natures do not have organizational memory, routines and other mechanisms which are necessary for organizational learning and knowledge transfer (Meyerson ...
Factors Affecting Knowledge Transfer in Project Based Organizations (PBOs) Hashem Izadi Moud and Behzad Abbasnejad Department of Construction Management, Chalmers University of Technology, S-412 96 Gothenburg, Sweden
Introduction Knowledge management is important in all organization for capturing, storing and transferring explicit and tacit knowledge in order to enable employees to use this knowledge so organization is enabled to gain benefit from this knowledge (Wiewiora et al. 2009a). Initially, the knowledge gained in projects; then it is necessary to transfer this knowledge into the organization memory and document it in order to reuse this knowledge for future projects (Ajmal and Koskinen 2008). But what do we mean by knowledge and knowledge management? And when learning process happens in organizations by using the transferred knowledge? “Knowledge can be defined as the set of skills, experiences, information and capabilities individual apply to solve problems” (Baker et al. 1997 cited in Hanisch et al. 2009). Organization knowledge is also defined in the following manner: “what it knows – how it uses what it knows – and how fast it can know something new” (Prusak 1997 cited in Goh 2002). Learning in organizations occurs when knowledge moves from one part to another part and helps the receiver part to solve problems or find creative solutions (Goh 2002). In Project Based Organizations (PBOs), because of using projects as the main structure of organizations, as each new project starts, there is a strong potential to reinvent the process, rather than utilize learning from previous projects (Prusak 1997 cited in Wiewiora et al. 2009b). It is suggested by many scholars that transferring knowledge can have huge benefits for organizations (O’Dell and Grayson 1999 cited in Goh 2002). Also, many managers mentioned that a key to success in today’s competitive business environment is knowledge management. However, one of the most important challenges that organizations face during their lives is the managing knowledge and knowledge transfer (Goh 2002). In this study it is tried to explore the factors that can affect knowledge transfer in PBOs. Also, authors discuss some recommendations and pitfalls which have been highlighted during literature review in the field of knowledge transfer.
The nature of PBOs and knowledge transfer Projects have been known as sources of innovation and allow activities that crossing organizational boundaries (Bresnen et al. 2003). PBOs gain benefit from the unique and innovative nature of projects. The nature of projects makes individuals in the projects able to cross organizational boundaries, be more innovative and let novel ideas to emerge. Even though using projects is beneficial for organizations, there are some difficulties in learning process not only from projects but also between and cross projects (Bresnen et al. 2003). During a project implementation various forms of information and experience are generated within the organization. If this accumulated knowledge is not recorded and shared amongst other projects,
this knowledge will be lost and will no longer available to assist future projects. This may lead to increase future projects costs; consequently resources as time and money will be wasted on redefining the knowledge that once existed within the organization. In case of not capturing and reusing this knowledge, the quality of a project’s deliverables may adversely decreased (Wiewiora et al. 2009a). Prusak (1997) highlighted this point as follow: “When a new project starts, there is a tendency to reinvent the process, rather than learn from the experiences of previous projects”(Prusak 1997 cited in Wiewiora et al. 2009a). The characteristics of projects make a situation that, knowledge and learning cannot transfer properly between team members and leads to “learning closure” and lack of cross-project learning (Hobday 2000 cited in Wiewiora et al. 2009b). By having these special characteristics, there is a need to secure project knowledge for the organizations which can help organization to prevent “inventing the wheels again” (Hanisch et al. 2009). In the following section some of the knowledge transfer challenges that caused by the nature of PBOs is discussed. 1. Communication Lack of social communication among project members has been recognized as one of the main barriers in knowledge transfer (Wiewiora et al. 2009a). Communication, in its both ways; formal and informal fastened the flow of information hence knowledge. It is believed that increase in communication in organization may result in better flow of information since by storytelling, rumors, chats and discussions in small groups, employees share their tacit knowledge and it helps the organization knowledge flow. However, geographical separation of sites and projects reduces the contacts, social networks so knowledge-transfer. Also, contractual constraints, lack of integration between different separate information networks and lack of mechanisms for capturing and storing knowledge - for instance post project reviews - constrained the usefulness of communication(Bresnen et al. 2003). It is found that social networks and informal communication are more efficient for transferring knowledge compare to IT tools. Therefore, social networks are important in transferring knowledge. Many researchers showed that informal meetings like coffee breaks, workshops and working celebrations are best ways to share and transfer knowledge. But because of the project based nature of organizations in PBOs – for instance, restrict deadlines, tight schedule and geographically dispersed locations of projects - employees work under pressure with very inflexible schedules. Consequently, there is no free time to allocate for the informal meetings (Wiewiora et al. 2009a). Lack of coordination between all project team members due to the geographically dispersion of the projects results in coordination only in higher levels of the organizations and only during the very formal meetings. Another pitfall related to this category is unwillingness of team members especially managers to share bad news, failures and problems since employees do like to share their success stories and hate to share stories of their failures (Wiewiora et al. 2009a). Although the social communication is the best way for knowledge transfer, transferring knowledge via social communication is hard to achieve in most cases (Wiewiora et al. 2009a).
2. Cultural context “People like to refer to the people instead of documented information to find knowledge.” (Mintzberg 1973 cited in Wiewiora et al. 2009a) Employees communicate in a structured environment that consists of values, practices and assumptions that encourage employees to act and behave in a distinctive approach, as organizational culture (Alavi et al. 2005). Therefore, the culture of an organization has the potential to facilitate knowledge transfer (Wiewiora et al. 2009b). Organization culture can act as an enabler or a barrier for knowledge transfer. Organization culture has many aspects but in transferring knowledge cooperation and collaboration aspect is more important. It is suggested that knowledge captures and transfers when employees have a tendency to share and collaborate with each other (Goh 2002). By capturing new knowledge, previous assumptions and beliefs of organizations have been changed so the way that organizations work changes. These changes are visible in all of the organizations dominant routines and procedures (Sun and Scott 2005). But what kind of atmosphere is needed for knowledge to be transferred? Knowledge transfer needs an open environment with open minded employees who are willing to share their knowledge with others for their mutual benefits. In order to transfer knowledge, employees must work in an environment with culture of cooperation and collaboration, though this environment may not work without proper mechanisms for encouraging cooperation between employees (Goh 2002). A basis for cooperation between employees is level of trust. A high level of trust results in willingness to cooperate. It is concluded that a trust based environment with high level of cooperation and collaboration have a great influence on knowledge transfer (Goh 2002; Hanisch et al. 2009). On the contrary, it is found that an atmosphere based on low trust results in poor cooperation and collaboration which in turn affect the willingness of sharing information between employees (Goh 2002). Several scholars pointed out that lack of trust among employees is the major barriers to effective knowledge transfer (Naftanaila 2010). However, Goh (1998; 2002) suggested that having a cooperative, trust based environment is not only sufficient to improve knowledge transfer. There is a need to have a culture of seeking and solving new problems. In this way, a creative environment encourages employees to look for problems and solve them in order to help organization in its long term objectives. A major constraint in making such an environment is a “fear of fail” between employees. Fear of losing may affect employees’ sense of searching for new problems. In order to have a problems seeking environment, it is suggested that failures in new experiences should tolerate for a long time (Goh 1998 cited in Goh 2002). Leaders play an important role in making this kind of environment since leaders can behave in a way that employees feel that they are treated fairly and they are not punished for their fails (Goh 2002). 3. The role of Project Manager (PM) Project managers are responsible for accomplishing all phases of the projects. Further, they have a high level of control on project personnel and resources. Therefore, they act as direct connections between project units and parent organizations in PBOs (Wiewiora et al. 2009a) hence have the potential to facilitate the knowledge transfer.
Also, PMs constantly communicate with stakeholders, senior management and project personnel (Parker and Craig 2008 cited in Wiewiora et al. 2009a) and through these communications project managers play a key role in capturing and transferring knowledge. Project managers are in the heart of the communications with other stakeholders so maintaining these communications are critical during the life of the project. Therefore, project managers should be aware of the importance of these communications in capturing and transferring knowledge (Wiewiora et al. 2009a). Despite of the key role that project managers play in knowledge transfer, the project managers mostly have insufficient time to document lessons learned and experiences. They prefer to focus on the scope of project; to deliver project on time and budget rather than producing lessons learned (Wiewiora et al. 2009b). Several empirical studies confirmed that the main barrier of achieving transferring knowledge to an expected level is that the project managers’ priority is delivering project on budget and on time and project managers usually do not care about documenting knowledge which have been learnt during project life cycle. It is believed that project managers do committed to the delivering the knowledge learned only if it is obliged on project scope (Wiewiora et al. 2009a). In other words, the project manager captures and transfers lessons learned only if specific budget and time is allocated for it in project scope. Wiewiora et al. (2009a) discussed that the project manager by increasing the social communication between team members can transfer the knowledge and best practices. Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) proposed that managers can create an environment based on trust and creative chaos in the organizations that encourage the individuals to participate in the social communication in order to share and transfer their knowledge (Nonaka and Takeuchi 1995 cited in Naftanaila 2010). Hanisch et al. (2009) further found that the use of standard methods for transferring knowledge by project managers make knowledge transfer easier since employees are becoming familiar with the methods that are used for transferring knowledge. Several studies found that being experienced or inexperienced is also affect the way project managers transfer knowledge. Inexperienced project managers’ fear of losing ownership and control of knowledge since they think it might threaten them in the future (Wiewiora et al. 2009b). As a result, they are not inclined to transfer knowledge and try to keep the obtained knowledge for themselves as a competitive advantage (Wiewiora et al. 2009a). However, more experienced project managers with high self-confident enthusiastic to share their knowledge and experience (Wiewiora et al. 2009b). 4. Technology Communication technology is usually considered as a supporting factor which can facilitate knowledge transfer (Hanisch et al. 2009). In PBOs, where members work in geographically dispersed projects, knowledge and experiences as well as best practices can be obtained by using technological communication tools. For instance, it is believed that use of virtual networks and voice and video conferences can facilitate knowledge transfer in PBOs. However, the use of information technology solely is not sufficient for knowledge transfer. Bresnen et al. (2003) argued that the behavioral factors affect the usefulness of technological tools. Thus, in order to be efficient, technological communication needs to be supported by behavioral factors such as: motivation and willingness to share information (Goh 2002).
Motivation and willingness to share knowledge are proved to be essential in using technological tools, though it is not easy for an organization to have motivated employees since motivation should be in the heart of organization (Bresnen et al. 2003). Bresnen et al. (2003) identified further limitations of using information technologies and other formal procedures in transferring and sharing knowledge. The lack of standard systems for communication, difficulties in accessing and using internet and intranet, lack of incentives to use technological tools and lack of resources to keep the technological tools of communication up to date are some of these technological barriers in knowledge transfer in PBOs. 5. Structure of organization It is found that the structure of the organization – the degree of flat or hierarchy – can act either as a facilitator or barrier in knowledge transfer in PBOs (Goh 2002). Hierarchical structure is considered as a barrier because employees do not get opportunities to share knowledge across their organizational boundaries (Bloodgood & Morrow 2003). In PBOs, where the main organizational unit is project, it is suggested that it is better for organizations to have a flat structure which provides horizontal communication (Goh 2002) and more interactions between employees (Smith 1997) hence facilitating formal and informal communication and knowledge transfer.
Conclusion: Although using projects are so beneficial for organizations - more specifically, PBOs - It is believed that most of the project knowledge management problems are made by the special characteristics of project (Love et al. 2005; Hanisch et al. 2009; Bresnen et al. 2003). Projects are short term since they have short lives; therefore, they hardly able to focus on long term effects of their outcomes, products or services. Being unique and temporary are the main obstacles in the learning process; since for learning process, routines and long term relationship are needed. Moreover, projects by their natures do not have organizational memory, routines and other mechanisms which are necessary for organizational learning and knowledge transfer (Meyerson et al. 1996; Brusoni et al. 1998 cited in Hanisch et al. 2009). Since projects are unique, they are completely different from one to another and flow of project member, material and information are not stable in projects, which is in the contrary of the routine nature of organizations that maximize the knowledge flow and facilitate learning from previous experiences and projects. The repetitive discontinuous that happens in the flow of resources like project team members and information during the project, makes capturing and transferring knowledge harder; so sometimes by starting a new project, project members “reinvent the wheel” (Bresnen et al. 2003). Even though the PBOs are well aware of the importance and advantages of knowledge transfer, the usefulness of transferring knowledge in this type of organizations fluctuates in terms of creating, valuing, absorbing and sharing knowledge (Ajmal and Koskinen 2008). Therefore, it is essential to evaluate how PBOs capture and utilize their dispersed knowledge. In this paper, some of the knowledge transfer barriers have been discussed. It is argued that most of these factors communication, cultural context, technology, structure and importance of project manager - can act as enabler or barrier in transferring knowledge. It is highly dependent on the organization manager to consider the importance of these factors in knowledge transfer. Moreover, authors believe that
culture is the most important factor that can act as a major barrier if its significance does not take into account. Empirical studies mostly investigated knowledge transfer in PBOs regarding the technological communication tools’ problems or trust issue; therefore, there is not a detailed view to the cultural issue. Authors believe that there is a need for further investigation in this field. As authors reviewed many research papers in this field, they found that there are only few studies which explored the challenges of transferring inter-project knowledge in PBOs. In other words, there are only few papers focused on the knowledge transfer barriers and enablers in different phases of a project so there is a need for further researches in this field too. Considering “knowledge” as one fact does not have an academic support since most researchers agreed upon the tacit and explicit categorization of knowledge. In the field of knowledge transfer, most of the empirical studies focused on knowledge without mentioning the type of the knowledge - tacit or explicit. Authors believe that this is a common pitfall in this field, though due to the lack of enough empirical view with this view, they used this view in this paper.
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