| The ability of organizations to manage their knowledge effectively is fast becoming a crucial competency in this era. Recent studies provide important insights in the area of OKM and its impact on core business processes and functions. It is becoming clear that competitiveness of organizations will increasingly depend upon carefully exploiting the new strategic potentials of better-managed knowledge. One industry that arguably is the most critically impacted is the professional services industry, in which knowledge is considered a key corporate asset.; The relationship between OKM and sustainable competitive advantage has been discussed in literature. However, how OKM can provide an organization with sustainable competitive advantage has not been clearly articulated. This dissertation explores OKM from a strategic resource analysis view-point and through meta-analysis of literature develops a theoretical framework that establishes the linkage between organizational knowledge and sustainable competitive advantage. As part of this dissertation, a comprehensive OKM process model is developed is supported with secondary case studies from industry. This dissertation also presents a case study which focuses on OKM at a leading professional services firm, considered a leading practice in OKM by several industry analysts. This study examines the implementation of people, process, knowledge and technology infrastructure which support OKM, learning, and innovation at this professional services firm. The findings include the firm's vision, the business case for investing in organizational knowledge management, key enablers and barriers, performance measures, and the impact of OKM. |
