More Than an Answer: Information Relationships for Actionable Knowledge
Citation: Rob Cross, Lee Sproull (2004) More Than an Answer: Information Relationships for Actionable Knowledge. Organization Science (RSS)
Internet Archive Scholar (search for fulltext): More Than an Answer: Information Relationships for Actionable Knowledge
Download: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30034748
Tagged: Business
(RSS)
Summary
This study employs qualitative and quantitative data to answer the question that how people draw on their information resources and individual relations to find and apply actionable knowledge. Actionable knowledge is defined as the "knowledge directed at making progress on relatively short-term projects". The qualitative study demonstrates that actionable knowledge that people seek through their network of relationships composes of five components including
- solutions,
- referrals,
- problem reformulation,
- validation,
- legitimation.
The quantitative study investigates the antecedents for getting actionable knowledge. These antecedents include three categories of information seeker, information source, and realationship characteristics.
Theoretical and Practical Relevance
The authors claim that this work brings two important contributions to practitioners by suggesting:
- different types of advice that one may seek and also the relationship investments that must be made to yield various components of actionable knowledge.
- different ways that managers can promote knowledge creation and sharing in their organizations.
Comments
The bivariate correlations (table 3) demonstrates that the five components of actionable knowledge are significantly correlated, while theoretically there is no reason for such correlation. If they are highly correlated, there would be little point in distinguishing them.
