Cognitive style fit and effective knowledge reuse

Effectively managing an organisation’s knowledge is considered a key success factor in today’s increasingly competitive business environment. This paper makes the case that a relationship exists between the cognitive styles of producers and consumers of knowledge and the manner in which they contribute to and/or reuse Knowledge Management (KM) systems, in an organisational context. The research combines the literature on KM, which pertains to the leveraging of organisational knowledge for the purpose of achieving competitive advantage through effective problem solving and innovation; and Adaption Innovation Theory, which argues that individuals differ in the manner in which they problem solve, made decisions and are creative, based on their cognitive styles. It is a first attempt to study, using Kirton’s Adaption Innovation Theory, the relationship that exists between cognitive style and the manner in which individuals contribute to and/or reuse organisational knowledge, stored in knowledge repositories.