The Use of Organizational Knowledge in Professional Settings : A Case Study Analysis

In the last twenty years, debate concerning knowledge management (KM) initiatives in professional settings has become prominent in both academic and practitioners literature. In spite of an increased incidence of KM initiatives in organizational contexts, very few studies were conducted to better understand how individuals used the knowledge they retrieved to deal with present issues. Consequently, research that investigates the ways individuals use the knowledge to accomplish a work task and research that seek to understand which factors are likely to influence the use of the retrieved knowledge have value. The purpose of this research was to address the following research question: 'How do individuals in professional settings use the knowledge they retrieve to deal with present issues?' In this qualitative case study analysis the process of knowledge retrieval was defined as 'the process by which individuals retrieve knowledge from organizational memory with the purpose of making decisions on present issues' (Mariano and Casey, 2007). Findings showed that participants used both tacit and explicit knowledge. Participants used knowledge in several ways. The use of knowledge was influenced by the type of work to accomplish and the experience with such knowledge. The relationship between type of decision to make and type of knowledge to use was highlighted. It was also found that employees generally had an attitude to ask other coworkers to get a validation of their work when using the retrieved knowledge