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MANAGING KNOWLEDGE CREATION IN TEAMS 89

than individuals working alone. Originally research suggested that teams tend to
make more risky decisions (Stoner, 1968). The experimental design to study this
was as follows: an individual is provided with a brief scenario which describes a
situation in which a decision has to be made; the individual is given a series of
decision options, ranging from a very safe decision but with a low pay-off to a
very risky decision but with a high pay-off; the individual is asked to say which
level of risk they would be prepared to take; individuals are then put together in
groups to discuss the scenario; once this group discussion has finished the indi-
vidual is then asked to say whether they would like to change their original risk-
taking decision option. In general, research using this type of study design found
that, following the group discussion, individuals tended to increase the level of
risk they saw as appropriate.
Subsequent research has also demonstrated that a team can produce a cau-
tious shift following group discussion. The important point, however, is that
research suggests that groups tend to make more extreme decisions, sometimes
with a fatal outcome as with the Challenger Space Shuttle disaster, and more
recently the Columbia Shuttle disaster. One explanation of this suggests that
group polarization occurs through a process of social comparison. During the
group discussion we compare our decision with the decision of the others in the
group. At the outset we tend to think of ourselves as being fairly risk-taking,
because this tends to be a valued personal attribute, at least in many societies and
in relation to many situations. When, during the group discussion, we discover
that we are not particularly risky compared to others, we then increase the level
of risk in relation to our decision when asked to reconsider the decision. The
cautious shift occurs in situations where caution rather than risk is the socially
valued option. For example, making a risky investment decision may be admired
if the individual involved would simply be a rich individual if the decision turned
out to be successful and would not suffer significantly if the money invested was
lost. However, if the risky investment decision will impact a person’s ability to
pay for a life-saving operation of a spouse, a cautious shift is more likely.
Applying this to knowledge creation, we can see how this group dynamic
might influence some teams to generate very risky solutions that do not ade-
quately take account of the various downsides associated with the solutions.
This is why risk management has become such an important part of all project
management methodologies.

Collaboration and power and control

Many of the problems of team-work and collaboration discussed above are
related to fundamental issues of power and control in teams. Thus, an essential
feature of successful knowledge-creating teams is the relatively free-flowing,
sharing of ideas. After all, that is the rationale for bringing together particular
individuals – the notion that all team members can contribute their knowledge
or their intellectual and social capital. However, in most knowledge-creating
teams in organizations, there are power differentials between those participating.

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