Knowledge Integration in a Temporary ERP Project Team: The Unexpected Debilitating Impact of Social Capital

A project team, set up to design and implement an Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system, is essentially tasked with integrating knowledge distributed across an organization. This suggests that the social capital of members will be important. In the case study project, however, team members used their social capital to further their own personal goals rather than the ERP project goals. Moreover, time and effort spent maintaining networks with others outside the project to pursue personal goals prevented the project team from developing into a knowledge-sharing community. The paper uses the framework of strategic exchange to explore why, in this particular situation, social capital had a detrimental rather than a beneficial impact on the ERP project.