 Modelling Dimensions of ‘the Social’ in Knowledge Teams: An Operationalisation of Habermas’ Theory of Communicative ActionElizabeth Quinlan and Susan Robertson Sociological Research Online, 2010, vol. 15, issue 3, 119-132 Abstract: The introduction of knowledge teams, as a new form of work organisation, is one of many institutional transformations associated with the knowledge economy. The research on the effects of this new form of work organisation on the social processes by which knowledge workers exchange, create, and apply knowledge is limited. The research that does exist uses various communication theories to explain the social interactions within knowledge teams. We offer an alternative theoretical framework, based on Habermas’ theory of communicative action. In this paper, we operationalise the theory using dynamic agent-based modelling to perform a series of ‘virtual experiments’ on the temporal dynamics of knowledge exchange within teams. The modelling results are used to critically reflect on the theory and draw conclusions regarding the lifeworld rationalisation within knowledge teams. The paper closes by specifying areas of future work and suggesting that a practical outcome of the completed research agenda will be an evaluation tool to be used by knowledge teams to assess how effective they are at communicating and producing knowledge. Keywords: Knowledge Exchange; Multi-Disciplinary Knowledge Teams; Dynamic Agent Based Modelling; Communicative Action (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:sae:socres:v:15:y:2010:i:3:p:119-132 DOI: 10.5153/sro.2189 Access Statistics for this article More articles in Sociological Research Online |
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