The role of documentation in organizational knowledge management: A case study at satellite research institute

Background/aim. Employees, as the most important assets of an organization, acquire a great deal of experience, skills and knowledge throughout the time period they work for the organization. If their skills and technical knowledge are not documented properly, they will be lost as soon as employees leave the organization. Therefore, documentation is necessary in order to preserve this invaluable knowledge, avoid duplication and repeated mistakes occurred in the past.Thus, this research elaborates on the role of organizational knowledge management as an essential tool for sharing the gained experience with others.
Methodology. This research is developmental applied research with qualitative approach and it was conducted using thematic analysis method.This method includes a semi-structured interview with 18 researchers conducting research projects at satellite research institute under the supervision of Iran Space Agency.
Findings. The projects contain knowledge that is a combination of “know why”, “know what”, “know who” and “know how”. A large amount of this knowledge is the tacit knowledge. Most of this tacit knowledge is not reflected in the project documents.
Conclusion. Considering the necessity of documentation within the knowledge transfer process and its important role in knowledge management; some steps need to be taken in order to make the knowledge sharing an organizational culture in institute, Such steps include holding introductory seminars for experts and managers to explain the importance of preserving and sharing the knowledge, conducting training classes for technical documentation,focusing on the intellectual property of writers,to establish and increase trust among the Institute personnel.