Elements and components of knowledge management in knowledge-based project-oriented organizations with a Meta-Syntheses approach

Knowledge-based project-oriented organizations, organizations that place great emphasis on projects and manage most of their activities in the form of projects in order to synergize science and wealth, develop a knowledge-based economy, realize scientific and economic goals (including the expansion and application of inventions and innovations) and the commercialization of research results and development (including the design and production of goods and services) is formed in the field of superior technologies with a lot of added value, especially in the production of related software (Gorji and Barati, 2019). In this type of organization, knowledge both within projects and between projects Therefore, it is necessary to solve two basic problems: first, how to share the knowledge accumulated in one project with subsequent projects, because projects are temporary and there is a high probability that a significant part of the knowledge will disappear after the end of the period. Secondly, how to improve the communication of team members who work in different projects. are acquired, imposes enormous costs on the organization (Daders and Habshizadeh, 1401). The implementation of knowledge management in these organizations helps them to process knowledge to support decision-making and become smarter. (Heidet, 2022). In fact, it seems that in today's competitive age, knowledge management and intellectual property management is the best solution to achieve a competitive advantage (Sohrabi, Asghari Sarem, and Ezzati Arasteh, 2019). Knowledge management is a process that helps organizations find, select, organize and disseminate important and useful information (Rahimzadeh, Khalilzadeh, and Soltani, 2017). Considering that maintaining and improving the organization's knowledge capital is undoubtedly the most important component in the effective role of organizations in today's turbulent environment, and the implementation of knowledge management can become a powerful and decisive tactic at the international level. Today, more than ever, there is a need for scholarly attention to the process of production, organization, transfer, transformation, application, maintenance of knowledge and its evaluation. Knowledge management is the intelligent design of processes, tools, structures, etc., with the intention of increasing, renewing, sharing, or improving the use of knowledge, which appears in each of the three elements of intellectual capital, i.e., structural, human, and social. Therefore, in relation to the necessity and importance of research, it can be stated that, since knowledge-based project-oriented organizations have a very high knowledge capacity due to carrying out projects, the need to adopt strategic, forward-looking approaches and focus on all knowledge-based organizational processes in such an organization is felt. will be Project knowledge management is very important for knowledge-based project-oriented organizations, especially companies that manage multiple projects at the same time. Also, Frey et al. (2009) believe that knowledge management is one of the success factors for improving project management performance (Qazizadeh, Khosravi, and Looney, 2019). Numerous researches inside and outside of Iran on the necessity of applying knowledge management in the success of projects confirm its importance and special status. For example, Ahmed et al. (2002) in their research list the benefits of project knowledge management implementation including the following:

• Improving innovation that leads to increased efficiency and effectiveness of project products and services;

• Improvement in decision-making;

• Improving customer service and increasing customer satisfaction;

• maintaining competitive advantage in the organization;

• Reducing costs related to research and development of the organization; (Quoted in Manafi Sharafabad, 2017)

Considering the importance of knowledge and knowledge management in organizations, especially project-based organizations, its implementation in these types of organizations in the country seems essential in order to gain benefits and value and to improve project performance. It is necessary to have a comprehensive research model for knowledge management in these organizations. The current research includes the following goals:

A: Identifying the elements and components of knowledge management in knowledge-based project-oriented organizations;

B: Determining the agreement of experts regarding the obtained elements and components;

Method: The approach of the present research is qualitative, and the seven-step metacombination method of Sandelowski and Barroso was used. The research community includes all sources related to the identification of elements and components of knowledge management including 163 articles, books and theses from reliable domestic and foreign sources published from the scientific database in the period of 1397-1402 and 2018-2023. Then, taking into consideration the degree of connection with the research topic, primary sources were screened and 63 sources were selected and coding was done on the concepts extracted from them.

Results: In total, based on the meta-combination method with the Delphi approach, the number of 6 main dimensions (process, technology, human resources, organizational structure, strategy and goals, and leadership), 25 components and 76 indicators for the 25 components were extracted as elements and components. Knowledge management were identified. The results of reliability measurement using Kendall's coefficient method above 0.5 probability value, less than 0.05 indicate appropriate agreement between experts.