The Need for an Organizational Knowledge Management Strategy

Projects can cause organizations to perform in new ways resulting in the generation of knowledge. Project learning occurs when new knowledge is captured, disseminated, and used by the project team. Y2K utility projects were studied with respect to knowledge benefits and management. Projects from developed countries using western technology were found to have knowledge benefits but their organizations were doing a poor job of capturing them. It was hypothesized that the failure to capture knowledge benefits was due to organizations not having an organizational knowledge management strategy. The respondents were surveyed with respect to their organization’s knowledge strategy. The number of knowledge benefits and capture actions taken was compared between projects that had a knowledge strategy and those that did not. A significant correlation was found between the dependent variables and knowledge management strategy for those organizations having an organizational strategy both during Y2K and now. No significant correlation was found with those projects that had a strategy either during Y2K or now. Finally, types of capture actions taken were assessed using percent of respondents taking the capture action. Modifying existing processes and procedures was found to occur much more often in projects having a knowledge strategy. The implications are that project-based knowledge management systems, KMS, within organizations can successfully capture and transfer tacit knowledge without capturing context. However, organizations are much more likely to capture knowledge benefits if they have an organizational knowledge management strategy.