Knowledge Management Projects and the Learning Cycle: Synergy or Fallacy?

The optimization of (organizational) learning processes (e.g. Crossan et al., 1999; Bontis et al., 2002) appears as a key motivation – albeit often implicit – for the development of Knowledge Management (KM) strategies (Balbastre et al., 2003). This learning may either involve the exploitation or the exploration of knowledge (March, 1991). Knowledge exploitation aims to prevent unnecessary duplication of learning, so that one person or group learns from the experiences of another person or group, so that the former do not themselves need to have the experience. Knowledge exploration aims to encourage new learning so that something is created that did not previously exist. KM strategies, whether aimed at exploitation or exploration, are frequently initiated by means of formal KM projects. However, KM projects often fail. A number of reasons for this have been identified. In particular, badly managed cultural contexts and social processes are common barriers to the fulfilment of KM-related learning goals (McDermott, 1999; Newell et al., 2001; Scarbrough and Swan, 1999; Storey and Barnett, 2000; Storey and Quintas, 2001).