Table Of ContentKnowledge Communication in
Global Organisations
While organisations become more and more global, they also become
more and more dispersed and virtual. This challenges the sense of a shared
organisational identity and the ability of employees to communicate per-
sonally held knowledge. To address these challenges, this book ofers an
innovative multidisciplinary approach to knowledge communication in
global organisations. The book develops a multidisciplinary analytical lens
through which to understand employee identity formations and knowl-
edge communication practises. Using detailed analyses of interviews from
a real organisation, the book builds an understanding of how 21st-century
employees make sense of a virtual organisational reality characterised by
multiple simultaneous projects and virtual, dispersed teams. These analy-
ses are conducted using a new discourse analysis method for analysing re-
search interviews, Discursive Sensemaking Analysis. Using these methods
and fndings, researchers, project managers and HR professionals will be
able to analyse their own organisations to discover how employees make
sense of the complexity of 21st-century global organisations.
Nils Braad Petersen holds a PhD in Business Communicating from
Aarhus University, Denmark. He can be contacted at NilsBraad@gmail.
com.
Routledge Studies in Management, Organizations and
Society
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issues crucial to an understanding of the contemporary world. This is the
world of organized societies, where boundaries between formal and infor-
mal, public and private, local and global organizations have been displaced
or have vanished, along with other nineteenth century dichotomies and
oppositions. Management, apart from becoming a specialized profession
for a growing number of people, is an everyday activity for most members
of modern societies.
Similarly, at the level of enquiry, culture and technology, and litera-
ture and economics, can no longer be conceived as isolated intellectual
felds; conventional canons and established mainstreams are contested.
Management, Organizations and Society addresses these contemporary dynam-
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with books that will appeal to researchers, students and practitioners alike.
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Edited by Wioletta Mierzejewska and Patryk Dziurski
Flexible Human Resource Management and
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Anna Pawłowska
Knowledge Communication in Global Organisations
Making Sense of Virtual Teams
Nils Braad Petersen
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Knowledge Communication
in Global Organisations
Making Sense of Virtual Teams
Nils Braad Petersen
First published 2023
by Routledge
605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158
and by Routledge
4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2023 Taylor & Francis
The right of Nils Braad Petersen to be identified as author of this
work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of
the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted
or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented,
including photocopying and recording, or in any information
storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Petersen, Nils Braad, author.
Title: Knowledge communication in global organisations : making
sense of virtual teams / Nils Braad Petersen.
Description: 1 Edition. | New York, NY : Routledge, 2023. |
Series: Routledge studies in management, organizations and society |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022035148 | ISBN 9780367857950 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781032419701 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003015925 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Virtual work teams—Management. |
Telecommunication—Social aspects. | Knowledge, Sociology of. |
International business enterprises. | Communication in
organizations. | Organizational change.
Classification: LCC HD66 .P4288 2023 | DDC 658.4/022—dc23/
eng/20220721
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022035148
ISBN: 978-0-367-85795-0 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-032-41970-1 (pbk)
ISBN: 978-1-003-01592-5 (ebk)
DOI: 10.4324/9781003015925
Typeset in Bembo
by codeMantra
Contents
List of Illustrations vii
1 Introduction 1
PART 1
Discursive Sensemaking – foundation, theory and
method 17
2 Discursive Sensemaking Analysis – a foundation 19
3 Discursive Sensemaking Analysis – a theory 25
4 Discursive Sensemaking Analysis – a method 48
PART 2
Multidisciplinary perspective on knowledge
communication practices in virtual teams 69
5 Challenges and opportunities of virtual work in global
organisations 71
6 A vocabulary for describing virtual knowledge
communication 101
7 Knowing as learning in Communities of Practice (CoP) 129
8 Professional identity as (d)iscursive construction 141
9 Relationships supporting virtual knowledge communication 173
10 Conclusion and discussion of theory and fndings 200
Glossary 216
Appendix 221
Index 223
Illustrations
Figures
2.1 The sensemaking process as individual and social construct 21
9.1 Model of interpersonal trust combining theories of trust
from applied psychology 176
Tables
1.1 Overview of key characteristics of the three Identity
Prototypes found in the study 12
4.1 Transcription conventions with brief explanations 63
5.1 Overview of the key concepts in Chapter 5 and how they
apply to the three prototypes found in the study 85
6.1 Overview of the SECI model 104
1 Introduction
Chapter Contents
Three tendencies in the current organisational architecture 3
Research aims evolving through iterations between theory
and practice 5
A note on terminology: ‘Identity Configuration’ and ‘Identity
Prototype’ 8
Brief introduction to the three Identity Prototypes 9
Structure of the book 13
References 14
Virtual work environments allow organizations to build cross- boundary
teams consisting of members located in different countries and allow
employees to work out of the office to be closer to clients who are not
located near the head office. A survey cited by Gilson et al. (2015) found
that approximately 66% of multinational organisations used virtual teams
in 2015. Only three years later, Gupta and Pathak (2018) found that the
figure for knowledge workers working virtually was nearly 80%. At the
same time, employees are often involved in several projects and teams.
But that evolution comes with its challenges; Espinosa et al. (2003) argue
that a lack of identification may occur when employee commitment is
spread over several teams and projects, and that this challenges com-
mitment to the team and the effectiveness of the team. Furthermore,
Spinuzzi (2004) argues that technology not only shapes social structures,
but changes mental models. That’s nothing new; technologies have always
required new mental models and new practices, regardless whether we’re
talking about the invention of agriculture, the invention of the printing
press or the invention of the internet.
But what are the characteristics of the mental models which adapt the
easiest to this new virtual, multi-team work environment? And what does
it mean for communication of knowledge in global organisations. These
are the core questions explored in this book.
According to Espinosa et al. (2003), research on virtual teams (aka
‘hybrid’, ‘dispersed’ or ‘distributed teams’) seems to have overemphasised
DOI: 10.4324/9781003015925-1
