Ställtid och kunskapshantering : En komparativ fallstudie om ställtidens påverkan på IT-konsultföretags kunskapshantering

Sammanfattning: Title: Beach time and knowledge management – a comparative case study on the impact of beach time on IT-consulting firms’ knowledge management Background: The consulting industry has a cyclic nature, where the consultant enters and exit projects. The time between projects is called downtime (or beach time) and contractors show three approaches to this downtime: minimizing, embracing and scheduling. Consultants sell their knowledge and is in constant need of developing it. Downtime enables time for competence development. Downtime is however a rather unresearched subject and therefore there is a knowledge gap on its effect on knowledge management. Aim: The aim is to increase the understanding beach time’s impact on knowledge management. Methodology: This study is qualitative and has been conducted through a comparative case study, where interviews have been used as a method for data collection. In total, three firms within the IT-consulting industry participated in the study, resulting in seven respondents. Conclusion: The study shows that there is an additional approach to downtime and that swedish IT-consulting firms have a combination of the four identified approaches. The firms of the study have different combinations of approaches to downtime but they have in common that they all try to minimize downtime. Firms working closely with softwares show more of a scheduling approach. Firms that do not have full occupancy on their consultants can have a continuous competence development during work hours and need less planning. The study also shows that downtime is a problem for the consulting firms since the length of the downtime affects the consultant’s motivation.