Untitled - socium.ge

Why information should influence productivity 157Empirically, two factors shed light on this thesis. First, individual recruiterswho send more e-mail and have more outbound contacts are weakly moresuccessful in terms of revenues than those who send less e-mail and havefewer outbound contacts. 6 Second, all firms do engage in a form of “informationpush” in that each will market news of an employment opportunity toprospective candidates in their databases. Rather like advertising, these techniquesdo appear successful and firms continue to invest in them.COMPUTATIONAL PERSPECTIVES ONORGANIZATIONAL PRODUCTIVITYInformation Sharing and the Development of the Knowledge BaseWhile economic perspectives focus on the role of information in choosingbetween alternatives, computational complexity theory focuses on the efficiencywith which procedural information is used to navigate through problemspace. The value of an individual’s knowledge base is assumed to be nondecreasingin the addition of new information, since procedures representoptions that are only exercised when conditions are favorable (Van Alstyne,1997). Existing procedures can also be used in the creation of new procedures.It follows that sharing procedural information increases individual productivityby increasing the range of functions a person can perform.Examples of procedural information sharing include informal know-howtrading in which non-proprietary information is routinely exchanged based onnorms of reciprocity (Von Hippel, 1988); sharing through the networks ofinformal, professional, or industry associations (Crane, 1969; Saxenian,1994); and diffusion when the information is offered at little or no cost as acomplement that enhances the sale of a product (Griliches, 1958).Hypothesis 6a: Know-how can increase productivity by creating newoptions for those who are unfamiliar with it. This includes options for recursivelycreating new process know-how. Sharing disseminates these options.Initial observations in a recruiting context provide interesting conflictingevidence on sharing and on what is shared. On one hand, individual recruitersreport learning a great deal from colleagues about how to handle difficultcases, especially when they join the firm. Examples include disclosing informationon candidate sexual orientation and unsubstantiated claims of sexualharassment, where stakes for candidate privacy or client liability are high.On the other hand, survey respondents who claimed to share predominantlyfactual information in lieu of process tips appeared to complete more projects.This raises numerous unresolved issues concerning whether (1) proceduralinformation is more difficult and time-consuming to transfer, (2) experts have