Practice-Based Knowledge Integration

Abstract

For organisations, the tension between integration and specialisation has become a key issue as the knowledge of work is becoming increasingly fragmented through specialisation (Becker, 2002; Grant, 1996; Kogut & Zander, 1992). Specialisation, as knowing more about less, distributes the overall accomplishment of work on several entities (Aanestad, Mørk, Grisot, Hanseth, & Syvertsen, 2003; Becker; Berg, 1997; Hutchins, 1995) with the consequent need for the integration of different competencies and types of expertise. Becker (p. 3) provides the following definition of knowledge integration:

The Role of Knowledge-Integration Practices in Service Innovation Projects

“…For the purposes of the study, we categorised these practices in four groups (see e.g., Grant, 1996;Munkvold, 2006;Canonico et al, 2012), which we discuss in this paper.…”

“…In order to achieve efficient coordination and integration of the different pieces of knowledge, tacit knowledge of required actions and procedures should be converted, for example, into explicit instructions (Ditillo, 2004) in the form of plans, schedules, policies, and procedures (Grant, 1996) or physical artefacts of accumulated knowledge (Munkvold, 2006). Given that developing services tends to turn into a development project at some point, and that, presumably, valuable recombinative elements exist, it would be logical to assume that rules and directives are useful in the service-innovation context.…”

“…According to Munkvold (2006), sequencing is a mechanism for coordinating inputs across time and space and a practice for minimising communication and maximising specialisation. As noted above, service-development work usually involves different specialists, and it is further assumed that introducing practices for sequencing the tasks of the specialists working in the project would achieve gains in efficiency.…”

“…They comprise a set of cues and responses that allow the use of tacit knowledge and the sequencing individuals' inputs (Grant, 1996), thereby enabling complex interaction in the absence of other coordinating mechanisms (Munkvold, 2006).…”

“…Knowledge-integration can be defined as the utilisation and combination of existing, specialised knowledge. For the purposes of the present study, we categorise knowledge-integration practices in four groups: (1) Rules and directives, including plans, schedules, regulations, policies, and procedures that govern interaction among workers; (2) Sequencing as an effective way of minimising redundant communication among individuals; (3) Group problem-solving and decision-making linked to personal and communication-intensive forms of integration; and (4) Routines as habitual procedures embedded in work practices that enable complex interaction in the absence of other coordinating mechanisms (see e.g., Grant, 1996;Munkvold, 2006;Canonico et al, 2012). This paper is structured as follows.…”