Web-enabled boundary spanners and their role in the knowledge flow network

We argue that types of Simmelian-tied employee dyads (dyads embedded in three-person cliques) influences organizational justice perceptions, and knowledge sharing within and across organizational boundaries through virtual workgroups. We study the interaction between employees\u27 advice and friendship ties, shared interpersonal, interactional, procedural and distributive justice perceptions, and the types of knowledge shared from a social network perspective. We predict that Simmelian-tied advice and friendship dyads influence justice perceptions, and in turn knowledge sharing. Compared to Simmelian-tied advice dyads, we suggest that Simmelian-tied friendship dyads were hypothesized to be strongly associated with congruent distributive, interpersonal, and interpersonal justice perceptions. Congruent procedural justice perceptions were likely to be associated with both Simmelian-tied advice and friendship ties. We hypothesized that distributive, procedural, and informational justice perceptions were likely to be shared across formal organizational boundaries through strong friendship ties. We also predicted that positive congruent procedural, interpersonal and informational justice perceptions influenced expert knowledge sharing while congruent distributive justice perceptions influenced product knowledge sharing

WEB-ENABLED BOUNDARY SPANNERS AND THEIR ROLE IN THE KNOWLEDGE FLOW NETWORK

No organisation, no matter how large, can remain totally reliant on the stocks of new knowledge it generates itself. In order to keep abreast of the latest scientific and technological developments, R&D organisations must continuously import knowledge from beyond the organisations boundaries. How does this external knowledge which is critical to success then become absorbed and integrated into the firm? Our paper addresses this question through the lens of the influential technological gatekeeper theory. Drawing on social network analysis (SNA) and interview evidence from a medical devices R&D group, we find that the gatekeeper role is still vital, but no longer needs to be performed by a single individual. Instead, the modern R&D group can keep abreast of the latest technological advances through a combination of Web-enabled internal and external communication specialists. A unique contribution this paper makes to the IT-enable social network literature is the development of an updated conceptual framework of how the gatekeeper role is performed in the modern R&D group