Assessment of knowledge management practices in project-oriented business

Abstract

The rationale of this paper is to illustrate how the management of knowledge in temporary organisations is being carried out in many industries. It aims to examine knowledge management (KM) practices in and between projects. Online survey was conducted to collect the data from project managers and assistant mangers in Finland. It is found out that majority of project managers have intermediate level of intimacy with knowledge management and mostly project completion reports are consulted for capturing information. For information dissemination, lectures/seminars are organised. It is also stressed by the respondents that humans (employees) have more importance than other technologies for successful KM. Further, research should include large-scale surveys to systematically analyse the successful project KM practices in different types of projects, organisations, and industries located in other cultural areas could help extracting possible effects caused by cultural or societal influences on KM practices in projects. It is proposed that project managers should put more emphasis to synchronise KM practices with common and widely accepted realities about project KM programmes. It portraits the real picture of KM practices of project-based organisations.