Rather a hedgehog or a fox? A knowledge density perspective on Specialists and generalists

The relation between knowledge and job performance has predominantly been studied through research on expertise. To move beyond expertise, the concept knowledge density is introduced. Knowledge density is defined as the likelihood concepts co-occur in the minds of a community of people. Through a synthesis of the extant literature on specialists and generalists, we argue that the density of one's knowledge has differing implications for efficiency, innovation, and overall job performance. We discuss task complexity as a potential moderator and the implications of knowledge density for management research and practice.

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