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178 MANAGING KNOWLEDGE WORK AND INNOVATION

limitations of conventional organizational forms. For one, they tend to be local-
ized and sometimes quite closed or exclusive – features underlining the impor-
tance of boundary-spanning individuals who are able to move between different
networks, and sometimes derive significant benefits from doing so.
As organizations have become more aware of the value of knowledge as a
resource, they have become increasingly attracted to various forms of managed
or online communities which seek to make knowledge flow across organiza-
tional boundaries. Although these communities can be criticized for lacking
some of the spontaneous and voluntary features of communities based on shared
practices, they have become an increasingly widespread feature of organization
structures. As such, they pose new challenges for management practice. These
challenges – encapsulated by Wenger (1998) as cultivation not control – involve
a move away from micro-managing community activities to creating the right
environment in which self-confident and engaged communities can develop.
As such, they underline once again our recurrent theme of identifying the most
enabling contexts for knowledge work.
The following case returns to the question of the role played by social net-
works, bringing our analysis of their positive and negative effects into a real
world setting – the United Kingdom’s National Health Service (NHS). The
case shows the vital role which networks and boundary-spanning can play in
developing change and innovation within an organization. At the same time, it
also reveals some of the ways in which such networks can also limit the spread of
even the most socially desirable innovations.

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