Knowledge Management in virtual organisations: Interorganisational and interproject knowledge transfer

Due to developments in technology and in the environment of organisations, organisations can become more virtual. This virtual aspect can be found in geographical dispersed workforces and intensive use of information and communication technology (ICT) for communication and co-ordination. An extreme form is the virtual organisation (VO) which is discussed rather often in current literature. However, the body of literature is ambiguous, normative and often conceptual. Therefore the focus of the research is on investigating co-operative organisation structures that have a degree of virtualness (implying a certain amount of dispersion of the workforce and use of ICT for communication and co-ordination). The research discusses that a high degree of virtualness has impact on knowledge transfer. From learning and knowledge literature, it becomes clear that transferring knowledge requires personal interaction, especially for transferring tacit knowledge. However, within organisations with a high degree of virtualness, there is little personal interaction, and most interaction is through ICT. In VO literature, several problems are stated due to geographical dispersion and intensive use of ICT. From this one might assume that organisations with a high degree of virtualness have much difficulty in transferring and memorising knowledge organisationally. However, from empirical studies on three case studies, it was found that knowledge was transferred within these organisations. The focus of knowledge transfer in organisations with a virtual setting is more on interorganisational, interpartner and interproject knowledge transfer, than on organisational transfer of knowledge. The contribution of the paper is in discussing concepts on how knowledge could be transferred in co-operative (virtual) organisation structures. Furthermore, making these concepts on transfer of knowledge more explicit for the involving parties in the virtual setting can create win-win situations for all involved parties, so that they can receive the knowledge they prefer.