A conceptual model for managing incompatible impacts of organisational structures on awareness levels

Awareness levels of individuals about various aspects of the collaborative processes can be achieved by effective promotive interactions among them. Cultural structures are regarded as one of the major determinants of knowledge sharing patterns and awareness levels of individuals in collaborative contexts. Through an exploratory review of the literature, the present study points to the two rival organisational structures of cooperation and competition that coexist in any organisation in different intensities and mixtures. Finding a desirable mix of the above two structures is currently a challenging task and no explicit method exists for determining such an ideal mix. This study provides further theoretical insights into the analysis of incompatible impacts of several factors on the awareness levels of individuals in collaborative contexts. Drawn from the findings in the current body of literature, a conceptual model is developed. The proposed model relates cooperative and competitive structures, task dimensions, and group characteristics as potential factors that determine the awareness levels of individuals. The face validity of the proposed model is checked by employing an expert focus group. As a result, a number of enhancements and improvements to the model are proposed. Pragmatic aspects of the proposed model are then discussed and recommendations for future research are provided.