Structure and Dynamics of a "T-Shaped" Knowledge: From Individuals to Cooperating Communities of Practice

In a fast-changing environment, organizations face conditions of growing complexity that challenge decision-making and innovation activities, highlighting an increasing need to develop dynamic capabilities. In this scenario, our focus is on service science's recent call for "T-shaped professionals," identified as people possessing both functional/disciplinary expertise and ability to apply knowledge across different contexts. Starting from this notion and by adopting a viable systems approach (<i><sc>v</sc>S<sc>a</sc></i>), we shift focus from individuals to organizations, providing an interpretation of the structure and dynamics of a "T-shaped knowledge" to be developed with respect to a distributed knowledge management network in which organizations pursue learning-by-interaction and knowledge cocreation. By integrating the <i><sc>v</sc>S<sc>a</sc></i> and the distributed knowledge management framework (DKMF), our proposal provides a multidimensional <sc>v</sc>S<sc>a</sc>-DKMF metamodel to assess the relational conditions among cooperating organizations as well as to provide guidelines for the construction of a knowledge network built on the idea of T-shaped knowledge. To illustrate the practical aspects of <sc>v</sc>S<sc>a</sc>-DKMF, we focus on the case of open communities of practice as an emblematic example of developing a T-shaped knowledge starting from a specialized ("I-shaped") knowledge.