Knowledge Management

Contents

Preface

Various types of community-based systems including blogs, wikis, file sharing tools, tagging systems, and social networks have emerged recently. These services are usually only loosely connected and rarely make use of synergetic effects. In this paper, a concept for a platform that adds value by integrating the benefits of existing community-based systems is proposed. The concept we propose is user-centred and puts an emphasis on communication and collaborative content development. Our approach facilitates the discovery of implicit knowledge by making proactive, personalised suggestions about content and the availability of experts. Application areas include learner-support systems, corporate and organisational environments, and communities sharing common interests.

Based on the analysis of an innovative medium sized enterprise from mainland China, this paper investigated the knowledge management (KM) issues by focusing on its KM enablers and process. This paper attempts to investigate how Chinese enterprises absorb knowledge from external sources; how they developed culture to facilitate knowledge management processes; and what major challenges they raise for the future by looking at the case study of a Chinese SMEs (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises). The case study indicates that Chinese enterprises emphasized knowledge acquisition and the capacities of knowledge absorption, application, creation, sharing and integration as vital to sustaining competitive advantage for these firms. Corporative organizational culture also has significant impact on the knowledge management in those enterprises.

Semantic Web technologies make the semantics of information explicit and thus machine processable. The primary aim of these technologies is to fill the semantic gap by sharing and integrating knowledge. Apart from the web, the importance of these technologies has been recognized in other areas like digital libraries, personal information management, user modeling and personalization, e-learning, and e-government, where they are used for explicit, flexible and powerful knowledge representation and new knowledge generation. Primarily designed to be consumed by computers, the proliferation of ontologies and Semantic Web content on the web as well as in other areas has raised the need for direct human interaction in a simple manner. But the inherent limitation of RDF with respect to browsing, the different users' requirements, and the state of the current technology does not allow packaging all the required features into a single universal browser. This paper reports on the state of the art in browsing and visualization of data expressed in RDF/OWL and Topic Map format. The paper identifies different user groups of semantic web content and their browsing and visualization needs, and then evaluates state-of-the-art tools based on those needs. We believe that the efforts of addressing the browsing needs are in the right direction and will help in the transition to the future web.

This paper explores Knowledge Management (KM) through a spectrum of cultural and institutional perspectives. The case studies cover a wide range of countries in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America as well as transition economies of the former socialist countries in Eastern Europe. The paper demonstrates how knowledge management processes and practices are influenced by local culture and institutions as well as interaction with the broader international community. The paper suggests the need for an aggregated analytical approach in order to assist in untangling the increasingly complex process through which knowledge processes are created, transferred and deployed.

This case study presents References@SBT, a web-based application for sharing knowledge, experiences and best-practices globally within Siemens Building Technologies. The application architecture, the content structure and actions on how to improve and increase the content are described. The user community with currently about 3,000 members is highlighted as the critical success factor. As a social networking tool, References@SBT intends to connect people by supporting the communication with each other. The result of a user survey shows the benefits of deploying and using this application from a qualitative and quantitative perspective: It is helpful for 84.6% of the users and implicates an average time saving of 0.6 working days per user.

Higher level organizational learning contributes to organizational performance. One research question that remains inadequately explained is how does learning within organizations occur? Can it be explained using the acquisition or participation perspectives? Or is there a need for some other view? This contribution tests the concept of the Network perspective to the organizational learning on the cases of a software and a manufacturing company. The social network analysis (SNA) of a learning network within the company offers support for such a perspective. Learning needs to be seen as both participation in communities of practice and a flow of previously acquired knowledge.

We propose a Push-Style Design Support System (PSDSs), which prevents product failures caused by improper design. While a designer is writing a specification document, PSDSs automatically shows design knowledge related to the contents in real time. The document check process can perform a highly precise check by comparing the structurized contents of the document with the structurized design knowledge flexibly, by referring to ontology data (Electronic parts DB and thesaurus dictionary). Unlike conventional expert systems using causal chains as design knowledge, the design knowledge of PSDSs is simple and easy to create. Experimental results of applying PSDSs to the design of electric circuits, 36% of the check results were the effective check that the relative low-skilled designer was not conscious of. In addition, 12% were effective check results that the experienced designer had not noticed.

The discipline of knowledge management (KM) is no longer emerging in large organizations, but also small and medium-sized (SME) organizations are focusing on finding the right process that will allow them to make advantages of their intellectual capital. In this article the authors suggest a three-dimensional research framework for the determination of knowledge diffusion in SMEs. The research framework can be described by the following dimensions each being detailed through factor tables: (1) Data/Information/Knowledge, (2) information technology, (3) cognitive/social aspects of knowledge diffusion. The article presents the results of an empirical study investigating the knowledge diffusion process through SME websites in Austria, Germany, and Switzerland. The study provides evidence that the knowledge diffusion through SME websites is an unbalanced system regarding the three-dimensional research framework.

Although there are extensive discussions about knowledge management, there is no consensus among authors about how it should be done. This paper presents an alternative approach for knowledge management in software organizations, based on the results of the institutionalization of Software Process Improvement (SPI). In order to evaluate the impact of SPI on knowledge creation and sharing practices a survey was conducted among software practitioners. The use of SPI tools and resources for knowledge creation and sharing could indicate how the SPI approach is an alternative for knowledge management methods and tools. The results indicate that the SPI approach is potentially effective for knowledge management in software organizations.

Modern Human Resource Management (HRM) for knowledge-based enterprises must consider competencies of the workforce on a more detailed level of description than in the past. With this more complex description and the requirement to exchange information between different organizations in networked enterprises it becomes necessary to standardize the description of competencies and other related concepts. We have developed an ontology containing concepts of HRM for two different projects: a meta-search engine for searching for jobs in job portals and for a university competence management system. We present the requirements derived from the two projects and describe the design of the ontology. This ontology is characterized by its integration of job descriptions, concepts for evaluating competencies on different levels and evidences for competencies. The definition is also aligned with the HR-XML approach of defining competence profiles.

Work productivity is certainly a major factor for economic success. For organizations with highly knowledge intensive processes and products, it is knowledge work productivity that counts. The paper introduces a multi step potential analysis of knowledge work productivity and its application to several organizations. The analysis combines assessments of (1) knowledge intensity, (2) productivity with respect to typical intellectual activities such as information processing, communication, decision making, and learning, as well as (3) organizational adaptability. In this process, the difference between more or less productivity is captured by the degree to which knowledge is handled in accordance with explicit standards compared to being handled in an arbitrary manner. Results of the analysis are then used to propose both short and medium term action plans for more productive knowledge work.

The focus of this paper is the question: How is it possible to involve key stakeholder into the development of a regional innovation strategy? Based on a recent third generation Knowledge Management concept, the EU funded project ‘RISforCCH’ has developed a methodology for dealing with this problem. This paper will describe the project journey, the developed methodology for stakeholder involvement and the results from applying it in Central Switzerland.

The necessity of finding a method based on Nonaka and Takeuchi Model, which is capable of measuring different types of knowledge as well as the processes of their conversions to each other, is the underlying reason for conducting this research. In this paper, a method will be introduced which is originally based on the Nonaka and Takeuchi Model for measurement of knowledge and their conversions to each other and finally for determining the status of knowledge with in an organization. The research was conducted in more than fifty Iranian Organizations and within a 3 year time span.

The central idea of this paper is to apply the concept of a top-level ontology to make access and retrieval of resources, more specifically documents, in knowledge-intensive business processes smarter. Supporting the reuse of meta-data created elsewhere, the sharing of meta-data across applications and users as well as the application of meta-data to answer user enquiries about resources requires a mapping between diverse content-oriented meta-data standards. This can be done with the help of a top-level ontology. In this paper, we will analyze a number of widely used meta-data standards for personal information, communication, resource descriptions and specific standards for text, images, audio and video. These cover a wide range of electronic resources typically required by weakly structured, knowledge-intensive business processes which are then mapped to the presented top-level ontology.

This paper discusses strategies and concepts of information and communication technology (ICT) support for knowledge-intensive work processes (computer supported knowledge work) as a problem of linking syntactic and semantic information processing. Linking syntactic and semantic information processing led to the idea that information (thinking) centers will be useful because ICT use must be organized before and during knowledge-intensive work processes take place. The different approaches and strategies of knowledge management should and can be integrated. This can promote the development of creative learning organizations.

In order to identify and analyze relevant knowledge in an organization, one has to consider not only the knowledge stocks but also investigate established routines, structures and processes involved in creating and diffusing knowledge. Knowledge intensive organizations are constituted by networks of experts in and beyond the organization. Experts are embedded in communication networks in the scientific community to collaboratively generate, utilize and transform knowledge. To support the coordination of knowledge processes it is essential to systematically identify and leverage these networks. In this paper we first describe such a systematic approach for the analysis of intra- and inter-organizational networks in knowledge intensive organizations. We then apply this approach to explore existing and potential external knowledge networks of a research organization by means of social network analysis. We conclude with some remarks on the applicability of the approach and the methodology.

In China, business transactions have traditionally involved substantial amounts of tacit understanding between buyers and sellers, generally as part of a social network arrangement known as guanxi. This situation appears to be changing, with online intermediaries enabling this tacit knowledge to be communicated explicitly. In this paper, we investigate the shift from tacit understanding to explicit representation of knowledge, focusing on the B2B practices enabled by Alibaba, China's largest online business intermediary. Our findings suggest that online intermediaries are substituting the offline social networks, providing explicit knowledge and communication channels in business relationships. We discuss the implications of this modification of business practices - in the Chinese context, as well as internationally.

‘Knowledge is Power’ has become a cliché in contemporary management discourse. Yet despite this, there has been relatively little attempt made by knowledge management writers to develop a credible conceptual foundation to examine the relationship between knowledge and power and their implications for knowledge management practice The paper will argue that Foucault's theories about the discursive construction of power/knowledge can make a valuable contribution to knowledge management research and practice. It provides an overview of some of the key concepts in Foucault's approach to discourse analysis and explores some of their implications for knowledge management researchers and practitioners.

This study has been set against the backdrop of an increasingly changing business world where innovative competencies are recognized to be important for sustained performance and firm survival. Study of innovations, however, point to upfront problems in the lack of satisfactory explanation as how new knowledge is created in the first place. Nonaka and Takeuchi's SECI description as the leading model of knowledge creation in firms has been critiqued to be incomplete and in being specific to the study context that may not fully represent knowledge creation in other cultures. In this respect, the setting of this research in the Indian context provides the view of how firms in other contexts create knowledge. Using the interpretive approach to study emergence of new knowledge, a modified model of knowledge creation was developed by identifying processes of knowledge creation through setting of events longitudinally. The processes of the model (called as the 4E model) have been identified as enactment, experimentation, embedment and enculturation that are set in the background of organizational descriptors in terms of the local community and the activity, in which it is engaged.

How we view reality is essential for our science of learning and education. We may know that paradigms are opening for our view of reality but they can be blinding as well. In this contribution a new vision on learning is presented which takes the concept of interaction as a central concept. Learning, then, may be viewed as fundamentally different, going beyond the orthodoxy. Learning, then, becomes a potentially nonlinear phenomenon with multiplier effects as effects of self-reinforcing processes. The modelling of the multiplier effects show the very truth of Vygotsky's adage that “It is through others that we become ourselves.” We may co-create ourselves within a reciprocal relationship with the other. The focus is on building a new course of learning and development which takes learners seriously as whole human beings. Learning as process through human interaction, face-to-face (F2F) and peer-to-peer (P2P), in steady reciprocal relationships.

The goal of this paper is to demonstrate how the techniques of data mining can be applied in personal accident insurance. Specifically, a personal accident claims database of a major national insurance company is analysed to aid in pinpointing patterns in policyholders' claim behaviour and evaluating claim trends. The policyholder's claim behaviour is described in terms of the major parameters of the claim sequence model. To support insurer's decision-making, we also consider the probability aspect of the claim distribution in the personal accident insurance. Furthermore, the ratio of premium revenues to claim payments is examined with the purpose of exploring the potential for improvement in the claim handling process. This paper suggests a novel approach to modelling policyholder's claim behaviour. Using this approach, scalable and effective measures for analysis and monitoring insurance customer's claim behaviour are introduced. Non trivial results are obtained. The proposed model and the results are empirically verified. Application of the results of this type of analysis is presented.

The term “knowledge warehousing” has been used by different research communities since the late 1990s. Use of such a concept in the literature varies from an unnecessary upgrade of a data warehouse to an up-market label for systems traditionally used to store and disseminate data and information. This paper provides a critical review of major works within the knowledge warehousing domain. Its aim is to raise awareness within the knowledge management research and practice communities about reasons why knowledge warehousing has not become part of accepted terminology a decade after first references to the term appeared in the literature.

Holistic approaches to knowledge management (KM) are widely known and seen as practical and useful instruments to implement and guide KM initiatives in practice. Nevertheless, these approaches suffer from limitations and miss empirical evidence. Based upon the importance and common acceptance of holistic KM approaches the aims of this paper are: (1) a critical review of the understanding of the approaches, (2) a survey and comparison of existing approaches and (3) the introduction of standardization as means to increase use and benefit of KM approaches.

Sustainable competitive advantage is often hidden in unique company capabilities, creating knowledge differentials. In particular core competencies have been recognized as strategic knowledge for a company and defined as capabilities providing customer benefits, hard to be imitated from competitors and possessing leverage potential. Nevertheless the process of extracting core competencies results quite complex because of the intangibility of knowledge and its automation calls for competencies formalization. We propose an ontology based approach and a system facilitating knowledge elicitation and automating core competencies extraction process. The system deals also with the automatic clustering of companies in knowledge classes according to the competence tehy hold.

This paper gives a critical assessment of definitions and approaches of Knowledge Management. It can be read as a contribution to theoretical foundations of Knowledge Management. Existing approaches are analyzed in respect to which extent they take into account individual (such as self-fulfillment, self-determination, self-realization, skills-enhancement inclusion, satisfaction) and societal goals (sustainable development: ecological conservation, political participation, peace, social stability in the areas of health and education, self-determined life-styles, and the satisfaction of basic needs). An alternative understanding of Knowledge Management is grounded by taking into account the need for a balance of individual, organizational, and societal goals – the perspective of and the need for Sustainable Knowledge Management.

Knowledge management (KM) seems to have become a ubiquitous phenomenon both in the academic and in the corporate world. However, according to the literature, there has not been any comprehensive and holistic empirical study of the current status and practices of KM in corporations. Therefore, we want to examine the different usage of knowledge management tools on a departmental level of a multinational, basic industry company. This paper focuses on the use of knowledge management tools and shows that not all tools have the same impact – especially in different departments. We interviewed 149 employees from three sites to analyze significant differences.

We discuss the problems associated with the feasibility of fully automated systems in the domain of cross-organizational workflow development and present the outcomes of the CrossWork project in terms of necessity of human intervention in inter-organizational workflow formation. The points of intervention are shown and justified in detail along two use cases.

For many practitioners, knowledge management (KM) can be used to support collaboration. This paper asks the reverse question, does collaboration support successful knowledge sharing? Based on the case study of a long-term development team, stages associated with collaboration are compared to an individual's cognitive modes during a complex task. These modes are then used to define team-based, information-seeking aspects of knowledge management. The researcher uses cognitive analysis of qualitative data to verify patterns in group behavior on a specific project and, thus, enhance previous studies of knowledge management as part of organizational learning. The case study analyzes activities of a successful, academic team completing a grant-funded digital library project and providing data about knowledge discovery. Based on field observations and follow-up interviews, the data analysis suggests that organizational learning experiences in the context of collaboration relate to the style or mode used for sharing knowledge and the effectiveness of group work. The findings are intended to provide knowledge management with a cognitive framework for collaborative behavior.

Western societies today face many problems that are grounded in a somehow oldfashioned view of how societies are constituated and functioning. Apart from environmental problems, that are definitely beyond the reach of this article, unemployment, the growing gap between rich and poor, the rising psychic and psychosomatic stress symptoms and the loss of meanings in our personal lives can be named in this context. The article tries to connect those developments to the way we got used to view society, science, economy and the educational system as distinct entities. A holistic perspective is introduced that considers the educational system as the nucleus of science and economy and by which society at large can overcome the drawbacks of traditional splitting into separate realms. To put this theoretical approach into practical work would imply the reinvention of educational institutions, eg universities. That's where the Vindobona Project comes into play. Vindobona University shall be a new kind of self-organizing learning environment, where knowledge is not simply being “learned” by students but newly created and young people from different cultures can freely connect and communicate while being respected as autonomous persons with different identities and backgounds.

Nothing is more enduring than change, that's a common insight, but it's as much common as wrong. The forms, triggers and conditions of change are themselves subject to radical change and produce a steady challenge for adjustments in radical organizational transformation as well as in gradual organizational development. That complicates an appropriate knowledge management to analyse, evaluate and to decide, which knowledge, organizational structures and practices should be saved, improved or forgotten. Conventional general and normative suggestions as they were employed increasingly loose their efficiency. So, the call for a possibly better ‘contextualisms’ is already out there. But how to translate the heed for context specific observation, measurement and appraisal into a pragmatic orientation beyond the simple denial of general recommendations in the “check-this-and-do-that” style? To meet that challenge, we need certain monitors for a.) a stable and routinized comparison of inside and external observation and for b.) a routi-nized observation of an organizations capability to compare, evaluate and influence that difference of inside/outside. The latter form of monitoring we call an organizations ‘capability to learn’. If an organization is in a position to observe its own capability to learn and to judge external demands to learn, a profound background is given for a sound decision about what to learn and what not to learn. In the paper, we firstly show seven dimensions, which could represent moments of that observational capability. Secondly, we present a tool that helps to analyse, measure and assess these dimensions and how to make them ‘manageable’. The tool stimulates the internal discourse of what to check and gives outlines on how to transform that into an organization-styled language and knowledge. Thirdly and finally, we illustrate the dimensions, the tool and the conditions of appropriate handling with case study vignettes. This is to illustrate a special way of tool treatment necessary to transform generalisms into contextualisms.

Plagiarism and Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Violations have become a serious concern for many institutions and organisations. The revolutionary development of the Web presents numerous opportunities for such infringements to become even more widespread. This situation poses a variety of threats both on the individual level by introducing a “culture of mediocrity” and at an organizational level, infringement of intellectual property rights. The immense impact of the Web and a resulting culture poses many more dangers than foreseeable (Kulathuramaiyer and Balke, 2006). We then present a discussion on current tools for fighting plagiarism and IPR violations. We propose solutions to effectively address the issue, which includes the establishment of a European Centre for plagiarism and IPR violation, and through the application of viable technologies.