Expertise, Communication, and Organizing - Paperback

by Jeffrey W. Treem (Editor), Paul M. Leonardi (Editor)

Expertise is an intriguing construct. Though it is highly desired, it is commonly characterized by exclusivity or being something esoteric making it both seemingly difficult to acquire and understand. This opaqueness surrounding the nature of expertise in organizational contexts is coupled with greater demands for specialized work and employees' increased reliance on communication technologies to complete tasks - trends that further complicate the evaluation of workers' knowledge and abilities.

This volume draws upon original works, from scholars of diverse backgrounds, to explore how recent changes in the structure of organizational life have altered the nature of expertise. Specifically, this book aims to challenge the perspective that organizational expertise exists to be recognized and utilized, and offers an alternative lens that views expertise as emergent and constituted in communication among organizing actors.

Examining the intersection of communication and expertise, within and across different contexts of organizing, offers new insights into the discursive, material, and structural influences that contribute to an understanding of expertise. This book offers a comprehensive view of organizational expertise by presenting theoretical frameworks for the study of expertise, providing reviews of how the study of expertise has evolved, applying perspectives on expertise to different domains of organizational practice, and presenting new directions for the study of the intersection of expertise, communication, and organizing. The result is a treatment that considers expertise in diverse forms and across a variety of contexts of organizing, and in doing so provides valuable content to researchers from multiple disciplinary backgrounds.

Author Biography

Jeffrey W. Treem, Assistant Professor, Department of Communication Studies, Moody College of Communication, The University of Texas at Austin, Paul M. Leonardi, Duca Family Professor of Technology Management, University of California, Santa Barbara

Dr. Jeffrey W. Treem is an Assistant Professor of Communication Studies in the Moody College of Communication at The University of Texas at Austin. His program of research explores the relationship between communication practices and social perceptions of expertise, primarily in organizational contexts. Specifically, his studies examine how communication technologies facilitate recurrent, interactive practices that affect attributions of knowledge individuals make regarding coworkers, and the perceived value of organizational work. Dr. Treem's work appears in publications such as Journal of Communication, Communication Monographs, Journal of Applied Communication Research, and Communication Yearbook.

Paul Leonardi (Ph.D., Stanford University) is the Duca Family Professor of Technology Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He is also the Investment Group of Santa Barbara Founding Director of the Master of Technology Management Program. Leonardi's research focuses on how companies can design their organizational networks and implement new technologies to more effectively create and share knowledge. He is particularly interested in how data intensive technologies, such as simulation and social media tools, enable new ways to access, store, and share information; how the new sources of information these technologies provide can change work routines and communication partners; and how shifts in employees' work and communication alter the nature of an organization's expertise.