Team-Based Knowledge Sharing: Learning through Complex Work Challenges

International Journal of HRD Practice, Policy and Research 2016, Vol 1 No 1: 65-83

Team-Based Knowledge Sharing: Learning Through Complex Work Challenges
Roland Yeo, Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia
John Stubbs, Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia
Martin Barrett, Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia

This paper explores a team-based knowledge sharing framework as a structured approach to addressing complex work-related challenges through the sharing of knowledge drawn from concrete experiences. Knowledge sharing is constructed through individual narratives that serve as the basis for collective sensemaking. In turn, interpretation of the problem at hand and articulation of related past experiences help develop reflective inquiry and dynamic feedback increasing team learning. When individuals select their frames of references to construct their narratives, they also unlock their tacit knowledge about past successful experiences or practices. Through collective sensemaking, team members develop critical change behaviours that lead to knowledge experimentation modifying their action patterns. Through an exploratory research design involving qualitative feedback analysis, semi-structured interviewing, and ethnographic participation in a Saudi Arabian multinational company, the study found that the framework promotes team learning in both formal and informal contexts. Not only do individuals begin to view organizational change differently, they also engage more actively in people conversations, collaboration, empowerment, and decision making resulting in specific organizational outcomes. The paper offers implications for human resource development (HRD) practice and research.
Introduction
Current turbulent times require that organizations remain agile and adaptive in sustaining their competitive advantage. Being agile and adaptive is challenging for organizations seeking change. In order to survive, organizations need to have the ability to learn in order to improve their performance through critical knowledge and insight (Fiol and Lyles, 1985). However, organizations cannot learn on their own; their ability to learn is contingent upon their teams’ ability to learn (Edmondson, 2002). Teams are therefore expected to develop knowledge and skills that can be translated into practice within and across contexts, such as cross-functional and cross-border teams (Argote, 1999). Traditionally, teams have been conceptualized as work groups that share common objectives to accomplish specific tasks, including product development, sales, and service delivery teams (Hackman, 1987). In more recent literature, cross-boundary teams have been explored in the context of interdependent task structures requiring complex learning and coordination for accomplishing multilevel tasks (Schippers, Edmondson, and West, 2014). As team structure and composition become less permanent, teams also function in more resilient ways as they seek alternative means of learning through knowledge utilization (Bresman and Zellmer-Bruhn, 2013).
In this paper, we will focus on the implementation of a team-based knowledge sharing framework in Saudi Aramco, a large multinational company based in Dhahran, the eastern province of Saudi Arabia. In 2020, Saudi Aramco’s strategic intent is to be the world’s leading integrated energy and chemical company. This will be achieved by maximizing value creation,
International Journal of HRD Practice, Policy and Research 2016, Vol 1 No 1: 65-83
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facilitating the sustainable expansion of Saudi Arabia’s economy, and enabling a vibrant Saudi energy sector. To achieve this ambitious vision, the company has implemented the Accelerated Transformation Program (ATP). The ATP is a journey of transformation and renewal with the company’s workforce playing a critical role in its success. Against the backdrop of the ATP, the company’s workforce is undergoing unprecedented growth and change. Generation Y employees are replacing a highly experienced generation of older employees. As the ATP continues to be implemented, knowledge sharing is increasingly recognized as an important vehicle supporting company goals. The implementation of team-based knowledge sharing offers Saudi Aramco and its employees a forum for the exchange of knowledge and skills across generations, nationalities, and fields of work.
Purpose statement
Although team learning processes are related to knowledge acquisition and transfer to some extent, theoretical linkages between knowledge utilization and team learning have not been firmly established. In some studies, knowledge is viewed as a resource to improve team communication and coordination in order to accomplish certain tasks (e.g. Sole and Edmondson, 2002). In other studies, knowledge is associated with transactive memory systems where shared knowledge is embedded in the “minds” of teams to master particular tasks (e.g. Ren, Carley and Argote, 2006). This perspective is built on the assumption that knowledge does demonstrate unique properties and can therefore be specialized. Because contexts can shape learning, the way knowledge is shared and used in practice within and across teams could offer a different understanding of team learning. In this study, we explored team learning from the knowledge utilization perspective in Saudi Aramco. Through a longitudinal study, we examined how ten teams across six business areas with over 120 members engaged in knowledge sharing. These teams are structured and organized around the mechanisms of a team-based knowledge sharing framework. To guide the purpose of inquiry for this study, we raise the following research question: How is learning perceived as occurring through team-based knowledge sharing in Saudi Aramco?
Context of the study
Saudi Aramco’s strategic 2020 vision is to increase its organizational learning capacity by unleashing human potential through four critical change behaviours: people conversations, collaboration, empowerment, and decision making. The behaviours were identified following a comprehensive study led by both internal and external experts, and have been shown to support and enable complex change in global organizations. Team-based knowledge sharing builds on the behavioural programme to help the company achieve its long-term strategy. In the context of a rapidly changing workforce, there is urgency for retiring employees to share their tacit knowledge with other employees before they leave the organization. Demographic shifts in the workforce also offer the opportunity for team-based knowledge sharing as a cross-generational and cross-occupational learning interface. The aim is to bridge generational gaps by engaging employees in these critical behaviours. Each of the four behaviours is governed by five corporate values: excellence, accountability, integrity, citizenship, and safety. The strategic vision is further driven by the organization’s ATP aimed at leveraging its human capital to develop an agile workforce through a series of HRD interventions, including talent development and employee engagement. In cultivating a culture of learning and change, Saudi Aramco has engaged in team-based knowledge sharing since 2012. The aim is to develop a network of learning and practices across all levels, increasing the employees’ capacity to learn continuously, rapidly, and adaptively.

Team-based knowledge sharing allows employees to regularly meet together on a volunteer basis in small groups to share individual “best practices” and lessons learned, which are driven by complex and urgent work challenges for which there are no easy solutions. The process of knowledge sharing is facilitated by individual storytelling of direct experiences related to a particular work-related issue. Personal narratives form the core of knowledge interpretation and exploration based on the intersection of individual experiences which may or may not be familiar to members of the same team. The Saudi Aramco framework is built on a structured approach to knowledge sharing largely facilitated by a team leader or coordinator. It works primarily by means of face-to-face interaction in teams of no more than 12 members each in order to take learning to a much deeper and reflective level.

This article will provide the theoretical underpinnings of the framework, describe its practical implementation, and highlight its organizational outcomes. It will also outline some limitations to the study, highlight its implications for HRD, and note some suggestions for future research.

Volume 1, Number 1