Knowledge management in projects

Abstract

Knowledge Transfer in Project-based Organizations has been recognized as productivity and economic growth promoters that are currently not properly managed. Therefore, it is critical to investigate the importance of knowledge regarding its acquisition, use and transfer across all departments of an organization. The main objective of this work was to evaluate how modern organizations from different business sectors manage and share their knowledge by following the Knowledge Management and Transfer Life-Cycles when developing their projects. Organizational surveys were performed to employees working in project management within Portuguese organizations (or with representation in Portugal,) from multiple business sectors and holding different hierarchical positions. The present study revealed that most Companies can identify, capture and retain the relevant knowledge, and apply it to the development of other projects. However, the steps corresponding to the transfer of knowledge between collaborators within the organization and to the evaluation/review of the benefit generated by the transferred knowledge are not being followed. The inexistence of a Project department or a team dedicated to projects within the organization seems to be limiting the effectiveness of knowledge management and transfer.