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The paradox of organizing knowledge
Vanessa Dirksen
University of Konstanz, Germany | Ard Huizing
University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands | Bas Smit
University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands |
Abstract
The paradox of organizing knowledge is that organizational initiatives to ameliorate processes of knowledge sharing may evoke adverse effects to such an extent that these initiatives turn against themselves. With the purpose of promoting greater awareness, both in theory and practice, for how this paradox can act out in real life, this article reports on an ethnographic study performed in a distributed, knowledge intensive ICT company. It gives an in-depth account of the introduction of virtual communities in this organization and what happened afterwards. Like most knowledge management actions, virtual communities intend to integrate knowledge that is dispersed throughout the organization. How can it be that such attempts become a major obstacle to their formation?
| Full Text Document: | ![[img]](http://sprouts.aisnet.org/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png)  Preview |
| PDF 558Kb |
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| Reference: | Dirksen, V., Huizing, A., Smit, B. (2006). "The paradox of organizing knowledge," University of Amsterdam, Netherlands. Sprouts: Working Papers on Information Systems, 6(17). http://sprouts.aisnet.org/6-17 |
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| Keywords: | knowledge organization, virtual communities, organizational change, ethnography, social
networks, social network analysis |
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| Subjects: | Knowledge Management & Knowledge Work |
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| Item Type: | Article - Volume 6 Article 17 (2006) |
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| Language: | English |
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| Email: |
Vanessa Dirksen ( vanessa.dirksen@uni-konstanz.de,)
Ard Huizing (a.huizing@uva.nl)
Bas Smit (bassmit@uva.nl)
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| Related Link(s): | http://primavera.feb.uva.nl/scripts/abstract.php?id=220 |
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