Knowing communities in project driven organizations.Analyzing the strategic impact of socially constructed HRM practices

Project-based organizations in the ICT domain face substantial obstacles in harnessing knowledge and in the exploitation of previously learned lessons, due to the idiosyncratic and temporally limited nature of project tasks. Learning across projects and project phases therefore has become a majorissue. In this scenario project management has been identified as something inherently dealing with knowledge mechanisms, that require relevant HRM strategies in order to get activated.By using a social-construction approach, the paper proposes some reflections about the relationship between HRM practices and knowing communities in project driven organizations.Four short case studies from the ICT industry are presented.The cases highlight that the impact of HRM practices on nowledge creation is conditioned both by a persistent influence of vertical structures, and by historical paths of careers in technologymanagement positions, that tend to detach technological culture from HRM. Only in the cases in which the overall strategy is oriented to get R&D managers closer to the market (and vice versa to deeply involve marketing managers in R&D activities), knowing communities appear to be able to share values, languages, and tools. From a managerial point of view, it is argued that, although literature tends to reaffirm the need forevolving HRM departments from administrative to strategic partner role, in many ICT firms the dominance of a technologically oriented culture still pushes HRM professionals owards a role of specialized staff service providers and prevents effective knowing communities from taking place. The challenge for HRM professionals within those organizations would then be not only to assume a broader concept of HRM function, but also to play a knowing oriented role fostering knowledge creation.