دانلود رایگان ترجمه مقاله عوامل موفقیت در مدیریت دانش در سازمان های موقت (نشریه الزویر 2011)

فاکتورهای موفقیت مدیریت دانش در سازمان های موقت

Success factors of knowledge management in temporary organizations

Abstract

The prevalence of temporary forms of cooperation and project-based work is increasing. Likewise, the knowledge-intensity of work contents is growing. However, the unique and temporary nature of projects and programs does not support knowledge transfer from, between and within projects. This research aims at spotting success factors of knowledge management in temporary organizations. Based on a cross-industry sample with 414 organizations, we apply the partial least square (PLS) method to test the influence of cultural, organizational, structural, and process-related factors on knowledge management effectiveness. Besides IT-support and formal elements of the organization, it is cultural factors that strongly influence knowledge management success. In temporary organizations they compensate for the lack of organizational routines and organizational memory. Our results contribute to a more differentiated understanding of knowledge management in project environments.

1- Introduction

The increasing importance of knowledge as a critical resource is mirrored by theoretical approaches underlining the relevance of knowledge. The knowledge-based view of the firm considers knowledge and the ability to integrate individual knowledge in the context of a common task fulfillment to be essential for the creation of competitive advantage (Kogut and Zander, 1992; Grant 1996; Spender 1996; Conner and Prahalad, 1996). Likewise, the degree of temporary forms of cooperation and working constellations, i.e. projects and programs, is growing (Midler 1995; Lundin and Söderholm, 1998; Maylor et al. 2006; Beaume et al. 2009). The discipline of project management (PM) is not only important for project-based industries like construction, management consulting, film-making, and software engineering but also for many other industries where projects are employed to generate innovative products and services and to bring about organizational change.

Little research has tried to combine both fields of research and to analyze the challenges of KM in temporary organizations (Demarest 1997; DeFillippi and Arthur, 1998; Brookes et al. 2006). Due to their uniqueness and short-term orientation temporary organizations face particular obstacles in their KM. After a project is finished the constellation of people working together is resolved, fragmenting the project knowledge. In contrast to permanent organizations where departments and divisions act as knowledge silos, in temporary organizations routines and organizational memory hardly emerge. There is a lack of mechanisms for knowledge capturing, storing and disseminating and for organizational learning (Disterer 2000; Meyerson et al. 1996; Prencipe and Tell, 2001; Sydow et al. 2004).

More recently, several studies addressed the problem of KM in temporary organizations. On the basis of case studies and qualitative research, the status quo of KM in individual firms, industries, and project types has been investigated. Extant research also identified several success factors and barriers with regard to KM in and between projects (Schindler and Eppler, 2003; Brookes et al., 2006; Love et al. 2005; Hanisch et al. 2009). As these results are based on rather small samples, single cases, specific industries and project types, generalization might not be possible. The aim of our study therefore is to identify success factors for KM in temporary organizations on a broad empirical basis. We aim at determining the relative importance and the interrelationships of the different success factors identified in previous studies. As the most prevalent form of temporary organizations, we focus on projects and investigate project knowledge management (PKM). A large sample serves to control for effects of firm size, industry, and project type amongst others.

The paper is organized as follows. The next section sketches the conceptual foundations of knowledge management in temporary settings. In Section 3, we provide an overview on existing research on PKM. We derive our hypotheses and develop a research model in Section 4. It follows the description of the empirical basis and the research methodology. In Section 6 and seven we present and discuss the empirical results. We conclude with a summary of the main findings and its implications for project management practice.