Strategic knowledge management failures in small professional service firms in China

Reports on action research projects in two professional service firms in China.Knowledge management depends on employee involvement and strategic management.Three theoretical perspectives applied to the problem situation.Implications for managing knowledge and organizational change.Both strong and weak leadership can contribute to KMS failure. In this paper, we report and reflect on Knowledge Management (KM) projects conducted in two China-based, smallersized professional service firms. The authors acted as Action Researchers, assisting each firm extensively as it prepared for its implementation of an IT-based KMS. However, neither KMS implementation significantly improved knowledge transfer or work productivity. We analyze the project failures, noting the significance of specific strategic management deficiencies as well as inadequate employee involvement and incentives. The implications for the strategic management of knowledge and organizational change in China are considered.

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