Abstract
Knowledge management is a requirement, especially in Engineering Projects. Effective knowledge management and transfer has a positively impacts project efficiency, effectiveness and improved quality of services. The importance of knowledge, how it is acquired, used and shared, is widely accepted as key to project and organizational performances. Literature shows that the team members of a certain function may be willing to share information with each other but not with everyone within the same project, therefore the aim of this study is to identify the factors which affect knowledge management and transfer amongst project team members and whether in their experience, knowledge management and transfer impacts the success of a project.
The twenty-two participants were all strictly team members of successful projects, within the last four years. The research was done using company records, to identify the professionals within a previously successful project, using the company address book -the team members were then contacted via email and given a link to a questionnaire which they answered anonymously.
All the respondents indicated that Knowledge Management and transfer does impact the success of a project team. The results also show how, age, level of education, ease of access, willingness, and project stage affect the knowledge management and information-sharing process.
This study is beneficial to teams and scholars wanting to understand the factors that promote knowledge management and transfer, as well as organizations wanting to know if knowledge management and transfer impact the success of a project.
Key words:
knowledge management, information sharing, project success, project team.