Abstract:
The research sets out to investigate whether the organisational structure of an organisation
impacts on the ability of the organisation to share knowledge. The research was limited to a
single case study of an organisation in the telecommunications industry with a matrix
structure and strong requirement for knowledge integration. The primary outcome is that the
matrix organisation structure reduces the ability of the organisation to integrate and share
knowledge. The weaknesses in the organisation come from the structure inhibiting the
interaction and sharing of knowledge (too many departments, too many functional barriers);
from the structure decoupling performance from reward (reduced recognition and feedback
levels starving the motivation to share and integrate knowledge); from the structure not
providing mechanism to share and integrate tacit knowledge, in particular; and from relying
on, and hence overloading, formal organisation integrators to force coordination and
integration. The research also provides a strong theory base that shows that knowledge
integration can and should be used as the base for organisation design and that a strategic
focus on strong knowledge integration can provide a sustainable competitive advantage for
the company.
The name “Intelco” is used to retain anonymity for the case study company concerned.
