Managing Trade-Offs and Tensions between Knowledge Management Initiatives and Expertise Development Practices

This article explores the trade-offs and tensions between knowledge management initiatives and expertise development practices. While studies of knowledge management and expertise development are abundant, there is no research that has addressed the inter-relationships between these two organizational practices. This article, therefore, addresses the following question: How does the introduction and implementation of a knowledge management initiative affect the development of engineer’s expertise within a firm? An in-depth case study of a company introducing new practices to promote knowledge transfer between projects in a fast-changing project environment is analysed. Based on the findings, we conclude that the introduced knowledge transfer initiative has upset the past harmony between expertise development and knowledge management practices. Full paper available at https://doi.org/10.1177%2F1350507606060982