Towards the Identification of Cognitive Barriers to Knowledge Transfer in Teamwork

Knowledge transfer in organizations is a decisive advantage in the competitive market. When it is done effectively, it prevents companies from losing relevant information when experts leave or are disconnected for any reason. Considering that beliefs and collaboration are important to support the knowledge transfer process, this paper investigates the main cognitive barriers and beliefs that may prevent knowledge transfer in organizational environments. This work maps the knowledge transfer processes found in organizations in order to elicit the barriers faced by experts as well as their beliefs, and how they affect the group during complex decision activities. These barriers are part of the Conceptual Framework for Identifying Barriers of Knowledge Transfer between Experts (KTA(e)).