Showing papers on "Tacit knowledge published in 2004"

Clusters and knowledge: local buzz, global pipelines and the process of knowledge creation

Abstract: The paper is concerned with spatial clustering of economic activity and its relation to the spatiality of knowledge creation in interactive learning processes. It questions the view that tacit knowledge transfer is confined to local milieus whereas codified knowledge may roam the globe almost frictionlessly. The paper highlights the conditions under which both tacit and codified knowledge can be exchanged locally and globally. A distinction is made between, on the one hand, the learning processes taking place among actors embedded in a community by just being there dubbed buzz and, on the other, the knowledge attained by investing in building channels of communication called pipelines to selected providers located outside the local milieu. It is argued that the co-existence of high levels of buzz and many pipelines may provide firms located in outward-looking and lively clusters with a string of particular advantages not available to outsiders. Finally, some policy implications, stemming from this argumen...

The Strength of Weak Ties You Can Trust: The Mediating Role of Trust in Effective Knowledge Transfer

Abstract: Research has demonstrated that relationships are critical to knowledge creation and transfer, yet findings have been mixed regarding the importance of relational and structural characteristics of social capital for the receipt of tacit and explicit knowledge. We propose and test a model of two-party (dyadic) knowledge exchange, with strong support in each of the three companies surveyed. First, the link between strong ties and receipt of useful knowledge (as reported by the knowledge seeker) was mediated by competence- and benevolence-based trust. Second, once we controlled for these two trustworthiness dimensions, the structural benefit ofweak ties emerged. This finding is consistent with prior research suggesting that weak ties provide access to nonredundant information. Third, competence-based trust was especially important for the receipt of tacit knowledge. We discuss implications for theory and practice.

Managing tacit and explicit knowledge transfer in IJVs: the role of relational embeddedness and the impact on performance

Abstract: Drawing on organizational learning and economic sociology, we address how relational embeddedness between the foreign parent and international joint venture (IJV) managers influences the type of knowledge (i.e., tacit and explicit) transferred to the IJV, and how the importance of relational embeddedness varies between young and mature IJVs. We also examine the influence of tacit and explicit knowledge on IJV performance. Our results show the importance that tie strength, trust, and shared values and systems play in the transfer of tacit knowledge, especially for mature IJVs. Our findings are consistent with Uzzi's tenets: tacit learning is accumulative, assists in explaining explicit knowledge, and is enhanced by social embeddedness. We also find that the influence of transferred tacit knowledge on IJV performance stems principally from its indirect effect on the learning of explicit knowledge.

Evidence based guidelines or collectively constructed “mindlines?” Ethnographic study of knowledge management in primary care

Abstract: Objective To explore in depth how primary care clinicians (general practitioners and practice nurses) derive their individual and collective healthcare decisions. Design Ethnographic study using standard methods (non-participant observation, semistructured interviews, and documentary review) over two years to collect data, which were analysed thematically. Setting Two general practices, one in the south of England and the other in the north of England. Participants Nine doctors, three nurses, one phlebotomist, and associated medical staff in one practice provided the initial data; the emerging model was checked for transferability with general practitioners in the second practice. Results Clinicians rarely accessed and used explicit evidence from research or other sources directly, but relied on “mindlines”—collectively reinforced, internalised, tacit guidelines. These were informed by brief reading but mainly by their own and their colleagues9 experience, their interactions with each other and with opinion leaders, patients, and pharmaceutical representatives, and other sources of largely tacit knowledge. Mediated by organisational demands and constraints, mindlines were iteratively negotiated with a variety of key actors, often through a range of informal interactions in fluid “communities of practice,” resulting in socially constructed “knowledge in practice.” Conclusions These findings highlight the potential advantage of exploiting existing formal and informal networking as a key to conveying evidence to clinicians.

Transfer of knowledge between education and workplace settings

Abstract: The first half of this chapter analyses the different knowledge cultures of higher education and the workplace, contrasting the kinds of knowledge that are valued and the manner in which they are acquired and used. In particular, performance in the workplace typically involves the integration of several different forms of knowledge and skill, under conditions that allow little time for the analytical/deliberative approach favoured in higher education. One consequence is greater reliance on tacit knowledge, including knowledge of how more formal, explicit knowledge is used in various practice settings. The second half focuses on transfer as a learning process, which requires both understanding and positive commitment from individual learners, formal education, employers and local workplace managers. Transfer is conceptualised in terms of five stages, whose distinctive characteristics and learning challenges are discussed in some detail. The neglect of transfer is attributed both to the cultural gap between formal education and the workplace and profound ignorance of the nature and amount of the learning involved.

Supplier development at Honda, Nissan and Toyota: comparative case studies of organizational capability enhancement

Abstract: What factors facilitate and constrain the sustained development and replication of organizational capabilities at suppliers? This question is addressed in a comparison of historical case studies at Toyota, Nissan and Honda in Japan. First, as expected, replication difficulty is overcome by enabling companies to share the practice, rather than the representation, of tacit knowledge. Second, the interdependence in the hierarchy of routines, that constitute organizational capabilities, has led companies to broaden the scope of supplier development over time. Third, this broadening challenges suppliers to accept customer companies’ intervention in internal investment decisions, requiring a certain mode of corporate governance. It is argued that the boundary of a capability-based firm may go beyond legally distinct units of financial control when firms are subjected to a cumulative process of capability enhancement.

Proximity and the use of public science by innovative European firms

Abstract: We use the results of the policies, appropriation and competitiveness in Europe (PACE) 1993 survey of Europe's largest firms to explore the effect of proximity on knowledge flows from affiliated firms, suppliers, customers, joint ventures, competitors and public research organisations to innovative firms. The focus is on the last. First, we find that public science is among the most important sources of technical knowledge for the innovative activities of Europe's largest industrial firms. Then, after comparing the PACE results with the Community Innovation Survey II (1997) and the Carnegie Mellon Survey (1994), we use the unique information from the PACE survey on the geographic location of knowledge sources and the methods used to access them to develop an econometric analysis of proximity and location. The importance of proximity for sourcing knowledge from public research increases with the quality and output of domestic public research organisations and the importance given to public science by the respondents. It declines with an increase in the firm's R&D expenditure, activity in the North American market and the importance to the firm of codified basic research results. Surprisingly, firms that find informal contacts to be an important method for acquiring public research results are more likely to find proximity less important, even though proximity allows firms to access tacit knowledge. This effect is primarily limited to European countries, suggesting the development of a ‘European Research Area’.

The Effects of Knowledge Attribute, Alliance Characteristics, and Absorptive Capacity on Knowledge Transfer Performance

Abstract: The main purpose of this study is to examine the effects of knowledge attribute, alliance characteristics, and firm's absorptive capacity on the performance of knowledge transfer. Regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses in a sample of 137 alliance cases. The findings suggest that knowledge transfer performance is positively affected by the explicitness of knowledge and firm's absorptive capacity; that equity-based alliance will transfer tacit knowledge more effectively while contract-base alliance is more effective for the transfer of explicit knowledge; and that trust and adjustment have positive effects while conflict possesses a curvilinear effect on knowledge transfer performance.

The effects of knowledge attribute, alliance characteristics, and absorptive capacity on knowledge transfer performance

Abstract: The main purpose of this study is to examine the effects of knowledge attribute, alliance characteristics, and firm's absorptive capacity on the performance of knowledge transfer. Regression analysis was used to test the hypotheses in a sample of 137 alliance cases. The findings suggest that knowledge transfer performance is positively affected by the explicitness of knowledge and firm's absorptive capacity; that equity-based alliance will transfer tacit knowledge more effectively while contract-base alliance is more effective for the transfer of explicit knowledge; and that trust and adjustment have positive effects while conflict possesses a curvilinear effect on knowledge transfer performance.

Knowing What You Don't Know? Discourses and Contradictions in Knowledge Management Research

Abstract: Even though knowledge management scholars generally advocate explicit management of knowledge, there is research that cautions against the unintended consequences of such efforts. Some researchers go as far as arguing that knowledge and management are contradictory concepts (Alvesson and Karreman, 2001). This paper explores the apparent double-edged nature of knowledge management by developing a theory-based framework that highlights different fundamental assumptions about knowledge and its management. This framework, which is an adaptation of Burrell and Morgan's four paradigms of social and organizational inquiry, distinguishes among a neo-functionalist, a constructivist, a critical and a dialogic discourse. We use the contradiction of managing tacit knowledge, which has been highlighted in the knowledge management literature, as an analytical device to explore the four discourses in more detail. We show how notions of knowledge, and what it means to manage knowledge, vary across the four discourses. We conclude that all four discourses need to be appreciated, understood and represented in knowledge management research for this area of inquiry to deal with the rich and problematic nature of managing knowledge in practice.

Manufacturing Culture: The Institutional Geography of Industrial Practice

Abstract: 1. Institutions, Agency, and Industrial Practices 2. Capital, Technology, and Economic Performance 3. Proximity, Organization, and Culture 4. Regional Cultures of Production 5. Crisis in Machinery Building: The Roots of Germany's Economic Malaise? 6. Tacit Knowledge in Geographical Context 7. Geography, Learning, and Convergence Bibliography Index

Using Supplier Networks to Learn Faster

Abstract: Many companies keep their suppliers and partners at arm?s length, zealously guarding internal knowledge Toyota Motor Corp, however, embraces its suppliers and encourages knowledge sharing through established networks Toyota has developed interorganizational processes that facilitate the transfer of both explicit and tacit knowledge The three key processes revolve around supplier associations (for general sharing of information), consulting groups (for workshops, seminars and on-site assistance from Toyota) and learning teams (for on-site sharing of know-how within small groups) With Toyota?s help, suppliers have fine-tuned their operations until, compared with their work for Toyota?s rivals, they have 14% higher output per worker, 25% lower inventories and 50% fewer defects Quality improvements enable Toyota to charge price premiums for its products Toyota?s experience suggests that competitive advantages can be created and sustained through superior knowledge-sharing processes within a supplier network The authors believe those principles have applicability in other types of alliances, too, including joint ventures In fact, they contend that establishing effective interorganizational knowledge-sharing processes with suppliers and partners can be crucial for any company The authors claim that knowledge sharing with suppliers is the reason for Toyota?s dynamic learning capability and might be the company?s one truly sustainable competitive advantage

Knowing What You Don’t Know? Discourses and Contradictions in Knowledge Management Research

Abstract: Even though knowledge management scholars generally advocate explicit management of knowledge, there is research that cautions against the unintended consequences of such efforts. Some researchers go as far as arguing that knowledge and management are contradictory concepts (Alvesson and Karreman, 2001). This paper explores the apparent double-edged nature of knowledge management by developing a theory-based framework that highlights different fundamental assumptions about knowledge and its management. This framework, which is an adaptation of Burrell and Morgan's four paradigms of social and organizational inquiry, distinguishes among a neo-functionalist, a constructivist, a critical and a dialogic discourse. We use the contradiction of managing tacit knowledge, which has been highlighted in the knowledge management literature, as an analytical device to explore the four discourses in more detail. We show how notions of knowledge, and what it means to manage knowledge, vary across the four discourses. We conclude that all four discourses need to be appreciated, understood and represented in knowledge management research for this area of inquiry to deal with the rich and problematic nature of managing knowledge in practice.

"Knowing" the Rules: Administrative Work as Practice

Abstract: This article presents a theory of administrative work as practice. Building on a rich narrative of a mid-level administrator in the Dutch Immigration Office, four core elements of administrative practice are identified: contextuality, acting, knowing, and interacting. Taking cues from practice theory and ethnomethodology, the author argues that the visible aspects of administrative work (decisions, reports, negotiations, standard operating procedures, and-on a higher level of institutional abstraction-structures, legal rules, lines of authority, and accountability) are effectuations, enactments of the hidden, taken-for-granted routines: the almost unthinking actions, tacit knowledge, fleeting interactions, practical judgments, self-evident understandings and background knowledge, shared meanings, and personal feelings that constitute the core of administrative work. Taken together, contextuality, acting, knowing, and interacting make up a unified account of practical judgment in an administrative environment that is characterized by complexity, indeterminacy, and the necessity to act on the situation at hand.

Assessing the contribution of knowledge to business performance: the KP 3 methodology

Abstract: Knowledge is inherently difficult to measure. However, without valid and reliable measurement, it is very difficult to develop a comprehensive theory of knowledge and provide a practical guide for knowledge management. In this paper, we do not measure knowledge directly, but assess how much knowledge contributes to business performance. The KP3 methodology developed in this paper assesses the contribution of knowledge to business performance by employing product and process as intermediaries between the two. The understanding of the contribution is essential because it makes it possible to assess the productivities of knowledge entities, evaluate and compensate knowledge workers, and to allocate and develop human capital.

Manufacturing Culture: The Institutional Geography of Industrial Practice

Abstract: Recent years have seen a lively debate over the role of tacit knowledge and interactive learning in privileging the local over the global. Yet, our continuing inability to answer questions such as 'when and why is the local important in production and innovation processes?' indicates that our understanding of the firm and the forces that shape its managers' choices remains weak. Such a theory ought to be able to answer fundamental questions like: why do firms in particular places adopt particular production and innovation practices, and not others? What forces determine what a firm 'knows' and when it is able to act upon this knowledge? How easy is it to transfer this knowledge between places? This book presents a new conception of industrial practice and firm behaviour. It explains how the cultures that shape the practices of firms and the trajectories of regional and national economies are actually produced. The analysis shows how the internal and inter-firm organization of production, use of technologies, and the industrial knowledge underpinning these practices are strongly influenced by their social and institutional context. Routine forms of behaviour are not simply inherited from past practice. Instead, they are shaped and constrained - though not wholly determined - by a set of institutions that govern how work is organized, workers are deployed, and technology is implemented. Because of the slowly evolving nature of these institutions, distinctive national 'models' are not converging around a single global norm.

Dialogical action research at omega corporation

Abstract: In dialogical action research, the scientific researcher does not "speak science" or otherwise attempt to teach scientific theory to the real-world practitioner, but instead attempts to speak the language of the practitioner and accepts him as the expert on his organization and its problems. Recognizing the difficulty that a practitioner and a scientific researcher can have in communicating across the world of science and the world of practice, dialogical action research offers, as its centerpiece, reflective one-on-one dialogues between the practitioner and the scientific researcher, taking place periodically in a setting removed from the practitioner's organization. The dialogue itself serves as the interface between the world of science, marked by theoria and the scientific attitude, and the world of the practitioner, marked by praxis and the natural attitude of everyday life. The dialogue attempts to address knowledge heterogeneity, which refers to the different forms that knowledge takes in the world of science and the world of practice, and knowledge contextuality, which refers to the dependence of the meaning of knowledge, such as a scientific theory or professional expertise, on its context. In successive dialogues, the scientific researcher and the practitioner build a mutual understanding, including an understanding of the organization and its problems. The scientific researcher, based on one or more of the scientific theories in her discipline, formulates and suggests one or more actions for the practitioner to take in order to solve or remedy a problem in his organization. Dialogical action research recognizes that the practitioner's experience, expertise, and tacit knowledge, or praxis, largely shapes how he understands the suggested actions and appropriates them as his own. Upon returning to his organization, he takes one or more of the suggested actions, depending on his reading of the situation at hand. The reactions or responses of the problem to the actions or stimuli of the practitioner would embody, in the practitioner's eyes, success or failure in solving or remedying the problem and, in the scientific researcher's eyes, evidence confirming or disconfirming the theory on which the action was based. The scientific researcher may then suggest, based on her theories, additional actions, hence initiating another cycle of action and learning. To illustrate dialogical action research, this paper reconstructs some dialogues between an information systems researcher and a managing director at a European company called Omega Corporation.

Organizing New Product Development Projects in Strategic Alliances

Abstract: We utilize research on alliance governance structures and on new product development to study how partners working under an existing alliance governance structure will organize a new product development project. Initially, we consider a contractual alliance doing multiple projects and argue that the critical organization decisions for any project are whether one or both partners should be involved, whether the partners should work with little or considerable interaction, and whether decision-making authority should reside in a project manager or be consensual. Based on the answers to these questions, we identify at least four viable project organization options. We next examine the option that would be selected under conditions involving the alliance's newness, whether a cooperative history exists, and the distribution of skills for the project. Under each condition, we compare the costs and benefits of the options with respect to the underlying transaction costs, potential for learning, and the ability to contribute to developing a social relations network. By allowing variations in time-to-market pressures, the tacit knowledge that a partner can obtain from the project, and the partners' need to work closely together on future projects, we can determine the points at which costs and benefits indicate a switch from one organization option to another. Finally, we indicate how to adjust the theory for it to apply to a contractual alliance doing only one project and to an institutional alliance such as a joint venture.

Capturing Safety Knowledge Using Design-for-Safety-Process Tool

Abstract: An organization must strive to maintain its most valuable resource, knowledge, in order to be more productive and competitive. One of the steps to manage the knowledge is to capture contents of the knowledge. In construction site safety, success in capturing the tacit knowledge of safety officers is of paramount importance; however without a good mechanism, this process might be difficult due to time and hazard perception constraints. This paper discusses research in a design-for-safety-process tool, which aims at: (1) capturing safety knowledge from safety engineers about construction safety hazards and the safety measures required; (2) assisting a safety engineer to identify safety hazards in construction projects and determine the safety measures required; and (3) training students and inexperienced safety engineers in identifying safety hazards and the measures required. In this paper, the first objective is discussed.

Knowledge Levels and Their Transformation: Towards the Integration of Knowledge Creation and Individual Learning

Abstract: This paper shows the link between knowledge creation and individual learning, and the coherence that exists between the knowledge creation view and single and double-loop learning models. It does so by examining differences in levels of knowledge and their relationship with creativity and knowledge creating behaviours. The analysis shifts the focus from the abstract notion of tacit knowledge to a more specific discussion on creative human cognition. The paper is unique in adopting an endogenous perspective to the analysis of individual learning. The analysis is distinct from previous discussions on knowledge creation in three ways: (a) explicit and tacit knowledge are analysed in terms of the nature and degree of inter-dependence that exists between the two; (b) knowledge levels are defined in terms of their applications rather than as abstract concepts; and (c) a distinction is made between shifts and movements in knowledge to separate, and subsequently integrate, the information processing and creative dimensions of learning. Further, the paper highlights specific challenges and limitations/costs that are associated with the transfer/acquisition of knowledge levels, and argues that in the absence of a conscious effort, knowledge levels are acquired through mistakes and failures. Following that, various theoretical and managerial implications to facilitate knowledge creation are discussed.

The Inquiring Organization: Tacit Knowledge, Conversation, and Knowledge Creation: Skills for 21st-Century Organizations

Abstract: Preface Two Management Traditions and Knowledge Creation: From Modern to Post-Modern Management Theories of Communication in Management: Modern to Postmodern Tacit Knowledge The Pragmatics of Knowledge Creation: Care, Respect and Trust The Microskills for Knowledge Creation Asking Questions: Widening the Lens, Sharpening the Focus Tacit Knowledge and Conversation Reflecting Conversations The Compass and the Map

A Framework of Knowledge Transfer in Cross-Border Joint Ventures: An Empirical Test of the Korean Context (1)

Abstract: * Cross-border joint ventures are studied based on a framework of knowledge transfer. We tested two nested regression analyses to examine a different interaction between the relation- and knowledge-specific variables with the two types of knowledge transfer. * Knowledge is operationalised in terms of new product development and manufacturing processing skills/technique, and the former is considered more tacit than the latter. Key Results * Between the two types of knowledge transfer, a positive social interaction between partners was accentuated in a transfer of more tacit knowledge. * Attributes of knowledge and absorptive capacity were confirmed again for an effective transfer of knowledge within the context of international joint ventures. Cooperative alliances are formed to enjoy economies of scale, to reduce or share risks (Hennart 1988, Buckley/Casson 1998), to gain global competitiveness (Porter/Fuller 1986, Harrigan 1988), and to learn and internalize new skills and/or knowledge (Hamel 1991, Inkpen 2000, Kogut 1988, Lyles 1988, Makhija/Ganesh 1997, Mowery/Oxley/Silverman 1996). Especially when MNEs enter foreign markets, they arrange collaborative relationships with local companies as one of the viable solutions for overcoming foreignness. Stopford and Wells (1972) have provided a seminal study of cross-border joint ventures between U.S. MNEs and local firms. These ventures are designed to access new markets, to gain local legitimacy, contacts, resources and market knowledge, and to contain and share risks (Beamish 1988, Gomes-Casseres 1990, Hennart 1991a, Stopford/Wells 1972). While taking advantage of these benefits by forming international joint ventures (IJVs), MNEs have naturally evolved into integrated networks of global operations. In order to orchestrate their globally integrated networks, MNEs may need to work with local partners in emerging economies. One of the critical management or operational assignments could be the effective transfer of knowledge to local partners in certain types of IJVs. However, knowledge is sticky, thus difficult to transfer (Szulanski 1996). Therefore, the mechanism of knowledge transfer within the IJV context from MNEs to local firms, which has been unduly neglected, deserves close attention. The goal of this paper is to examine the determinants of cross-border knowledge transfer from MNEs to local firms, a phenomenon which has not been extensively researched. The only contexts which have previously been researched are the Hungarian (Lyles/Salk 1996) and Chinese (Shenkar/Li 1999, Tsang 2002). An early study by Child and Markoczy (1993) compared host country managers' behavioral similarities in Chinese and Hungarian IJVs, while Tsang's recent study (2002) examined knowledge acquisition by MNEs in foreign ventures in China. Accordingly, our inquiry into the Korean venue is expected to enhance our understanding of cross-border learning. In addition, a dynamic perspective on knowledge transfer in IJVs is analyzed by considering the interface between the determinants and two types of knowledge. Inkpen and Dinur (1998) argued that different types of knowledge require different management. Building on their argument, this paper presents and examines different types of knowledge. Instead of treating knowledge as an abstract subject, we operationalised knowledge as new product development and manufacturing process skills/technique. The former is expected to have more tacit and specific knowledge attributes than the latter. Between the two types of knowledge, we expect a different interaction with the determinants of knowledge transfer. By dichotomizing knowledge, we will be able to show that a relation-specific variable will play an important role for the transfer of knowledge which has more tacit and specific attributes (e.g., knowledge related to new product development). Subsequently, a framework of knowledge transfer within an IJV context will be constructed. …

Design Enquiry: Tacit Knowledge and Invention in Science

Abstract: For some years there has been discussion and speculation on the subject of "design enquiry" and a number of people, for example Richard Buchanan and Clive Dilnot , have looked for forms of enquiry appropriate to, or fruitful for, design as an academic and professional discipline. From a different perspective, Ranulph Glanville has suggested that the relationship between design and science might be redefined to acknowledge similarities of method that are disguised by forms of narrative employed by scientists. However most contributions in these debates deal with generalisations so I would like to propose some specific ways in which designers can explore and develop the concepts and practices of design enquiry. In particular I would like to discuss a kind of enquiry where designers can play a role in forming and pursuing questions which arise in the natural sciences and I will suggest that this role might be extended into some other fields. In doing so I will make reference to the subject of tacit knowledge, a concept which was formalised by Michael Polanyi in his consideration of the philosophy of science 50 years ago and which has attracted continuing interest (his 1958 book, Personal Knowledge, was reprinted most recently in 1998 and 2002), but also some shallow interpretation since then. I believe that Polanyi has a great deal to offer the design community, perhaps more in some respects than the widely cited work of Donald Schon who dealt with general questions of practice relevant to many disciplines while Polanyi addressed the relationship between enquiry and creativity in a very direct way.

Assessing intellectual capital creation in regional clusters

Abstract: To provide a theoretical model of the dynamics of intellectual capital creation in regional clusters and in inter‐organizational networks. The model has been constructed on the basis of earlier studies, especially system's theoretical interpretation of organizations as knowledge systems, and then applied to the examination of a regional cluster operating in the mechanical wood processing industry in Eastern Finland. Intellectual capital in regional clusters is created by three main knowledge creation activities, each of which corresponds to a specific type of an inter‐organizational network. First, production networks aiming at efficiency and replication should function according to mechanistic system logic, focusing on the enactment of rules and regulations. Development networks aiming at continuous incremental development, on the other hand, are most successful when adhering to an organic mode, which emphasizes participation, tacit knowledge sharing, dialogue and mutual adjustments. Finally, innovation networks seeking to produce new intangible assets benefit from a dynamic systems model, where entropy and spontaneous knowledge flows form the basis for mastering radical change. Model should be applied to more cases to ascertain its validity. Provides means for understanding, assessing and managing creation of knowledge‐based value in inter‐organizational collaboration. Addresses three gaps in existing research: it focuses on regional intellectual capital; it examines the ways in which intellectual capital is created as a dynamic process; it provides means for understanding the future potential of a region.

Managing knowledge: lessons from the oil and gas sector

Abstract: Knowledge management (KM) is of increasing interest to a number of leading UK construction organizations. Companies are keen to find out what other organizations are doing both within the construction and other industry sectors. There are important lessons to be learned from Canadian oil and gas organizations on how they manage their knowledge. A case study is used to explore the KM activities of eight leading organizations and investigate the opportunities for construction organizations to adopt some of their ideas. Three areas are covered: KM strategy and implementation, people aspects of KM and metrics for KM performance. There are several potential lessons for UK organizations: the need for KM to be driven by senior management if it is to have any notable success; the use of people‐centred techniques for sharing tacit knowledge and IT tools for sharing explicit knowledge; the importance of selling solutions to project teams to obtain employee support for KM; peer recognition has a more sustainable imp...