Knowledge Transfer Framework for Managing Knowledge in Relief Organisations

In recent years, knowledge management (KM) theory has become an omnipresent and important element of organisational development. It includes processes intended to improve organisational effectiveness and it describes the convergence of people, processes, and systems. However, its application is limited to the development of technology for document repository and sharing. To promote new ways of approaching KM, this paper focuses on four knowledge topics: the use of human capital, social capital, structural capital, and artificial intelligence. Accepting that the four components of KM: people, processes, tools, and organisation, are interdependent, nested, and porous, then getting relevant knowledge to those who need it, when they need it, is critical for knowledge transfer. This paper considers whether the recovery of forgotten knowledge will create value for organisations. It proposes a new holistic framework to enhance the transferability of tacit and implicit knowledge in emergency relief organisations. It considers the application of artificial intelligence in the aid sector as a means of achieving this, and it proposes its use for providing ready-to-use knowledge for decision making in emergencies. Using a quantitative and qualitative research approach, this research resolves several ambiguities in the application of the KM discipline within emergency relief organisations. It found that there is no relationship between the employees’ age and their attitude to communicating across organisational boundaries to exchange knowledge, yet age is a factor in the use of organisational social networks as a communication tool. Further, it found little difference in the way employees of various designations comprehend the human, structural, and social capital elements of an organisation, yet the importance, selection, and use of each of these elements is dependent on the employees’ designation and/or position in the organisational hierarchy. Finally, it found that age is a key factor in the frequency of changing jobs, which contributes to the loss of tacit and implicit knowledge in aid organisations. This paper concludes by providing recommendations for action within each of the five knowledge sharing dimensions: individual, social, managerial, cultural, and structural.