Title: Organisational knowledge and the project dimension

Authors: Laurent Bourgeon, Timothy M. Devinney

Addresses: Management Department, Essec Business School Paris-Singapore, Avenue Bernard Hirsch B.P. 105, 95021 Cergy-Pontoise, France. ' School of Marketing, University of Technology Sydney, P.O. Box 123, Broadway NSW 2007, Australia

Abstract: The emergence of project-based organisations and the resulting questioning of company structure focused on centres of competence necessitate a new portrayal of organisational knowledge. Exploring existing definitions of knowledge, this article proposes a typology of the various forms of organisational knowledge encompassed in the concept of organisational knowledge cube and taking into account the horizontal and action oriented dimension of the company structure: the projects. In the second part of the paper, the progressive transformation of the Opera de Paris over the last 15 years initiated with the construction of the second opera house in Paris – the Opera Bastille completed in 1989 – offers a dynamic view of a new organisational knowledge base|s development accompanying the implementation of a project-based organisation.

Keywords: knowledge management; organisational knowledge; project based organisations; project management; organisational structure; Opera de Paris; Opera Bastille.

DOI: 10.1504/IJPOM.2010.035344

International Journal of Project Organisation and Management, 2010 Vol.2 No.3, pp.267 - 285

Published online: 23 Sep 2010 *

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