Connecting Organizational Silos: Taking Knowledge Flow Management to the Next Level with Social Media

NETWORK DYNAMICS

Knowledge is a key ingredient of organizational success. In today’s knowledge economy this is true for almost any type of organization, whether it is a small startup or a large multinational organization, a high-tech business or a traditional brick-and-mortar setup. Because some of the tools used for enhancing knowledge flows are IT-based, we often think knowledge flow management is a topic for technology companies; but the effective exploitation of the existing knowledge in an organization is a key success factor in any industry and any type of organization, small or large. The basic principles will be very similar, but the methods and tools used might differ. While a very small local organization might primarily use face-to-face interaction to build the network and exchange knowledge, a large, distributed multinational organization will have to employ methods and technologies to bridge space and time.

Such wide distribution is a challenge as much as it is an opportunity. International organizations often have the advantage, for example, to build on a wide range of knowledge, partly influenced by local culture and a wide variety of thinking, which can raise the potential for coming up with truly new thinking and innovation. The challenge is to get knowledge to flow between distributed parts of the organization, as cultural differences, language or dialect, and spatial separation often present barriers that stand in the way of bringing the right ideas together. ...