THE FIRM AS A DISTRIBUTED KNOWLEDGE SYSTEM - A CONSTRUCTIONIST APPROACH

The organizational problem firms face is the utilization of knowledge which is not, and cannot be, known by a single agent. Even more import antly, no single agent can fully specify in advance what kind of pract ical knowledge is going to be relevant, when and where. Firms, therefo re, are distributed knowledge systems in a strong sense: they are dece ntered systems, lacking an overseeing 'mind'. The knowledge they need to draw upon is inherently indeterminate and continually emerging; it is not self-contained. Individuals' stock of knowledge consists of (a) role-related normative expectations; (b) dispositions, which have bee n formed in the course of past socializations; and (c) local knowledge of particular circumstances of time and place. A firm has greater-or- lesser control over normative expectations, but very limited control o ver the other two. At any point in rime, a firm's knowledge is the ind eterminate outcome of individuals attempting to manage the inevitable tensions between normative expectations, dispositions, and local conte xts.