Wiki-Based Knowledge Management Systems for More Democratic Organizations

New generations of technology are introducing a more democratic way of creating, managing and applying organizational knowledge. Using a multiple case study approach, we examined six organizations across different industry sectors over a period of two years which had adopted, or intended to adopt, a new Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) using Wild technology. The findings compare how each organization reacted to the changes associated with initiating and sustaining the new Wiki-based KMS. Some of the organizations aborted their Wiki-based KMS project because of is misalignment with the organization's culture and social characteristics. However, others adapted their organizational culture to match the ability of the Wild to support the democratic co-creation of organizational knowledge by knowledge workers for knowledge workers. Drawing on our results, we identify the challenges of organizational resistance that this presents and suggest some means of overcoming them.

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