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Specifics of knowledge management lifecycle in Russia: a pilot study
Purpose – Knowledge management (KM) is the process of capturing the value from the knowledge assets and intellectual capital of the organization. Knowledge and effective knowledge management could be a source of competitive advantage. However, due to intangible nature of knowledge resources managers and academics struggle to evaluate the effectiveness of KM systems in organizations.
The main objective of this paper is to understand and describe the specific aspects of KM lifecycle in Russian companies. We aim to answer the following research question: What KM life cycle stages are the most and the least developed in Russian companies?
Design/methodology/approach – We chose a mixed-method research strategy. Qualitative part includes preliminary interviews with KM practitioners. The results of qualitative part helped us to adapt a framework developed by Bukowitz and Williams (1999) to the Russian settings. Quantitative part includes a survey on a sample of 104 executive managers of Russian companies presenting different industries and geographical regions.
Originality/value – The current paper contributes to KM academic theory in three different ways. First, the paper demonstrates state of the art of KM practices implemented in Russian companies and provides specific explanations of the results. Secondly, the authors propose a revised shortened version of a questionnaire for express diagnostic of KM maturity. Finally, special coefficient of KM maturity was developed and evaluated.
Practical implications – The paper demonstrated state of the art of KM implementation in Russian companies, helping managers to identify bottlenecks and areas for further development. Specifically, we suggest that managers of Russian companies pay close attention to the advancing and contributing stage of KM life cycle by fostering knowledge sharing, overcoming barriers, and implementing positions of knowledge analytics and coordinators. Besides, the paper suggests explanations for the identified problems and provides managerial recommendations related to the development of KM strategies in Russian context.