The Past and Future of Organizational Knowledge and Expertise

Abstract

This symposium examines how knowledge and expertise are developed and mobilized in the workplace. While each presenter addresses specific facets of this puzzle, together they suggest that current changes in the milieu of organizations can be best understood in connection to foundational insights in the study of knowledge and expertise. The four studies in this symposium also seek to transcend past disagreements about the nature of knowledge and expertise (i.e., whether they are inherently subjective, collective, or embedded in formal structures). Specifically, they show how different perspectives may shed light on specific aspects of the relation between knowledge, work, and organizations. Overall, the symposium presents the cutting-edge research on knowledge and expertise to stimulate future work attentive to recent developments in organizations while remaining mindful of established organization scholarship. Technology Choices: How Social Relations Shape the adoption and Use of Competing Technologies Presenter: Callen Anthony; New York U. Revisiting Tacit Knowledge in Organizations Presenter: Demetris Hadjimichael; Warwick Business School Presenter: Haridimos Tsoukas; U. of Cyprus / U. of Warwick The Bureaucratic Infrastructure of Knowledge Presenter: Pedro Monteiro; EMLYON Business School Contested Expertise in the Legal Profession Presenter: Stella Pachidi; U. of Cambridge