Model of knowledge transfer within an organisation

Abstract

Many studies show that the acquisition of knowledge is the key to building the competitive advantage of companies. We propose a simple model of knowledge transfer within the organisation and we implement the proposed model using the cellular automata technique. In this paper the organisation is considered in the context of complex systems whereby the main role in the organisation is played by the network of informal contacts (informal communication). The goal of this paper is to ascertain which factors influence the efficiency and effectiveness of knowledge transfer. Our studies indicate a significant role of initial distribution of chunks of knowledge for the knowledge transfer process, and the results suggest taking action in the organisation to shorten the distance (social distance) between people with different levels of knowledge, or determining incentives to share knowledge.