Knowledge management and value creation in a third sector organisation

This paper reports on a case study of a collaborative research project, in which researchers worked with key individuals in a third sector organisation to identify how the organisation might move forward to accelerate its learning capability. The research used the value creation framework of Wenger, Trayner and de Laat as a diagnostic tool for assessing where change is needed in building and sustaining knowledge frameworks in the organisation; we used Nonaka and Takeuchi's socialisation, externalisation, combination and internalisation framework to capture the tacit and explicit knowledge sharing processes in the organisation, and we used Wenger's concepts of horizontal, vertical and transversal to examine levels of accountability. Findings highlighted that by combining a top‐down strategy with harnessing the knowledge of practitioners, the ‘executive sponsorship’ of the Senior Management Team is in a position to move Scottish Autism forward as a learning organisation by nurturing further opportunities for sharing knowledge across the organisation in a way that harnesses the enthusiasm and initiative of staff