Knowledge Type and Communication Media Choice in the Knowledge Transfer Process

The literature suggests that transferring knowledge may lead to a competitive advantage, synergistic cost advantages, and better implementation of organizational strategies, but there is little empirical evidence to guide organizations in managing the knowledge transfer process. This research explores how organizations use communication media to transfer or share knowledge. Building upon media richness theory (Daft and Lengel, 1986), we hypothesize that rich media would be used more often to transfer know-how or tacit knowledge, and lean media would be used more often to transfer information or explicit knowledge. The results of our survey of 287 employees in five hospitals provided support for our hypotheses and were relatively consistent for hospital administrators, nursing directors, and staff nurses. These findings suggest that the knowledge transfer process appears to be a critical organizational concern, as the type or property of knowledge appeared to be the primary driver of media choice.