Designing a Knowledge Ecosystem: A Solution for Organizations Confronting Hyperturbulent Environments

Abstract:     
Presently, certain U.S. government agencies face hyperturbulent environments, where organic, information-intensive changes occur rapidly with little warning. No one individual harbors sufficient knowledge to either mitigate negative outcomes or capitalize on positive opportunities. Knowledge exchanges in these government agencies must transcend physical group proximity, social networks, and the institutions themselves. I submit that these organizations represent the future of business, as they comprise globally distributed individuals who must exchange time-sensitive knowledge to increase organizational adaptedness and survivability. For these environments, top-down knowledge "management" is indeterminate. Instead, researchers and practitioners alike should think like a crime scene investigator and uncover: (1) who had opportunity to exchange knowledge, (2) who had motive, and (3) how was it done regarding method? I detail three research efforts, one completed and two in-progress, designed to test these conjectures. I hypothesize that altering organizational structure or technology should alter human perceptions of incentives, values, and trust - even when the same choices and rewards for exchanging knowledge are presented to individuals. The challenge for organizations is to "cultivate" indirectly a knowledge ecosystem that both fosters knowledge exchange opportunities among employees and allows dynamic knowledge exchange activities to evolve as environmental circumstances require.

Keywords: knowledge management, knowledge ecosystems, hyperturbulent environments, organizational adaptedness, organizational survivability, knowledge cultivation

JEL Classifications: D23, D70, D83

Working Paper Series