Successful knowledge management requires a knowledge culture: a case study

Culture is widely acknowledged to be a critical success factor in knowledge management (KM). This paper presents the case of KM implementation at MKS, an IT consulting firm based in India. Although the KM initiative at MKS had many of the hallmarks associated with successful KM projects, the initiative failed to get off the ground due to the absence of a ‘knowledge culture’ within the organisation. Subsequent interviews with MKS staff uncovered a range of cultural themes that appeared to impede the institutionalisation of KM at MKS. These cultural themes included: internal competitiveness among MKS staff resulting in ‘knowledge hoarding’, a lack of personal reward and incentive to engage in knowledge sharing, concerns over job security and the ‘devaluation’ of employees, stigma associated with the reliance on someone else's ideas, preference for a face-to-face mode of knowledge sharing over a tool-supported approach and doubts over the quality of knowledge shared by more junior staff.