03/07/2005
9th European Congress of Psychology. 3-7 Julio 2005
Knowledge Management (KM), is a discipline that is gaining momentum as a
result of the increasing importance of knowledge in all areas of the economy. Quantum
leap developments in Information Technology, opens new ways for capturing, storing,
sharing and reusing valuable knowledge. Nevertheless, the application of these
technologies and the concepts associated to this discipline are providing inferior results
(less than expected results). Social Science literature describes the existence of barriers
that inhibit the management of this key resource, which is in the domain of the human
being or knowledge worker (Barson et al., 2000; Ross Armbrecht et al. 2001; Gibbert y
Krause, 2001; De Long y Fahey, 2000; McDermott y O´Dell, 2001).
As a result of this, seems appropriate the need to identify and diagnose the
barriers and facilitators of an organization, as a first step in the design and application of
effective strategies to manage knowledge. Oddly enough, there is little research or
commercial tools dedicated to answer or help in this matter, only to find research or
initiatives that pretend to give answers from a general, instead of more custom view of
the issue. Also, the application of this concepts seem to be focused on large
organizations, creating a vacuum on experiences related to R&D groups (Brown et al.
2002), which are extremely intensive in knowledge, highly dependent on this resource
and a great source for research in this matter. The flexible and changing character of
these groups and the uncertainty surrounding its activities, apparently makes the
management of its knowledge a difficult endeavor and could explain this vacuum.
The present study approached the study of the barriers and facilitators to KM in
R&D groups by means of a discussion group formed by directors of groups of
investigation of the University Polytechnic of Valencia, the University of València and
the CSIC. The results that were obtained showed that the main barriers and facilitators
to the KM find them in aspects related with the running and management of the groups,
aspects these determinates culturally.
Keywords: Knowledge Management; R&D groups; Organizational Culture; Qualitative
Granada, España
Reyes-López,E.;Quintanilla,I.;Martínez-Soria,J.