The transactive memory concept (Liang et al. 1995, Wegner, 1995,; Wegner et al. 1991) proves helpful in identifying such a mechanism. From the perspective of this approach, groups manage to coordinate and to retrieve knowledge that is stored by different members of a group by simulating a shared memory. For example, the individual members of a family can specialize in storing different categories of knowledge. They, as a group, thereby manage to store more knowledge than individual members of the family could.
(Kieser and Koch, 2002: 249)
Kieser, A. and Koch, U. 2002. Organizational learning through rule adaptation: from the behavioral theory to transactive organizational learning. In Augier, March and Cyert (eds) The Economics of Choice, Change and Organization. Cheltenham: Elgar. Page 237-258.
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