Knowledge Integration and Strategy Tools

This paper examines the role of strategy tools in integrating diverse knowledge. Building on the understanding that knowledge integration (KI) is a multi-level organisational phenomenon that benefits from both the divergence and convergence of knowledge, we develop the concept of composite strategy tools. Such tools are assemblages of tools and techniques used to produce KI. Based on the in-depth case study of the use of a composite tool in two projects in an organisation, we identify two subprocesses of KI cycling between the meso- and micro-level to create strategic outcomes at the macro-level. Considering strategy tools as boundary objects, this study contributes to the theoretical elaboration of how composite strategy tools can enable knowledge divergence and convergence, producing KI at the individual, group, and organisational levels. It further suggests that more attention should be paid to the dynamics unfolding within what we call composite tools.