Organisational forms and knowledge management: one size fits all?

Abstract

Abstract:In the new economy, a firm's sustainable competitive advantage flows from its ability to create and exploit new knowledge. Consequently, the need for executives to manage this process effectively is greater than ever. The extant knowledge management literature contains an implicit assumption that a standard approach with universal applicability to this process exists. Yet many organizations adopting this approach fail to realize the anticipated benefits. In this paper, the underlying causes for these failures are discussed and the assumption of a standard knowledge management approach critically challenged. To this end, the organizational form framework by Miles and Snow is integrated, for the first time, with the knowledge management models by Nonaka. Through integration of these two frameworks it is shown that the choice of knowledge management approach cannot be unqualified but must be closely aligned with the organization's strategic and operational form in order for the anticipated benefits to be reaped. Our analysis suggests three conclusions: One, Prospector-type organizations will tend to adopt Bottom-Up approaches for effective knowledge creation; two, Defender-type organisations will tend to adopt Top-Down approaches; and three, Analyzer-types will adopt Middle-Up-Down knowledge creation approaches. We provide directions for future research.

Las ventajas competitivas en las organizaciones a través de la innovación en la investigación

“…Debido a que, en la nueva economía, la ventaja competitiva sostenida de una empresa fluye de su capacidad para crear y explotar nuevos conocimientos. En consecuencia, la necesidad de los altos ejecutivos para crear y mantener la ventaja competitiva para sus empresas es mayor que nunca (Franken & Braganza, 2006). Es así como el conocimiento es visto como la clave para desarrollar una ventaja competitiva y gran parte de la investigación ha estudiado cómo el conocimiento es adquirido por una empresa (Pavlovich & Doyle Corner, 2006).…”

A Orientação Estratégica em PMEs: A relação entre Estrutura Organizacional e Geração de Conhecimento

“…Do mesmo modo, negócios analistas não se restringem à políticas de lançamento de produtos e expansão de marketshare tal qual fazem as empresas prospectoras. O que as firmas analistas buscam, de modo geral, é o equilíbrio entre estes dois extremos (Franken & Braganza, 2006).…”

A comprehensive investigation of the critical factors influencing knowledge management strategic alignment

“…Majority of the KM strategic alignment literature examined the relationship between the alignment of KM strategy and other enterprise strategies (like business strategy, IT strategy, human resource strategy), and business performance or KM effectiveness. (Asoh, 2004;Franken & Braganza, 2006;AlAmmary & Fung, 2008;Chen, Yeh, & Huang, 2012). For example, investigated the relationship between the alignment of KM strategy, Human Resource Management (HRM) strategy and IT strategy with a business performance like Wu et al (2015).…”