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Systematising knowledge management in projects

TL;DR: In this paper, a model is proposed that conceptualises project-specific knowledge drawing on and feeding into the organization's knowledge management system (KMS) at tactical and strategic levels.
Abstract: Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a practicable systems-based approach to knowledge management (KM) in a project environment, to encourage organisations to unlock the value in their review processes. It relies on knowledge capture and storage at decision review points, to enrich individual, team and organisational learning during the project life cycle. The project's phases are typically represented horizontally with deliverables (objectives) or project "promises" as the desirable outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to give expression through introducing a vertical dimension to facilitate the KM process. A model is proposed that conceptualises project-specific knowledge drawing on and feeding into the organisation's knowledge management system (KMS) at tactical and strategic levels. Design/methodology/approach – This conceptual paper links concepts from systems theory with KM, to produce a model to identify, collate, and optimise project-based knowledge and integrate it into the management process. Findings – The application of the system theory approach enriches the knowledge generated by a project, and feeds it into the next phase of that project. At the same time, it contributes to the individual's and project team's KM, specifies possible courses of action, together with risks, costs and benefits and thus it expands the organisation's higher level KMS. Research limitations/implications – The concept suggests that the knowledge capture, storage and sharing process may best be undertaken holistically, in view of the systems relationships between the tasks. Systems theory structures this process. Research opportunities include studying the interfaces between levels of KM, in relation to the project's progress. Practical implications – Reconceptualisation of the project as a knowledge creation process may improve the project's progress as well as add to the individual's, project team's, and wider organisation's knowledge base. An example is given. Originality/value – This paper illuminates the broader potential of under-utilised opportunities in well-known management approaches to add dimension to the business project, of knowledge creation, storage and sharing.
Citations
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Book
29 Nov 2005

2,161 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine how opportunities for contributions are created in project research and the arguments that underlie research question constructions are analyzed and their role in theory construction is reflected upon.

52 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors highlight the importance of managing and supporting learning in project-based settings, but it still seems to be problematic, and propose new project management capabilit...
Abstract: Although researchers have over the years highlighted the importance of managing and supporting learning in project-based settings, it still seems to be problematic. New project management capabilit...

44 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a case study based on 30 qualitative interviews, document analysis, and observational participation in Denmark's second largest river restoration project, the Houting project, is presented.

34 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors used survey data to rank the relative importance of perceived factors that inhibit the transfer of knowledge across projects and examine the statistical relationship between various project management competencies and project efficiency among a sample of project-based firms (PBFs).
Abstract: Purpose The purpose of this paper is to use survey data to rank the relative importance of perceived factors that inhibit the transfer of knowledge across projects and examine the statistical relationship between various “higher order” dimensions of project management competencies and project efficiency among a sample of project-based firms (PBFs). Design/methodology/approach The research philosophical approach adopted was post-positivism, a half-way house between positivism and phenomenological approaches. The author used a largely structured survey questionnaire with an inclusion of few open-ended items. The survey data collected were largely based on the “perceptions” of mostly experienced project management practitioners, whose perspectives on project processes and performance are likely to be more dependable. Because of budget limitations, a total of 260 questionnaires were mailed to randomly selected PBFs (with an enclosed self-addressed and stamped return envelope). Of the 260 questionnaires sent to PBFs, 58 questionnaires were returned, representing a return rate of just over 22 percent. Findings Results indicate that “high time pressures towards the end of the project,” “too much focus on short-term project deliverables,” and “fear of negative sanctions when disclosing project mistakes” were three top-ranked factors that inhibited knowledge transfer across projects. Some “higher order” project management competencies like “dynamic competencies” have relatively a greater impact on predicting project efficiency. Dynamic competencies will only continue to increase in importance as today’s project environments are characterized as continuously evolving, turbulent, and complex and require the need to be effective in dealing with various uncertainties. Once included in the regression equation, the “ownership variable” dominates all other explanatory variables in predicting project efficiency among a sample of PBFs in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), most likely driven by the project management competencies of multinational corporations (MNCs). However, the project efficiency of state-owned PBFs did not differ significantly from that of “international firms that were not MNCs.” Specific conditions may have led to such an outcome. The author shows that enhancing project efficiency requires the reinforcement of multiple but specific factors. Research limitations/implications As the study was largely conducted on a limited budget and time frame, the author was not able to employ a multi-method approach. The inclusion of a few case studies would have facilitated triangulation of the current findings. In addition, the study captures “perceptions” and practical experiences of project management practitioners. Future studies could possibly develop what may be seen as “objective” measures of project learning and project management competencies. A larger survey supported by a larger budget would be one option in which some of the findings could be tested across PBFs located in different sectors and countries. Practical implications The author argues that the creation of a client-led “no-blame culture” within PBFs can ensure the development of a “safe” environment in which project team members can acknowledge project mistakes without the fear or danger(s) that may come with such admission. This may require changes in project organizational culture that reduces power distance, lowers sensitivity to hierarchal power relations, enhances team building efforts, and fosters a “learning climate” that tolerates “trial and error” experimentation. It may also require strengthening clients’ specific capabilities. Such change may require time and patience but could take advantage of “positive” aspects of participatory practices, personal relationships, and consensus decision-making approach that is prevalent in the UAE culture. One managerial implication points to the need to tailor scarce resources in building up multi-dimensional “higher order” competencies like “dynamic competencies” that have a relatively higher significant impact on enhancing project efficiency. Linking MNCs with local PBFs as collaborative mega project delivery partners may lead to enhancing project management competencies of the latter, conditional on their absorptive capacity. Originality/value The contribution of the paper is in providing survey-based empirical evidence that goes beyond case studies to highlight the importance of enhancing “higher order” project management competencies, such as “dynamic competencies,” that have a stronger predictive power of project efficiency in PBFs. The study also ranks the relative importance of various factors that inhibit the transfer of new knowledge across projects. To the author’s knowledge, this is the first study that has demonstrated the statistical relationship between “higher order” project management competencies and project efficiency. Project efficiency is a multi-faceted construct. Its strengthening is determined by a configuration of multiple but specific factors. A more “nuanced” understanding of the relationship between project management competencies and project efficiency in a particular context may be required.

30 citations

References
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Book
01 Jan 2008
TL;DR: The Japanese companies, masters of manufacturing, have also been leaders in the creation, management, and use of knowledge-especially the tacit and often subjective insights, intuitions, and ideas of employees as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: Japanese companies, masters of manufacturing, have also been leaders in the creation, management, and use of knowledge-especially the tacit and often subjective insights, intuitions, and ideas of employees.

16,886 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Senge's Fifth Discipline is a set of principles for building a "learning organization" as discussed by the authors, where people expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nutured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are contually learning together.
Abstract: Peter Senge, founder and director of the Society for Organisational Learning and senior lecturer at MIT, has found the means of creating a 'learning organisation'. In The Fifth Discipline, he draws the blueprints for an organisation where people expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nutured, where collective aspiration is set free, and where people are contually learning together. The Fifth Discipline fuses these features together into a coherent body of theory and practice, making the whole of an organisation more effective than the sum of its parts. Mastering the disciplines will: *Reignite the spark of learning, driven by people focused on what truly matters to them. *Bridge teamwork into macro-creativity. *Free you from confining assumptions and mind-sets. *Teach you to see the forest and the trees. *End the struggle between work and family time. The Fifth Discipline is a remarkable book that draws on science, spiritual values, psychology, the cutting edge of management thought and Senge's work with leading companies which employ Fifth Discipline methods. Reading it provides a searching personal experience and a dramatic professional shift of mind. This edition contains more than 100 pages of new material about how companies are actually using and benefiting from Fifth Discipline practices, as well as a new foreword from Peter Senge about his work with the Fifth Discipline over the last 15 years.

16,386 citations

Book
01 Jan 1998
TL;DR: The definitive primer on knowledge management, this book will establish the enduring vocabulary and concepts and serve as the hands-on resource of choice for fast companies that recognize knowledge as the only sustainable source of competitive advantage.
Abstract: From the Publisher: The definitive primer on knowledge management, this book will establish the enduring vocabulary and concepts and serve as the hands-on resource of choice for fast companies that recognize knowledge as the only sustainable source of competitive advantage. Drawing on their work with more than 30 knowledge-rich firms, the authors-experienced consultants with a track record of success-examine how all types of companies can effectively understand, analyze, measure, and manage their intellectual assets, turning corporate knowledge into market value. They consider such questions as: What key cultural and behavioral issues must managers address to use knowledge effectively?; What are the best ways to incorporate technology into knowledge work?; What does a successful knowledge project look like-and how do you know when it has succeeded? In the end, say the authors, the human qualities of knowledge-experience, intuition, and beliefs-are the most valuable and the most difficult to manage. Applying the insights of Working Knowledge is every manager's first step on that rewarding road to long-term success. A Library Journal Best Business Book of the Year. "For an entire company...to have knowledge, that information must be coordinated and made accessible. Thomas H. Davenport...and Laurence Prusak... offer an elegantly simple overview of the 'knowledge market' aimed at fulfilling that goal.... Working Knowledge provides practical advice about implementing a knowledge-management system....A solid dose of common sense for any company looking to acquire -- or maintain -- a competitive edge."--Upside, June 1998

10,791 citations

Book
01 Jun 1978
TL;DR: Aguilar et al. as discussed by the authors define intervencion as "entrar en un conjunto de relaciones en desarrollo con el proposito de ser util".
Abstract: «... Intervenir es entrar en un conjunto de relaciones en desarrollo con el proposito de ser util. El tipo de ayuda en el que nos vamos a centrar consiste en aumentar la capacidad para una buena dialectica organizativa —es decir, la capacidad de indagacion organizativa para encajar errores, incongruencias e incompatibilidades en una teoria organizativa de la accion la cual necesariamente emerge a medida que el sistema organizativo/ambiental cambia» (p. 158). «... Nuestra actividad en la intervencion debe por tanto ocuparse de tres propositos. Estos son: 1) ayudar al cliente a ser consciente y a descongelar sus teorias al uso del Modelo I y sistemas de aprendizaje O-I, y 2) educar al cliente a usar el Modelo II y a crear sistemas de aprendizaje O-II, para 3) usar este nuevo conocimiento con el fin de lograr una buena dialectica organizativa. Llamamos a la actividad de intervencion que incluye las tres intenciones una intervencion extensa» (p. 166).

10,772 citations