Knowledge and Organization: A Network Perspective

This paper focuses on the role of social ties in the knowledge flow within an organization from an interpersonal network perspective. In our theoretical study we identified four types of learning - Collaborative, Cooperative, Constrained and Competitive learning - based on the social connections between people or groups of people. Since human relationships tend to instable over time we also proposed a network learning cycle model that draws attention to the influence of social structures. We propose that the motivation of actors to share knowledge is dependent on network structure, cognition, and interpersonal relations.