Limitations of Social Media as Conversational Knowledge Management Tools

New Web 2.0 technologies are changing the way Knowledge Management (KM) can be approached. In particular, thanks to the advancements in Social Media, KM systems and practices are speeding up their evolution from a "traditional" (i.e. monolithic, hierarchical, centralized, and controlled) approach to new ways of implementation based on active participation of employees. The wave of change brought to KM by Web 2.0 technologies has induced scholars to coin terms as "KM 2.0" or "conversational KM" that indicate this new perspective. In a conversational knowledge creation, people generate and share knowledge through dialog, which allows overcoming most of the limits of "classic" KM, and especially the difficult handling of tacit knowledge. Furthermore, Social Media are deemed able to enhance knowledge creation and not simply its transfer or reuse: this makes KM a real support for innovation and creativity. So far, the literature has put great emphasis on the benefits and advantages that Social Media can offer to KM, while less attention has been devoted to the difficulties and limitations raised by their introduction and use. The paper contributes to address this issue by deeply analysing the experience of a big consulting company that uses Social Media to support knowledge generation and transfer within their Communities of Practice. In particular, the study aims at investigating the possible challenges posed by the use of Social Media in KM, both from an organizational and a technical point of view. Given its exploratory goals and the complexity of the phenomenon under investigation, the research makes use of a case study methodology. The findings of the study will allow drawing managerial implications as well as suggestions for future research.