Knowledge Acquisition – Sharing Based on Interim Manager Experiences

Abstract

Intellectual capital is one of the most important organisational resources, so Knowledge Management (KM) belongs to the everyday activities in business life. An especially critical step of KM is knowledge acquisition and sharing, which is to make up for knowledge gaps in order to achieve a higher level of organisational performance. Organisational practice turns to solutions more and more, which acquire the necessary knowledge with the help of external sources. A possible solution is employing interim managers, who have gained extensive knowledge by solving the problems of different organisations. The interim manager, as a knowledge manager, brings the new knowledge into the organisation, develops, transfers, uses and preserve it. In our qualitative research, using the logic of an own model, we tried to identify the phases, in which the process of KM and the activity of the interim manager are connected. A structured in-depth interview was used to collect information that was evaluated using the NVivo program. The result shows that, in most cases, managerial and professional knowledge is also transferred, and the interim managers are valuable to enterprises for their tacit knowledge. Knowledge transfer and development are the result of collaboration, knowledge generation through shared thinking, and knowledge development through that individuals solve complex problems on their own. In every case, a prerequisite of successful knowledge transfer (and its integration into organisational memory) is the trust developed between the sponsor and the interim manager. The study introduces the reader to the details of the research.