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MANAGING KNOWLEDGE CREATION IN TEAMS 79

>> INTRODUCTION
Chapter 2 focused on managing knowledge workers and explored a consultancy
firm as an example of a knowledge-intensive organization which deals with man-
aging this type of work all the time. This highlighted the growing importance of
knowledge as an organizational asset and considered some of the issues associated
with the effective management of knowledge work and knowledge workers. In this
chapter we look more at the micro-processes and practices involved in knowledge
work, focusing on team and project dynamics. We do this because knowledge
creation is typically an activity that is accomplished through collective processes
rather than by individuals working alone. We look at why knowledge creation
typically involves some sort of collaborative effort and also consider the problems
surrounding such collaboration. Moreover, concentrating on collaborative knowl-
edge creation is important because, as Grant (2000) observes, most management
principles and most ‘Knowledge Management’ (KM) efforts within organizations
have focused on improving the use of existing knowledge (i.e. knowledge exploi-
tation) in order to enhance efficiency and ignored the processes and practices
necessary for the generation or creation of new knowledge. Some of the more
recent Communities of Practice literature (see Chapter 8) does address knowledge
creation, but nevertheless, there remains more literature on knowledge exploita-
tion than knowledge exploration, at least in the KM literature.

>> THE IMPORTANCE OF COLLABORATION IN THE
KNOWLEDGE CREATION PROCESS

Whether the objective is to develop a new product or service or to design and
implement a new organizational technology, such as a new ICT system, the
availability of knowledge will be key – knowledge of the markets and custom-
ers, knowledge of the available technologies, knowledge of the standards and
regulations that will apply, knowledge of materials, knowledge of distribution
processes and so on. These different knowledge bases must be brought together
so that new knowledge is created which leads to the development of the new
product, service or organizational process. Typically, this diversity of knowledge
will not be known by a single individual, but rather will be dispersed both within
the organization (e.g. across functional groups or disciplinary departments) and
across organizations (e.g. knowledge relevant to the development of a new drug
will be distributed across doctors working in hospitals, scientists working in uni-
versities, employees in pharmaceutical companies and regulators working in the
Federal Drug Administration (FDA) or its equivalent). Thus, knowledge cre-
ation is typically not something that is done by a single person. Rather, knowl-
edge creation is typically the outcome of bringing different types of knowledge
together by involving a number of individuals from different professional and
disciplinary backgrounds and often from different organizations in collaborative
efforts of some kind. Multi-disciplinary project teams would be a good example
of such a collaborative effort.

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