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PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to outline a methodology for strengthening an organisational design by identifying knowledge risks introduced by organisational structure and addressing those risks by implementing knowledge management measures.Design/methodology/approachBy reviewing two anonimised case studies and by structuring personal experiences of the authors, the paper presents a four‐pronged process to deal with suboptimal organisational design.FindingsTwo case studies demonstrate that pro‐active knowledge management can help to alleviate weaknesses introduced by dominant orientations in organisational design.Practical implicationsThe practical implications of this paper are that in organisational design and restructuring processes, knowledge management principles should be taken into account to prevent weaknesses to slip into the final structure. A simple yet powerful methodology that looks at knowledge risks can be used to defend against suboptimal designs.Originality/valueAlthough there is extensive literature on networked organisations, this paper adds value by its knowledge risk‐based review of current organisational structure and its subsequent focus on using the knowledge factor as a prime design criterion of new organisational structure.

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This position paper aims to present the vision of Kenniscentrum CIBIT on organizational learning and the role of information technology to facilitate learning processes. From our point of view, organizational learning should be a managed process aimed at knowledge creation, distribution, combination and consolidation, and of course application of knowledge, the main processes in knowledge management as described in [SPEK96]. Information technology, including, but not limited to CSCW, should enable an infrastructure in which the following functionalities are available:1. People can be found and accessed based on their knowledge and experience, not only their name and phone number.2. Knowledge products can be consolidated and can be made accessible.3. Experiences can be shared.4. Experiences can be consolidated and can be made accessible.The infrastructure should provide its services as close to the daily work as possible. We call such an infrastructure a knowledge infrastructure .For the purpose of the workshop, we will focus on the latter two functionalities of a knowledge infrastructure.This position paper will:1. Relate the concepts of knowledge management to organizational learning.2. Present our thoughts on knowledge infrastructures in relation to organizational learning.3. Present our research ideas to further investigate knowledge infrastructures.