Turbulent Stability of Emergent Roles: The Dualistic Nature of Self-Organizing Knowledge Coproduction

Author List: Arazy, Ofer; Daxenberger, Johannes; Lifshitz-Assaf, Hila; Nov, Oded; Gurevych, Iryna;
Information Systems Research, 2016, Volume 27, Issue 4, Page 792-812.
Increasingly, new forms of organizing for knowledge production are built around self-organizing coproduction community models with ambiguous role definitions. Current theories struggle to explain how high-quality knowledge is developed in these settings and how participants self-organize in the absence of role definitions, traditional organizational controls, or formal coordination mechanisms. In this article, we engage the puzzle by investigating the temporal dynamics underlying emergent roles on individual and organizational levels. Comprised of a multilevel large-scale empirical study of Wikipedia stretching over a decade, our study investigates emergent roles in terms of prototypical activity patterns that organically emerge from individuals' knowledge production actions. Employing a stratified sample of 1,000 Wikipedia articles, we tracked 200,000 distinct participants and 700,000 coproduction activities, and recorded each activity's type. We found that participants' role-taking behavior is turbulent across roles, with substantial flow in and out of coproduction work. Our findings at the organizational level, however, show that work is organized around a highly stable set of emergent roles, despite the absence of traditional stabilizing mechanisms such as predefined work procedures or role expectations. This dualism in emergent work is conceptualized as Òturbulent stability.Ó We attribute the stabilizing factor to the artifact-centric production process and present evidence to illustrate the mutual adjustment of role taking according to the artifact's needs and stage. We discuss the importance of the affordances of Wikipedia in enabling such tacit coordination. This study advances our theoretical understanding of the nature of emergent roles and self-organizing knowledge coproduction. We discuss the implications for custodians of online communities as well as for managers of firms engaging in self-organized knowledge collaboration.
Keywords: online production communities; coproduction; Wikipedia; emergent roles; stability; mobility; artifact-centric; boundary infrastructure
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#54 0.196 approach conditions organizational actions emergence dynamics traditional theoretical emergent consequences developments case suggest make organization point outcomes recent trajectory claims
#45 0.158 community communities online members participants wikipedia social member knowledge content discussion collaboration attachment communication law virtual membership structures forms activities
#256 0.116 coordination mechanisms work contingencies boundaries temporal coordinating vertical associated activities different coordinate suggests dispersed coordinated horizontal relative demand spatial hours
#218 0.087 role roles gender differences women significant play age men plays sample differ played vary understand critical greater implications relatively offered
#144 0.081 knowledge transfer management technology creation organizational process tacit research study organization processes work organizations implications practice explicit models consultants transfers
#102 0.076 choice type functions nature paper literature particular implications function examine specific choices extent theoretical design discussion value widely finally adopted
#254 0.070 level levels higher patterns activity results structures lower evolution significant analysis degree data discussed implications stable cluster exist relationships identify
#100 0.061 affective concepts role questions game gaming production games logic play shaping frames future network natural processes evidence addresses reference theorizing
#125 0.060 framework model used conceptual proposed given particular general concept frameworks literature developed develop providing paper developing guidelines concepts appropriate set