article

Beyond Expertise Seeking: A Field Study of the Informal Knowledge Practices of Healthcare IT Teams

Authors:

Patricia Ruma Spence,

Madhu ReddyAuthors Info & Claims

Computer Supported Cooperative Work, Volume 21, Issue 2-3

Pages 283 - 315

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10606-011-9135-1

Published: 01 June 2012 Publication History

Abstract

CSCW has long been concerned with formal and informal knowledge practices in organizations, examining both the social and technical aspects of how knowledge is sought, shared, and used. In this study, we are interested in examining the set of activities that occur when co-located knowledge workers manage and resolve issues by seeking, sharing, and applying their informal knowledge. Informal knowledge seeking involves more than identifying the expert who has the knowledge or accessing the knowledge through physical artifacts. It also involves working with that expert to identify and apply the appropriate knowledge to the particular situation. However, our understandings of how people collaboratively work together to find, share and apply this knowledge are less well understood. To investigate this phenomenon, we conducted a field study of how professionals in three IT teams of a regional hospital managed and resolved IT issues. These knowledge workers used various collaborative practices such as creation of ad-hoc teams and the use of email to identify, share, and use informal knowledge to resolve IT issues. In addition, particular team practices such as how issues are assigned affected these knowledge activities. Our findings highlight how informal knowledge activities are affected by a variety of implicit and sometimes subtle features of the organization and that organizational knowledge management systems should support informal knowledge seeking activities and collaboration amongst the knowledge sharers.

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Cited By

Gui XChen YPine K(2018)Navigating the Healthcare Service "Black Box"Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/32743302:CSCW(1-26)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3274330
Boulus-RØdje N(2018)In Search for the Perfect PathwayComputer Supported Cooperative Work10.1007/s10606-018-9318-027:3-6(841-874)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10606-018-9318-0
Boulus-Rødje NBjorn PBegole BKim JInkpen KWoo W(2015)Design Challenges in Supporting Distributed KnowledgeProceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/2702123.2702458(3137-3146)Online publication date: 18-Apr-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2702123.2702458
Show More Cited By

Beyond Expertise Seeking: A Field Study of the Informal Knowledge Practices of Healthcare IT Teams
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Collaborative and social computing
    1. Collaborative and social computing theory, concepts and paradigms
2. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing and business

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cover image Computer Supported Cooperative Work

Computer Supported Cooperative Work Volume 21, Issue 2-3

June 2012

246 pages

ISSN:0925-9724

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Copyright © Copyright © 2012 Springer.

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Kluwer Academic Publishers

United States

Publication History

Published: 01 June 2012

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Cited By

Gui XChen YPine K(2018)Navigating the Healthcare Service "Black Box"Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/32743302:CSCW(1-26)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3274330
Boulus-RØdje N(2018)In Search for the Perfect PathwayComputer Supported Cooperative Work10.1007/s10606-018-9318-027:3-6(841-874)Online publication date: 1-Dec-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/s10606-018-9318-0
Boulus-Rødje NBjorn PBegole BKim JInkpen KWoo W(2015)Design Challenges in Supporting Distributed KnowledgeProceedings of the 33rd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/2702123.2702458(3137-3146)Online publication date: 18-Apr-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2702123.2702458
Karunakaran AReddy MFinholt TTellioğlu HInkpen KGross T(2012)The role of narratives in collaborative information seekingProceedings of the 2012 ACM International Conference on Supporting Group Work10.1145/2389176.2389217(273-276)Online publication date: 27-Oct-2012
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2389176.2389217

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