KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS IN VIRTUAL TEAMS : A qualitative case study across multiple public sector entities

Abstract: In today's knowledge economy, intellectual capabilities are one of the most important resources for organizations. Attempts have therefore been made to consolidate knowledge and facilitate knowledge sharing within organizations. For this purpose, many organizations turn to knowledge management systems. This study aims to investigate the barriers and enablers that affect the use of knowledge management systems for virtual teams within the public sector. To investigate this, we have conducted a qualitative case study of one of the largest multi-entity projects ever conducted within the Swedish public sector, and their use of their knowledge management system “Muster”. Our findings suggest there are multiple barriers and enablers for knowledge management use. Furthermore, our findings reveal that most enablers are related to organizational factors whilst barriers consist of both organizational and system factors.The barriers are limited access, inadequate routines, and lack of informal meetings in virtual teams. The last one we found to be unique for virtual teams. The enablers are importance of knowledge, organizational attitude, and routines for knowledge capture and storage. This suggests that duality of routines is present and a factor in knowledge management system use.