Abstract:

Knowledge is seen as a key resource for contemporary organizations. According to research, appropriate knowledge management (KM) contributes to improving the organization's innovation and performance. At the same time, it is highlighted that knowledge management is different in small organizations compared to large organizations. In small organizations, knowledge management is often unconscious, informal and casual. In addition, ICT solutions supporting knowledge management are primarily dedicated to large organizations and do not take into account the characteristics of small organizations. The differences in knowledge management in large and small organizations are due to the specificity of small units that usually have limited human and financial resources.

The aim of the article is to present the introduced changes in knowledge management and obtained results in a small consulting and accounting firm. This case study comprised three main stages: an analysis of the state of knowledge management in the firm, implementation of changes in knowledge management, and analysis of the obtained results. The study lasted from 2015 to 2017.

In the first stage of the study, organizational and legal documents were reviewed. These documents included the company statute, organizational rules, work regulations and remuneration rules, rules of document workflow. The analysis also included: employment policy, training plans, training expenditures, participation in conferences and industry meetings, subscriptions to specialist journals. Discussions were held with the management and staff. In particular, the following nine areas of knowledge management were investigated: localization and acquisition of information and knowledge, accidental acquisition of information and knowledge, interpretation and evaluation of knowledge, knowledge processing and codification, internal transfer, communication with the environment, codification and protection of knowledge, knowledge dissemination, and knowledge utilization.

In the second stage of the study, based on collected data and information, the diagnosis of the situation was presented to managers. Moreover, the design of changes in the area of the KM was proposed. Development of KM processes includes lifelong learning and deutero-learning (meta learning, learning how to learn). Once approved, the proposed solutions were implemented in the firm. The implementation of changes was discussed in detail with the management team.

In the last stage of the study, the results of introduced organizational innovation were analyzed. In addition to the improvement of the KM processes, the improvement of financial performance, including total sales, net profit, and return on sale, was observed. Nevertheless, it cannot be proven that the improvement of financial performance is due solely to the improvement of KM processes

Keywords:

Knowledge management processes, small enterprise, financial performance, organizational innovation, lifelong learning, deutero-learning.