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What Happens When Analytics Lands in the Organization? Studying Epistemologies in Clash.
Conference Paper
This paper aims to contribute to the ongoing discussion on knowledge at work. We look in particular at how knowledge is transferred across boundaries, amongst people with different epistemologies, and at the tensions that arise when those epistemologies clash. The paper is motivated by the phenomenon of business analytics. Inspired by the widely promoted business advantages of this technology, organizations jump on the bandwagon and adopt it without considering how such a different perspective might disrupt the practices of their employees, who have another perspective on knowledge. Our study in a telecommunications organization that recently adopted analytics reveals the tensions that arise between analysts (bearing an algorithmic, data-based perspective on knowledge and knowing) and account managers (following a heuristic and intuitive perspective). The business analytics phenomenon provides us with the opportunity to gain deeper understanding of how employees enact their own epistemologies about understanding knowledge, and how their epistemological differences affect their collaboration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]