Knowledge Management and Business Process Redesign: An Integrated Framework

In the last decade, several Knowledge Management (KM) frameworks have been developed and applied to improve creation, storage, transfer and reuse of knowledge. However, a number of projects have failed to generate the expected benefits due to a gap between KM activities and those that constitute the routines of an organization, as defined in its business processes. This paper draws on the idea that the association of KM practices and organizational routines is essential to companies' success nowadays to put forth an integrated process redesign and knowledge management methodology. With this goal, some of the foremost KM frameworks were analyzed to identify the tasks that are essential to the effective management of organizational knowledge. Then, the compatibility between such tasks and the procedures defined by major process redesign methodologies were evaluated. This analysis supported the elaboration of a revised methodology that integrates the principles and techniques of both types of initiatives. The adoption of the proposed methodology should elicit the creation of business processes that harmonize an efficient, low cost operation and the systematization of an organization's knowledge creation, storage, transfer and reuse activities.