The effects of knowledge management systems on emergent teams: towards a research model

This article describes how knowledge management systems can enhance the effectiveness of teams that analyze complex, non-recurring problems by improving the way that team composition evolves. Knowledge management systems reduce the costs of searching for specialized knowledge resources, making it more likely that teams will incorporate a diversity of knowledge. Drawing on the concept of requisite variety, this article argues that increases in team knowledge variety lead to improvements in the effectiveness of the solutions generated by a team, which in turn enhance their organization's adaptive ability. This process also reinforces the existing distribution of knowledge within the organization, increasing employee specialization. The author develops a series of propositions and combines them into a research model from which he draws implications for researchers and managers. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.