Impact of organizational knowledge creation on project knowledge management in multinational and Indian software companies: a comparative analysis

Software organizations are project-based organizations where both organizational Knowledge Management (KM) and KM within project teams are requisites. The organizational KM is considered as a long-term process and Project Knowledge Management (PKM) is regarded as a short-term practice. This approach has many flaws from an outcome perspective due to redundancy in practices. This empirical study explores the dimensions of organizational Knowledge Creation (OKC) in software industry and identifies the impact of these dimensions on Project Knowledge Management which can streamline the process from corporate to project level. A structural equation modelling was conducted in the study on a total sample size of 608 responses from 125 software companies listed under NASSCOM (National Association of Software and Services Companies). The study also identifies the differences in the relations between KC dimensions and PKM in MNCs and Indian Companies; a Multi-group Analysis method is adopted. Both employee engagement and organizational resources for knowledge creation have a significant impact on PKM. The MNCs need to focus more on employee engagement for knowledge creation to improve the contribution of software professional’s contribution in project management as a generic solution to overcome PKM challenges compared to Indian companies.