Knowledge Management in project oriented organizations: the case of the Practice Groups in an IT Consulting Firm

A typical problem in Project oriented organizational structures is the difficulty in sharing knowledge across projects. From an organizational design point of view, the adopted solutions to the problem typically vary between a top-down (hierarchical) approach and a bottom-up (social) one. This paper proposes some suggestions in order to improve networking oriented KM activities in project based organizations. In adopting the concept of “Organizational Relation” as a unit of analysis it is possible to evaluate if top-down interventions or emerging bottom-up behaviours favour knowledge processes. A case study of the successful Italian ICT consulting firm (VP Tech) is presented: the organizational solutions adopted (promotion of Practice Groups) can be seen as an interesting balance between the two approaches.