Knowledge Management Systems Spanning Cultures : The Case Of Deutsche Bank's HRbase

Earlier research has shown the impact of national culture on the development, roll-out, and usage of cross-national information systems (IS) projects. This study builds on and extends this research by exploring the influence of national culture within the setting of Knowledge Management Systems (KMS). Employing a case study approach, the study analyses the cross-national development and rollout of HRbase, an Intranet-based KMS for Deutsche Bank. The findings suggest that the impact of national culture is even stronger for KMS. Hofstede’s four-dimension framework, the framework predominantly used in earlier research, is found to be applicable in the new setting of KMS. The findings suggest that Hofstede’s “Power Distance” dimension is particularly relevant as knowledge management aims at sharing knowledge across hierarchies.