Using what we know
Subtitle: turning organizational knowledge into team performance
By: Bradley R. Staats, Melissa A. Valentine, Amy C. Edmondson
Contributors: Valentine, Melissa A.; Edmondson, Amy C.; Harvard Business School
Edition: Rev.
Series: Working paper / Harvard Business School -- 11-031; Working paper (Harvard Business School) -- 11-031.
Publisher: Harvard Business School
Published: 2011
Place of publication: [Boston]
Language: eng
Number of pages: 33
Description: In this paper we theorize effects of use of the knowledge stored in an organizational repository on performance for teams working in dynamic and challenging conditions. We first examine performance effects of team use, a construct assessed by aggregate individual actions. Next, because mean use, by itself, can obscure meaningful variation in individual use patterns, we investigate how the concentration of use within a team (the extent to which use is limited to a few members versus more evenly distributed within the team) affects performance. Using archival data from several hundred software development projects in an Indian software services firm, we find that knowledge repository use has a positive effect on project efficiency but not on project quality. However, when we examine two moderators, geographic dispersion and task change, that both capture the changing nature of work and create greater opportunity to benefit from knowledge repository use, we find that repository use does offer performance benefits for quality performance (and for efficiency performance in the case of task change). Lastly, concentration of repository use is positively related to project efficiency and negatively related to project quality and concentration is even more harmful for project quality for geographically dispersed teams. Our findings offer insight for theory and practice into how organizational knowledge resources can aid team performance.
Notes: "September 2010, revised December 2010, May 2011" -- Publisher's website.

"April 27, 2011" -- added t.p.

Includes bibliographical references.