Espoused versus realized knowledge management tool usage in knowledge intensive organizations

TY - JOUR

T1 - Espoused versus realized knowledge management tool usage in knowledge intensive organizations

AU - Powell, Taman

AU - Ambrosini, Véronique

PY - 2017/1/1

Y1 - 2017/1/1

N2 - Many knowledge-intensive organizations (KIOs) have invested in tools and policies to enhance knowledge-sharing and applicationasthisiscrucialfortheirgrowth.Theimplementation of these tools results in multiple approaches for knowledge- sharing being available. This article reports on an empirical study of five global management consultancies investigating how consultants choose between these knowledge-sharing alternatives and the factors driving this choice. Our findings indicate that consultants base their decisions on both judging the anticipated benefits of the knowledge content and the associated process costs. Importantly, the criteria employed to assess these knowledge-sharing alternatives were different to that of the leadership. The use of different criteria resulted in the leadership championing tools and policies that the consultants did not perceive as valuable. The study contributes to the HRM and knowledge management literature, not only by surfacing criteria, yet to be discussed in the literature, used by the leadership and consultants of KIOs in determining which knowledge-sharing approach to use, but also by highlighting that when considering KM tools it was critical to take a multi-level approach as there may be some differences in rationales as to why some systems are used or not. © 2016, Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an author produced version of a paper published in THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self- archiving policy. The final published version (version of record) is available online at the link below. Some minor differences between this version and the final published version may remain. We suggest you refer to the final published version should you wish to cite from it.

AB - Many knowledge-intensive organizations (KIOs) have invested in tools and policies to enhance knowledge-sharing and applicationasthisiscrucialfortheirgrowth.Theimplementation of these tools results in multiple approaches for knowledge- sharing being available. This article reports on an empirical study of five global management consultancies investigating how consultants choose between these knowledge-sharing alternatives and the factors driving this choice. Our findings indicate that consultants base their decisions on both judging the anticipated benefits of the knowledge content and the associated process costs. Importantly, the criteria employed to assess these knowledge-sharing alternatives were different to that of the leadership. The use of different criteria resulted in the leadership championing tools and policies that the consultants did not perceive as valuable. The study contributes to the HRM and knowledge management literature, not only by surfacing criteria, yet to be discussed in the literature, used by the leadership and consultants of KIOs in determining which knowledge-sharing approach to use, but also by highlighting that when considering KM tools it was critical to take a multi-level approach as there may be some differences in rationales as to why some systems are used or not. © 2016, Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. This is an author produced version of a paper published in THE INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT uploaded in accordance with the publisher’s self- archiving policy. The final published version (version of record) is available online at the link below. Some minor differences between this version and the final published version may remain. We suggest you refer to the final published version should you wish to cite from it.

U2 - 10.1080/09585192.2016.1244911

DO - 10.1080/09585192.2016.1244911

M3 - Article

SN - 0958-5192

VL - 28

SP - 356

EP - 378

JO - The International Journal of Human Resource Management

JF - The International Journal of Human Resource Management

IS - 2

ER -