A main purpose of information systems (IS) is to support intra- and inter-organizational collaboration. From a collaboration perspective, information transfer gets a meaning if the transferred information is converted to knowledge. If we instead of an information perspective take a knowledge perspective on collaboration, stressing knowledge integration, many other factors than the IS itself and information characteristics will be critical. Working routines and the way information is interpreted, both by the sender and the receiver, will be stressed. Research focusing IS-supported collaboration and knowledge management is needed. This paper presents such an empirical study. Focus in the study is on knowledge integration between different self-contained work groups and the study explores how knowledge integration is accomplished and why the integration is not always simple and successful. The empirical context is the Swedish health care and more specifically, the daily knowledge integration between a microbiology laboratory and its customers. Empirical data was collected by interviews and observations, and analysed with help of a theoretical model constructed from two main theories: Community of Practice (CoP) and Knowledge Management Episodes. This model implies that knowledge should be seen as a process and in a relational perspective. The study shows that there is a mutual dependency between the IS and other knowledge resources in the organization. Even if the groups have the same overarching goals, regulations, and the same IS, the different groups create their own working routines, ways of interpreting information, and their own ways to convert information to knowledge. This situational and emergent development of work practice around IS suggests that management of existing IS and the implementation of new IS needs to stronger focus the mutual influence between IS and working activities and that feedback in the integration process is important.

Knowledge integration is a critical topic in current knowledge management research and practice. Research on this topic focuses primarily on how knowledge is integrated within a work setting. A less researched area is knowledge integration between different work groups, which is the focus of this paper. The paper presents two intensive case studies—one permanent work setting and one temporary (project) work setting—which were studied using a practice-based perspective. The purpose is to describe and explain how knowledge is integrated between different work groups and we address why is it that boundary activities work or break in knowledge integration. A main result of the study is that knowledge integration in the two cases was more complicated than the literature suggests. Differences in knowledge and organizational landscapes made knowledge integration a challenging task. Both differences and similarities were found between the two cases. Differences were seen in the use of boundary spanning activities and boundary objects. Similarities that were found were, for example, organizational structures and mechanisms, i.e. purposes, rules, and infrastructures, which facilitated the integration of knowledge or could function as obstacles and impediments.

Organisations spend a great deal of efforts on information management, but if they are not successful in information mediation and use, it can be a waste of resources. In this paper we have applied a knowledge perspective on mediation and use. The purpose is to describe and explain why knowledge integration processes in knowledge-intensive routine work may work or fail. As an example of such work we have used a case study from the Swedish healthcare sector, more specifically a microbiology laboratory and some of its customers. Empirical data were collected by interviews and observations, and analysed with the help of theories about knowledge boundaries, knowledge integration and knowledge mediators (boundary objects and brokers). The case analysis shows that the boundaries between these groups are more complicated than they may appear to be at first sight, but also that there are methods to create a common understanding and overcome the complications. The main conclusion is that in this type of work, there are in fact several different boundaries between groups, depending on differences in work tasks, interest and motivation and that various ways to attain knowledge integration, directed both to groups and to individuals, can be required.

Ett väl fungerande samarbete mellan olika specialiteter inom hälso- och sjukvård är grundläggande för att patienter ska få en säker och bra vård. Kliniska laboratorier tillför genom sina analyser viktiga pusselbitar för diagnos och behandling, vilket då kräver en integrering av kunskap mellan laboratorium och dess kunder. I det dagliga arbetet sker denna integrering primärt via ett informationssystem bestående av remisser och svar.

Syftet med studien är att ur ett relationsperspektiv beskriva, tolka och förklara den integrering av kunskap som sker mellan olika grupper inom hälso- och sjukvård innan ett datoriserat informationssystem införs. En kvalitativ, tolkande fallstudie har genomförts vid ett mikrobiologiskt laboratorium och fyra av dess kunder. I studien har två teoretiska källor, communities of practice och kunskapsepisoder, sammanfogats till en övergripande analysmodell och med hjälp av denna samt kompletterande teorier har analys av det empiriska materialet skett.

Resultatet från studien visar att den kunskap som integreras består av en kombination av tyst och explicit samt individuell och organisatorisk kunskap. Kunskapen byggs successivt upp hos såväl individer som grupper och för att kunskapsintegreringen ska lyckas måste det finnas förståelse för varandras perspektiv samt en vilja att förändra existerande kunskap. De hinder för integrering som identifierats är brist på feedback, individernas intresse och motivation, tid för reflektion samt forum för perspektivskapande.

Studien visar också att den framtagna analysmodellen lämpar sig väl för att beskriva, tolka och förklara kunskapsintegrering som en del av dagliga arbetsprocesser.