A Max-Min Approach to the Output Evaluation of Knowledge Interaction

Abstract

The concept of knowledge management has been flowering as information management matures. Nevertheless, up until now, more attention has been focused on knowledge management inside organizations and less on knowledge management across organizational boundaries. Attempting to fill this gap and address the problems of cross-boundary knowledge management, this research first identified key boundary objects in the context of knowledge management, and then studies how actors from different organizations interact through boundary objects. The result links the performance of collaborative acts to the frequency of boundary object encountering in the course of interaction. In this study, although the context is described with "actors" in mind, the unit of analysis is "knowledge" itself, rather than "actors," and the interaction is termed "knowledge interaction". Student assignments of information system projects serve as the cases of analysis. To analyze the performance of ten types of knowledge interactions, a max-min approach is applied, with one output factor, namely project performance, and four input factors, which are the frequencies of the encountering of four boundary objects. The result strongly suggests that identifying, creating, and facilitating useful boundary objects is the key to successful projects. Whether tacit knowledge is converted into explicit knowledge during the process is less important in achieving effective collaboration. Also, it is not always necessary to identify specific tacit knowledge in each organization.