Paper Info
Title
Practising peer review in organizations: a qualifier for knowledge dissemination and legitimization
Abstract
A key issue in many organizations is how to disseminate information in an effective way and, more importantly, how to make use of this information in order to create new knowledge. One way of addressing this problem is to focus on how information is socially transformed into knowledge. This includes how knowledge is handled in practice and how the knowledge produced is qualified as being something worth knowing and acting upon. Two well-established practices for doing this are the refereeing system and the peer review process. These are used in scientific communities as a means of validating and legitimating knowledge, for example by reviewing journal papers before publishing or project proposals before granting funds, etc. This paper argues that peer review is a useful concept when looking at knowledge creation and legitimization in organizations. The social meaning of peer review is to legitimize new knowledge by organizationally sanctioning it and thereby creating a platform for collective sense making. This paper uses an example from a field study in a pharmaceutical company in order to illustrate this argument. The study took place in a quality support department where the quality of health care products and processes was assessed. The organization had a need for fast and reliable updating of information that could influence how the production process of pharmaceuticals should be carried out. In order to cope with these problems the department established an ‘evaluation loop’, which shared several characteristics with the peer review process.
Year
DOI
Venue
2001
10.1080/02683960110054780
JIT
Keywords
Field
DocType
information technology,information systems management,geographic information systems,knowledge management,management science,computer information systems,computer information technology,information security,information systems technology,jit,information science,business model,business information systems,information system,soft system methodology,strategic information systems,social sciences,information management system,accounting information systems,information management,management information systems,health information systems
Information system,Management information systems,Information management,Soft systems methodology,Information technology,Peer review,Sociology,Public relations,Information science,Knowledge management,Strategic information system
Journal
Volume
Issue
ISSN
16
2
1466-4437
Citations 
PageRank 
References 
7
0.78
5
Authors
3
Name
Order
Citations
PageRank
Magnus Bergquist117616.29
Jan Ljungberg270.78
Ulrika Lundh-Snis3323.88