Conceptual development in face-to-face interaction: creating knowledge in a co-creation workshop
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.47989/irpaper944Keywords:
ethnography, organizations, knowledge creation, conversation analysis, face-to-face discussionsAbstract
Introduction. In this study, conceptual development and interactive practices related to it in face-to-face discussions of a working community to find out, how new knowledge on an issue important for the working community is created in organizational settings.
Method. Ethnographic approach is used to examine the process of knowledge creation. Videotaped face-to-face discussions are analysed in a detail to analyse the conceptual development and interactive practices related to it.
Analysis. Face-to-face discussions are analysed in the light of conversation analysis and the relevance of the discussions in the longer knowledge creation process is analysed by using ethnographic knowledge of the work in the community.
Results. The results indicate, that the new conceptual combinations, extensions and reframings were used frequently especially to build bridges between people coming from different backgrounds. In addition, their use allowed the participants to develop ideas concerning new technological solutions.
Conclusions. Examining dialogues is essential in understanding knowledge processes in organizations. However, it is concluded, that longer phases of discussions and other knowledge processes in organizations should be included in the analysis, to be able to understand the relevance of the face-to-face discussions.
References
Anand, G., Ward, T., & Tatikonda, M.V. (2010). Role of explicit and tacit knowledge in six sigma projects: an empirical examination of differential project success. Journal of Operations Management, 28(4), 303–315. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jom.2009.10.003
Avenier, M.J., & Parmentier, Cajaiba A. (2012). The dialogical model: developing academic knowledge for and from practice. European Management Review, 9(4), 199–212. https://doi.org/10.1108/JKM-06-2014-0229
Barker, R. (2015). Management of knowledge creation and sharing to create virtual knowledge-sharing communities: a tracking study. Journal of Knowledge Management, 19(2), 334–350. https://doi.org/10.1108/JKM-06-2014-0229
Baralou, E., & Tsoukas, H. (2015). How is new organizational knowledge created in a virtual context? An ethnographic study. Organization Studies, 36(5), 593–620. https://doi.org/10.1177/0170840614556918
Becerra-Fernandez, I., & Leidner, D.E. (2008). Knowledge management: an evolutionary view. ME Sharpe.
Bouthillier, F. & Shearer, K. (2002). Understanding knowledge management and information management: the need for an empirical perspective. Information Research, 8(1) paper 141. http://InformationR.net/ir/8–1/paper141.html. (Internet Archive)
Carlile, P.R., Nicolini, D., Langley, A., & Tsoukas, H (eds.) (2013). How matter matters: objects, artifacts, and materiality in organization studies.Oxford University Press.
Choo, C.W. (1998). The knowing organization: how organizations use information to construct meaning, create knowledge, and make decisions. Oxford University Press, InC.
Cook, S.N., & Brown, J.S. (1999). Bridging epistemologies: the generative dance between organizational knowledge and organizational knowing. Organization Science, 10(4), 382–400. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.10.4.381
Day, R.E. (2005). Clearing up implicit knowledge: implications for knowledge management, information science, psychology and social epistemology. Journal of American Society for Information Science and Technology, 56(6), 630–635. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.20153
Gadamer, H.-G. (2004). Truth and method. Continuum.
Gueldenberg, S., & Helting, H. (2007). Bridging 'The Great Divide': Nonaka's synthesis of 'western' and 'eastern' knowledge concepts reassessed. Organization, 14(1), 101–122. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350508407071862
Hansen, P., & Jarvelin, K. (2005). Collaborative information retrieval in an information-intensive domain. Information Processing & Management, 41(5), 1101–1119. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ipm.2004.04.016
Huotari, M-L., & Wilson, T.D. (2001). Determining organisational information needs: the critical success factors approach. Information Research, 6(3), paper 108. http://www.informationr.net/ir/6-3/paper108.html (Internet Archive)
Ingwersen, P., & Järvelin, K. (2005). The turn: integration of information seeking and retrieval in context. Springer/Kluwer.
Keen, P., & Tan, M. (2007). Knowledge fusion: a framework for extending the rigor and relevance of knowledge management. International Journal of Knowledge Management, 3(4), 1–17. http://doi.org/10.4018/ijkm.2007100101
Keilty, P. & Leazer, G. (2018). Feeling documents: toward a phenomenology of information seeking. Journal of Documentation, 74(3), 462-489. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-09-2016-0113
Küpers, W. (2015). Phenomenology of the embodied organization. The contribution of Merleau-Ponty for organizational studies and practice. Palgrave Macmillan.
McKenzie, P.J. (2009). Informing choice: the organization of institutional interaction in clinical midwifery care. Library & Information Science Research, 31(3), 163–173. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lisr.2009.03.006
Martín-de-Castro, G., López-Sáez, P., & Navas-López, J.E. (2008). Processes of knowledge creation in knowledge-intensive firms: empirical evidence from Boston’s Route 128 and Spain. Technovation, 28(4), 222–230. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.technovation.2007.10.002
Miller, F. (2002). I = 0 (Information has no intrinsic meaning). Information Research, 8(1), paper 140. http://InformationR.net/ir/8–1/paper140.html (Internet Archive)
Mitchell, R., & Nicholas, S. (2006). Knowledge creation through boundary-spanning. Knowledge Management Research & Practice, 4(4), 310–318. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.kmrp.8500113
Mitchell, R., Nicholas, S., & Boyle, B. (2009). The role of openness to cognitive diversity and group processes in knowledge creation. Small Group Research, 40(5), 535–554. https://doi.org/10.1177/1046496409338302
Mondada, L. (2016). Challenges of multimodality: Language and the body in social interaction. Journal of Sociolinguistics, 20(3), 336–366. https://doi.org/10.1111/josl.1_12177
Morner, M., & von Krogh, G. (2009). A note on knowledge creation in open-source software projects: what can we learn from Luhmann’s theory of social systems? Systemic Practice and Action Research, 22(6), 431–443. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11213-009-9139-7
Nonaka, I. (1994). A dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation. Organization Science, 5(1), 14–37. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.5.1.14
Nonaka, I., & Takeuchi, H. (1995). The knowledge-creating company. Oxford University Press.
Ramírez, A.M., Morales, V.J.G., & Aranda, D. A. (2012). Knowledge creation and flexibility of distribution of information. Industrial Management + Data Systems, 112(2), 166–185. https://doi.org/10.1108/02635571211204245
Sacks, H. (1992a). Lectures on conversation Vol 1. Basil Blackwell.
Sacks, H. (1992b). Lectures on conversation Vol 2. Basil Blackwell.
Sacks, H., Schegloff, E.A., & Jefferson, G. (1974). A simplest systematics for the organization of turn-taking for conversation. Language, 50(4), 696–735. https://doi.org/10.2307/412243
Savolainen, R. (2009). Epistemic work and knowing in practice as conceptualisations of information use. Information Research, 14(11), paper 392. http://InformationR.net/ir/14-1/paper392.html. (Internet Archive)
Savolainen, R. (2019). Seeking and sharing information dialogically: a conversation analytic study of asynchronous online talk. Journal of Documentation, 75(3), 530-549. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-09-2018-0140
Sawyer, R. K. (2003). Improvised dialogues Ablex Publishing
Sawyer, R. K. (2007). Group genius. Basic Books.
Stivers, T., & Sidnell, J. (2012). Introduction. In J. Sidnell, & T. Stivers, T. (Eds.). The handbook of conversation analysis. (pp. 1-8) John Wiley & Sons.
Streatfield, D. & Wilson, T.D. (1999). Deconstructing 'knowledge management'. Aslib Proceedings, 51(3), 67–72. https://doi.org/10.1108/EUM0000000006964
Suorsa, A. (2017a). Knowledge creation and play - a phenomenological study within a multi-professional and multi-organizational community. Journal of Documentation, 73(6), 1167-1191. https://doi.org/10.1108/JD-11-2016-0141
Suorsa, A. (2017b). Interaction for knowledge creation: a phenomenological study in knowledge management. [Unpublished doctoral dissertation]. University of Oulu, Oulu, Finland. http://jultika.oulu.fi/Record/isbn978-952-62-1523-5
Suorsa, A. & Huotari, M-L. (2014). Knowledge creation and the concept of human being – a phenomenological approach. Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, 65(5), 1042–1067. https://doi.org/10.1002/asi.23035
Talja, S., Tuominen, K., & Savolainen, R. (2005). Isms in information science: constructivism, collectivism and constructionism. Journal of Documentation, 61(1), 79–101. https://doi.org/10.1108/00220410510578023
Topp, W. (2000). Generative conversations: applying Lyotard's discourse model to knowledge creation within contemporary organizations. Systems Research and Behavioural Science, 17(4), 333–340. https://doi.org/10.1002/1099-1743(200007/08)17:4<333::AID-SRES310>3.0.CO;2-K
Tsoukas, H. (2009). A dialogical approach to the creation of new knowledge in organizations. Organization Science, 20(6), 941–957. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1090.0435
Tsoukas, H. (2011). How should we understand tacit knowledge? A phenomenological view. In M. Easterby-Smith, & M. Lyles, (Eds.). Handbook of organizational learning and knowledge management. (pp. 453-476).John Wiley & Sons.
Wagner, D., Vollmar, G., & Wagner, H. (2014). The impact of information technology on knowledge creation: an affordance approach to social media. Journal of Enterprise Information Management, 27(1), 31–44. https://doi.org/10.1108/JEIM-09-2012-0063
van Helden, J., Aardema, H., ter Bogt, H.J., & Groot, T.L.C.M. (2010). Knowledge creation for practice in public sector management accounting by consultants and academics. Management Accounting Research, 21(2), 83–94. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mar.2010.02.008
Värlander, S. (2008). The interplay of reificative and participative processes of customer knowledge creation: an exploratory study of commercial lending. Journal of Financial Services Marketing, 12(4), 287–298. https://doi.org/10.1057/palgrave.fsm.4760082
Wilson, T.D. (2002). The nonsense of ‘knowledge management’. Information Research, 8(1), paper 144. http://InformationR.net/ir/8–1/paper144.html (Internet Archive).
Wilson, T.D. (2005). ‘The nonsense of knowledge management’ revisited. In E. Maceviciute, & T.D. Wilson, (Eds.)., Introducing information management: an Information Research reader (pp. 151-164). Facet Publishing.
