Premium
Knowledge management through the development of knowledge repositories: towards work degradation
Author(s) -
Taskin Laurent,
Van Bunnen Gabriel
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
new technology, work and employment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.889
H-Index - 45
eISSN - 1468-005X
pISSN - 0268-1072
DOI - 10.1111/ntwe.12049
Subject(s) - deskilling , knowledge management , reflexivity , context (archaeology) , knowledge sharing , work (physics) , resistance (ecology) , process (computing) , personal knowledge management , sociology of scientific knowledge , business , sociology , computer science , engineering , organizational learning , mechanical engineering , paleontology , social science , ecology , biology , operating system
This paper questions the consequences of the use of electronic knowledge repositories for work and employment. Drawing on critical research suggesting that knowledge management associated with such tools presents similarities to scientific management principles, it proposes to examine the following key research question: how do employees experience the transformation of the employment relationship when a knowledge repository is introduced to the workplace? The inquiry is grounded in an exploratory qualitative case study of a knowledge management system designed to foster knowledge‐sharing in a B elgian public administration. The findings illustrate two complementary outcomes: this system resulted in employees experiencing deskilling and work degradation, and was met with resistance. Significantly, this paper considers work degradation as a reflexive phenomenon in the context studied, where knowledge‐sharing systems produced deskilling and resistance as part of a specific re‐regulation process.