Knowledge Management, Social Networks and Innovation
Introduction
Knowledge management (KM) and organisational learning (OL) are two key factors for an
organisation to gain competitive advantage (Plessis, 2007; King et al., 2002; Lesser, 2000; Davenport
and Prusak, 1998; Foss and Pedersen, 2002; Grant, 1996; Spender and Grant, 1996) and drive
innovation. Drucker (1993) noted the rise of the knowledge worker, business value was being
transformed from purely tangible assets, such as goods and services, to include intangible assets
related to ideas and application of information, and resulted in the emergence of the knowledge
economy which is crucial to nurturing innovation (Ahmed and Shepherd, 2010). Fostering efficient
processes for KM and establishing a culture that encourages OL has become a means of competitive
advantage and value for organisations. Given today’s economic climate and an aging population, this
has never before been so critical to the success of an organisation.
This essay will outline the literature on OL and KM and look at how social media (SM) and web 2.0
technologies are influencing the OL and KM landscape, and attempt to address this in the context of
innovation. Section two will put forward an integrated framework for KM, which will be used later to
determine the success of ConocoPhillips’ KM strategy. Section three will evaluate OL, KM and
innovation in the context of ConocoPhillips and assess how social technologies have been used.
Section four will cover the conclusion.
Literature Review
Organisational learning
Learning is a process that involves the application of experience and repetition to transform
processes, tasks or products (Teece, 2007). Experience happens over time and in order to apply it,
available data must be converted into information that is accessible; it is then - through the
application of information - that knowledge is created or acquired (Ackoff, 1989). Thus, OL is a
process that involves knowledge acquisition (or creation), information distribution (or transfer),
information interpretation and organisational memory (Huber, 1991; Dixon, 1992; Slater and Narver,
1995; Goh, 2002). A number of disciplines discuss OL (Easterby-Smith, 1997) and no single framework
or universally accepted definition exists within the literature. However, it is widely agreed that OL
forms the basis for an organisation to develop new knowledge and gain insight from internal and
external experiences or information that has the potential to change behaviour leading to innovation
and increased competitive advantage (Huber, 1991; Senge, 1992; Davenport and Prusak, 1998;
Sørensen and Stuart, 2000; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995; Slater and Narver, 1995). Through the
learning process and subsequently OL, experience, shared interpretation and collaboration play a
crucial role in enabling organisations to exploit knowledge in order to remain flexible and responsive
to change.
Organisations that are more flexible can react faster to internal changes and external challenges. Hult
et al. (2004) conclude that an organisation’s capacity to innovate and produce solutions to its
business problems correlates with an organisation’s ability to grow and to survive in times of market
turbulence (Tippins and Sohi, 2003; Day, 1994). Brown and Eisenhard (1995) suggest that

Knowledge Management, Social Networks and Innovation

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