Knowledge Sharing in Consulting Companies: Opportunities and Limitations of Knowledge Codification
- 1 September 2005
- journal article
- Published by World Scientific Pub Co Pte Ltd in Journal of Information & Knowledge Management
- Vol. 4 (3), 201-212
- https://doi.org/10.1142/s0219649205001171
Abstract
This paper is a study of the knowledge-sharing difficulties experienced by three departments in a knowledge-intensive firm. The case organisation is a global consulting firm that has been on the forefront of knowledge management and has won several knowledge management related international acclaims. Our analysis shows that there are strong disincentives in place for departments to share knowledge. We found that the nature of the businesses of the departments was very different and so were their knowledge requirements and their preferred ways to seek knowledge. Additionally, confidentiality agreements with clients and lack of cross-departmental interaction inhibited knowledge sharing outside departmental boundaries. Contrary to the common belief in the organisation, we found that one single IT system could not satisfy the context-specific knowledge-sharing needs of the different departments. We suggest that some very recent breakthrough technologies could be applied to facilitate cross-departmental knowledge sharing provided they are implemented at the strategic organisational level.Keywords
This publication has 22 references indexed in Scilit:
- In the FieldPublished by Informa UK Limited ,2002
- Diagnosing and Fighting Knowledge-Sharing HostilityOrganizational Dynamics, 2002
- INTERPERSONAL AND INTERACTION INFLUENCES ON INFORMAL RESOURCE EXCHANGES BETWEEN R&D RESEARCHERS ACROSS ORGANIZATIONAL BOUNDARIES.The Academy of Management Journal, 2000
- The Search-Transfer Problem: The Role of Weak Ties in Sharing Knowledge across Organization SubunitsAdministrative Science Quarterly, 1999
- Socially Embedded Consumer Transactions: For What Kinds of Purchases Do People Most Often use Networks?American Sociological Review, 1998
- An input-process-output analysis of influence and performance in problem-solving groups.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1995
- NETWORKING AS KNOWLEDGE WORK: A STUDY OF STRATEGIC INTERORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE FINANCIAL SERVICES INDUSTRY*Journal of Management Studies, 1993
- NETWORK DYADS IN ENTREPRENEURIAL SETTINGS - A STUDY OF THE GOVERNANCE OF EXCHANGE RELATIONSHIPSAdministrative Science Quarterly, 1992
- Absorptive Capacity: A New Perspective on Learning and InnovationAdministrative Science Quarterly, 1990
- The Strength of Weak TiesAmerican Journal of Sociology, 1973