Start Date
12-13-2015
Description
Since teams are built around specialized and different knowledge, they need to regulate their knowledge boundaries for the purpose of exchanging their specialized knowledge with other teams and protecting the specialized values of such knowledge. The previous literature, however, focuses mostly on boundary spanning and implies that boundaries are obstacles to sharing knowledge. To fill this research gap, this study suggests the importance of knowledge protection regulation, the activity of setting an adequate boundary for protecting knowledge. We investigate the factors that facilitate knowledge protection regulation and its consequences. The analysis results drawn from 138 teams of seven companies show that both task uncertainty and task interdependency enhance knowledge protection regulation in teams and IT support moderates the relationship between task uncertainty and knowledge protection regulation. Our findings also indicate that knowledge protection regulation improves inter-team coordination and team performance.
Recommended Citation
Lee, Junyeong; Min, Jinyoung; and Lee, Heeseok, "Setting a Knowledge Boundary for Enhancing Work Coordination and Team Performance: Knowledge Protection Regulation across Teams" (2015). ICIS 2015 Proceedings. 9.
https://aisel.aisnet.org/icis2015/proceedings/HumanBehaviorIS/9
Setting a Knowledge Boundary for Enhancing Work Coordination and Team Performance: Knowledge Protection Regulation across Teams
Since teams are built around specialized and different knowledge, they need to regulate their knowledge boundaries for the purpose of exchanging their specialized knowledge with other teams and protecting the specialized values of such knowledge. The previous literature, however, focuses mostly on boundary spanning and implies that boundaries are obstacles to sharing knowledge. To fill this research gap, this study suggests the importance of knowledge protection regulation, the activity of setting an adequate boundary for protecting knowledge. We investigate the factors that facilitate knowledge protection regulation and its consequences. The analysis results drawn from 138 teams of seven companies show that both task uncertainty and task interdependency enhance knowledge protection regulation in teams and IT support moderates the relationship between task uncertainty and knowledge protection regulation. Our findings also indicate that knowledge protection regulation improves inter-team coordination and team performance.