Adopting Competence Systems in Fast-Growing Knowledge-Intensive Organisations

Today, many organisations are reliant on the competence of individual knowledge workers. Information systems to support competence management are thus considered to be vital tools in order to gain competitive advantage. Competence systems are intended to support staff allocation and management of competence by providing firms with competence overviews. This paper presents a qualitative case study of the adoption of such systems in a fast-growing knowledge-intensive organisation. Applying a situated change perspective on organisational transformation, the paper analyses how different changes were managed in the process of competence systems adoption. Building on this analysis, this paper contributes a set of managerial implications for managing the situated nature of such changes in leveraging the use of competence systems. In addition, the paper also discusses how the implications generated apply to the management of knowledge management systems adoption.