Beyond Knowledge Sharing: The Management of Transactive Knowledge Systems

Most approaches to organizational learning and knowledge management concentrate on implicit and shared knowledge as basis for organizational competencies and competitive advantage. In this paper we argue that it is explicit and unshared expertise rather than implicit and shared knowledge which is valuable for organizations. We ground our argument in a psychological concept of personal knowledge held by individuals and on the theory of transactive knowledge systems, which accounts for the social integration of individual knowledge. Transactive knowledge systems as webs of knowledge about knowledge are the core of organizational knowledge. We discuss challenges for knowledge management derived from this view, namely the requirement to view knowledge management as a social interactive process. Furthermore, conclusions concerning the role of information technology and human resource management are drawn. Copyright (C) 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.