Knowledge management also depends to a considerable extent on the organisation structure. Organizational structure determines the manner and extent to which roles, power, and responsibilities are delegated, controlled, and coordinated, and how information flows between levels of management (BusinessDictionary.com).

The most common organisation structures are: hierarchical, centralised and decentralised, flat and tall.

A traditional hierarchical structure of the organization defines each employee's role within the organisation and greatly affects with whom each individual mainly and frequently interacts, and share knowledge. Reporting relationships in those organisations influence the flow of data and information as well as the nature of groups who make decisions together, and consequently affect the sharing and creation of knowledge. The most important decisions in organizations with a traditional hierarchical structure are usually taken by senior management.

In a decentralized structure, the decision making power is distributed and the departments and divisions have varying degrees of autonomy (BusinessDictionary.com).

Organizational structures can facilitate knowledge management through communities of practice. A community of practice is an organic and self-organized group of individuals who are dispersed geographically or organizationally but communicate regularly to discuss issues of mutual interest (Lave and Wenger, 1991). Communities of practice provide access to a larger group of individuals than possible within traditional departmental boundaries. Communities of practice also provide access to external knowledge sources. Communities of practice benefit considerably from emergent information technologies, including blogs and social networking technologies.

You can follow the following video-clips to learn more about an organizational structure and Communities of Practice: