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Knowledge organisations perform knowledge processes, using their primary resources of intellectual capital, and their key input of information. Their effectiveness in performing these processes depends on their knowledge capabilities. In most cases these capabilities must be highly dynamic in order to respond to the changing environment of the organisation and resulting evolution of the required core knowledge processes of the organisation. All organisational development must be centred around developing those dynamic knowledge capabilities on an ongoing basis. The strategic capabilities of an organisation depend on its ability to process rapidly changing information and perspectives on the organisation and its business environment, so these are in fact high‐order knowledge capabilities. The development of organisational knowledge capabilities can be addressed most completely by considering the four fields of individual technology, organisational technology, individual skills and behaviours, and organisational skills and behaviours.

To propose and evaluate a novel management structure that encourages knowledge sharing across an organization.

The extant literature on the impact of organizational culture and its link to management structure is examined and used to develop a new knowledge sharing management structure. Roadblocks to implementing a new management structure and methods for overcoming these impediments are discussed. The efficacy of the proposed management structure is evaluated empirically by examining its effect on organizations that have implemented portions of the proposed structure.

The foundational ideas behind the proposed knowledge management organizational structure and the structure itself have been implemented in parts at various organizations located both in the USA and internationally. While the full management structure model has not been evaluated, the portions implemented in various organizations have enabled these organizations to assume leading roles in their respective industries.

The proposed knowledge sharing management structure has not been fully implemented under controlled circumstances. The empirical evaluation is performed on portions of the proposed model, thus the full impact of the proposed management structure may well exceed the described benefits and additional structural‐shift roadblocks may limit the realization of the proposed benefits.

The proposed knowledge sharing management structure gives managers a practical way to approach cross organizational knowledge sharing, which is frequently identified as a theoretical benefit of knowledge management. Means for diminishing or circumventing recognized impediments to organizational change are described to further facilitate the implementation of the proposed cross‐organizational knowledge sharing structure.

The proposed knowledge sharing management structure is organized around knowledge‐based teams of knowledge workers, but further extends this concept to include larger knowledge groups to transform an organization into a knowledge‐based organization. If an organization's functional structure can be successfully transformed, then this enables the maximization of competitive advantage realized through knowledge management initiatives, more specifically through knowledge sharing. Upper level management, who are responsible for organizational change are the primary audience, though the principals described may be implemented through a more grass roots approach by lower level management.

Companies increasingly like to describe themselves as “knowledge companies”, that store and share experience and knowledge and facilitate open exchange of both. However, trends in career development encourage the “new deal” of employment, whereby employability is dependent on the mutual contract of employment for added value. This “new deal” environment will encourage individual gatekeepers of knowledge to hoard their specialist knowledge to retain their employability value, rather than share that knowledge with others in the company. This paper considers whether the “new deal” is in fact a contradiction to the “knowledge company”, and whether companies much choose to be one or the other. It concludes that companies which wish to become true knowledge sharing environments must understand the motivational aspects of career development, and adopt a culture that motivates employees to share, while recognising the employees’ lack of loyalty and need for independence. Only when companies can balance the treatment of employees as both capital and commodity, can the “new deal” company and “knowledge company” co‐exist.

The Braintrust 2003 Conference gave ground to the sense that the knowledge movement is struggling to gain new levels of maturity. Sessions explored the business implications of knowledge, focusing on the use of knowledge in workflow, in mergers and acquisitions, and in recognizing the need to go to the periphery to grasp trends and emerging ideas. It is significant that knowledge management, change management and business management began to be woven together in these presentations. The presentations at Braintrust delineated that the challenge to KM practitioners is first, to be better and more related to business needs while second, staying continually sensitive to changes that may potentially sweep their organizations, leading to fundamental shifts in how the organization and its supporting knowledge effort need to relate to the world.

Examines the information processes that support organisational sense‐making, knowledge creation and decision making. Sense‐making involves interpreting the raw data of the environment by enactment, selection and retention. New knowledge is created by knowledge conversion, knowledge building, and knowledge linking. Completely rational decision making would involve identifying alternatives, projecting the outcomes of each alternative and evaluating the alternatives and their outcomes according to known preferences and objectives. In the organisational knowing cycle, a continuous flow of information is maintained between sensemaking, knowledge creating, and decision making, and the outcome of information use in one mode provides the elaborated context and the expanded resources for information use in other modes. An illustration is given of a knowledge cycle in the World Health Organisation Smallpox Eradication Programme in which continuous cycles of interpretation, innovation and adaptive action underpinned the success of the project.

Important demographic changes are causing organizations and teams to become increasingly age-diverse. Because knowledge sharing is critical to organizations’ long-term sustainability and success, both researchers and practitioners face a strategic dilemma: namely, finding ways to cultivate greater knowledge sharing among different age cohorts.

In this chapter, we claim that age diversity adds relevant opportunities and distinct challenges. On one hand, it increases demands for effective knowledge sharing: Employees of different ages are likely to hold diverse knowledge and capabilities that may be lost and/or poorly exploited if they are not effectively shared. On the other hand, age differences can activate age-related stereotypes and foster the formation of age subgroups, which can hamper social integration, communication, and ultimately, knowledge sharing.

Building on these insights, this chapter looks at the role of the human resource management (HRM) system as a key facilitator of effective knowledge sharing in age-diverse organizations. To this end, the chapter focuses on HR planning, training and development, performance appraisal, and reward systems, each of which can be used to develop the motivations, norms, and accountability structures that encourage employees of different ages to bridge their differences and integrate their unique perspectives and knowledge. This chapter suggests ways of tailoring HRM practices to unlock the benefits of age diversity, which may help organizations exploit and capitalize on the knowledge-based resources held by their younger and older employees.