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An exploration of knowledge management practices in Colombia

Tatiana Baquero William Schulte

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VINE
37,3

An exploration of knowledge
management practices
in Colombia

368

Tatiana Baquero

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The Institute for Knowledge & Innovation, The George Washington University,
Washington, DC, USA, and

William Schulte
The Harry F. Byrd Jr School of Business, Shenandoah University, Winchester,
Virginia, USA
Abstract
Purpose The purpose of this research is to explore the status of knowledge management (KM)
practices in private, public and academic sectors in Colombia.
Design/methodology/approach Data were collected from 50 organizations in Colombia, among
the private, public and academic sectors. This was done through analysis of field research, including
documentation, an online survey, and conversations with local Colombians representing private,
public and academic organizations.
Findings The findings of this study reveal that, although there is a low level of adoption of KM
practices in Colombia, there are some interesting cases of organizations that provide exemplars in this
field of KM. This demonstrates a growing acceptance of best practices in KM which have been
exported and developed in country firms.
Research limitations/implications The sample size is a limitation and future research should
expand the sample of the analysis of KM practices in Colombia and other nations in Latin America.
Practical implications This study provides a clearer understanding of the status of KM in
Colombia and the potential of KM adoption in other Latin American organizations.
Originality/value Scholars and practitioners from all over the world are working to understand
the value of KM in various countries. Yet, despite this, no specific research has been conducted on
identifying KM practices in Colombia. The results of this research on Colombia provide a benchmark
for both scholars and practitioners of KM.
Keywords Knowledge management, Knowledge management systems, Colombia
Paper type Research paper

VINE: The journal of information and

knowledge management systems
Vol. 37 No. 3, 2007
pp. 368-386
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0305-5728
DOI 10.1108/03055720710825663

Introduction
Scholars and practitioners from all over the world are working to understand the value
of knowledge management (KM) in various countries. Yet, despite this, no specific
research has been conducted on identifying KM practices in Colombia. It is expected
that the results of this research on Colombia contribute to that effort.
The purpose of this research is to explore the status of KM practices in private,
public and academic sectors in Colombia. Data were collected from 50 organizations in
Colombia, among the private, public and academic sectors. Through analysis of field
research, including documentation, an online survey, and conversations with local
Colombians representing private, public and academic organizations, this study

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provides a clearer understanding of the status of KM in the country and the potential of
KM adoption in Latin American organizations.
Literature review
The concept of KM has been defined by many authors. It is important to recognize that
the concept of management varies from one country to another and even from one
organization to another. As Groeschl and Doherty (2000) state, managers within
organizations hold particular sets of assumptions, ideas and believes about how to
manage their human resources which are strongly influenced by their cultural
background. From this perspective, it is reasonable to think that even though many
experts and authors have attempted to provide global definitions of KM, the process
itself of managing knowledge can change from one country to another.
Literature in the field often quotes Davenport and Prusak (1998) for their definition
of KM as the process of capturing, distributing, and effectively using knowledge.
Another exemplary definition states that knowledge management is the systematic,
explicit, and deliberate building, renewal and application of knowledge to maximize an
enterprises knowledge-related effectiveness and returns from its knowledge assets
(Wigg, 1997). For purposes of this study, KM can be described as leveraging
information and knowledge embedded in people, documents, processes and
organizational practices to achieve better, faster and more innovative products and
services.
Knowledge management in Colombia
KM is still considered an incipient business practice in Colombia. However, due to the
expansion of the knowledge-based economy, an increasing number of businessmen
and academics in the country are starting to become actively involved in analyzing
and/or implementing KM practices. Experts say that there is now a visible interest in
this topic from senior management, information technology, and human resources
departments in medium to large-size organizations.
Luis Ovidio Galvis is founder and Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) of Knowvatech, a
KM consulting company that provides business solutions and supportive technologies.
According to Galviss comments published in an article of the KM Magazine, a KM
conference that took place in 1998 was the starting point of KM in Colombia. This
conference was organized by The Knowledge Research Institute of Arlington Texas, in
alliance with Galvis and the University Pontificia Boliviariana of Medellin.
Despite this and other efforts for introducing the concept in the country, KM has not
received significant attention in Colombia, and consequently, the implementation of
KM practices have been slow in the private, public and academic sectors. Galvis states
that one of the main reasons for this delay is that Colombia has trailed other nations in
the adoption of managerial practices that have shaped organizations in developed
countries.
Research design and methodology
In addition to the previous examples a survey was conducted to collect quantitative
data on KM practices in organizations throughout Colombia. In this survey, all the
responses were completely confidential. A web-based version of the instrument was
designed in Microsoft Excel and developed in html format at a web domain specifically

KM practices in
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370

created for this research. The survey was available in both English and Spanish, which
was the first language of the targeted population.
The online survey was available for a period of one and a half months and consisted
of a list of questions that covered the following key areas of KM to assess KM practices
among other dimensions. Questions were based on two KM survey forms, one
conducted by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (2002),
and the other one by the Science, Innovation and Electronic Information Division of
Statistics Canada. The questions were multiple-choice type and in some of them,
participants were offered with a space to provide additional information, if necessary.
The survey was sent to medium to high-level personnel in the following
organizations: medium-large Colombian enterprises, multinational enterprises with
offices in Colombia, public and governmental organizations (government) and
academic institutions (universities in Colombia). The total sample size was estimated to
be 350 organizations (among public, private and academic organizations) in the
country. Out of the 350, a total of 52 survey instruments were returned with a response
rate of 15 percent. Out of 52 surveys, only 50 were complete and valid for analysis.
Analysis of results
This section of the paper presents basic descriptive statistics for subjects in the sample
on the following dimensions: KM policies and strategies, results and effectiveness of
KM, responsible level for KM, KM budget levels, difficulties in implementing KM and
incentives to implement KM.
KM policies and strategies
The study shows that 46 percent of the organizations surveyed are planning to develop
KM policies and strategies in the next 24 months (Table I), meaning that organizations
are starting to recognize the importance of implementing this type of practices.
Very few organizations confirmed that their values systems and culture facilitated
knowledge sharing practices. However, 28 percent of them said that they were
planning to embark on a cultural change to promote knowledge sharing among
employees. Similar results were obtained for employee retention efforts. Most of the
organizations did not know or had not heard about programs that were specifically
intended to promote employee retention within their organizations. Only 14 percent
already had policies in this field. Half of the organizations surveyed have been using
partnerships and strategic alliances to acquire knowledge even before 2003. It seems
that they have concentrated more in acquiring knowledge than in sharing it within
their own organizations.
Leadership
The results for this question (Table II) indicate that in most of the cases (40 percent) top
managers and executives have been leading KM tasks in their organizations even
before 2003. Additionally, 22 percent of the respondents agreed that even though top
leaders are not in charge of KM practices yet, they are planning to lead these practices
in the next 24 months.
Additionally, 22 percent of the respondents stated that non-management employers
were in charge of KM practices, and more than 50 percent were not aware of
non-management employees leading these activities in their organizations.

Written KM
policy/strategy
Values/culture that
promote KM
Programs for employee
retention
Partnerships to acquire
knowledge

Policies and strategies

14
26
26
50

7
13
13
25

10

14

14

14

14

23

14

28

28

46

13

16

16

16

26

32

32

32

100
100
100
100

50
50
50
50

Plan to use in the next

Do not know/not
Total no. of
In use before 2003
Used since 2003
24 months
applicable
respondents
Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage

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KM practices in
Colombia

371

Table I.
KM policies and
strategies in
organizations

372

Table II.
Leadership and
responsibility for KM
practices

Managers or executives
Non-management employees
Knowledge officer or KM unit
KM is criteria to assess
performance

40
22
16
16

20
11
8
8

4
2
3
4

8
4
6
12

11
10
9

24

22
20
18

28

15
27
30

56

30
54
60

50

50
50
50

100

100
100
100

Plan to use in the next

Do not know/not
Total no. of
In use before 2003
Used since 2003
24 months
applicable
respondents
Responsibility of KM practices Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage

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Similarly, about 60 percent the organizations agreed that they did not have a
knowledge officer or KM unit, and 56 percent said that KM was not criteria to assess
employees performance.
From these results one can conclude that leadership of KM practices is clearly a
responsibility of high-level managers and executives rather than a task delegated to
other levels in the organizational pyramid. These may be an advantage for
organizations in Colombia from the view point that KM practices are coordinated from
the top, and if well managed, they can help achieving better results.
Communications and technology
Even though a few organizations in Colombia have already implemented KM practices,
the survey shows that they are not very familiar yet with information systems that
specifically support those practices (Table III). The classification of the technologies
listed in this question was based on Marwick (2001).
Between 28 and 36 percent of the organizations has used any of the following
systems even before 2003: group/collaboration, search engines, document
management/taxonomy, and portals. Not many of the respondents were familiar
with expertise locators or speech recognition systems; these may be more advanced
tools that go beyond the traditional KM systems requirements in a developing country
like Colombia. However, between 16 and 22 percent said that is planning to use them in
the following two years.
Respondents were provided with a space to share other KM systems that were not
listed in the survey form. About 14 percent of the respondent organizations said that
they also use, or are planning to use, the following systems:
.
a query system with the international office of intellectual property (WIPO);
.
a lessons learned repository;
.
systems developed internally based on their own models and methodologies; and
.
IT tools to support corporate divisions meetings.
A couple of additional responses indicated that although they use some of the
technologies listed in the survey, they did not identify them by the name or they simply
call them differently.
Effectiveness of knowledge management practices
In the survey form, respondents were asked to continue with Section II (questions
2.1 through 6.0) only if their organizations had already implemented any kind of KM
practice in relation to policies, strategies, leadership and technologies, as stated in
Section I (questions 1.1 through 1.3). Only 39 of the 50 organizations surveyed
responded this section.
As shown in Table IV, most of the organizations agreed that their KM practices
have been somewhat effective. The most significant improvements include increased
knowledge sharing both horizontally and vertically, higher efficiency and productivity
levels, better customers relations, improved organizational memory, and greater
ability to capture knowledge from third parties.
A smaller percentage considered that their KM practices have been very effective.
Better customer relations, increased flexibility and innovation, and more involvement

KM practices in
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373

Table III.
Communications and
technology

Expertise locators
Group/collaboration
Speech recognition
Search engines
Document
management/taxonomy
Portals

10
32
4
28
36
32

5
16
2
14
18
16

6
5

6
4
1
6
12
10

12
8
2
12
10
10

11
10
8
11

20
20

22
20
16
22

16
19

28
20
39
19

32
38

56
40
78
38

50
50

50
50
50
50

100
100

100
100
100
100

Plan to use in the next

Do not know/not
Total no. of
In use before 2003
Used since 2003
24 months
applicable
respondents
Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage

374

Technologies used to
share knowledge or
information among
employees

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Increased K sharing
horizontally
Increased K sharing
vertically
Improved efficiency and
productivity
Improved customer
relations
New products and
services
More flexibility and
innovation
Improved organizational
memory
Increased ability to
capture K
Employees involvement in
workplace

KM practices
31
18
28
38
33
36
33
26
36

12
7
11
15
13
14
13
10
14

14

21

19

16

16

18

20

21

20

36

54

49

41

41

46

51

54

51

18

10

10

15

18

10

13

13

10

10

15

10

13

100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100
100

39
39
39
39
39
39
39
39
39

Do not know/not
Total no. of
Very effective
Somewhat effective
Not at all effective
applicable
respondents
Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage Frequency Percentage

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375

Table IV.
Effectiveness of KM
practices

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376

from employees in the workplace, were among the most important improvements
under this category.
On the other hand, some organizations responded that their KM practices hadnt
been effective at all. Their major challenges included a lack to increase knowledge
sharing vertically, to develop new products and services, and to get employees more
involved in the workplace activities. Other difficulties mentioned were: inability to
reduce duplication of processes, failure to increase competitiveness and to improve
corporate image in their industries.

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Responsibility of knowledge management practices

In this question, people were asked to choose only one response. The outcomes
displayed in Table V show that in 33 percent of the organizations the executive
management team is the one responsible for KM activities. This supports the
results of question about leadership. In other organizations, the department of
human resources or the KM unit is the area in charge of KM practices. About
23 percent of the respondents chose human resources while 18 percent chose the
KM unit.
Some organizations also mentioned the quality control department as the area
responsible for KM practices, while others emphasized that it was a shared
responsibility among the management team, planning, IT and human resources
departments. An academic institution stated that the whole community of professors,
students, and administrative staff shared this responsibility.
Measurement of effectiveness in knowledge management practices
In this question people were asked to respond if their organizations measured the
effectiveness of KM practices. About 77 percent responded that they do not measure it,
while only 35 percent of them do in any of the following forms: key performance
indicators, evaluation of employment performance, number of proposals presented vs
number of projects closed, balance scorecard, intellectual capital measurement,
customer satisfaction and other qualitative measures.
Spending on knowledge management practices
From the 39 organizations surveyed, only 41 percent stated that they had a specific
budget or spending for KM practices, while 59 percent of them do not have one yet.

Organizational groups

Table V.
Responsibility of KM
practices

Human resources
Information technology
KM unit
Library/doc. center
Executive management team
Other
Do not know
Total

Frequency

Percentage

9
5
7
1
13
3
1
39

23
13
18
3
33
8
3
100

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As Table VI shows, out of the 16 organizations that do have a budget for KM,
63 percent expect this budget to increase in the following 24 months, and 25 percent
estimate that it will remain the same as it is today.
Table VII indicates that out of the 23 organizations that currently do not have a
budget dedicated to KM practices, 39 percent of them expect to have a budget in the
following 24 months. Another 39 percent did not know whether their organizations
were considering having a budget within that timeframe.

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377

Difficulties to implement KM practices

The majority of the organizations agreed that the difficulty to capture employees
undocumented knowledge and the lack of time and resources are the primary
challenges when implementing KM practices. Other reasons that were also important
include: resistance of certain groups or staff, lack of senior management commitment,
and a strong focus on information and communication technology rather than on
people (Table VIII).

Budget in the next 24 months

Increase
Decrease
Stay the same
Do not know
Total

Budget in the next 24 months

Yes
No
Do not know
Total

Frequency

Percentage

10
1
4
1
16

63
6
25
6
100

Frequency

Percentage

9
5
9
23

39
22
39
100

Reasons

Yes

No

Total

Focus on technology, not on people

Lack of time or resources
Employees resistance
Lack of senior management commitment
Difficulty to capture undocumented K
Concern about confidential information
Knowledge management is not a priority

18
35
21
16
32
12
13

21
4
18
23
7
27
26

39
39
39
39
39
39
39

Table VI.
Budget expectation in
organizations with
budget for KM practices

Table VII.
Budget expectation in
organizations that do not
have a budget for KM
practices

Table VIII.
Reasons for the
shortcomings when
implementing KM
practices

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378

Incentives to implement knowledge management practices

In this question, organizations were asked to choose from a list one or more motives
that would encourage them to implement for the first time, or increase the use of,
KM practices. Table IX shows that 68 percent of the people would implement these
practices to avoid loosing knowledge when key personnel leave the organization.
Additionally, 56 percent of the respondents agreed that the difficulty to capture
employees undocumented knowledge and the challenge to incorporate external
knowledge are very important reasons to implement KM practices. About 48 percent
said that KM would help them to avoid losing market share, while 44 percent
agreed that it would help them to deal with information overload within their
organizations.
Additional reasons that the respondents mentioned included to:
.
solve operational problems;
.
reduce the implementation timeframe of projects that have a significant impact
in the organization;
.
become more effective in the implementation of corporate strategies;
.
offer better products and services to encourage sustainable development in the
country;
.
facilitate the corporate decision-making process by making available key
information and knowledge; and
.
manage knowledge as it is essential for academic institutions.
Conclusions
The main purpose of this research was to determine the degree in which the Colombian
private, public and academic sectors have adopted KM practices. The evidence
collected suggests that the level of adoption of KM practices in Colombias private,
public and academic sectors is very low. These findings are subject to limitations
discussed at the end of this paper.
Not many organizations have an employee retention program, a culture that
promotes knowledge transfer, or have implemented KM policies and strategies.
However, a larger group of organizations is considering implementing them in the
short-term. This shows that there is a great potential for consulting companies that
want to provide services to support the development of KM policies and business
strategies for organizations in Colombia.

Incentives

Table IX.
Incentives to implement
KM practices

Information overload
Capture undocumented knowledge
Competitors use KM practices
Loss of key personnel
Market share loss
Incorporate external knowledge
Other

Frequency

Percentage of total

22
28
15
34
24
28
6

44
56
30
68
48
56
12

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This survey also identified that among the organizations that already have KM
practices, most of these practices are a responsibility of the executive management
team. Not many organizations have created, or have heard about, knowledge officers or
KM units.
Moreover, the survey results show that only few organizations in Colombia have
implemented information systems that specifically support KM practices. There is a
lack of information about the systems available for this purpose, and a lack or
resources to acquire the ones that are recognized. Group/collaboration, search engines,
document management/taxonomy, and portals are among some of the most used KM
systems in Colombia.
The findings about the effectiveness of KM practices suggest that in some
organizations these practices have primarily helped them to increase knowledge
sharing both horizontally and vertically, to achieve higher efficiency and productivity
levels, to have better customers relations, to improve organizational memory, and to
have greater ability to capture knowledge from third parties. However, it is
important to notice that only a small percentage of the organizations surveyed have
methodologies to measure the effectiveness of their KM practices. These organizations
need to understand that when something is not measured, it cannot be controlled or
improved.
In addition, the results of the data analysis reveal that a small group of the
organizations surveyed have a dedicated budget for KM practices, while a significant
number of organizations are expecting to have one in the next 24 months for the first
time. The results also show that the major challenges that organizations in Colombia
are currently facing when implementing KM practices include: the difficulty to capture
employees undocumented knowledge and the lack of time and resources to implement
and maintain those practices. Moreover, most of the organizations manifested their
interest in implementing, or increasing the use of, KM practices to avoid loosing
knowledge when key personnel leave the organization, to more easily capture
employees undocumented knowledge, and to overcome the challenge of incorporating
external knowledge.
Case studies
Although the general findings of this survey suggest low-adoption levels of KM in
Colombia, there are some interesting cases of organizations in the private, public and
academic sectors that have implemented KM practices. The following section of this
paper provides a review of these cases.
Private sector
At the corporate level, KM initiatives have faced several barriers, according to the
memories of the KM Forum organized by Cognitia in Colombia in July 2003 (Pineros,
2003). First of all, KM has not been incorporated into daily work activities, and
knowledge sharing is often seen as a way of loosing power. Second, KM is often
perceived as a theory than as a practical tool, leading to the resistance of implementing
these activities. Third, KM projects compete internally for budget and other resources,
with other several projects that, as opposed to KM projects, are believed to provide
short-term results.

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Some experts believe that there has been increased KM activity in diverse
industries, especially in the telecommunications and energy sectors. However, it seems
that other industries such as insurance and transportation are also getting into KM.
Below are some of the examples taken from the KM Forum organized by Cognitia in
2003 and other sources:
.
In ORBITEL, a telecommunications company, members of the management
team are also involved in the KM group. Some of the KM practices that they are
using include knowledge maps and lessons learned to promote team work and to
add value to clients.
.
Transmilenio, the enterprise that created an innovative and efficient
transportation system in Bogota, Colombia, has develop such unique and
specialized knowledge that now represents a new source of income for the
company. By providing consulting services nationally and internationally,
Transmilenio is taking advantage of its most important assets: intellectual
capital.
.
Servientrega is a Colombian delivery company that specializes in shipping
packages around the country. Servientrega understands the value of capturing
and sharing its peoples knowledge, and has started to develop an e-learning and
knowledge transfer strategy that includes documents management, Intranet
content management, online guidelines and training sessions. Additionally, with
the creation of an internal committee and a group of leaders, Servientrega is
facilitating the knowledge transfer process in the company. The research and
development team also is contributing to improve the companys knowledge in
four main areas: logistics, marketing, management and technology.
.
Interactuar is a software development company located in Medelln that is
working on developing web-based applications that support KM strategies for
Colombian enterprises.
.
The bank Bancafe is doing some research on tools to measure intangible capital
in the organization, in particular intellectual capital.
.
Alianza Summa is an alliance among three Airline companies (Avianca, SAM y
ACES) that serves Central America, Peru and Colombia. It has already started to
take advantage of corporate KM by implementing knowledge creation
methodologies and knowledge application strategies. These strategies are the
result of a model proposed specifically for Allianza Summa in a thesis of the
Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogota. To date, Alianza Summa has
partially implemented the model, and will soon start developing a supporting
information technology platform to continue the implementation of the proposed
KM model.
In recent years, the flower industry in Colombia has experienced an accelerated
evolution, specially because of the implementation of KM practices, as stated by
Catalina Garcia and Maria Ortega in their research study on KM in Colombia.
However, they concluded that, even though organizations in this industry have utilized
KM related practices, they are often found under a different name or simply applied
unconsciously.

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In the private sector there are also consulting companies, such as Knowvatech and
Cognitia, that specialize in implementing KM solutions. Knowvatech is a KM company
that creates and applies KM methodologies with supporting software tools. Its
solutions portfolio includes strategic support and development in the areas of:
intellectual capital, lessons learned, knowledge maps, and organizational learning
programs. Similarly, Cognita is actively involved in organizing workshops in the
country to support organizations that want to implement e-learning practices, and KM
methodologies, among many others.
Multinational enterprises with office in Colombia
In Colombia, it is easier to find KM practices in enterprises with foreign headquarters
than in Colombian enterprises. There are two specific business cases that
GestionHumana.com has listed in its online knowledge bank as examples of the
successful cases of KM practices in multinational enterprises, including the Skandia,
Siemens and British Petroleum (BP). GestionHumana.com is a human resources
management company in Colombia.
Skandia, the Swedish insurance company, was the 11th company most admired for
its KM performance in 2000, according to Gerardo Gonzalez, Former Manager of the
Intellectual Capital Project for Skandia South America and current President of
Skandia Colombia. KM became a business model in the Swedish headquarters in 1993,
and continued spreading out through the countries until it reached Skandia Colombia
two years later. Skandia has implemented globally, including in Colombia, information
systems to identify and improve intellectual capital, to measure the knowledge
contribution by organizational area, to encourage continuous learning, and to simulate
scenarios for better decision-making.
Siemens has been in Colombia since 1954 offering communications and energy
solutions and during the last decade it has concentrated it efforts in putting together all
it employees expertise in a single repository. The ShareNet is a KM system adopted by
the company, based on Siemens belief that the recipe for successful KM combines
people and technology.
BP, the multinational petroleum company with offices in Colombia, has as a KM
program based on a culture of cooperation that facilitates good relationships among
employees. The main purpose of the program is to embed knowledge into the daily
activities and to create knowledge constantly to improve processes. The
implementation of KM practices has brought remarkable results for the company,
such as reducing the cost of oil wells by 60 percent.
Other companies that are implementing KM practices in Colombia include
COLSEGUROS and General Motors (GM). In COLSEGUROS, which is now part of a
multinational company, KM is recognized as part of the corporate and management
strategy, while in General Motors-Colmotores the KM team has created a plan to
stimulate knowledge generation and sharing among employees.
Public sector
Codensa is one of the leading power companies in Colombia that distributes electric
power in more than 90 municipalities throughout the country. This is a mixed type of
company, since 51 percent is government owned and 49 percent is owned by the
Spanish group ENDESA. Codensa has started some KM-related initiatives, which

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include the implementation of collaboration tools, documents management, and

e-learning activities. However, some efforts are heading already towards the
implementation of a true KM project in 2004.
In Empresas Publicas de Medelln (EEPPM), one of the most prestigious utilities
companies in the country, top and medium-level managers support the KM strategy.
This strategy is linked to the implementation of information systems and has had to
face a major challenge: to achieve a cultural change. Additionally, EEPPM created a
specialized team to share the companys internal knowledge by offering consulting
services to other enterprises.
Empresa de Telefonos de Bogota (ETB), one of the most recognized telephony
services companies in Colombia, is often considered as a public organization based on
the fact that the main investor is a governmental entity, the Capital District of Bogota,
Colombia. The company has been talking about the importance of managing
knowledge since about 2000. Recently, the concept has gained more interest from
inside the company and now a KM project is under implementation. This project
covers the following areas: human talent competencies, knowledge networks, KM
models and tools, and a methodology to identify knowledge needs. In the near time
ETB will start implementing a pilot KM program for the product development division
of the marketing area.
The National Archives of Colombia has also taken big steps on the KM field since as
early as 2001. This has been critical for its core activities based on the fact that it
manages and processes the information memories of the entire country.
Academia
Table X summarizes the status of KM in universities and other academic institutions in
Colombia. This information is the result of conversations with scholars from various
academic institutions.
Limitations
This study had various limitations. First, the sample size was low. Other limitations
include: time, distance, access to people and info, lack of literature available on KM in
Colombia, and sampling error (not randomly selected). Numerous people from the
academic sector showed a lot of their interest in the topic and shared with the
investigator the initiatives that their academic institutions have implemented.
However, very few of them responded to the survey.
Recommendations
Additional data collection will be required in order to increase the validity of the
results, especially from governmental organizations and academic institutions. A larger
sample will be also helpful to perform an analysis discriminated by sector, private,
government and academic.
In a future study it would be ideal to include in the survey instrument questions
about the four pillars of KM. In this study, only organization, leadership and
technology were considered in specific questions, but no questions were specifically
related to find out information about the learning pillar. A revised survey instrument
should not only consider these suggestions, but also, it needs to reflect the evolution of
the KM field.

Academic institution

KM development

Universidad Central (Bogota)

INGENIUM, the Center for Innovation and

Organizational Management of the
university, offers a KM certificate program
under the business administration
department
The university is leading a thesis about KM
practices in Tolimas manufacturing Pymes
(Tolimas small and medium manufacturing
enterprises)
Since, 2001, the university has offered a
Master Program called Human Talent
Management that has a concentration area in
KM
CEIPA created a Knowledge Management
Group two years ago with the intent to
develop its own KM model and associated
processes
Even though the university does not have
program or course that is specifically targeted
to KM, there are professors and graduate
students of the Librarian and Archives
Manager Program that have started to show
some interested in the topic
This university offers a seminar in KM
This university offers a certificate program in
web-based KM and digital communications
According to library staff, there is no specific
KM model that has been implemented at the
institutional level. However, a couple of
students presented their thesis on KM applied
to the flowers sector. Also, in 2004 there was
an academic discussion about KM as part of
an Industrial Engineering event organized by
the university
A KM class is offered to the post-graduate
students. Also, the university led a thesis on
technology management called Increasing
organizations intelligence by discovering
knowledge in databases
Although there is interest in the topic from
the academic point of view, there is neither a
KM program that has been implemented at
the institutional level, nor a course about KM
In the postgraduate studies, master programs
and doctorate programs there are no courses
specifically about KM. However, the MBA
seems to have some related topics
The university offers a Certificate Degree in
Knowledge Management. Additionally,
several courses and seminars related to
business management include lectures on KM

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Universidad de Ibague Coruniversitaria

(Ibague)
Universidad de Manizales (Manizales)

Institucion Universitaria CEIPA (Medellin)

Universidad de la Salle (Bogota)

Universidad de la Sabana (Bogota)

Universidad de Antioquia (Medellin)
Universidad de Los Andes (Bogota)

Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana (UPB)

(Medellin)

Instituto Technologico Comfenalco

(Cartagena)
Universidad Nacional de Colombia (Bogota)

Universidad EAFIT (Medellin)

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Table X.
KM initiatives in
academic institutions

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Future research could also strengthen the spectrum of the influence of Colombias
national culture in the implementation of KM practices. Literature from Hofstede and
Trompennars is a good point of reference for this field. Understanding better to what
extent national culture influences those practices would significantly contribute to
develop better KM strategies for organizations in the country.

384

References
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Beazley, H., Boenisch, J. and Harden, D. (2003), La Continuidad del Conocimiento en las Empresas,
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Contreras, J. (2004), (Director of the Financial Management Program, Universidad de Ibague
Coruniversitaria, and Master in Human Talent Management, Universidad de Ibague,
Colombia), interviewed by Baquero T., May.
Duenas, Y. (2003) Thesis on Knowledge Management in Colombia, Tunja.
Expogestion (2004), La Gran Feria del Conocimiento, available at: www.expogestion.com.co/
Gallon, L. (n.d), (Engineering Faculty Director and professor of the Knowledge Management
class, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Colombia), interviewed by Baquero T., June.
Garca-Ordonez, C. and Ortega, M. (1999), Gerencia del Conocimiento, Industrial Engineering
Thesis, Universidad de Los Andes, Bogota.
Gestion del Conocimiento (2004), Discusion sobre la Integracion de Tecnologas en la Gerencia
del Conocimiento, available at: www.gestiondelconocimiento.com
GestionHumana.com (2000a), Caso/Siemens: Compartiendo Maestra, available at: www.
gestionhumana.com
GestionHumana.com (2000b), Gerencia del conocimiento/British Petroleum: Compartiendo
experiencias, available at: www.gestionhumana.com
GestionHumana.com (2000c), Gerencia del conocimiento/Skandia: El conocimiento que da la
ventaja, available at: www.gestionhumana.com
Global Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises Executive Summary (2003), available at: www.
knowledgebusiness.com/knowledgebusiness/upload/2003_GlobalMAKE_Summary.pdf
Higgison, S. (2003), Country focus: Colombia, KM Magazine, Vol. 7 No. 3, p. 42, available at:
www.kmmagazine.com
Jimenez, J. (2004), (Professor and Research Associate, Instituto Tecnologico Comfenalco,
Colombia), interviewed by Baquero T., May.

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Malhotra, Y. (1998), Deciphering the knowledge management hype, The Journal for Quality &
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Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Bogota.
Mazo, D. (2004), (Vice-Principal, Institucion Universitaria CEIPA), and Rodriguez Wilson
(Knowledge Management Group Director, Institucion Universitaria CEIPA), interviewd by
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Colombia) Interviewed by Baquero T., June.
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About the authors
Tatiana Baquero is Co-founder and CEO of Apoya Corporation, an IT and
business consulting company that provides innovative content management
solutions, and KM consulting services to organizations in the Americas. She has
experience in the design and implementation of corporate information
management projects by leveraging human and technology resources. Her
main interests include organizational learning, organizational development,
change management, and intellectual capital. Tatiana holds a bachelor in
industrial engineering with concentration in organizational management from
Los Andes University in Bogota (Colombia), and has an MS in Engineering Management with
concentration in KM from The George Washington University, Washington, DC.
William Schulte is an Associate Professor and Sam Walton Free Enterprise
Fellow in the Harry F. Byrd, Jr School of Business of Shenandoah University.
He was a founding research associate of the Institute for Knowledge and
Innovation of The George Washington University where he advises doctoral
students in the KM program in the School of Engineering and Applies
Sciences. Schulte has previously taught at The George Washington University,
the Tobin College of Business of St Johns University in New York and the

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School of Management at George Mason University. He has been recognized as an

outstanding entrepreneurship educator by his peers and students. As a Director of the
Small Business Institute at GMU from 1990 to 1994, his team won two national awards
including the Showcase Award and Case of the Year award. He also received an elevator pitch
presentation grant from the Coleman/Hughes Foundation. His research interests includes:
social entrepreneurship, innovation, cross-cultural strategies and KM. As a founding
entrepreneur, Professor Schulte has years of experience in consulting, construction and media
companies. William D. Schulte is the corresponding author and can be contacted at:
wschulte@msn.com

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