P. J. van Baalen

An activity theory approach for studying the situatedness of knowledge sharing

This paper proposes a methodology that enables to describe and analyze the situatedness of knowledge sharing within and between different organizational settings. By taking an activity system as the unit of analysis, an organizational setting within which knowledge sharing takes place can be described according to its emergent object of activity and its mediation of language and technologies, social rules and division of labor. Tensions and breakdowns, being inextricable aspects of activity systems, are consequently used as points of reference for studying knowledge sharing as an empirical phenomenon. By adopting an activity theory approach, the situated nature of the knowledge sharing process is stressed and a systemic analysis is ensured. Furthermore, the processual character of knowledge sharing is emphasized and the temporal interconnectedness is taken into account explicitly.

The Institutional Perspective

It has been only four years ago that Peter Drucker was quoted in Forbes Magazine saying: “Thirty years from now the big university campuses will be relics. Universities won’t survive. It’s as large a change as when we first got the printed book” (Forbes Magazine, 1997). Since 1997, a lot has changed: technologically, economically, as well as socially. Higher education has moved center stage in discussions on economic development and growth since knowledge and learning are of paramount importance in the network economy: the nature of work has changed, and the distinction between working and learning is rapidly disappearing. The fact that expressions like the intelligent enterprise, the knowledge worker, and smart products have become established indicates their relevance and illustrates new organizational realities.

Epilogue: The Need for Strategic Academic Leadership

Within the knowledge-based network era, education and learning have become crucial conditions for the development of nations, enterprises, and individuals. Traditionally being the purview of universities and business schools, the creation and transfer of knowledge should place institutions of higher education at a front line position of today’s economy. However, fundamental transformational processes, economically, socially, politically, as well as technologically, and emerging non-traditional players are threatening education’s monopoly in knowledge creation and transfer, creating shaking quaking soil in a traditional landscape. Perhaps higher education is not best positioned to serve the needs of the network economy alone. Put differently: “The changes most important to higher education are those that are external to it. What is new is the use of societal demand — (…) market forces — to reshape the academy. The danger is that colleges and universities have become less relevant to society precisely because they have yet to understand the new demands being placed upon them” (The Pew Higher Education Roundtable, 1994: 1).

The New Learning

Since knowledge is the key to competitive advantage in the new economic landscape, education and learning become of paramount importance in the network economy. Though education has been a relatively stable institution regarding its presence and its delivery, the rise of the network economy is responsible for creating new dynamics in this field, among which a true paradigm shift.

The Network Economy

In this chapter, the concept of the network economy is expounded. The idea of a network economy allows fundamental aspects of the new economy to be integrated into one single (organizational and managerial) concept. The information technology revolution has resulted in the development of advanced infrastructural technological networks. These networks enable and induce global communication and information sharing at decreasing cost and at an increasing speed. Knowledge is being transferred through these interconnected ICT applications and it can be said that, taking into account the prominent place of knowledge in the new economy, it functions as the glue that holds networks together.

The New Economy

Generally when speaking of the new economy, reference is made to the role information and communications technologies (ICT) play in society. In fact, there has been a tendency to relate much of contemporary economic successes to the contribution of ICT. Indeed, ICT has led to what is called the compression or even the collapse of space and time, meaning that it enables continuous information exchange and the development of global economic structures. Space and time do not matter as much as they did in the ‘old economy’.

The Manager of the 21st Century

As became clear from the previous chapter, the network economy differs from its predecessors (the industrial and the agricultural era) it fundamental different ways. Consequently, a different economic reality has emerged as well as new organizational logics. Managing in this network economy, therefore, diverges from the characteristics of the managerial job in previous eras. Not only has knowledge moved center stage in the network economy, novel fields of knowledge have also emerged and are developed quickly. Moreover, the art of management has become more complex in this new economic reality, not in the least place by increased market volatility, uncertainty, the scope of corporate activities, and the pace of technological developments. Network economy managers are continuously encountering new challenges, constantly requiring adjusting and adapting the managerial role.