A Study on Usage of Formal Knowledge Sharing Systems in Project-Based Organizations

Projects are one-time activities that have time and resource limitations. Projects are considered as arenas for learning. There are opportunities for creating new knowledge and utilizing existing knowledge in projects. Since projects are per definition unique, there is at least some degree of uniqueness associated with each project. This uniqueness provides opportunities to learn something new in each project. The known element in projects – such as existing solutions that have been proven to produce good results – can be shared and utilized to avoid using time and resources to create the same or similar solutions from scratch. Knowledge sharing and learning can play a notable role in improving the ability of project-based organizations to carry out their projects successfully and contributing to obtain higher productivity, profitability and sustainable competitive advantage. However, there are several challenges. This paper looks at one of the challenges, namely ineffective usage of formal knowledge sharing systems in project-based organizations. In this regard, the following two research questions are considered: (1) What are the challenges of using formal knowledge sharing systems? (2) How can the challenges be addressed? Formal knowledge sharing systems play an important role in supporting knowledge sharing and learning in organizations. Technological development has created many possibilities to enhance functions as well as benefits of such systems. However, there are several factors that are to be taken into consideration in order to make sure an effective usage of formal knowledge sharing systems in project-based organizations. This paper presents six factors in this regard and emphasizes the need to have a strategic view and a top management perspective of knowledge sharing and learning in project-based organizations. The study on which this paper is based, is of qualitative nature. In this regard, interviews have been conducted to gather information from five public project-based organizations in Norway.