Supporting Competence Management in Knowledge-Intensive Organizations

Due to the evolving nature of technology-related industries and a faster-moving market place, there is a need for knowledge-intensive companies to continually develop in order to stay competitive. The inclusion of rapidly evolving software systems into the production pipeline creates a recurring need for competence development among employees in order to efficiently use the new technology. However, a diminishing propensity for investments that are not directly revenue-generating has made apparent that new ways of supporting organizational competence management is needed. This thesis report aims to investigate how knowledge management theory can help identifying competence gaps and support competence management in knowledge-intensive organizations. The research is done through a case study involving Ericsson in Sweden and their SAP1 based Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software systems. An empirical study is performed through semi-structured interviews with management and end-users of each examined ERP system module. Existing competence management work as well as competence-related gaps and issues are identified through analysis of the collected data. The identified competence issues are then analyzed and categorized according to knowledge management theories. Based on this analysis, suggestions are made for a KM initiative meant to address the identified competence-related problems and leverage the company’s overall competence management strategy