Collaborative information sharing in complex and extended organizations

Description

Organizational forms are changing and developing. The new forms of organizations include networked and hybrid organizations forms which have interdependencies and use technological applications in their operations. These organizations are extended and complex in terms of relationships, operations and boundary-crossing. Whilst literatures on information behaviors exist in different work contexts, there is little or no reference to information sharing in these new complex and extended settings, leaving the area understudied. This study, therefore, set out to explore how complexity and extension influence collaborative information sharing and how complex and extended organizations respond to deficiencies in information sharing. The study used a qualitative research methodology on a single case study organization including 46 semi-structured interviews, observations, and document analysis from 4 different sets of participants within the case study organization as well as the extended stakeholder community that it works with.