The Emergence of Situated Knowledge: A Narrative Inquiry Concerning Semiconductor Engineers' Troubleshooting Experiences
Author
Abstract
Knowledge transfer is of primary concern to corporations, and a wide variety of innovative knowledge management systems have emerged to meet this need. But the kind of knowledge transferred should be examined firstly. This research takes knowledge embededness as a perspective to re-examine the key issue: how can situated knowledge emerge from experts' work practices?
It is very interesting why successful cases of knowledge transfer are still uncommon, and the information systems yield rather dubious knowledge sharing benefits. Why can't innovative knowledge management systems encourage better knowledge sharing? This study conducted a narrative inquiry into the daily maintenance experience of semiconductor engineers and attempted to construct how situated knowledge emerges through the interaction between individuals. This study is used to interpret the nature of knowledge and the possibility of knowledge management. We employed the narrative inquiry while immersed in the field and performed an in-depth investigation of how knowledge transfer could become possible. We relied on the interactions of engineers to narrate and gain an understanding of their construction of knowledge and experience of knowledge transfer. This study uses the nature of knowledge emergence to reinterpret the knowledge emergence process.
This study made three findings: First, the process of troubleshooting via cooperation between engineers involves sometimes divergence and sometimes convergence. It does not consist of taking knowledge objects directly from the system in a linear manner. Second, participants must engage in improvisational interaction in order to enable situated knowledge to continuously emerge; they cannot directly consult specialists to obtain solutions. Third, managers should create mechanisms to foster continuous interaction between engineers instead of designing intricate systems and incentive measures for accumulating and storing knowledge. This study reminds organizations that relying on the leading members of a system to transfer knowledge, rather than understanding the nature of knowledge emergence, can be highly ineffective. We feel that the knowledge needed by engineers can emerge continuously through their social interactions. As a consequence, managers cannot easily manage specific contexts so as to induce the emergence of situated knowledge. The real solution is to institute mechanisms that encourage members to engage in continuous interaction. Finally, we examine knowledge transfer issues in the light of this case and provide the theoretical and practical implications of this study.
