Telling more of what we know: Examining the social processes of knowledge creation and innovation

A multimethod ethnographic and survey study was conducted on how knowledge creation and innovation were accomplished. The yearlong ethnography focused on what forms tacit knowledge took in an organization and the various ways it was surfaced and conveyed in the product development process. Field observations of an automotive design process suggested that articulation and mobilization were fundamental to knowledge creation and innovation. Ethnographic data also indicated that knowledge is articulated or surfaced through a variety of articulation behaviors (e.g., stories, metaphor, analogies, humor, informal drawings, physical objects, and perspective taking). “Riffing,” a type of perspective taking that involved the portrayal of the voice and/or lived-in experience of other individuals or professional categories, was also identified. Individuals effective in employing a range of articulation behaviors to influence knowledge creation and innovation efforts were skilled at rendering knowledge persuasive and ultimately enlisting support for innovation efforts.;A large sample survey study examined how knowledge, articulation skill, social network position, and a union orientation (i.e., behaviors associated with the establishment or facilitation of ties among people in an actor's social network) led to innovation involvement. Results indicated that social knowledge, perspective taking, egocentric network density, and a union orientation predicted innovation involvement. Broad technical knowledge was a negative predictor of innovation involvement. The findings overall suggest that dense networks of shared understanding are the basis of the mobilized action that leads to innovation. These findings help expand our understanding of knowledge creation and innovation processes, indicate limitations of structural holes theory, and suggest richer ways to understand and measure social network dynamics.