How task heterogeneity and frequency relates to knowledge codification: Evaluating the Shared Construction Guidelines (SCG) of 24 Swedish Public Client Organizations

Abstract

Over a sustained period of time, organizational theorists have argued that public sector organizations are more inefficient than their private counterparts. Recent studies have explained these inefficiencies as the result of having to do with capabilities rather than resources thereby calling for an improvement of the capabilities of public organizations. A key mechanism for achieving such improvements is the articulation and codification of knowledge. This study examines an attempt at codifying knowledge in the form of a set of shared construction guidelines (SCG) employed by 24 large public client organizations in the Municipality of Gothenburg, Sweden. Specifically, these guidelines are viewed with respect to the framework of Zollo and Winter (2002) in terms of how organizations with high task heterogeneity and low task frequency can more effectively develop dynamic capabilities through the deliberate learning mechanism of knowledge codification. Preliminary results indicate that task frequency and organizational size are stronger indicators than heterogeneity in deciding whether a public client organization utilizes knowledge codification systems such as the SCG.