150 Owen and Burstein
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This industry sector has also faced the emergence of the generation X with associated
higher staff turnover indicative of less long-term organizational loyalty. This means that
the informal networks have potentially become diluted and not as efficient.
One of the key challenges that Engineering Consulting XYZ faces is the reliance on
informal networks and informal knowledge. As part of its knowledge management
strategy, Engineering Company XYZ had purchased and tried to implement a knowledge
management system and introduce the concept of communities of practice. Given that
there is a reliance on informal networks and informal knowledge and the culture of the
organization supports this environment, a key challenge is to encourage employees to
belong to communities of practice that are formal and not necessarily linked to their
networks or personal relationships. Processes and technology need to be put in place
to support these communities of practice. In addition, given that documentation was
either kept in hard copy or on a network server, project team members need to be
encouraged to use the knowledge management system. In order to be accessible to
others, the documents need to be stored in the knowledge management system as well
as on a local area network. In addition, the information stored in the system needs to be
maintained so that it is relevant and up to date. A culture that encourages the use of the
knowledge management system to complement the reliance on tacit knowledge needs to
be developed.
Project knowledge needs to be captured, stored, and indexed to allow for easy
retrieval and contextual searches. Capturing the context of project knowledge is crucial
for Engineering Consulting XYZ; without it, past knowledge may not be relevant and hard
to reuse on future projects. Training in utilizing the system needs to occur.
The knowledge management system has been implemented across geographic
regions, business units, and functional units. Training has occurred to ensure that staff
know how to use the system. The key is to ensure that the culture of the organization
accepts the use of a knowledge management system (both utilization and maintenance)
and that the explicit knowledge complements the use of tacit knowledge and networks.
EPILOGUE AND LESSONS LEARNED
Epilogue
This chapter looks at how knowledge is created, transferred, and reused in project
management. The culture of the organization plays a crucial role within knowledge
management. Where there is a reliance on informal networks and informal knowledge and
the culture of the organization supports this environment, a key challenge may be to
encourage employees to belong to communities of practice that are formal and not
necessarily linked to their networks or personal relationships. Processes and technology
would need to be put in place to support these communities of practice. Given that culture
plays such a key role in knowledge management, if a mature knowledge management
system was implemented and the culture changed to reflect this change, tracking will
need to occur to ascertain the long-term effects on the organization.