Knowledge Management and Setting up of Effective Communities of Practice

Today's competitive environment is more knowledge intensive than ever, showing continuous shifts in business process that characterizes the current "Knowledge Age." In order to introduce KM and to develop the right culture for knowledge sharing, OMV E&P has embarked on an ambitious program. One of key KM initiatives has been to establish Communities of Practice (CoPs) which are rolled out to all its worldwide E&P subsidiaries. CoPs are global knowledge sharing E&P teams, connected via an online platform “E&P Connect”. INRODUCTION In today’s highly competitive global organizations, we are in an era characterized by constant change and complex systems or processes, where knowledge centric activities are becoming the primary source of sustainable competitive advantage. In other words, in order to add real value to their organisations, managers must seek to identify, manage and leverage company's knowledge. Thus “Knowledge Management (KM)” becomes an emerging discipline which aims to leverage “information” across the entire organization, for improving decision making, increasing Innovation, and attain competitive advantage. CoPs associated with KM have proved to be very effective and have been successfully deployed in many knowledge intensive global organizations. The paper will address and clarify Knowledge and knowledge Management concept, moreover it will present CoPs and how it is currently functioning in OMV E&P.