Model of knowledge transfer within an organisation

Abstract

Many studies show that the acquisition of knowledge is the key to build competitive advantage of companies. We propose a simple model of knowledge transfer within the organization and we implement the proposed model using cellular automata technique. In this paper the organisation is considered in the context of complex systems. In this perspective, the main role in organisation is played by the network of informal contacts and the distributed leadership. The goal of this paper is to check which factors influence the efficiency and effectiveness of knowledge transfer. Our studies indicate a significant role of initial concentration of chunks of knowledge for knowledge transfer process, and the results suggest taking action in the organisation to shorten the distance (social distance) between people with different levels of knowledge, or working out incentives to share knowledge.