Facilitating New Knowledge Creation and Obtaining KM Maturity

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to describe a framework designed to assess the capacity of a knowledge management (KM) system to facilitate new knowledge creation.Design/methodology/approach – A longitudinal case study methodology, in a single company, Pratt Whitney Rocketdyne (PWR), was used to test the framework.Findings – New knowledge creation is best supported through mature KM systems that include all four modes of knowledge creation: combination, externalization, socialization, and internalization. KM systems and environments as a whole reach maturity by progressing through stages, which is presented as a KM maturity model.Research limitations/implications – By combining Nonaka's knowledge creation theory with Wittrock's generative learning activities, the paper illuminates both the why and how of new knowledge creation, in a way that can be applied to KM technological initiatives. One of the limitations of this study is the generalizability of the findings, which may be limited by the singl...

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