required for production is increasingly specialized, varied (multi-disciplinar...

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Main Authors: Haddad, Marc, Bozdogan, Kirkor
Format: Working Paper
Published: 2013
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/82082
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author Haddad, Marc
Bozdogan, Kirkor
author_facet Haddad, Marc
Bozdogan, Kirkor
author_sort Haddad, Marc
collection MIT
description Knowledge integration is an emerging discipline in organizational science where the central proposition is that the increasing complexity of products and services being developed and delivered, means that the knowledge required for production is increasingly specialized, varied (multi-disciplinary) and distributed across the organization’s internal boundaries, and as a result there is a need for organizations to continuously gather their knowledge resources in order to maintain their ability to innovate, and to sustain their competitive position in the market. In addition, the increasing scale and scope of organizational arrangements, such as multinational partnerships or multi-tiered prime-supplier arrangements commonly encountered in the aerospace, automotive and other complex product development industries, also give rise to environments of dispersed knowledge resources, thus necessitating the subsequent integration of this knowledge across external boundaries spanning large-scale organizational networks. Knowledge integration in this context is done through a process of transferring knowledge from multiple sources in the organizational network to where it is needed, combining it with existing knowledge, before it can be applied to accomplish complex tasks and to solve major problems. The primary purpose of this paper is to define the powerful concept of knowledge integration in large-scale organizational networks using an extensive review of the pertinent literature on knowledge in organizations. An operational definition for knowledge integration is also proposed, followed by a systematic identification and classification of the different strategies, practices, channels and mechanisms for integrating different types of knowledge across a multitude of organizational boundaries and environments.
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spelling mit-1721.1/820822019-04-10T15:22:18Z Knowledge Ingtegration in Large-Scale Organizations and Networks - Conceptual Overview and Operational Definition Haddad, Marc Bozdogan, Kirkor knowledge integration knowledge Knowledge integration is an emerging discipline in organizational science where the central proposition is that the increasing complexity of products and services being developed and delivered, means that the knowledge required for production is increasingly specialized, varied (multi-disciplinary) and distributed across the organization’s internal boundaries, and as a result there is a need for organizations to continuously gather their knowledge resources in order to maintain their ability to innovate, and to sustain their competitive position in the market. In addition, the increasing scale and scope of organizational arrangements, such as multinational partnerships or multi-tiered prime-supplier arrangements commonly encountered in the aerospace, automotive and other complex product development industries, also give rise to environments of dispersed knowledge resources, thus necessitating the subsequent integration of this knowledge across external boundaries spanning large-scale organizational networks. Knowledge integration in this context is done through a process of transferring knowledge from multiple sources in the organizational network to where it is needed, combining it with existing knowledge, before it can be applied to accomplish complex tasks and to solve major problems. The primary purpose of this paper is to define the powerful concept of knowledge integration in large-scale organizational networks using an extensive review of the pertinent literature on knowledge in organizations. An operational definition for knowledge integration is also proposed, followed by a systematic identification and classification of the different strategies, practices, channels and mechanisms for integrating different types of knowledge across a multitude of organizational boundaries and environments. 2013-11-12T15:43:14Z 2013-11-12T15:43:14Z 2009-12-30 Working Paper http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/82082 Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 United States http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/ application/pdf
spellingShingle knowledge integration
knowledge
Haddad, Marc
Bozdogan, Kirkor
Knowledge Ingtegration in Large-Scale Organizations and Networks - Conceptual Overview and Operational Definition
title Knowledge Ingtegration in Large-Scale Organizations and Networks - Conceptual Overview and Operational Definition
title_full Knowledge Ingtegration in Large-Scale Organizations and Networks - Conceptual Overview and Operational Definition
title_fullStr Knowledge Ingtegration in Large-Scale Organizations and Networks - Conceptual Overview and Operational Definition
title_full_unstemmed Knowledge Ingtegration in Large-Scale Organizations and Networks - Conceptual Overview and Operational Definition
title_short Knowledge Ingtegration in Large-Scale Organizations and Networks - Conceptual Overview and Operational Definition
title_sort knowledge ingtegration in large scale organizations and networks conceptual overview and operational definition
topic knowledge integration
knowledge
url http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/82082
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AT bozdogankirkor knowledgeingtegrationinlargescaleorganizationsandnetworksconceptualoverviewandoperationaldefinition