The 24-Hour Knowledge Factory: Work and Organizational Redesign and Associated Challenges

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Author(s): Amar Gupta (University of Arizona, USA), Satwik Seshasai (IBM and MIT, USA), Ravi Aron (John Hopkins University, USA) and Siddharth Pareek (University of Arizona, USA)
Copyright: 2010
Volume: 23
Issue: 4
Pages: 17
Source title: Information Resources Management Journal (IRMJ)
Editor(s)-in-Chief: Pankaj Kamthan (Concordia University), Dirk Stelzer (TU Ilmenau), Andrew Borchers (Lipscomb University), Zane L. Berge (Univ of Maryland Baltimore County), Angela T. Ragusa (Charles Sturt University), Sherif H. Kamel (The American University in Cairo), Peter Fettke (Saarland University), Shirley Fedorovich (Embry-Riddle Aeornautical University), Nabeel Al-Qirim (United Arab Emirates University), Stu Westin (University of Rhode Island), Murray Eugene Jennex (San Diego State University), Philip Powell (University of London), Gian Piero Zarri (University Paris-Est - LISSI Laboratory), Annette M. Mills (University of Canterbury), Jing Quan (Salisbury University), George Ditsa (Tshwane University of Technology), Makoto Nakayama (DePaul University), Alan R. Peslak (Penn State University), Merrill Warkentin (Mississippi State University), Fiona Fui-Hoon Nah, Amar Gupta (University of Arizona), Wen-Chen Hu (University of North Dakota), Pauline Ratnasingam (University of Central Missouri), Mohamed Taher (Ontario Multifaith Council), Juergen Seitz (Baden-Wuerttemberg Cooperative State University), Julie Kendall (Rutgers University), Steven Sheng-Uei Guan (Xian Jiatong-Liverpool University), Waleed Farag (Indiana University of Pennsylvania), Toshio Mitsufuji (Ritsumeikan University), Indranil Bose (University of Hong Kong), Hakikur Rahman (University of Minho), Sajjad Jasimuddin (Euromed Management), Mark Anthony Toleman (University of Southern Queensland), Sheng Uei DUPE Guan (Xian Jiatong-Liverpool University), Albert Boonstra (University of Groningen), Farhad Daneshgar (University of New South Wales), Marlyn Kemper Littman (Nova Southeastern University), Stephanie Teufel, Craig DUPE Van Slyke (Saint Louis University), Edward Szewczak (Canisius College), Qingyu Zhang (Arkansas State University), Isola Ajiferuke (University of Western Ontario), Anabela Mesquita (ISCAP / IPP), Rochelle Brooks (Viterbo University), Peter Kueng (Credit Suisse), Piergiuseppe Morone (University of Foggia), Fjodor Ruzic (Institute for Informatics), Kai Jakobs (RWTH Aachen University), Bradford Eden (University of California, Santa Barbara.), Andrew S. Targowski (Western Michigan University), Costas Vassilakis (University of Peloponnese), Anthony Scime (SUNY Brockport), Jan Frick (University of Stavanger), Coral Snodgrass (Canisius College), Stuart Diaz Galup (Florida Atlantic University), Abdul Samad Kazi (VTT-Technical Research Centre of Finland), Janice Sipior (Villanova University), Robert W. Stone (University of Idaho), Mirza B. Murtaza (Middle Tennessee State University), George Kelley (University of Massachusetts), Thomas Jackson (Loughborough University), Bernard Mark Garrett (University of British Columbia), Tanya McGill (Murdoch University), Bongsug Chae (Kansas State University), David Paper (Utah State University), Anil K. Aggarwal (University of Baltimore), Ross A. Malaga (Montclair State University), Bryan Christiansen (Gumushane University), Vincent Siuking Lai (Chinese University of Hong Kong), Charlene Dykman (University of St. Thomas), J. Michael Tarn (Western Michigan University - Haworth College of Business), Chuleeporn Changchit (Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi), Bay Arinze (Drexel University), Stanley Lewis (Troy University), Arthur Tatnall (Victoria University), Mahesh S. Raisinghani (Texas Woman's University), Abdul Jaleel Kehinde Shittu (University Utara Malaysia), Mehdi Khosrow-Pour (Information Resources Management Association, USA), Hui Cao, Yefim Kats, Donna McAlister Kizzier, Ta-Tao Chuang and Ferry Jie
DOI: 10.4018/irmj.2010100103
ISSN: 1040-1628
EISSN: 1533-7979

Keywords: Information Resources Management / Information Science Reference / Library and Information Science

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Abstract

The term “24-Hour Knowledge Factory” connotes a geographically dispersed team of workers in which members of the team work on endeavors on a continous basis. This work has five defining features: (i) the same body of work is processed sequentially and handed one unit to another; (ii) the handover of work is characterized by short cycle times and the frequency of handover is greater than in traditional offshore work; (iii) the functional units of the 24-Hour Knowledge Factory operate in a peer-to-peer relationship where each functional unit audits the work of other units; (iv) the knowledge transfer between the different work units and work history between units is effected through specialized mechanisms and a distributed human agency called the composite personae; and (v) the constituent units of the 24-Hour Knowledge Factory feature similar work capabilities, as opposed to the more traditional model of global teams where the distributed teams usually possess complementary work capabilities. The distributed units of the 24-Hour Knowledge Factory work on the same body of work and do very similar work; therefore, the units have nearly identical capabilities. The authors identify two sets of research issues surrounding this phenomenon that fall within the technical paradigm and the organizational paradigm of information systems.

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