Organizational knowledge has been evident since Penrose’s (1959)
work on the theory of the firm. According to her, firms have discretion
over how they use their resources and, therefore, over the services derived
from them. On this view, organizational knowledge is the set of collective
understanding embedded in an organization – in a project team
and/or project-based company – which enables it to put its resources to
particular uses.
All the knowledge needed in a project implementation is visualized
by the metaphor illustrated in Figure 4.2. The trunk of the tree describes
the project output. The branches from the trunk are the main activities
that affect the outcome of the project. Branching off from each of these
main activities are sub-activities which, together with the main activities,
collectively determine the outcome of the project. The shading of
each activity represents the stage of knowledge. White (almost invisible)
represents tacit knowledge, while black represents explicit knowledge.
The thickness of each branch represents the activity’s relative extent to
the project. With the help of this metaphor it is possible to realize that
a project may need many types of knowledge and that the knowledge
management methods needed in a project implementation are often versatile.
For example, a small sub-activity, where implementation needs
utilization of rare tacit knowledge, may crucially render the outcome of
a project.