Abstract
Knowledge has become an increasingly important determinant of competitiveness for the local governments. The purpose of this paper was to explore the existence of knowledge management (KM) in Serbian local government (LG) and to identify and analyzes processes and infrastructure that supports KM practices. The paper consists of two parts; the first part covers comprehensive literature review that summarizes the existing research done on the subject of knowledge management in public sector in order to put research in context and to highlight the contribution of this paper to the existing body of knowledge. The second part consists of empirical research conducted to get a preview of the current state of the KM practice in Serbian local government. There were several important findings regarding KM practices in Serbian LGs identified in the study, i.e., public servants have a positive attitude toward KM concept; KM activities are mostly technology supported; KM is perceived as a management priority; there is not any formal attribution of responsibility for knowledge practice to executive staff, human resource unit or IT unit, neither any mention of knowledge capacity development in strategies or plans of LGs. Finally, the results of this research study provide valuable guidance for future research for both academics and practitioners.
Highlights
Knowledge has become an increasingly important determinant of competitiveness for the local governments
The purpose of this paper is to trace the existence of knowledge management (KM) in Serbian local government and identify and analyzes processes and infrastructure that supports KM practices
The first part covers a review of role and application of knowledge management in public sector; the second part is oriented to opportunities and challenges in the context of local governments, while the third covers context of Serbian public sector and Serbian local government background
Summary
Knowledge management is a complex concept. Peter F. One widely used definition of KM is the one by Nicolas (2004) that describes KM as a systematic process of creating, acquiring, disseminating, leveraging and using knowledge to achieve competitive advantage. In order to manage the knowledge, organizations need to understand the process of knowledge creation (combination, internalization, socialization, and externalization) through conversion between tacit and explicit forms. The same term for organizational structures is key to the success of a knowledge management processes. These include technology, structure, and culture (Gold et al, 2001). The subsections cover the subjects knowledge management in public sector with respect to local government context and some general observations about Serbian public and local government context
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