Working but Threatening? On the Trade-Off Between Efficiency and Legitimacy in the Design of Knowledge Transfer Methods in Project Management

Paper in proceeding, 2014

This text reports on a knowledge-broker implementation in the R&D function of a large firm. Results show that the knowledge-broker method created and diffused knowledge and that project managers appreciated it. At the same time, line managers were not that appreciative, and the method was eventually abandoned. We discuss the difficulty for knowledge sharing methods to be both efficient and legitimate, meaning that some methods would be okay by management, but they would not be efficient. Others would work, but management would be uncomfortable sponsoring them. We discuss whether this is caused by a divide between line management and the project organization. Then, we discuss how a different leadership style would influence the sharing of knowledge.