Knowledge management through the development of knowledge repositories: towards work degradation

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/ntwe.12049
• Date: 01 July 2015
• Author: Laurent Taskin,Gabriel Van Bunnen
• Published date: 01 July 2015

Knowledge management through the

development of knowledge repositories:

towards work degradation

Laurent Taskin and Gabriel Van Bunnen

This paper questions the consequences of the use of electronic

knowledge repositories for work and employment. Drawing on

critical research suggesting that knowledge management asso-

ciated with such tools presents similarities to scientific man-

agement principles, it proposes to examine the following key

research question: how do employees experience the transfor-

mation 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 knowl-

edge management system designed to foster knowledge-sharing

in a Belgian 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 deg-

radation as a reflexive phenomenon in the context studied,

where knowledge-sharing systems produced deskilling and

resistance as part of a specific re-regulation process.

Keywords: knowledge repositories, work degradation,

knowledge management, critical management studies,

resistance, deskilling, paradox, re-regulation.

Introduction

For more than 20 years, knowledge management (KM), defined here as ‘any deliberate

efforts to manage the knowledge of an organisation’s workforce’ (Hislop,2002: 59) has been on

the agenda for numerous companies since knowledge is considered as the firm’s core

source of competitive advantage (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Grant, 1996). In order to

create competitive value,many organisations haveinvested considerably in information

technologies that support KM (Alavi and Leidner, 2001; Gallupe, 2001). Among the

existing tools devoted to the fostering of knowledge-sharing, the electronic knowledge

repository is one that has become widely accepted (see, e.g. Voelpel et al., 2005).

Laurent Taskin (laurent.taskin@uclouvain.be) is Professor of Human Resource and Organisation

Studies at the Université catholique de Louvain, Louvain School of Management Research Institute,

CIRTES (Belgium). His research focuses on critical approaches to management in the context of new

forms of work organisation and knowledge management. He has edited many books and published

articles in journals such as Organization Studies, Journal of Business Ethics, International Journal of

Human Resource Management. He is also Editor-in-chiefof the International Journal of Work Innova-

tion. Gabriel Van Bunnen holds a PhD in management from the Université catholique de Louvain,

Louvain School of ManagementResearch Institute (Belgium) and is now special adviser at the Institut

Universitaire InternationalLuxembourg.

New Technology, Work and Employment 30:2

ISSN 0268-1072

© 2015 John Wiley & Sons Ltd158 New Technology, Work and Employment