Organisational structure and knowledge management : a case study

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.