Managing Knowledge for Sustained Competitive Advantage

Organizations have traditionally sought to gain and sustain competitive advantage through the acquisition of critical tangible resources. But more recently, management scholars have come to appreciate the importance of human resources as a source of competitive advantage. Human resources are especially valuable to knowledge-based firms because of their ability to create, use, and share knowledge. Once knowledge assets are acquired, organizations and HR systems must be designed in a way that best enables employees to use that knowledge and make the firm competitive. But while these tasks include processes that are familiar to industrial /organizational (I/O) psychologists, many in the field are not sufficiently familiar with the relevant theory, research, and practice to understand how to apply their unique expertise.

This eighteenth volume in the Jossey-Bass Organizational Frontiers Series provides an in-depth examination of how I/O psychologists can help find, recruit, and manage knowledge. The authors explain the nature of different types of knowledge, how knowledge-based competition is affecting organizations, and how these ideas relate to innovation and learning in organizations. They describe the strategies and organizational structures and designs that facilitate the acquisition and development of knowledge. And they discuss how continuous knowledge acquisition and innovation is promoted among individuals and teams and how to foster the creation of new knowledge. In addition, they explain how to assess the climate and culture for organizational learning, measure and monitor knowledge resources at the organizational level, and more.

Managing Knowledge for Sustained Competitive Advantage will benefit all I/O practitioners and researchers who want to acquire the most up-to-date data and theory regarding the important role knowledge plays in organizations and how organizations can best acquire, develop, retain, and strategically use that information to be more productive.