Orchestrating Multi-level Knowledge Integration in an Organization: A Social-Cognitive Perspective

This paper attempts to explore the relationship between organizational knowledge integration and knowledge governance from a view of social-cognitive model of behavior, a perspective of governing the multi-level knowledge integration. Conceptually, based on the assumption that an organization serves as a knowledge repository and knowledge creation is the key issue to enhance and enrich this knowledge base, we assert that the nature of an organizational knowledge creation lies in the organization’s ability of integrating knowledge resided in multi levels. From the view of social-cognitive model of behavior, we assert that arranging knowledge governance mechanisms during the process of knowledge integration will enhance the organization’s ability of integrating the multi-level knowledge. Theoretically, by integrating the essence of relational-embeddedness theory and cognition school, the dual roles of knowledge governance and the content of knowledge governance mechanisms turn illuminated. A conceptual model on the relationship between knowledge governance and organizational knowledge integration is proposed through arguments drawn from this social-cognitive perspective.