Using Action Research for Improvement of Project Knowledge Management in the Public Museum

Introduction

The problematic aspects of knowledge management have nowadays been the subject of widespread interest. It does not only apply to large companies, but also to small and medium-sized enterprises, which notice that appropriate actions serving the dissemination and using of knowledge can bring many benefits to the organisation (Birkinshaw, 2001). Recognising the positive impact of knowledge management in private organisations, also makes public sector organisations implement solutions in this area. The need to redefine and improve the methods of managing public organisations is associated with a different perception of their place and role in the society than the one existing so far. Changes taking place in the public sector cause that knowledge here is also treated as the organisation’s strategic resource (Girard, 2018).

In addition to knowledge management, project management is becoming an extremely important trend in contemporary public organisations. Increasingly, they become a method to achieve the organisation’s strategic goals. Appropriate management of project knowledge can thus significantly impact the success of organisations implementing an increasing number of projects (Wirick, 2009). The popularisation of projects in the public sector is attributable to the 1990s (Kerzner, 2017). This was associated with not only changes taking place at organisation level, but also of entire countries, caused by the implementation of new management methods, based on New Public Management (NPM) principles (Osborne, Radnor, & Nasi, 2012). NPM, assuming modernisation and marketisation of the public sector, was a response to a certain disappointment with public administration, in the case of which more and more the following was shown: incompetence in performing public tasks, methods of action not adapted to the changing environment, inefficiency, or excessive bureaucracy and mismanagement (Abbasi & Al-Mharmah, 2000). Project management seems to fulfil some of NPM’s postulates - introducing greater flexibility, a task-oriented approach, and efficiency of public institutions’ actions (Rosta, 2011).

Despite the fact that projects are becoming a more and more popular management method, also in public museums, one of the most important public organisations in each country, still not much is known about the processes of project management. There is a research gap - no research on knowledge management that is generated in project work in the museums. Taking into account the importance of these organisations, their importance for the development of societies, undertaking research on understanding the processes of gathering and sharing explicit and tacit knowledge in public museum projects is scholarly relevant. Therefore, this chapter’s objective is to address and explore the problem of project knowledge management in a large public museum. Specifically, as it is based on Action Research approach, it asks the research question: How can the process of project knowledge sharing in Museum of Kraków be improved?

As a research method, a single case study was selected, the subject of which is The Museum of Kraków - one of the largest municipal museums in Poland. The museum is the largest museum of the City of Krakow. Krakow is located in the southern part of Poland in the Lesser Poland region and is the country’s former capital, a city inscribed on UNESCO’s World Heritage List. The museum was founded in 1899 and initially functioned as part of the municipal archives, and since 1945 as an independent institution. Its collection of over 170,000 artefacts includes items related to the history of Krakow and its self-governance; the most famous collections include Krakow's nativity scenes or Christmas Cribs and photographs of old Krakow (from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries). The museum is the guardian of local traditions, and Krakow's nativity scene making is inscribed (as the first from Poland) on UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. It has 19 branches located in various parts of the city, where permanent and temporary exhibitions on selected issues from over 1,000 years of Krakow's history are presented. Every year it is visited by 1.3 million visitors from the home and abroad. The museum organises a few dozens of projects annually, including scientific (concerning Krakow’s history), temporary exhibitions and educational events. In addition, it implements investment projects regarding international cooperation (international conferences and exhibitions).