Organizational groupings and performance in project-based organizations. An empirical investigation
| Published date | 10 March 2014 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/AJIM-05-2013-0049 |
| Date | 10 March 2014 |
| Pages | 156-174 |
| Author | Atieh Bourouni,Siamak Noori,Mostafa Jafari |
| Subject Matter | Library & information science,Information behaviour & retrieval |
Organizational groupings and
performance in project-based
organizations
An empirical investigation
Atieh Bourouni, Siamak Noori and Mostafa Jafari
Industrial Engineering Department, Iran University of Science & Technology,
Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Purpose – This study aims to empirically evaluate the impact of interorganizational groupings on
corporate performance in project-based organizations.
Design/methodology/approach – The study develops and tests a theoretical model whereby
groupings include project team, community of practice (CoP), community of interest (CoI), and
knowledge network (KN). Organizational performance is supported on financial, process, internal, and
cultural aspects. Based on a questionnaire, data was obtained from a sample of 142 companies in North
America. The measurement model was tested and confirmed by using structural equation modeling
(SEM).
Findings – The results confirm the positive effects of knowledge networks and communities of
interest. However, the impact of project teams turned out to be negative, and communities of practice
were not shown to affect corporate performance. Additionally, the results underscore the importance of
organizational networks in creating conditions favorable to a firm’s success.
Practical implications – It was verified that knowledge networks and communities of interest
affect the measures of organizational performance, including financial, process, internal, and cultural
performance. This is useful for researchers and executives looking for appropriate outcomes through
the implementation of knowledge management initiatives. Furthermore, this study provides a starting
point for further research on the role of inter- and intraorganizational networks in project-based
organizations.
Originality/value – This study claims that a key to performance for project-based organizations is
development and management of organizational networks in the form of knowledge networks and
communities of interest.
Keywords Socialnetwork, Knowledge management,Organizationalperformance, Knowledgenetwork,
Community of practice, Project team, Project-based organizations, Community of interest
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
Nowadays, the most advanced high-tech and multinational corporations have been
transforming their traditionally hierarchical organizations into flatter, faster, mo re
flexible, and more horizontally integrated structures based on interorganizational
groupings such as teams, communities, and networks (Child and Rodrigues, 2003;
Palmer et al., 2007). This emerging change in interorganizational grouping forms is
more apparent in project-based organizations (PBO) because they are the optimal
organizational structures to incorporate knowledge both within and outside the
company and to generate innovative business models for new products and services
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
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AJIM
66,2
156
Received 25 May 2013
Revised 9 July 2013
30 September 2013
3 November 2013
Accepted 21 November 2013
Aslib Journal of Information
Management
Vol. 66 No. 2, 2014
pp. 156-174
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
2050-3806
DOI 10.1108/AJIM-05-2013-0049
(Pemsel and Mu
¨ller, 2012; Lindkvist, 2004). While PBOs possess all internal and
external resources and individual functions including development, production, and
sales, they are structured to execute business as individual projects (Prencipe and Tell,
2001). Recently, the structure of PBOs has come to be applied to a wide range of
industries, especially construction (Eriksson, 2013), information, technology,
communications (Bigliardi et al., 2010), and professional services (Klimkeit, 2012).
Along with the development of PBOs, the concept of knowledge management (KM)
and its significant impact on competitiveness and perf ormance through the
governance of KM-related efforts has become the focal point of study for many
researchers (Holsapple and Singh, 2001; Holsapple and Joshi, 2000). Based on a
knowledge-based view of the organization, a firm’s competitive advantage depends on
its ability to continuously organize, integrate, and apply knowledge into value-creating
decisions (Spender, 1996; Grant, 2000). Furthermore, the reliable knowledge integration
requires cooperation, interaction, and knowledge sharing among individuals (Ma hdavi
and Hesamamiri, 2014; Jafari et al., 2011; Hesamamiri et al., 2013). Accordingly, while
different types of formal and informal interactions are fundamental to knowledge
integration and sharing in organizations, the concept of knowledge governance is
discussed by many researchers. Knowledge governance involves “choosing
organizational structures and mechanisms that can influence the process of using,
sharing, integrating, and creating knowledge in preferred directions and toward
preferred levels” (Foss et al., 2010). As an important mechanism for knowledge
governance, different types of interorganizational grouping forms are developed and
discussed by researchers (Foss, 2007). Consequently, organizational forms such as
communities of practice (CoP), communities of interest (CoI), and knowledge networks
(KN) have gained increasing attention in recent years. The basic idea behind the
creation of these organizational forms is that they facilitate the transfer and creation of
knowledge between independent business units and across functions, hierarchies, or
geographical distances.
Despite the important role of interorganizational grouping forms in knowledge
governance and the complexity of PBOs, there has been little discussion of the effects
of different types of grouping forms on organizational performance (OP), especially in
project-based environments. Thus, this study develops and tests a theoretical model
whereby groupings include project team (PT), CoP, CoI, and KN. OP is supported on
financial, process, internal, and cultural aspects by using a sample of 142 companies in
North America.
This paper is organized as follows: the theoretical background is presented in the
next section, which includes organizational networks and PBOs. The theoretical
framework and proposed hypotheses are discussed in the third section. The research
design, methodology, and results are described in section four. The discussion,
implications, and concluding remarks are in section five.
2. Theoretical background
2.1 Project-based organizations (PBOs)
Based on Turner and Mu
¨ller (2003), a project is a temporary organization to which
resources are assigned to undertake a unique, novel, and transient endeavor that
involves managing the inherent uncertainty and need for integration in order to deliver
beneficial objectives of change. Sydow et al. (2004) stated that PBOs refer to a variety of
Organizational
groupings and
performance
157
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