Knowledge Management in Global Consultancy Firms: A Case Study of CGI

Abstract

Recent research emphasizes the importance of organizational knowledge for organisations to sustain a competitive advantage. Therefore, the literature of knowledge management and knowledge sharing has expanded in recent decades. MNCs are the organisations which have received most attention, since their structure is favourable to create and leverage knowledge. MNC consultancy companies are an often-researched category due their dependability on knowledge. However, little comparative cross-cultural research on how knowledge is managed by consulting MNCs has been conducted. This study investigates how and why a global IT consultancy MNC manages and shares its knowledge within and across culturally different subsidiaries, through an embedded case study that investigates knowledge management and knowledge sharing practices at a Swedish and an Indian subsidiary of CGI. The report shows how knowledge management practices of a global consultancy firm are conducted. A learning and development-model serves as a means which allows the company to distribute its knowledge management related activities across different global subunits. Furthermore, the report finds that the subsidiaries handle certain knowledge management practices defined by the HQ in different ways and apply them to their local context. The identified factors as for why there are discrepancies, are the Characteristics of Knowledge and Billability or Learning for the Future. Finally, the Consultancy Knowledge Management Model (CKM-Model) is created from the above factors and theory. This helps answering how and why knowledge management is handled in a global consultancy firm, although more research on the applicability to other cases is needed.