Knowledge management in a public research organization: Reform of a planning section service by action research

Abstract

This paper addresses knowledge management of an administration section in a Japanese public research organization. The author was an administrative staff in a planning section of Institute A. Three tasks in a planning section are selected as action research to consider knowledge management and their outcome is fully described, and used in the action research. By accumulating various kinds of knowledge about tasks, the synergy between them creates new knowledge and accelerates knowledge management. Then a planning section becomes a center of knowledge assets. It is important to expand knowledge asset networks and increase the density of networks. As a conclusion, this paper presented the “Research Concierge Model”, which states that a planning section is at the center of network in knowledge flow and manage communications in a research institution. A system for collecting and improving knowledge about research activities is elaborated and a planning section service is reformed successfully.