Knowledge management processes in practice: Empirical insights from the public sector

Abstract

Knowledge management can be regarded as a holistic and systematic process that integrates technology and human aspects to enable organizations to achieve their goals. Knowledge management promises many benefits both for the private and public sector organizations when operationalized successfully. In the context of public sector, it is possible - at least in theory - to make more informed decisions, to serve the citizens better and to use resources more effectively through knowledge management. Thus, it is not a surprise that many public organizations have started to develop their knowledge management processes. However, knowledge management faces in practice plenty of challenges in the context of public sector. The aim of this paper is to empirically study the challenges that public organizations face at different stages of the knowledge management process. Furthermore, the paper also aims to identify the enabling factors for successful knowledge management process. To better understand both the challenges and the enablers, we have carried out empirical study that is comprised of five cases from the Finnish public sector.