Expertise and Collaboration in the Geographically Dispersed Organization
Wai Fong Boh (),
Yuqing Ren (),
Sara Kiesler () and
Robert Bussjaeger ()
Additional contact information
Wai Fong Boh: Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639798
Yuqing Ren: Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455
Sara Kiesler: Human Computer Interaction Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, 5000 Forbes Avenue, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213
Robert Bussjaeger: American Institutes for Research, 1000 Thomas Jefferson Street, NW, Washington, D.C. 20007-3835
Organization Science, 2007, vol. 18, issue 4, 595-612
Abstract:
The knowledge-based view of the firm has led to greater theoretical interest in how organizations integrate knowledge resources embedded in their employees’ expertise. We examine the knowledge-integration problem in geographically dispersed professional organizations in which experts work in project teams. From consideration of coordination costs and local ties, we argue that (1) the organization will develop specialized expertise within local sites, (2) managers avoid crossing geographic boundaries to staff a project unless bringing on a distant expert helps meet customer requirements, (3) cross-site connections help less-needed members participate in dispersed projects, and (4) dispersed projects that have a better match of expertise generate higher net earnings. We tested these hypotheses using archival data and interviews in a geographically dispersed professional service organization. We examined how managers staffed 493 local and dispersed projects over a five-year period, and the financial outcomes of these projects. Managers created dispersed projects comparatively rarely; they did so when scarce expertise from other sites was needed to match customers’ project requirements. Dispersed projects garnered higher net earnings than local projects when there was a better match of scarce expertise to project requirements. However, a curvilinear relationship was observed, such that a very high percentage of dispersed experts on a project increased coordination costs and reduced net earnings. Our study extends the knowledge-based view by showing how considerations of coordination costs and social ties affect knowledge integration in the geographically dispersed organization. The study also shows, empirically, the managerial trade-offs that encourage or discourage dispersed collaboration.
Keywords: knowledge-based view; virtual teams; expertise management; project teams (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2007
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (21)
Downloads: (external link)
http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.1070.0263 (application/pdf)
Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.
Export reference: BibTeX
RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan)
HTML/Text
Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:18:y:2007:i:4:p:595-612
Access Statistics for this article
More articles in Organization Science from INFORMS Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Asher ().