Survival of the leanest: Intensive knowledge work and groupware adaptation

Abstract

Managing knowledge is a value-creating process in most organizations and is particularly important in knowledge-intensive firms. Explores the ways in which groupware might facilitate processes of knowledge creation within a particular type of knowledge-intensive firm. Based on a case study analysis of an expert consultancy where e-mail was used successfully for information and knowledge search, and Lotus Notes was used with mixed results in project working, argues that the complexity of articulating the knowledge creation process can be reduced by using e-mail. Furthermore, e-mail, when considered in context, is potentially a rich medium for the development of collective knowledge over time despite its purported lean characteristics. Also concludes that, although distributed Lotus Notes databases can obviously alleviate temporal and spatial complexity, this media lacks the richness required for complex processes of knowledge creation. Thus, where temporal and spatial constraints do not exist, there will be substantial barriers for using groupware to support processes of knowledge creation in this type of knowledge-intensive firm. © 2001, MCB UP Limited