Between autonomy and control: what regulation for knowledge management systems?

Abstract

Knowledge management systems contribute to the emergence of new organizationalforms such as post-bureaucratic and decentralized organizations. Hence, these systems af-fect the control and autonomy of organizational actors. On one side, they enhance hori-zontal communication and encourage self-organizing and self-managing teams. On theother side, they control organizational actors through tracking and monitoring the infor-mal flow of information. However, controlling actors can constrain collective intelligenceand creativity. But simultaneously, the autonomy enhanced through these systems candestabilize the organization and act against its interests. How can organizations regulatethe tension between autonomy and control while implementing knowledge managementsystems? This paper aims at analyzing this relevant question through conducting a casestudy within the information systems department of Infra/SNCF and using the regulationtheory of Reynaud. By using this theory for analyzing the social appropriation process ofknowledge management systems, this research shows that the implementation of such sys-tems leads to new rules of autonomy and control. These rules can however coexist, be con-tradictory or disable action