A review and classification of boundary objects use in knowledge management practices

Globalization, technological revolution and market competition are the base of nowadays knowledge-based economy. In organizational settings, people work in communities of practice in which they interact and share knowledge. These interactions are deemed to be fundamental for organizational development, innovation, capacity to change and ability to seize market and environmental opportunities. In order for communities of practice to thrive and knowledge management (KM) to be efficient, there is a need for mediating and enabling artefacts identified in the academic literature as boundary objects (BO). BOs help people from different groups to learn from each other and share their knowledge between and within groups. These objects can enhance mutual understanding and communication among individuals and groups as well as assist them in accessing knowledge that would otherwise be inaccessible. This study aimed at identifying and classifying BOs as socio-technical constructs that relate to practice of KM, rather than their theoretical significance. Therefore, researchers used a critical literature review of the KM landscape in the context of BOs' use. The findings of the study present a classification of these socio-technical artefacts, their link with KM practices and rich descriptions on how BOs can be leveraged in different contexts of the KM processes. To conduct this study, the authors adopted a systematic data extraction strategy to retrieve relevant records published during the last decade from well-established academic database. The analysis of the selected empirical studies indicated that the use of BOs highly contributes to the development of shared understandings, knowledge creation and innovative thinking among groups of people. The findings also show that, while serving similar enabling roles in different contexts, perceptions of importance, impact and use of the different types of BOs, i.e., semantic, syntactic, pragmatic and metaphoric, varied significantly in terms of the KM processes. Furthermore, the analysis suggested that, in order to get maximum benefit from the power of BOs and strengthening their role, it is important for an organization to identify, create and facilitate the use of BOs for KM process.