Practices and Challenges of knowledge transfer in offshore outsourced telecom project in the case of ethio telecom
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Date
2017-10-12
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Knowledge transfer has been a major concern in offshore outsourced telecom projects where new technologies and services are at stake. However the effect of knowledge transfer practices, challenges and influencing factors on the rate of organizational knowledge transfer has never caught the required attention. As a contribution to this gap, this paper aims to investigate the effect of current knowledge transfer practices (existence of strategies, processes and procedures, lessons learned, use of project knowledge repository, recognition scheme, training quality evaluation, IT and training opportunities), challenges (organizational readiness, organizational politics, organizational culture, national culture, and language barriers) and influencing factors (client- related, vendor-related, Knowledge complexity, transfer mechanism and relationships quality) on overall effectiveness of project knowledge transfer. The survey was conducted in ethio telecom and vendor organizations targeting project staffs that are familiar with the project environment. The study findings based on an overall sample response rate of 96.66% indicated that the current knowledge transfer practices are not mature in areas such as establishing processes and procedures, incentive schemes, and evaluation of training quality and content. There are also different challenges found to impact the effectiveness of knowledge transfer such as lack of organizational readiness, organizational politics, national culture, language barrier and informal relationships. Moreover, factors such as dissemination capability, willingness, trustworthiness, and knowledge complexity has been perceived as significant factors affecting knowledge transfer in outsourcing projects of the telecom sector.
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Keywords
Offshore outsourced, Knowledge transfer, Practices