Sammendrag
This article discusses knowledge creation in Norwegian football, how and to what extent work is done to externalise and preserve tacit knowledge at association and club level, and the differences in approach to knowledge management at those two levels. It is based on a qualitative research design with fourteen interviews. Five of the interviewees work for the Norwegian Football Association (Norges Fotballforbund, NFF), and nine of them work in two leading clubs.
The theoretical starting point for the study is Nonaka’s (1994) Organizational Knowledge Creation Theory. The results of the study show that at both association and club level cultural norms for knowledge creation exist in varying degrees. Tacit knowledge is based on a selection of experiences drawn largely from the world of football in which different career patterns, education and work experience contribute to variation in the process of knowledge creation. There are also organisational cultures at both association and club level which are well suited to this kind of knowledge creation. These cultures manifest themselves in cultural norms and rules for the social contexts in which knowledge is created. These include coaches’ meetings and observation at the training ground.
There are a number of challenges for the development of good knowledge creation practices in Norwegian football. The most significant one relates to the ability of the organisational culture to record new knowledge in written form. This ability is either totally lacking or exists in a form which is only effective for the transmission of established knowledge. The way the association and the clubs create written records is critical for further progress. As the association is at the top of the hierarchy and sets the direction for clubs at grass-roots level, the way it records knowledge has consequences which go beyond its own culture.
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