Different Knowledge, Different Benefits: Toward Aproductivity Perspective on Knowledge Sharing Inorganizations.

We develop a productivity perspective on knowledge sharing in organizations that isbased on the differential value of different types of knowledge for task units. While thesharing of codified knowledge in electronic form improves task efficiency, sharing ofpersonalized advice improves task quality and enables the task unit to signal competence to its external constituencies. In a study of 164 sales teams in a management consulting company, we found that the quality and relevance of electronic documents from the knowledge management databases saved time for the teams, but personal advice from colleagues outside the team did not. In contrast, help from experienced colleagues improved task quality, but the use of electronic documents did not. The use of experienced and responsive colleagues also helped the team signal competence to the client. These results indicate that different types of knowledge have different benefits and should be seen as complementary to each other. We suggest that a theory of knowledge productivity in organizations can usefully be premised on the differential value of knowledge types.