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‘carrot-and-stick’ command-and-control approach of Scientific Management
is not appropriate and challenges can arise in terms of developing appropriate
HRM policies that will deal with the inherent tension between autonomy and
control. Close attention needs to be paid to the development of human resource
practices that engender commitment and engagement from knowledge workers.
Money is rarely a motivator in these contexts. Rather, in these contexts, we have
stressed the importance of combining recruitment and selection practices, train-
ing and development opportunities and sophisticated reward systems in synergis-
tic and mutually reinforcing ways. For example, the performance management
system at ScienceCo emphasized revenue targets which encouraged consultant’s
to actively seek a variety of project work to engage in, fostering collaborative
working. In addition, however, contribution to client sales and contribution to
strengthening the organizational culture were also assessed as part of the annual
appraisal and reward system which encouraged workers to consider all of these
in their daily work activities.
Chapter 6 emphasized that the policies underlying these HRM practices have
important long-term effects symbolically and practically on the development of
the psychological contract between knowledge workers and management. The
psychological contract influences individual worker’s motivation and commit-
ment and the extent and quality of knowledge sharing within teams. It was also
highlighted in Chapter 2 how easy it is for management, sometimes unwittingly,
to disrupt the context – introducing aspects of bureaucracy – and how damaging
this is when knowledge creation is a core work process. Given the importance
of developing a shared understanding for knowledge creation around what the
problem is and how it can be solved, it is important that individuals are given
the time to share ideas and information with others as well as the tools to facili-
tate this, as discussed in Chapter 4. This may be time to codify experiences for
others to read, time to read about the experiences and ideas of others, and/or
time to engage in debate and dialogue in order to further understanding. This
issue of time provision can be related to Cyert and March’s (1963) notion of
‘organizational slack’. In this respect ScienceCo and LiftCo certainly made more
resources available for the projects compared to the resources made available at
BankCo or Research Team. For example, in the Research Team case, given the
diversity of backgrounds, not enough time was spent interacting and sharing
information and ideas whereas in the LiftCo case ‘spaces’ for social interaction
were built into the project plan. Adequate resources – particularly time – are
therefore a fundamental aspect of the enabling context for knowledge creation.

Integrating knowledge
Knowledge creation is rarely an individual act. In particular, in organizational and
inter-organizational contexts invention and innovation – particularly networked
innovation – occurs through knowledge integration in a team- or project-based
environment. The cases in Chapters 4, 5 and 9 were all team or project based.
As diversity is widely recognized as promoting innovation, teams and projects

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