Hoopes, D.G., & Postrel, S. (1999). Shared Knowledge. Strategic Management Journal, 20(9), 837-865.
Format: Peer-reviewed article
Type: Research — Non-experimental
Experience level of reader: Advanced
Annotation: The researchers of this study describe organizational shared knowledge as a resource influencing a company's product development capability. Their goal is to understand the causes of the correlation found between organizational integration and company performance. They attempt to find the causes by identifying and measuring the impact of 'glitches' among many different projects within one software company. A 'glitch' is defined by the researchers as, "a costly mistake that could have been avoided if some of the parties involved had understood thing that were known by other participants".
Setting(s) to which the reported activities/findings are relevant: Federal lab, Government, Large business, Small business (less than 500 employees), University
Knowledge user(s) to whom the piece of literature may be relevant: Manufacturers, Researchers
Knowledge user level addressed by the literature: Organization
This article uses the Commercial Devices and Services version of the NtK Model
Barrier: Meetings between scientists and programmers were held to assure that the alternatives would accomplish the scientists' goals, and the programmers wrote up functional specifications describing their plans. The programmers did not comprehend what the scientists told them, and the scientists did not comprehend what the programmers told them they intended to do. The new product version was found to be unacceptable when it was tested.
Case study example.
Occurrence of finding within the model: Step 1.1
Method: Coordination in this sense refers to the problem of ensuring that scarce development resources are allocated efficiently to the different tasks that must be accomplished, that task deadlines are set appropriately and communicated clearly, and that the sequence of planned activities leads to a total project duration that approaches the minimum possible. In the literature on project management, these problems are typically addressed in terms of PERT charts and 'critical path analysis' (Eppen, Gould, and Schmidt [1993])
Occurrence of finding within the model: Tip 1.3, Step 4.9, Step 4.10, Step 4.8, Step 4.7, Step 7.6, Step 7.5, Step 7.4