Bertolt Meyer

The future of knowledge management: an international delphi study

The field of knowledge management (KM) is highly estimated in research and practice but at the same time relatively diffuse and scattered into diverging concepts, perspectives and disciplines. On that background, it was the aim of this delphi study to give more structure to the field of KM and to get an outlook on worthwhile developments for the next ten years. International experts of KM from natural/technical and social/business sciences as well as practicians of KM with a similar background were asked some basic questions onto the future of KM in two rounds. According to the experts, the future of knowledge management lies in a better integration into the common business processes, a concentration on the human‐organization‐interface and a better match of IT‐aspects to human factors whereas IT‐aspects rank low on this agenda. There are no broadly agreed theoretical approaches though something can be gained from the related organizational learning field; in general much more interdisciplinary and empirical research is needed. There are also almost no broadly agreed practical approaches besides communities of practice.

The concept of knowledge in KM: a dimensional model

Purpose – This paper seeks to sharpen the concepts of tacit, implicit and explicit knowledge by linking them to findings from cognitive psychology and memory science and thus finding a possibility for measuring non‐explicit knowledge.Design/methodology/approach – A review of KM and cognitive science literature leads to a dimensional model of knowledge types that links the concepts from KM to more specific concepts from psychology. One central assumption of the model was empirically tested and put into practice in one small‐scale KM project.Findings – The concepts in KM can be linked to concepts from psychology and thus receive theoretical support. The developed model enables psychometric access to a part of non‐explicit knowledge through structural assessment techniques. Furthermore, the model has proven to be of value in a practical application in KM.Research limitations/implications – The experiment and the practical application are too small in scope to provide full support for the model. Further resea...

Team Faultline Measures: A Computational Comparison and a New Approach to Multiple Subgroups

Team faultlines—hypothetical dividing lines based on member attributes that split a team into relatively homogeneous subgroups—influence team processes across contexts, as recent meta-analytic findings show. We review the available faultline measures with regard to their properties and identify several limitations, including dealing with more than two subgroups. We thus propose a new cluster-based approach, average silhouette width (ASW), that identifies the number of subgroups and subgroup membership. We then compare the measures with 1,400 simulated teams with varying properties and investigate their factor structure and their behavior under missing values. We also investigate the predictive validity of the measures with data from real work teams. Results show that different measures respond to different team features in different ways but that most of them load on two correlated factors. Taken together, the ASW measure had the most favorable attributes and was the only measure that accurately determined subgroup membership in the presence of more than two subgroups. We discuss limitations and further research opportunities pertaining to faultline measures and provide software for calculating all investigated measures at http://www.group-faultlines.org.

Effects of vice‐principals' psychological empowerment on job satisfaction and burnout

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the relationship between psychological empowerment, job satisfaction, and burnout among vice‐principals (VPs) in primary schools.Design/methodology/approach – A total of 103 VPs at 103 different primary schools in Germany were surveyed with a questionnaire that assessed the four dimensions of psychological empowerment (competence, meaning, self‐determination, and impact), emotional exhaustion, and job satisfaction. Participants also reported demographic data, including days absent from work over the past year. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was employed to test the proposed hypotheses.Findings – Regarding the consequences of empowerment, SEM revealed a strong indirect relationship with emotional exhaustion via job satisfaction. The direct relationship between empowerment and emotional exhaustion did not reach statistical significance. Of the dimensions of empowerment, competence and meaning were the strongest predictors of the outcomes. Emotional exhaustion and...

Social Category Salience Moderates the Effect of Diversity Faultlines on Information Elaboration

Faultlines—hypothetical dividing lines splitting a group into homogeneous subgroups based on the distribution of demographic attributes—are frequently assumed to be detrimental to group outcomes because they operationalize social categorizations. However, a literature review indicates that this is not always the case. We argue that diversity faultlines and social categorizations are not necessarily the same and that the effect of diversity faultlines is moderated by perceived social categorizations. To test this proposition, we assigned 172 participants to groups of four. Participant gender, bogus personality feedback, seating position, and colored cards were employed to create two diversity faultline conditions (weak and strong faultline). Groups worked on the Survive in the Desert task, and their interactions were coded with the discussion coding system (DCS). Social categorizations were elicited using a newly developed measure that requires participants to specify subjectively perceived salient categories. Participants stated many social categories that were unrelated to surface-level characteristics frequently employed in diversity research. In line with our hypotheses, social category salience moderated the effect of faultline strength on elaboration. Elaboration was most intense in strong faultline groups that had low levels of category salience. Elaboration was positively related to performance. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Time and change in teams: Where we are and where we are moving

In this introduction to the special issue on Time and Change in Teams, we argue that the field of team research shows signs of a problem-method misfit with respect to the study of processes. Drawing on the distinction between differential and temporal (or variable vs. process) research, we scrutinise recent theories and research practices in the field, aiming to better understand the lack of congruence between research objectives and methods. We also discuss ways in which the gap between theory and method can be narrowed, and how the five studies making up this special issue contribute to this. We conclude with suggesting some future directions for the study of time and change in teams.

Faultlines and Subgroups: A Meta-Review and Measurement Guide

Research on faultlines—hypothetical dividing lines splitting a team into homogeneous subgroups based on team members’ attributes—has produced several meta-analyses, reviews, and algorithms for faultline and subgroup detection. To help navigate this complexity, we summarize the current theories underlying faultline and subgroup research. We also compare the two most recent algorithms for computational faultline/subgroup detection, offer a guideline for choosing adequate algorithms, and recommend measure combinations for future research. We further review empirical faultlines and subgroup research and show that different contextual factors exhibit a strong influence on the effects of faultlines and subgroups. We discuss the need for further theorization on faultlines that does not rely on attribute salience, which considers the number of aligning attributes and the consequences of faultlines at the subgroup level. We conclude considering new potential applications of the faultline construct.

Privacy in instant messaging: an impression management model

Instant messaging (IM) has evolved into an important tool for collaborative work. It supports informal near-synchronous communication and fosters awareness of the online presence of ones communication partners. Like all awareness systems, IM runs into concerns regarding privacy. Drawing upon prior literature and exploratory interviews, we postulate a model that posits impression management as an underlying cause for privacy desires of IM users. We verify our hypotheses using linear structural modelling on data from a large online survey of IM users across the US. The model establishes that the desire for privacy in IM arises due to the desire for impression management (both directly, as well as indirectly through the desire for visibility of ones impression to oneself). Based on this model, we suggest that IM systems could support privacy needs of users better by providing them with more knowledge and control over aspects that affect their IM-conveyed impression on others (i.e. by making impression management functionality available). Specifically, to help convey and sustain appropriate impressions on IM contacts, IM systems should allow for increased visibility of ones actions to oneself, facilitate easy comparison of ones practices with those of others, and allow one to view oneself from the perspective of others and to make finer-grained adjustments to IM settings than is possible today.

Complex Problem Solving after Unstructured Discussion: Effects of Information Distribution and Experience

This study analyzes the effect of information overlap in groups discussing a complex problem on individual post-discussion complex problem solving (CPS). We hypothesize that information distribution among group members has an inverse u-shaped effect on individual post-discussion performance, favoring groups with a medium informational heterogeneity. As CPS is presumably correlated with experience, we also assume that exposure to the problem before the actual task leads to higher performance than less or no exposure. Experimental results support the first hypothesis: A medium overlap of instructional text paragraphs in dyads led to higher performance in a computer-simulated complex problem than complete or no overlap. The second hypothesis is not supported. Limitations of the study and practical implications are discussed.

That’s not my place: The interacting effects of faultlines, subgroup size, and social competence on social loafing behaviour in work groups

Taking a social relations approach to team diversity, we propose that faultlines—hypothetical dividing lines that split a team into relatively homogeneous subgroups—impact the team members’ propensity to exhibit social loafing behaviour. We further propose that this individual-level reaction to the faultline structure of the team can differ among team members, depending on the size of their subgroup and on their individual social competence. We tested the assumptions with a sample of real teams working on an intellective task during which social loafing behaviour was video-coded. In partial support of the hypotheses, generalized mixed models revealed that social loafing behaviour was most common for team members who were part of a team with strong faultlines, who belonged to the larger subgroup in their team, and who exhibited low levels of social competence. The results therefore highlight the benefits of taking a multilevel approach to the effects of faultlines.