Chasing a Fault across Ship and Shore

Abstract

Knowledge management (KM) in the U.S. Navy is championed as a strategic initiative to improve shipboard maintenance and troubleshooting at a distance. The approach requires capturing, coordinating, and distributing domain expertise in electronics and computer engineering via advanced information and communication technologies. Coordination must be achieved to ensure ship readiness. A potential challenge for human performance technologists is to develop robust theoretical frameworks to analyze and explain existing practice within this context. To illustrate, we present the case of U.S. naval sailors and civilian subject-matter experts (SMEs) collaboratively troubleshooting complex shipboard radar systems across ship and shore. Adapting perspectives from organizational theory, information science, and educational psychology, we conduct a multi-level analysis of the context of distributed knowledge and work. Findings suggest that regulative and normative restrictions, boundary spanners and objects, and disruption of coordination across system components influence practice substantively. Implications for research and practice, including a readdressing of the existing cannon of analytical frameworks are offered.