Enabling Knowledge Flow

Organizations are facing many challenges to remain relevant in the face of new technology, emerging markets, and changing consumer behaviors. Many organizations look to become learning organizations with knowledge management strategies to leverage their knowledge assets and continuously innovate their strategies and products. However, organizations struggle to achieve success with knowledge management because their organizational culture does not support knowledge-sharing and must be adapted for this new behavior. Knowledge must flow through the organization, and so, therefore, these necessary behaviors must work within the existing corporate culture. Observations from a case study at a software company are discussed, and a new knowledge management model, the Knowledge Management Triangle, is introduced. The Knowledge Management Triangle is a simple model to explain and implement knowledge management within organizations and is customizable to work within the organization's culture to ensure the new knowledge management behaviors are appropriately adopted.