Constructing capacity through knowledge management practice: a research team case study

Constructing capacity through knowledge management practice: a research team case study

This chapter provides one perspective on how a research team constructs capacity through knowledge management practices, and supports the observation that individual differences in practice do exist. This research suggests that a diversity of knowledge management practices could benefit the construction of capacity in individuals, teams and organisations.

A synthesis of the literature is used to develop the CISUS knowledge management architecture (Matthews, 2010) to account for the Create, Improve, Store, Use and Share processes that comprise knowledge management practice. This CISUS knowledge management architecture provides a conceptual and theoretical foundation to inform a case study research project into one research team’s knowledge management practices, and to explore how this research team constructs capacity in knowledge management. An outline of the case study research methodology is provided, followed by an overview of preliminary results with reference to the CISUS architecture.

Analysis of the case study research results reveals that each member of the research team employs slightly different CISUS knowledge management practices, yet all of the approaches were effective for both the individual and the team. The conclusion drawn from this is that knowledge management practice is an individual, personal capacity, and that what works for one individual may be counter-productive for another. It is suggested that further research be undertaken to understand influences on this practice diversity, including researching the influence that individual personality preferences may have on knowledge management practice.

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