The Conflict in Knowledge Management in Organizations Composed of Cohesive Sub-Organizations

How do we manage knowledge in an organization when the individual's primary affiliation is to a subgroup within it rather than to the organization as a whole?

In large organizations, there exists an internal division into units that constitute subgroups. For example, there may be a single headquarters with several field branches, each operating as an independent and separate profit center, or an international organization with branches located in different countries, comprising employees who speak different languages, have diverse mentalities, and are unfamiliar with one another. In such an organization, an individual's primary sense of belonging and identity is with the unit to which they belong, rather than with the organization as a whole.

How should knowledge be properly managed in this type of organization?

On the one hand, such an organizational structure raises and emphasizes the importance of knowledge management at the organizational level, so that each unit becomes a partner in the process, contributes its knowledge, and benefits from the knowledge accumulated in its parallel subgroup within the organization.

On the other hand, as great as the need is, so is the difficulty. The organization often creates intentional competition (both consciously and unconsciously) between units to increase their motivation for improving efficiency and achieving excellence. This reduces awareness, primarily by affecting the willingness of different units within the organization to share knowledge among themselves.

So what do we do?

In such a case, we recommend adapting the knowledge management process to the existing organizational structure while implementing a two-stage practice:

Stage A

The knowledge management process can be carried out within the units themselves, that is, within each professional department and between the different professional bodies within the same unit. An internal knowledge management process can be implemented within an individual's unit of belonging with relative ease, while achieving cooperation. At this stage, employees will experience the knowledge management process, develop habits of knowledge sharing, build an initial content foundation, and recognize the benefits derived from the process. When conditions mature, it will be possible to move to the next stage.

Note! Knowledge management consultants, even at this stage, must remain closely aligned with the overall knowledge management plan within the organization (although it may be out of sight for the individual and their unit at this stage). Maintaining an integrative vision will enable consultants to implement the process uniformly across all units and prepare for implementing the knowledge management process at the organizational level.

Stage B

Techniques for knowledge management at the organizational level can be implemented while creating a sharing and knowledge exchange between the units that were partners in the previous stage. We believe that the foundation laid, as well as the cultural and cognitive changes, will prepare the ground, pave the way, and significantly shorten the process at the organizational level.

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