Studies and Analyses

Bogdanovska Gj, Andrijana, Djurovic, Branko

Recommended reference: Bogdanovska Gj., A. and Djurovic, B. (2013). Obstacles to Knowledge Sharing in Project Environments. Proceedings of the 10th Conference on intellectual Capital, Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning - ICICKM 2013, George Washington University, USA.

ABSTRACT:

Although knowledge has been recognized as a strategic resource of companies as early as the middle of the past century, it is actually the organizational school on strategy which lifted its significance to strategic relevance at the beginning of the 1990s. What once was the predominant view on knowledge focused on knowledge exploitation and protection, rapidly changed towards the importance of internal capabilities for strategically coordinating knowledge re-sources. As a result a new concept emerged focused on managing knowledge made out of an agreed set of processes: (1) generation, (2) organization and storage, (3) transfer and sharing and (4) application. The organizational view on knowledge proved to be too limited to cover the complexities of its actual use. In a global world of interconnected economies, increased competition and a micro-environment rapidly favoring inter-organizational synergies, accompanied with radical internal changes in organizational structure of companies where the traditional hierarchical structure has been rapidly replaced with project based matrix-es, superior knowledge was no longer created in closed environments, rather it increasingly depended on the process of sharing knowledge which occurs in inter and intra-organizational teams. In majority of the cases these teams are project teams. Researchers so far have tackled the knowledge sharing mechanisms which arise in these hybrid environments; however, there is a gap in literature regarding the obstacles to knowledge sharing. The critical analysis identifies the most common obstacles to knowledge sharing with and within project teams grouped into three specific categories: organizational, technological and individual/people related barriers. Organizational obstacles cover parent company’s organizational structure, culture, lack of project leadership and/or poor project management practices – all factors which create a lack of trust among team members and hinder the sharing of tacit knowledge. Technology obstacles are related to the lack of IT platforms for collecting and disseminating explicit project knowledge and lessons learned as well as the lack of strategic alignment of technology with the existing absorptive capacity of project team members. Individual factors cover the lack of motivation to share or receive knowledge, the poor communication skills, the gap in experience among project members and the low absorptive capacity of knowledge receivers in general. The paper therefore provides a good categorization of the obstacles which can be further adjusted and explored with empirical research on the subject.