The reward effect: a case study of failing to manage knowledge

Factors that influence the success of a KM-program in a small-sized airport

Purpose

– This paper aims to investigate the nature of what is referred to as the Knowledge Management Engineering & Maintenance Program, which is based on practices that influence the dissemination of knowledge in a structured and sustained manner within a small-sized airport. The air transport system has undergone important changes, particularly in the development of new knowledge management (KM) approaches. In practice, however, results have been mixed. Some programs have been successful, but implementation failures are common and the intended users are frequently reluctant to use such management structures. A possible explanation for efficiency and effectiveness gaps of services provided by these knowledge structures may relate to the advantages and disadvantages of the knowledge processes that airports highlight as a result of their differential structural properties.

Design/methodology/approach

– Using data collected from the Engineering & Maintenance Department at a Spanish Airport, this work has examined how the existence of some knowledge structures is linked to knowledge transfer and how this component is linked to customer service (external users, e.g. passengers; and internal users, including any airport staff).

Findings

– This paper reports a KM program, which is customized and based on four knowledge structures: technical infrastructure; people to facilitate and drive the process; a system that supports and rewards sharing; and the team leader.

Research limitations/implications

– Conducting this type of single case study (an interview-based case study approach) is to be understood foremost as a prelude to further quantitative studies including common measures for passengers and users, staff, managers and board members.

Originality/value

– In an applied sense, the model provides engineering and maintenance practitioners with identifiable factors, which enable the four frameworks and address the relevant issues by changing strategies at both the individual and the organizational levels. Without a KM program, practitioners may lose the ability to see the market signals stemming from the transport system members and they may decide to go solely by their own ways of doing and interpreting things.