Strategic Knowledge Transfer as a Source of Competitiveness at Kenya Power

Abstract

Organizations resource and knowledge are claimed to be a source to which a company’s competitive advantage emanates especially in the present day business environment that is characterized by constantly challenging technologies, products, markets and new competitors. Therefore, knowledge management has been found to be such a great resource to a firm obtaining sustainability. The research sought to establish the role of knowledge transfer as a source of competitiveness at the Kenya Power company and also identify the challenges that face the organizations knowledge transfer process. A case study research design was adopted whereby six respondents were interviewed and gave information that helped in arriving at the research objective and conclusion. The research established that firms transfer knowledge to their partners as well as between different departments in the organization. The transfer of knowledge in the organization was found to have improved the organizations competitiveness through increasing the customer satisfaction, market share, operation cost reduction and also adoption and operation of new technology. Several challenges were identified that affected the implementation of knowledge transfer in organization. Some of these challenges included managers being unable to identify the appropriate knowledge required in the firm, resistance and lack of trust by the employees and other partner firms on the utilization of the acquired knowledge and also a lack of the proper understanding by the management on the changing internal and external environments for the knowledge transfers and how the changes is going to impact the operations of the firm.