Facilitating digital collaboration through knowledge management: a case study

Abstract

Knowledge management (KM) can facilitate collaboration and enhance innovation. To manage knowledge, organisations typically implement knowledge management systems (KMSs). It has been shown that KMS facilitates the management of explicit knowledge. However, KMSs are at times not embraced because of issues such as long file search times and information overload. Moreover, managing tacit knowledge via KMS is hardly discussed in literature. To shed light on these issues, this paper conducts a case study at a railway infrastructure manager. Three key practical problems have been identified that hinder current KMS use and sharing of tacit knowledge. To overcome these problems, a KM platform was developed, and its usability was assessed with 17 experts. A paired-samples t-test reveals that the developed platform reduces the file search time compared to the current solution. Moreover, structured interviews show that the lesson-learned site component contributes to improved learning, and the KM platform facilitates collaboration building.