Agent-based models of sharing knowledge in virtual organizations

The growth of the Internet as a medium of data, information and knowledge exchange has stimulated the willingness of individuals, public organizations, as well as commercial firms to share information and knowledge via the WWW. The sharing of knowledge is a process distinct from managerial decision-making, which deserves consideration. Managers should manage not by being isolated behind their desk, but by making best use of informal communication, walking around their departments. Shared knowledge goes beyond the basic information level, and it does so by first building a common language among the group involved. This common language expressed in words or symbols that are understood by the members of a group and facilitates knowledge transfer each other is the model of sharing knowledge. Knowledge sharing has been defined as providing ones knowledge to others as well as receiving knowledge from others (Dixon, 2002, Davenport, Prusak, 2000). A more pragmatic description of knowledge sharing is "the process through which one unit is affected by the experience of another" (Argote, et. al., 2003). Another definition of (Willem, 2002), is more specific: "Knowledge sharing process is defined as exchange of knowledge between al least two parties in a reciprocal process allowing reshaping and sense-making of the knowledge in the new context". In this paper we study the knowledge sharing that occurs in the virtual organizations; in particular we focus on analyzing the rationale behind this exchange as well as its effects on the dynamic of this kind of organizations. Furthermore, we are interested in analyzing the global system properties which emerge from the interactions that occur in a virtual organization viewed as a complex system. We are been using techniques from agent based modeling to simulate the virtual organization environment. The main aspects of the virtual organization operation are captured in a model where the parts that compose the virtual organization are agents with bounded rationality. This model is then studied using simulations of various settings, and a number of observations are made.