Abstract

Organizations implementing knowledge management (KM) initiatives are concerned with promoting sharing and transferring of knowledge, within and across different organizational units. Thus, gaining a deeper awareness of the diverse viewpoints and attributes of the various organizational units is one of the important challenges facing organization-wide knowledge management (KM) interventions. It is imperative for large organizations to be sensitive to the inherent differences within different units and align their KM strategies so that the differences are suitably reflected and accommodated in the organization-wide KM strategy. In this context, this paper focuses on the KM strategies of Infosys Technologies, a leading Indian software services and products company recognised globally as a successful KM exponent. Adopting the case study methodology, we conducted an intensive two-month study at Infosys and looked at the consequences of initiating organization-wide KM in two different organizational Business units (BU). Evidence from the case highlights the unfolding of unintended and intended consequences in the two units, and organizational efforts to reconcile them. Taking a subcultural perspective of the two units offered useful insights into the consequences. The Theoretical and managerial contributions of the study to the KM arena are discussed.

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