Impact of Knowledge Network Structure on Group Performance of Knowledge Workers
Knowledge has become an important corporate resource next to financial capital, labour, and equipment. It is recognized that the development and sharing of knowledge takes place in informal networks and that these networks are an important factor in influencing the performance of the organization. In the field of knowledge management these informal networks are referred to as communities of practice or knowledge networks. Being aware of the importance of these knowledge networks, it is of interest to understand how the performance of these networks is influenced by their structural design. This structural aspect did not receive much attention in the KM literature so far.
Based on literature we defined seven hypotheses concerning structure of knowledge networks and its relation to performance of such networks. For testing our hypotheses we collected network data from 18 knowledge networks within an international product software company developing ERP software. Data was collected by asking employees about their learning relations and the frequency of knowledge transfer.
Furthermore, we asked all respondents to what extent they think that the knowledge they receive influences their job performance. This individual measure is converted into a group performance measure for measuring performance on network level. To test our hypotheses correlation analysis was applied showing that only part of our hypotheses is supported by the data. We found support for a statistically significant relation with group performance for network efficiency and network transitivity, and marginal support for network density and connectedness. From this we derived preliminary guidelines for managers to help them get results from their knowledge networks.
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