Linking organizational processes to knowledge management processes in the case of knowledge intensive organizations: A theoretical framework

As stressed by many authors, knowledge is a key res ource which is nowadays lying at the heart of organizational performance of knowledge intensive o rganizations. Such organizations are characterized by an increasing number of knowledge intensive and interconnected processes. Many knowledge intensive organizations are failing to fo cus on interactions between their processes. Such organizations which target specific processes, are not able to get the maximum value from their effort s and to reach their overall goals. Many authors have analyzed the causes of this failure and have proposed solutions to optimize organizational proce sses. Business process reengineering, current standards for organizational processes (ISO9000, CM MI,...) and well-known modeling techniques and notations are examples of such solutions. Never theless, the proposed solutions are of limited scope and don’t provide organizations with signific ant improvements. We think that linking organizational processes and knowledge management m ay help knowledge intensive organizations in managing processes interactions and optimizing orga nizational actors work. In this paper, we propose a framework – based on knowledge management - in or der to manage interactions between organizational processes. Our framework permits ana lyzing knowledge management activities within knowledge intensive organizations and links them to organizational processes. Moreover, it provides instruments which help knowledge intensive organiza tions in improving knowledge management practices and optimize knowledge reuse.