Knowledge Retrieval in Work Groups: What Knowledge Is Critical?

This paper addresses the knowledge criticality question: what knowledge is critical to the focal task and therefore, needs to be retrieved. It argues that knowledge criticality is not an objective construct and that people’s prior task knowledge which consists of two dimensions: knowledge domain and expertise level, as well as social knowledge has an effect on what knowledge they perceive as critical to the focal task and thus, needs to be retrieved. Task uncertainty is likely to aggravate this effect. The role of communication in members’ agreement on knowledge criticality judgment is also discussed. Communication strength and the two dimensions of communication diversity structural dimension and content dimension – are expected to have positive effects on the extent to which group members agree on knowledge criticality assessment; and this effect is stronger in groups where members have highly diverse task knowledge and social knowledge, The implications of this analysis are discussed in the context of knowledge sharing.