Managing Organizational Knowledge via

Connective and Communal Transactive Memory

Dr. Janet FulkProfessor of Communication,

Annenberg School for Communication

Professor of Management and Organization,

Marshall School of Business

University of Southern California, USA

Dr. Y. Connie YuanProfessor of Communication,

College of Agriculture and Life Sciences

Cornell University, USA

Research sponsored by National Science Foundation, USA

Transactive Memory Systems (TMS) are knowledge management systems based on differentiated expertise and communication to share knowledge across group

and/or organizational members .

At the team level, effective TMS have been shown to influence performance, turnover, decision quality, and speed of decision making in public and private sector organizations

At the organization level, effective TMS influence efficiency and effectiveness in finding expert knowledge and coordination across the organization.

In effective TMS, people…

…take responsibility for maintaining expertise in selected knowledge domains

…have a shared mental model of (1) the task, (2) expertise needed to complete the task, and (3) each person’s areas of expertise

…regularly update their expertise directories…allocate incoming knowledge resources to the right

expert and retrieve knowledge resources from the right expert in the process of interacting to complete their task

…trust each other to fulfill their responsibilities to the team as a whole

Challenges to excellence in TMS

--building and maintaining communal TMS

--affect in TMS

--culture in TMS

Communal TMS--Connective TMS: direct person-to-person

communication--Communal TMS: “generalized exchange” via a shared

knowledge repository (database, wiki, intranet, blog, project website, etc.) that is stocked by the people who use it

--The public goods problem in communal TMS> when creating knowledge stores: incentive system

favors free riding on the contributions of others > when maintaining knowledge stores: people can stop

contributing at any time

Overcoming threats to performance in communal TMS~ Possible remedies at the organizational/system level:

> seeding the system with knowledge> using opinion leaders

> publicizing the volume of contributions/retrievals> individual incentives/mandates for contribution/retrieval

> reputation systems> technical features (ease of use, navigability)

> pointers to tacit knowledge> feedback mechanisms to improve user experience

> security systems

~Team and individual factors affecting participation in communal TMS> social influence

> availability of experts for direct communication> quality of personal expertise directory/social network

Affective influences on TMS--Both positive and negative affect toward another person can influence

cognitive judgment so as to bias evaluations of expertise

--Even when expertise evaluations are unbiased, knowing “who knows what” is only a first step: knowledge seekers need access as well

> Social network access: people are more successful at getting information from people they already know and like

> The “competent jerk” effect

--Team level affect (group affective tone) sets context for people making themselves available for information sharing, which can affect both accuracy and effective acquisition.

Addressing bias due to affect in TMSSome possible action when affect is dysfunctional for expertise assessment…

-- knowledge asset mapping with feedback-- external markers

> organizational expertise directory> publicizing of accomplishments/credentials

-- external information sources such as other people-- create new combinations for cross-team temporary assignments that will

bring in new perspectives

Some possible actions when affect is dysfunctional for allocation and retrieval of knowledge…

-- create rewards for codification-- create redundancies to circumvent “competent jerks ”

-- find sources central in the positive affect network to broker information sharing

-- reward systems for seeking and sharing information

National Culture and TMS--TM research has been conducted almost totally in Western organizations.

One study found a relationship between TMS and performance in 104 culturally homogeneous Chinese teams

--Research on teams has shown a variety of communication problems arising from cultural differences .

Many questions arise as to how culture may influence:> people’s perception of appropriateness and relevance of TMS as an

knowledge sharing system > Ability to effectively communicate about expertise

> Preference for communal versus connective information seeking> Ability to send and receive implicit cues to expertise

> Ability to communicate effectively to allocate and retrieve information

Conclusion

TMS have primarily been studied at the team level

At the organizational level, many similar challenges arise for coordination of knowledge flows, particularly in the context of established bureaucratic structures

Growth of cyberinfrastructure is designed in great part to facilitate coordination of knowledge flows across organizational boundaries and to share scarce resources