Abstract

The main goal of this research was to understand if organizational actors use their individual knowledge to help their companies during the organizational innovation process. The research was conducted in two Portuguese companies from 2006 to 2007 using action research methodology, which implied that both the researcher and organizational actors participated interactively in the research. The main technique used to collect data was group recall, involving Operators, Technicians and Managers in separate group sessions where they shared experiences, ideas and gave suggestions about the organizational innovation and the knowledge sharing processes. Five employees participated in each group recall session - totalizing 30 people from Bosch Termotecnologia SA and 15 people from Efacec, Automação e Robótica. The group recall technique was developed by Professor Totterdill and his group of researchers from Nottingham Trent University. Five knowledge dilemmas were studied and for data analysis we used analysis grids based on employee’s quotes, and also applied a questionnaire to all participants in the group recall sessions. It was never our intention to provide raw data, ratios or percentages, but to understand the processes of knowledge sharing in these two companies which were precisely chosen because they were involved in structural processes of innovation and change. During the research process we have identified a concept of knowledge that distinguishes static from dynamic knowledge, both of which coexist in the same space and cannot be completely separated within organizational tasks.Our findings also led to the establishment of a model that can potentially provide guidelines to promote knowledge sharing during organizational innovation processes.