The impact of communal knowledge mechanisms on project work

This dissertation introduces a new theoretical perspective on knowledge management in organizations, the Communal Knowledge Mechanism (CKM). The CKM is a robust theoretical construct derived from Boss's Subjectivist-Revisionist perspective that illustrates human-machine communications within the organizational environment.; This research modified Boss's Subjectivist-Revisionist model of communications to fit the modern organizational environment by including information technologies. The modified Boss model inspired a new focus on the work of Thomas Allen, which resulted in the identification of a significant team member micro-behavior related to information and knowledge seeking using CKM. This explicit micro-behavior was the tendency of knowledge workers to query non-human resources when faced with exceptions prior to seeking additional information from peers or supervisors.; The effects of the proposed CKM micro-behavior were initially explored in a proof of concept simulation using the Virtual Design Team (VDT) simulation framework. The micro-behavior was then embedded in a new simulation model of work processes and organizations that incorporates and extends VDT micro-behaviors to address non-routine work in flexible organizations. This research included the design and conduct of a laboratory quasi-experiment to validate the new micro-behavior. The experiment included 7 teams and examined the impact of contextual alignment between the CKM and the project task/team. The experiment confirmed that differences in contextual alignment of a CKM, measured in a manner appropriate for simulation and practice, has a statistically significant impact on project performance outcomes.; The successful inclusion and initial validation of the CKM functionality in the POW-ER software tool and the results of simulations run with the CKM functionality are described. Evidence is offered that the ability to represent the impact of varying knowledge management system attributes on project performance improves the accuracy of VDT and our understanding of organizational performance. Among the most significant results of this improvement is an increased capability to simulate, and hence predict performance on, less routine (i.e. high exception generating) projects.