Knowledge Creation and the Web: Factors Indicating Why Some Intranets Succeed Where Others Fail

In today’s highly dynamic business environment, organizational creativity is one of the most important sources of competitive advantage. Although the unpredictability of creativity makes it difficult to plan for, it may still be possible to facilitate knowledge creation given that we understand what affects it. In this paper, seven enabling factors of organizational creativity are identified and discussed. These factors are then compared to the specific characteristics of intranet technology in order to find out when and how this environment may stimulate creativity. The conclusion is that intranets are most likely to contribute by providing a variety of information in dynamic and unpredictable environments. However, standard management literature instead unanimously prescribes organizational convergence as the default strategy for the modern manager. Our analysis suggests that this control approach not only conflicts with some of the creativity-enabling factors but also clashes with the fundamental principles underpinning the web. The organizational implication of the conclusion presented in this paper is that only in organizations where management has embraced an updated attitude towards information management, can the corporate intranet truly contribute to knowledge creation and creativity. Copyright # 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.