Overcoming Barriers of Knowledge Sharing through Communities of Practice: A Case Study of Steel Company

실행공동체를 이용하여 지식공유의 제약사항 극복: 철강회사 사례를 중심으로

  • Hong, Dae-Geun (Dept. Industrial and Management Engineering, POSTECH) ;
  • Koo, Choong-Hyo (Graduate School for Infonnation Technology, POSTECH) ;
  • Suh, Eui-Ho (Dept. Industrial and Management Engineering, POSTECH)
  • Published : 2009.08.31

Abstract

Knowledge management is systematic management of vital knowledge resources and its associated processes of creating, gathering, organizing, diffusion, use and exploitation. A key challenge emerging for such organizations is how to encourage knowledge sharing within organization because knowledge is the organization's intellectual capital, of increasing importance in promoting competitive advantages. Isolated initiatives for promoting knowledge sharing and team collaboration, without taking consideration of the knowledge sharing limitations and constraints can defeat further development of KM culture. This article investigates knowledge sharing bottlenecks and proposes the use of community of practice as an effective instrument for knowledge sharing. The article demonstrates the opportunity for overcoming barriers of knowledge sharing through the application of communities of practice. The article introduces a steel company case as the best practice of communities of practice. Then, the paper empirically analyzes the case study to provide evidence for the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed approach.

지식경영은 조직의 중요한 자원인 지식을 개발, 수집, 체계화, 이용 및 활용이라는 프로세스를 통해서 지식을 체계적으로 관리하는 것이다. 지식은 조직의 지식자산으로서 조직의 경쟁력을 강화시키는 중요하기 요소이기 때문에 어떻게 조직 내에서 지식공유를 활성화할 것이냐가 조직의 당면과제이다. 지식공유활동은 제약하는 요소를 감안하지 않고 지식공유와 팀 협력을 시도하는 것은 조직의 지식경영문화 증진을 오히려 저해할 수 있다. 따라서, 본 연구에서는 조직 내에서 지식공유활동을 제약하는 문제점을 개인적 측면과 사회적 측면에서 파악하고 효과적인 지식공유도구로서 실행공동체 활용모형을 제안한다. 제안된 실행공동체 활용모형에서는 지식공유활동 저해요소를 극복하고 지식공유활동을 활성화할 수 있는 방안을 제시한다. 또한, 제안된 모형을 적용한 철강회사의 실행공동체 활용 우수사례를 소개한다. 마지막으로 구체적인 사례분석을 통해서 조직 내에서 지식공유를 활성화하기 위한 방법으로 실행공동체의 적용가능성과 효과성을 가늠해본다.

Keywords

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