Showcasing knowledge: The promotion of knowledge management in a technology‐based organization

• Date: 01 October 2019
• Author: Cristiano José Castro de Almeida Cunha,Micheline Guerreiro Krause,Édis Mafra Lapolli,Gertrudes Aparecida Dandolini
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/kpm.1602
• Published date: 01 October 2019

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Showcasing knowledge: The promotion of knowledge

management in a technology‐based organization

Micheline Guerreiro Krause |Cristiano José Castro de Almeida Cunha |

Édis Mafra Lapolli |Gertrudes Aparecida Dandolini

Graduate Program of Engineering and

Knowledge Management, Universidade

Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, Brazil

Correspondence

Micheline Guerreiro Krause, PhD student,

Graduate Program of Engineering and

Knowledge Management, Universidade

Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianopolis, Santa

Catarina, Brazil.

Email: michelinekrause@gmail.com

Funding information

Capes Foundation (Coordenação de

Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior)

This paper aims to investigate how knowledge management is promoted in the prac-

tices of a technology‐based organization with the support of the tools and resources

of internal marketing and internal communication. We conducted a basic qualitative

research with empirical data collected in a large organization in Brazil and analyzed

it through the general analytic strategy. The main findings reveal that knowledge

management can be promoted and showcased internally by the techniques and

approaches of internal marketing and internal communication, in a similar way to an

internal advertising agency. However, some key features are not being used system-

atically, suggesting a lack of vision in its applicability to the internal audience. The

results also reveal the lack of functional attribution and of intentional awareness

about the promotion of knowledge management targeted to the second generation

of knowledge management, more oriented to the creation of knowledge in a

technology‐based organization.

1|INTRODUCTION

The maturity phase of the knowledge society places the processes of

knowledge management (KM) in the showcase of organizations, con-

textualizing a daily life in which people consume and create new

knowledge as a spontaneous and balanced cycle of their needs,

desires, and practices. The promotion of KM in the daily life of organi-

zations can favor its balance between the supply and demand of

knowledge (McElroy, 2011), with appropriate techniques and tools.

According to McElroy (2011: XXIV), starting from the end of last

century, the knowledge society witnessed the advance of what he

called “the new knowledge management”or “second‐generation

knowledge management.”McElroy characterizes the first generation

as “the supply side of KM”whereas the second generation is charac-

terized by the author as the “demand side of KM,”focusing on people,

learning, and the organizational capacity to create knowledge. He also

states that the current stage seeks to integrate the two phases.

Therefore, we can consider the analogy of placing the knowledge on

display (Krause, Lapolli, Dandolini, & Cunha, 2015) in order to promote

visibility as well as generating identification and consumption.It is man-

datory to consider cultivating culture, understood as the process of pre-

paring and improving the land (Morgan, 2010). In turn, a knowledge

culture puts forward the entire dynamics of the KM process because

it facilitates the creation of a new knowledge, which must be coded,

validated, and represented when stored (Travica, 2013).

A review of the literature on KM suggests that the implementation

of its practices and processes requires strategic alignment, focus on

people, favorable culture, incorporation of “knowledge into the fabric”

of companies (DALKIR, 2005: 79), as well as behavior modification

(Dubois & Wilkerson, 2008). Reinforcing this understanding, Nair and

Prakash (2009) recommend a communication material that generates

agreements and engagements.

These issues, considered from an interdisciplinary point of view,

suggest a task force bringing together professionals with different pro-

files, as defended in the corresponding literature. The present study

focuses on the contribution of internal communication (IC) and

Micheline Guerreiro Krause was sponsored by CAPES Foundation.

NOTE: This article is an expanded version of a paper presented at a conference in Brazil and

published in Portuguese in the proceedings. The research giving rise to this article composes a

master dissertation developed in Brazil by the first author under the guidance of the

coauthors.

Received: 15 February 2019 Accepted: 11 March 2019

DOI: 10.1002/kpm.1602

Knowl Process Manag. 2019;26:299–307. © 2019 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/kpm 299