Action Research Study on Individual Knowledge Use in Organizational Innovation Processes - New Contributions in Information Systems and Technologies - page 67

Action Research Study on Individual Knowledge
Use in Organizational Innovation Processes

Maria José Sousa 1 , Teresa Cascais 2 , and João Paulo Rodrigues 2

1 CIEO - Research Centre for Spatial and Organizational Dynamics, University of Algarve
Universidade Europeia, Estrada da Correia, 52 - 1500-210 Lisboa
[e-mail]
2 Universidade Europeia, Estrada da Correia, 52 - 1500-210 Lisboa
{teresa.cascais,joao-paulo.rodrigues}@europeia.pt

Abstract. This paper is the result of an Action Research (AR) study that was
developed in a Portuguese company during an organizational innovation process.
The research question is: do organizational actors use their individual knowledge
to help the company in the organizational innovation process? In order to
accomplish the research it was used AR methodology, which have implied that
the researcher and the organizational actors participated interactively in the
research. The main technique to collect data was group recall, involving
technicians and managers in separate group sessions, where they shared
experiences, ideas and gave suggestions about the organizational innovation
process conception and implementation. The main findings identified similar
perspectives from the organizational actors: managers and technicians create and
use technical knowledge, but assume a passive behavior concerning to
organizational innovation practices; they also don´t create new knowledge if they
don't have the pressure of a new project.

Keywords: Action Research, Knowledge, Organizations, Innovation .

1 Introduction

The competitive capacity of companies is intimately associated with their capacity to
innovate, the way they are organized. In fact, it is becoming more and more futile to
seek an answer to social problems and challenges such as employment and work
situations, without the adoption of solutions that necessarily demand a change in the
performance patterns of organizations.
In this context, this research tries to look at individual knowledge questions, based
on the premise that it may boost organizational innovation and consequently company
development.
This research will be supported in the fact that individual knowledge is a resource
that companies can use to answer to challenges which the general environment is
requiring, but do companies create and use mechanisms to generate and transfer new
knowledge, not only regarding managers but also employees?