"It's Easier to Ask Someone I Know": Call Center Technicians' Adoption of Knowledge Management Tools‪.‬

This article traces the early implementation phase of a set of knowledge management tools in four customer call support centers within a multinational corporation. Through a case study analysis, this article addresses two fundamental issues. First, the article investigates how the organization keeps a new type of knowledge worker--the relatively unskilled, low-paid customer call support technicians who staff the phones at centers around the United States--current with the latest information on those products they support. Second, data from the case study suggest specific innovation factors that discourage technicians from adopting the knowledge tools. Keywords: communication in organizations; call centers; diffusion of innovations; knowledge management; organizational learning