Characterising a socio-technical approach to knowledge management - Cases in small to medium sized software enterprises (SMEs)

With promises of reinventing the organisation, practitioners, consultants and academics alike jumped on the Knowledge Management (KM) bandwagon in the late 1990s. It has typically been larger organisations that have possessed the economies of scale i.e. the financial resources to pursue this strategy, where they perceive they will lose their market share if they do not follow the trend while smaller organisations have not had the same luxury. Ironically, it is these small businesses that have successfully managed knowledge for centuries. However, the success of the KM approach is too tightly linked to the implementation of Knowledge Management Systems (KMS). Although information systems are integral to a KM approach, from an organisational perspective, it is essential that alternative mechanisms which support a formalised KM approach are better understood in order to make a suitable match between the organization's knowledge needs with the most fitting modes available to support the activity. Consequently, using multiple case studies, this study presents a well rounded view of the KM approach, identifying both routine and non-routine modes of knowledge processing for small software organisations, addressing the balance of usage associated with supporting knowledge requirements, in order to improve the organisation's ability to be more flexible in the face of change.