Work Groups, Structural Diversity, and Knowledge Sharing in a Global Organization

By Fon Sundaravej

Work Groups, Structural Diversity, and Knowledge Sharing in a Global

Organization

By Jonathan N. Cummings

This research proves value of external knowledge sharing in structurally diverse work group to improve knowledge sharing in an organization. Prior research shows the positive effect of internal and external knowledge sharing to organizational performance.

No research has yet found what kind of diversity plays an important role on knowledge sharing in work groups.

Diversity in work groups is differentiated into demographic and structural diversities. Demographic diversity is the dissimilarity in gender, age, or tenure. A study shows that demographic diversity does not augment knowledge sharing among groups unless that knowledge is unique and relevant to work. Structural diversity is the variation in features of the group structure such as organizational affiliations, roles, or positions.

Such diversity in work groups can be seen in four different areas: geographic locations, functional assignments, reporting managers, and business units.

For structurally diverse groups, external knowledge sharing is considered more valuable than intragroup knowledge sharing since members potentially encounter unique or unknown knowledge. Group members, especially in different locations, access and share a variety of information. External knowledge sharing tends to be more strongly associated with performance when group members are dispersed across more geographic locations. Additionally, a combination of functional assignments in a group results in diverse experience of group members and ultimately increases knowledge sharing for

IS 7894: Theoretical Foundations of Information Systems Research 1 By Fon Sundaravej work groups. External knowledge sharing, consequently, is assumed to be more strongly associated with performance when group members represent more functional assignments. In addition, having different reporting managers helps improve the knowledge sharing for work groups if members share knowledge through the hierarchical relationship. Thus, it implies that external knowledge sharing will be more strongly associated with performance when group members report to more managers. After all, a company with multiple units can complete a project in a short period of time if knowledge is effectively shared through out units. External knowledge sharing is expected to be more strongly associated with performance when group members work in more business units.

The study collects data to prove the assumptions from a sample of 182 work groups in a telecommunication company. Control variables in this research are task types

(product development, service improvement, process management, and manufacturing operations), group size, project length, availability of project resources (financial, personnel, and equipment), and environment uncertainty. Gender, age, company, and industry are classified as factors in demographic diversity for this research. An entropy- based index is used to measure the structural diversity. Interviews and previous research propose five types of knowledge sharing in work groups: general overviews, specific requirements, analytical techniques, progress reports, and project results. These five types are used to construct scales for intragroup and external knowledge sharing. The result from factor analysis represents that work groups share more knowledge within than outside the group. Corporate-wide reward and recognition program are recognized as performance measurement.

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The findings from the experiment verify that the interaction of external knowledge sharing and locations, functional assignments, reporting managers, and business units are significantly associated with performance. The greater external knowledge sharing is, the better performance is when there are more locations, functional assignments, reporting managers, and business units. The interaction of intragroup knowledge sharing and each area of structural diversity is not related to performance.

In conclusion, there are three end results from this study. First, both internal and external knowledge sharing are significant for performance of work groups. Second, external knowledge sharing is more strongly associated with performance when work groups are more structurally diverse. Third, demographic diversity does produce the same benefits. That means not all sources of diversity in work groups improve the value of knowledge.

However, this study also contains several limitations. Only moderately to highly successful groups are examined. This might produce bias in favor of successful groups and limit generalization of the outcome. Moreover, the surveys used in this study are distributed about six months after the projects. This time period might blur the knowledge sharing of participants. Evidence on quality of the shared knowledge is also missing.

In the future, this study can be reclaimed in different environment in order to fully understand the role of knowledge sharing in other organizations. Managers learn the importance of external knowledge sharing in work groups from this study. Performance benefits for structurally diverse groups are realized when group members share knowledge outside of the group. This study explains how group members are selected to participate, where resources to support group processes come from, and why some groups

IS 7894: Theoretical Foundations of Information Systems Research 3 By Fon Sundaravej are more effective than others. The managers can design work groups to include members with strong external networks who appreciate interacting outside of the group and these members can use their connections to the group’s advantage; seek approaches to improve the connectivity among their employees; and promote a culture that bolsters knowledge sharing and provides incentives for employees to participate.

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