Knowledge Management in Small and Micro Organisations : Case Study on Knowledge Retention in Arts Consultancy
Rinnekangas, Rauli (2017)
Rinnekangas, Rauli
Haaga-Helia ammattikorkeakoulu
2017
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2017060712788
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2017060712788
Tiivistelmä
Knowledge management is a set of processes of acquiring, creating, sharing and using information resources in an organisational context for the benefit of specific organisational objectives. The role of knowledge as part of organisational decision making has increased during the past couple of decades, especially due to the need for gaining a competitive advantage in increasingly complex business environments and facilitated by various technological advancements in information technology. The mainstream research on and practical application of knowledge management has traditionally focused on mid-size to large organisations where various knowledge barriers are more widely commonplace. Small organisations, such as consultancy firms which are run by few persons only, have been less in focus, partly because of non-existence of the barriers typical to larger organisations. However, small organisations can benefit from having knowledge management practices as well, as such activities can allow gaining significant advantages in competition, reaching out new opportunities, and better management of the organisation in overall. Furthermore, special cases such as business transfer of an organisation to a new owner are highly dependent on having sufficient processes and systems for knowledge management in place: besides of facilitating and enabling smoother transition of key activities of an organisation, knowledge may have vital role in ensuring the overall success of such transition, hence affecting the further continuity of the organisation.
In this thesis, the knowledge management in small organisations will be examined. As a case example on examining and developing knowledge management in a small, micro-sized organisation, an arts consultancy business run by one person was selected for in-depth study and development focus. The case example is reflected according to existing knowledge management research and related frameworks for conducting transfer of tacit-oriented knowledge of the organisation in organizational transition scenarios: in particular, transforming tacit knowledge into easily transferable explicit forms will be examined while taking the overall resource-constrained nature of the organisation into consideration. The use of recording mediums combined with modern information technology (IT) for the purpose will be examined and their usability as solution options for the case in respect to its specifics will be outlined in detail. The final outcomes of the study include a development plan which proposes measures for knowledge management activities required for knowledge retention in the case organisation, as well as insights on how knowledge management can be applied in cases similar to the example organisation: other small organisations may find the applied methodologies as well as their results useful in analysing knowledge management specifics of organisation, extracting and defining related requirements, and accordingly determining knowledge management actions in organisation for further development.
In this thesis, the knowledge management in small organisations will be examined. As a case example on examining and developing knowledge management in a small, micro-sized organisation, an arts consultancy business run by one person was selected for in-depth study and development focus. The case example is reflected according to existing knowledge management research and related frameworks for conducting transfer of tacit-oriented knowledge of the organisation in organizational transition scenarios: in particular, transforming tacit knowledge into easily transferable explicit forms will be examined while taking the overall resource-constrained nature of the organisation into consideration. The use of recording mediums combined with modern information technology (IT) for the purpose will be examined and their usability as solution options for the case in respect to its specifics will be outlined in detail. The final outcomes of the study include a development plan which proposes measures for knowledge management activities required for knowledge retention in the case organisation, as well as insights on how knowledge management can be applied in cases similar to the example organisation: other small organisations may find the applied methodologies as well as their results useful in analysing knowledge management specifics of organisation, extracting and defining related requirements, and accordingly determining knowledge management actions in organisation for further development.