Modeling Dimensions of 'the Social' in Knowledge Teams: An Operationalization of Habermas' Theory of Communicative Action

The introduction of knowledge teams, as a new form of work organization, is one of many institutional transformations associated with the knowledge economy. The research on the effects of this new form of work organization on the social processes by which knowledge workers exchange, create, and apply knowledge is limited. The research that does exist uses various communication theories to explain the social interactions within knowledge teams. We offer an alternative theoretical framework, based on Habermas' theory of communicative action. In this paper, we operationalize the theory using dynamic agent-based modeling to perform a series of 'virtual experiments' on the temporal dynamics of knowledge exchange within teams. The modeling results are used to critically reflect on the theory and draw conclusions regarding the lifeworld rationalization within knowledge teams. The paper closes by specifying areas of future work and suggesting that a practical outcome of the completed research agenda will be an evaluation tool to be used by knowledge teams to assess how effective they are at communicating and producing knowledge.