Creating and duplicating new knowledge (hybrid knowledge) that combines internal and external knowledge of organization is important in promoting knowledge evolution. Existing studies on intra-organizational diffusion of knowledge have asserted that it is difficult for knowledge creators, knowledge users, finders of users, presenters of knowledge values, and knowledge users to have the same consciousness for the duplication of knowledge. This study clarifies the organizational mechanism that enables the duplication of new knowledge through a case study from the perspective of sharing legitimacy among multiple staff members. In this case, staff members of the Japan Red Cross Medical Center duplicated and used kaizen knowledge introduced from Fujitsu Limited. After examining how multiple staff members replicated the new knowledge, it became clear that two factors constitute a mechanism to promote it. First, it is important to combine legitimacy from cross-sectional and cross-sectoral perspectives using existing hierarchies and systems. Second, in order to maintain overall consistency, supporters inside and outside the organization who can overview knowledge replication are useful. These results show that difficulties in sharing consciousness can be overcome by rethinking how legitimacy is shown to staff participating in knowledge introduction.
