Work Groups, Structural Diversity, and Knowledge Sharing in a Global Organization

TLDR

Effective work groups engage in external knowledge sharing with customers, experts, and others outside the group, and structural diversity—differences in affiliations, roles, or positions—provides access to unique knowledge sources. The study argues that external knowledge sharing is more valuable in structurally diverse work groups, hypothesizing that such engagement improves performance through unique external knowledge exchange. The authors studied 182 work groups in a Fortune 500 telecom firm, measuring structural diversity via differences in geography, function, reporting managers, and business units, and assessed external knowledge sharing through surveys and performance via senior executive ratings. Ordered logit analyses revealed that external knowledge sharing is more strongly linked to performance in structurally diverse groups, underscoring implications for theory and practice on integrating work groups and social networks.

Abstract

Effective work groups engage in external knowledge sharing—the exchange of information, know-how, and feedback with customers, organizational experts, and others outside of the group. This paper argues that the value of external knowledge sharing increases when work groups are more structurally diverse. A structurally diverse work group is one in which the members, by virtue of their different organizational affiliations, roles, or positions, can expose the group to unique sources of knowledge. It is hypothesized that if members of structurally diverse work groups engage in external knowledge sharing, their performance will improve because of this active exchange of knowledge through unique external sources. A field study of 182 work groups in a Fortune 500 telecommunications firm operationalizes structural diversity as member differences in geographic locations, functional assignments, reporting managers, and business units, as indicated by corporate database records. External knowledge sharing was measured with group member surveys and performance was assessed using senior executive ratings. Ordered logit analyses showed that external knowledge sharing was more strongly associated with performance when work groups were more structurally diverse. Implications for theory and practice around the integration of work groups and social networks are addressed.