Configuring software, reconfiguring memories: the influence of integrated systems on the reproduction of knowledge and routines

摘要

Recent advances in information and communication technologies have provided a substantial push towards the codification of organizational knowledge and practices. It is argued that codification, and the subsequent delegation of organizational memory to software, entails fundamental structural transformations to knowledge and routines as these are reconfigured and replicated in the form of new computer-embedded representations. The paper demonstrates that the process of embedding knowledge and routines in software holds fundamental implications for the ability of heterogeneous organizational groups, functions and communities to co-ordinate their efforts and share knowledge across function-, discipline- and task-specific boundaries.