Knowledge sharing in repository-based KM systems: a study in the IT services enterprises in India

Abstract

The rapid evolution of the Internet and global telecommunication infrastructure has provided organizations with a choice of service providers located anywhere in the world. Developing economies, like India, have emerged as the leading destination for outsourcing of eWork, both in Software Services as well as in IT Enabled Services (or Business Process Outsourcing). India has capitalized on its early mover advantage and Indian firms now develop software or provide IT Enabled Services for more than half of the Fortune 500 companies. Many have acknowledged the success of Indian organizations, by calling India the back office to the world.

Owing to their success, the Indian IT services organizations have grown very fast, and today some of these organizations employ more than 150,000 software professionals working in different corners of the world. Working in globally distributed teams is a norm in most of these organizations. Members of these distributed teams are separated not just by time and space but also by different social and organizational cultural experiences.

Many of the Indian IT services organizations have put in place formal knowledge management (KM) systems as part of the initiatives to manage the complexities arising from the rapid organizational growth and globally distributed teams.

In this chapter, we document the lessons learned from our research on Knowledge Sharing strategies, in particular, the factors encouraging or inhibiting the Knowledge Seeking and Knowledge Contribution behaviors in the context of repository-based KM systems in Indian Software and Services organizations.

There are important lessons to be learned from the experiences of Indian software and services organizations by similar knowledge-intensive organizations experiencing the forces of globalization.

This chapter is written in a descriptive format, enumerating the practices employed by Indian enterprises in repository-based KM systems to manage the organizational knowledge creation, dissemination, sharing, utilization, and deployment. This chapter also lists the lessons learned from successful and not so successful initiatives for managing knowledge.