Enactment of knowledge brokering: Agents, roles, processes and the impact of immersion

Abstract

This study examines the process of knowledge brokering for organizational learning. Qualitative research methodology was employed to study learning in four Indian Social Enterprises. We mapped and analysed the process by which social enterprises engaged stakeholders within and across organizational boundaries to harness knowledge. We found that knowledge brokering was a process of spanning for, interpreting and combining two types of knowledge – expert and contextual, with strategic knowledge playing a critical background role in this process. Knowledge brokering was delineated into two roles – boundary spanning and translation. Agents who assumed and/or shared these roles were identified and the corresponding learning mechanisms were described. Variations were observed across enterprises in brokering role assumption and the location of brokers with respect to the organizational boundary and hierarchy. These were explained using the concept of immersion which emerged from the data. We employ Schein’s organizational cone to develop a model of knowledge brokering, and identify conditions of effective brokering.