Knowledge Management in Consulting Activities

Nowadays, knowledge is key to value-creation in most industries, but for consulting companies, the knowledge generated and shared in the organization represents the core service. Therefore, a strategy for active knowledge management and utilization of knowledge in its different state is needed. The present paper provides a review focusing on the meaning of knowledge for consulting activities. The different stages of a consulting project are examined and the demand for knowledge management support in the course of the project execution is analyzed. Additionally it is emphasized that two different management strategies are applied simultaneously in the companies. With the personification strategy the human oriented approach is practiced, within the technical oriented approaches of the codification strategy the storage of explicit knowledge is promoted. Next to the codification and personification strategy the coordination of the goals within the knowledge management as well as the active knowledge management influence on the consulting success is emphasized. The paper aims to point out the increase of customer satisfaction, quality of consulting services as well as the effectiveness in project work based on knowledge management.