Knowledge Management

The following sections are included:

• CONTENTS

• PREFACE

This empirical research study examined the relationship between organizational learning culture and intellectual capital performance, and ultimately, the association of the dimensions with systems-level learning and transformation, explaining the value-added organizational performance through value-creating management strategies. The study found that organizational learning culture is significantly and positively associated with organizational performance, as measured by intellectual capital performance. Overall, organizational learning culture creates value-added outputs to systems-level learning through continuous learning and transformation, which, in turn, act as inputs to intellectual capital performance. Research results contribute to a theory of high performance by providing distinctive patterns of success—leadership competence, organizational knowledge sharing, and customer/market focus—accounting for superior organizational outcomes.

Over the past decades, the information and knowledge professions have become an important facet of the modern economy. The rise of the Internet and the impact of globalization have changed the way companies do business and led them to direct their attention to the importance of managing knowledge and information. Realizing the value of intellectual capital and the need for managing organizational intellectual assets, organizations are seeking a new generation of information professionals who are able to work in intensive and complex knowledge environments. This study is an attempt to look at the roles and responsibilities outlined by hiring organizations in descriptions of their job advertisements. Empirical data concerning the organizations recruiting, the location of position, the main requirements and skills desired in the applicant, the qualifications needed, salary information, role and responsibilities were gathered from 1200 postings within the United States over the course of a year. The content analysis of the job postings and job description are used to identify areas and trends in the information and knowledge profession.

This paper reports on a comparison of undergraduate and postgraduate students' experience in using TWiki, a knowledge management enabling tool to co-construct group project work. It examines the following areas: (1) whether TWiki helps improve students' level of collaboration and the quality of their group project work; (2) whether TWiki facilitates knowledge creation and sharing; and (3) whether using TWiki is better or worse than, or as good as the traditional ways of doing group projects, such as using Microsoft Word. Results indicate that both groups of students had positive experience in using TWiki to do their group project and they found TWiki better than Microsoft Word for doing group project work.

Soft skills have been defined in a number of ways in the literature. They are also referred to by different names such as 'key skills', 'core skills', 'essential skills' and 'soft skills' in different countries. Though different names are given to these skills in different countries, by and large they encompass the same range of skills: communication, teamwork, conflict resolution, problem solving, reflection, critical thinking and leadership skills, self-confidence, conformity to norms, language proficiency etc. A number of studies are presented in this paper wherein need for possession of soft skills by the future workforce is emphasized. Personality plays a significant role in a job search as well as in job performance and learning. So it becomes important to examine one of the most obvious aspects of personality – extroversion versus introversion. Extroverts possess traits such as sociability, talkativeness, activeness, and assertiveness. Introverts tend to be low-key, deliberate, and relatively less engaged in social situations. Understanding and appreciating the strengths and weaknesses associated with introverted and extroverted personality styles can mean the difference between success and failure in campus placements and later at the workplace. The present study is conducted with a view to examine the performance of extrovert/introvert prospective engineers in campus placements, their perceptions of knowledge of soft skills and their views regarding activities for developing them in the institution. The recruitment process followed by some of the leading Software firms takes into account two to four of the following types of rounds: aptitude tests, technical rounds, group discussions and HR interviews. The Eysenck Personality Inventory was used to classify prospective engineers on extroversion and introversion. The introverts were found to perform better than extroverts on aptitude test. Both groups need further training in soft skills to become successful in getting jobs. Engineering institutions should pay more attention to the development of soft skills like communication skills, team building skills and interpersonal skills.

The main aim of the research was to examine the competencies required for employees to graduate from a MKM Executive Program offered by the International Islamic University Malaysia. The expected research output includes a list of competencies for developing the program structure and learning outcomes, course learning outcomes and descriptions. MKM Executive Program shall be offered as a credit-hour system with graduation requirements of 40 credit hours. Data collection involved review of literature and selective extraction of the competencies, interview with Petronas, survey of the job advertisements in newspapers for a duration of 3 months (January – March 2008), survey of courses on the website, conduct of three workshops (September 2007, March and April 2008), survey of trainings offered by organizations and associations in Malaysia (January – March 2008) and questionnaire on competencies for KM circulated among the clients of Paradigm System Sdn. Bhd. scheduled in June 2008.

Nowadays enterprises require more knowledge than ever. Thus the role of Human Resource Management has changed and competence management became necessary as an important supporting management process. Competence management at universities is an essential core process that delivers value to the customer (student) directly. It can be a first step to make students aware of required competencies. This work describes the design of an ontology based competence management system. Personal competency profiles can be stored and goal profiles can be used to perform a gap analysis. New measurement approaches can be integrated and the system provides an interface for data exchanging. This paper closes with the results of the evaluation of the prototype.

Can there be a downside to social networks in the workplace? This paper presents empirical evidence indicating that a network of long-time employees may restrict knowledge retention in the organization. The study found that support staff in a municipal government environment depended upon their deep social networks to obtain and share information. While this behavior may have short-term benefits, the findings suggest that there may be a negative effect on knowledge retention where: 1) network members are long term employees who prefer to obtain information from familiar, rather than the best, sources; 2) information obtained is not shared; 3) the focus is on completing tasks at hand rather than retaining knowledge for the long term, and 4) network members with expertise are close to retirement.

This paper presents global KM survey research that investigates the development and implementation of KM strategies in relation to the governance of those strategies. It discusses the nature of the strategic management of knowledge, the nature of the tasks and roles of management. We look at the context of information politics, and differentiate between management and governance. It is found that the roles and responsibilities of those with authority over KM are more important than the politics of the organization in which the knowledge is being managed.

This paper focuses on knowledge sharing as an important area in the study of knowledge management (KM). The paper's primary goal is to examine how health-care practices employ knowledge sharing tools and processes to the benefit of their daily work processes. In addition, the study seeks to understand how knowledge sharing would contribute to practices' performance. Adopting a qualitative approach, four health care practices were selected from within a research network to represent larger and smaller practice with different performance levels, two high-performing practices (HP) and two low-performing practices (LP), using standard clinical and health care practice measures. Data collection and analysis involved several iterative steps including interviews, field notes of observations. Four case studies were developed reflecting how each practice implemented knowledge sharing tools and processes and how this implementation influenced performance. The study found that all of the four practices manifested and implemented knowledge sharing tools including knowledge artifacts; sharing social tools-meetings and communication channels; and processes including training and apprenticeship and communities of practices; however, the level of implementation varied among the four practices. A comparison of the high-performing and low-performing practices showed that even though the high-performing practices implemented and invested more in knowledge sharing, knowledge sharing processes and tools were not completely integrated throughout the practices including the high performing ones. Moreover, in all practices there was little evidence of encouragement to efficiently use knowledge sharing tools either among staff members or between patients and the practice.

Despite widespread belief that effective implementation of Electronic Medial Record (EMR) will provide dramatic healthcare benefits, the adoption of EMR has been slow and less than thirty percent. Its implementation has not been complete which has caused disruption to workflow in health practices. The purpose of this paper is to suggest the application of computer-mediated collaborative design of EMR systems to overcome the obstacles of current EMR systems. Likewise, the author proposes analysis of the potential benefits that collaborative design (CD) could bring to EMR systems development. A computer-mediated collaborative design process may encourage cooperation for problem solving by connecting EMR end-users such as physicians, staff, patients, and vendors. The findings of his study indicate that priority should be placed on integrating an EMR system into previous systems. This should allow a seamless transition between systems and increase efficiency. However, limitations in current EMR designs do not allow such integration. To ameliorate and overcome these weaknesses, EMR vendors need to change their approach to EMR design.

The purpose of this study is to investigate organizational members' cross-cultural knowledge sharing behavior through virtual communities of practice. Using content and activity analysis as the research method, this study examined Chinese and American employees' online knowledge sharing behavior within the ShareNet, a global knowledge sharing system adopted by Alpha, a Fortune 100 multinational corporation. The participants were 205 Chinese and 205 American ShareNet users. The participants' knowledge sharing behavior within the ShareNet was analyzed quantitatively and qualitatively in order to show not only how frequently they shared knowledge but also what they shared through communities of practice in the ShareNet. The study results show that on average Chinese users contributed knowledge less frequently than Americans but these two groups were similarly active in terms of consuming knowledge. The major content shared in the ShareNet included project-related documents and one-to-many type of question asking/answering. Implications from the study findings and some direction for future research are also provided.

Business process-oriented knowledge management is a new research field. In knowledge-intensive organizations, transfer and sharing of process-oriented tacit knowledge is important for improving business process performance and promoting core competence. First, the paper reviews the related research on process-oriented knowledge management. Second, the process, obstacles, characteristics and behavior pattern of knowledge workers in core business process was analyzed from levels of individual, team and organization. Third, the paper proposes a model of promoting efficiency of tacit knowledge transfer and sharing in knowledge-intensive organization, especially from situation and incentive mechanism in different level of individual, team and organization.

This paper develops techniques used to manage tacit knowledge within enterprises and build ways to achieve effective decisions. A particular example addresses the work and interfaces that a security Incidents Response Team (IRT) has to conduct to protect enterprise assets, and provides a proactive system capable of adapting operational procedures, resource management and corporate strategy to the evolution of digital risk. Finally, we propose a knowledge management system based on a set of processes for the creation, storage and dissemination of knowledge required for information security, decision-making and IRT tacit knowledge management.

The goal of this empirical study is to identify how top performers of the automotive supply industry can be distinguished from followers. The complete branch still believes that market position and productivity are of utmost importance. However, a deeper analysis shows that top performers distinguish themselves from followers mainly in two key success factors – flexibility and the ability to manage knowledge flows so that innovation can prosper. A strong positive correlation between knowledge management and innovation has also been discovered.

In this paper we present a methodology that plays an important role in identifying crucial knowledge. Thus, we have developed a method based on three phases. In the first phase, we have used GAMETH® to identify the set of "reference crucial knowledge". During the second phase, decision rules are inferred, through rough sets theory, from decision assignments provided by the decision maker(s). In the third phase, a multicriteria classification of "potential crucial knowledge" is performed on the basis of the decision rules that have been collectively identified by the decision maker(s).

This paper describes a case study of developing and deploying a knowledge management system (KMS) in an organization. Knowledge Management (KM) initiative described in this paper is unique because it is being developed by using participatory approach by the Cross Functional Team (CFT). This paper describes a practical and systematic approach to conceptualization, development and deployment of KMS. The aim of this paper is to share the holistic view of KM initiatives and the steps taken to achieve the goal of KM development and deployment. The sharing the process of KM development and deployment would benefit organizations that are on the verge of starting KM initiative. The paper also interweaves practical approach with theoretical concept.

Sharing scientific knowledge is central to the process of knowledge synthesis and transfer. In order to increase the effectiveness of dissemination and retrieval of scientific knowledge, a four level framework for knowledge sharing, discovery and integration has been proposed that leverages new information and computer technologies, including semantic reasoning engines, ontology engineering for knowledge representation, and computational modeling tools. By leveraging computational models widely used in science as medium for expressing knowledge, knowledge sharing and integration through computers and the Internet could be made dynamic and interactive. Semantic matchmaking based on ontologies and logical inference is used to share computational models and other knowledge resources in a form that can be interpreted semantically by computers to provide more effective support for searching and discovery. A Web-based knowledge sharing platform called EKOSS, for expert knowledge ontology-based semantic search, has been created to implement this semantic matchmaking through logical and rule-based inference using description logics ontologies. The computer intelligence resulting from logical inference could make possible an active form of computer-mediated sharing and discovery, which is illustrated through an analogy of a library. Finally, a method for using the EKOSS system to implement this active form of sharing and discovery of scientific knowledge is demonstrated.

Effective and efficient knowledge creation, sharing and application are indispensable in nowadays globalized and knowledge-based economy. To maintain competitiveness especially knowledge-intensive organisations have to establish a working environment that supports the entire chain of knowledge processing comprising knowledge creation, transfer and usage. arsenal research, an applied research organisation, has therefore developed a knowledge management strategy that aims especially at improving knowledge creation and transfer. Main focus is laid on the implementation of a collaborative and innovative working environment that cross-links its highly multidisciplinary research staff. For that purpose, the concept of Communities of Practice has been chosen as the main tool. Communities play an important role in implementing and improving organisational learning. Therefore, by actively supporting and facilitating these communities, organisations can develop their social capital and gain significant competitive advantage. Main objective of the communities at arsenal research is the knowledge and experience exchange between the scientific employees. By that efficient knowledge application as well as knowledge transfer within the organisation should be supported. Based on the first experiences a review of the communities' status is given to identify the critical factors. For this purpose the basic requirements and the strategic background of the organisation for implementing the communities as well as the implementation process and the results obtained up to now are described. Furthermore, the further development demand is deduced and suggestions for improving the communities are given.

This paper presents partial results of study focused on evaluated aspect of asymmetric information and strategic knowledge management – SKM in an electrical agency in Brazil, searching for informational and knowledgeable behavior to deal with problems on tax revising processes. Methodology applied involved a survey with 12 strategists and interview with 3 decision strategic makers and the data was processed using statistical methods. Results point to problems in minimizes information asymmetry, as well as to increase shared strategic knowledge among strategists and also decision makers.

In a system characterized by economic relations and by technology, knowledge is, on the one hand, a fundamental and non-pervading resource but, on the other hand, it is so much taken for granted that it is not regarded as a source of competitive advantage. The goal of this paper is to show how agent based models can capture the emerging behavior of complex social systems and hence can represent, with a structured framework, the role of explicit and implicit knowledge within organizations. There are formalisms which allow to study the emergency of social behavior with the creation and study of models, known as "artificial societies", employing software agents. A detailed review of some agent based paradigms is presented, as to their structure and use inside a computational simulation model. The work is carried on at the e-business LAB at the University of Turin (resp. prof. Marco Pironti).

This paper presents a knowledge management paradigm of tightly coupling the business process and knowledge management process from the view of Organizational Intelligence for dealing with dynamic and uncertain organizational environments. This new paradigm advocates focusing on problem solving process in an organization, to manage the knowledge, analyze the dynamic features of knowledge flow, represent the knowledge based on ontology techniques, introduce the agents to support the problem-solving activities, and develop the knowledge management architecture in a foundation of Semantic Web. The paper also proposes a method of modeling and analyzing knowledge flows by extending IDEF0 modeling techniques, and its application value is described by a case study about the Non-Functional Requirements driving software designing process.

This paper reports on the implementation of a knowledge sharing and collaboration platform by a global environmental consultancy firm. ERM's global knowledge sharing portal (Minerva) was rolled out after a nine-month joint project between the company's IT department and its Global Knowledge Sharing (KS) Team. Minerva makes extensive use of Web 2.0 technologies to improve enterprise productivity and its design was informed by Dervin's Sense-Making Methodology. In this paper, the author argues that in order to fully embrace Web2.0, the leaders have to adopt Leadership 2.0 and a user-centric communications culture.

Nowadays, knowledge management is utilized to leverage intangible assets with a view to systematic improvement in the process of achieving increased firm performance. In the other hand, balanced scorecard is a performance measurement framework that provides an integrated look at the business performance of a company by a set of measures, which includes both financial and non-financial metrics. In this paper, we use analytic network process (ANP) method for decision-making. The ANP addresses how to determine the relative importance of a set of processes in a multi-criteria decision problem. Since uncertainty of information in decision making environment exists, we consider it by applying fuzzy set theory. This study proposes a methodology based on the ANP to identification and analyze strategic priorities for implementing knowledge management based on rank of balanced scorecard perspectives and knowledge management strategies in each perspective. For final decision making about knowledge management implementation, two approaches are introduced based on the scale of organizations. Finally, procedure and results of implementing our proposed methodology in one Iranian healthcare organization is presented as an empirical study.

The paper explores the issue of managing knowledge in a very small non-profit organization. A pilot study was conducted with a very small non-profit organization to understand the current state of knowledge management, issues in managing knowledge and tools being employed for knowledge management. The paper identifies the issues and suggests the potential technological solutions from open source software products and free online tools, such as wikis, youtube and flickr, that could be used to share the knowledge for better productive use of time and resources of a small low budget non-profit organization. The study also presents the power of a lightweight pilot study for understanding the issues for future knowledge management systems design for such organizations and potential use of open source software for such noble causes.

It is not always easy for many persons to prepare documents with constructive form and logical story. This is because the work of document preparation is one of creative activities of individual persons with their own knowledge, experiences, motivations, etc. The logically organized document is defined as one with logical story-like scenario. In this paper, we propose an experimental method for composing the logically organized documents. The main idea is to design and implement the composition process as the working procedure with query list and logic tree. The query list defines what should be discussed in the document, while the logic tree specifies how to write down topics. This paper makes these roles in the composition process clear and then reports our interaction through the interface on the prototype system.

Quality is a multidimensional concept. The two aspects of digital library data quality are the quality of the data in the objects themselves, and the quality of the metadata associated with the objects. Because poor metadata quality can result in ambiguity, poor recall and inconsistent search results, the existence of robust quality assurance mechanisms is a necessary feature of a well-functioning digital library. Recognizing the strategic benefit of quality metadata as a means of ensuring long term access to its digital resources, the University of North Texas (UNT) Libraries employ a number of metadata quality assurance procedures, tools, and associated quality assurance mechanisms. This paper discusses issues related to digital resources management and describes how UNT approaches metadata quality issues at various levels of the digital resources life cycle.

The idea that organizational knowledge constitutes valuable strategic capital is increasingly popular nowadays. In order to maintain their position and to be competitive, organizations need to generate, collect, share, and exploit organizational knowledge efficiently and effectively. The effective handling of such knowledge is ever more widely recognized as a significant factoring of competitiveness. The first organizational efforts to manage knowledge focused on information technology solutions. These IT solutions, although important to knowledge management, often failed to achieve their objectives because organizations did not consider cultural factors critical to effective knowledge management. In this paper we explore the characteristic features of national and organisational cultures' impacts on knowledge management and competitiveness. We take on board Trompenaars's insight concerning national and organizational culture. Following our theoretical exploration of national and organizational culture, we report the findings of two researches, which have revealed the relationship between knowledge management, cultural characteristics, and competitiveness. Finally, we present the implications of our argument by focusing on the links between knowledge management and culture. We do this in order to show, that cultural characteristics are not only determinant factors of competitiveness but also of knowledge management, which is a key factor of competitiveness.

Technical education in India has grown tremendously since independence. There is mushroom growth of technical institutions imparting technical education at various levels. About 200,000 teachers and managers are involved in planning and managing the system. With the emergence of new technologies, globalization of workforce, inadequate capacity of technical institutions for meeting needs of continuing education, increased emphasis on soft skills in world of work etc., the training of technical teachers will have to undergo a radical change. Use of new technologies like electronic media, computer technology, satellite communication, internet facilities and upcoming virtual and remote laboratories for developing practical skills among prospective engineers, for imparting education and training in technical institutions, has opened up the classroom to the outside world. Teachers will no longer remain the sole voice of authority and they will have to interact very differently with the students. It has been recognized that future workplaces will require more emphasis on employability skills as they seek adaptable, responsible and ethical workers with high level interpersonal skills. Accordingly, teachers need to be proficient in using innovative strategies that develop soft skills among prospective engineers. In the present paper, the future areas like knowledge of using new technologies for imparting instruction, developing content for use in new technologies, awareness of intellectual property rights and flexibility in offering teacher training etc. for the training of technical teachers are discussed

This paper reports an exploratory study on resources and resource sharing among researchers in Intelligent Information Access (IIA). The investigation consists of two stages. In Stage One, the authors conducted a content analysis to identify resources used in 145 research papers and reports in two subfields of IIA; and in Stage Two, the authors carried out an online survey of IIA researchers to understand resource-sharing channels and the researchers' perspectives on resource sharing. The results demonstrate that IIA researchers make use of various types of resources developed by others. Most of these resources are knowledge sources or software systems that are freely available online. However, IIA researchers encounter various difficulties during the course of resource acquisition and use. The study suggests that a resource management system built on a well-established knowledge-management model could greatly facilitate the creation, sharing, and use of resources in the IIA community.

In the competitive and shifting business environment, creating non-replaceable value and strengthening core competences are critical. M&A is the best strategy for survival because of one rule: the big ones get bigger. This study investigates the effects of co-branding strategies and strategic alliances in order to propose a co-branding taxonomy. It analyzes co-branding from four dimensions and two perspectives: The perspectives are the management and brand perspectives, and the dimensions are goals, reasons for M&A, brand image, market segmentation, financial reports, and reasons for successful/failure. Hence, this research furnishes a roadmap and guideline for future co-branding strategies and provides clues for managers in decision-making related to brand alliances.

The main purpose of the present research is to do a survey on the constituents of entrepreneurship and study the construct validity of the researcher-made entrepreneurship questionnaire. The population of the research includes all managers of different branches of Islamic Azad University (IAU) in Iran. In this survey 474 managers from 79 branches of IAU were selected using cluster and stratified random sampling. The tool of research was a researcher-made entrepreneurship questionnaire with 13 components (α = 0.88). The results of factor analysis and principal component analysis, using a varimax rotation, resulted in the following components: need to progress, need of independence, risk-taking, creativity, time management, perseverance, goal-orientation, challenge, self-confidence, internal locus of control, open to criticism, being realistic and being vivacious.