Social and interactional practices for disseminating current awareness information in an organisational setting

Current awareness services are designed to keep users informed about recent developments based around user need profiles. In organisational settings, they may operate through both electronic and social interactions aimed at delivering information that is relevant, pertinent and current. Understanding these interactions can reveal the tensions in current awareness dissemination and help inform ways of making services more effective and efficient. We report an in-depth, observational study of electronic current awareness use within a large London law firm. The study found that selection, re-aggregation and forwarding of information by multiple actors gives rise to a complex sociotechnical distribution network. Knowledge management staff act as a layer of “intelligent filters” sensitive to complex, local information needs; their distribution decisions address multiple situational relevance factors in a situation fraught with information overload and restrictive time-pressures. Their decisions aim to optimise conflicting constraints of recall, precision and information quantity. Critical to this is the use of dynamic profile updates which propagate back through the network through formal and informal social interactions. This supports changes to situational relevance judgements and so allows the network to ‘self-tune’. These findings lead to design requirements, including that systems should support rapid assessment of information items against an individual’s interests; that it should be possible to organise information for different subsequent uses; and that there should be back-propagation from information consumers to providers, to tune the understanding of their information needs.     

Projects and firms as discordant complements: organisational learning in the Munich software ecology

In current theorising, projects and firms are understood as “learning organisations”. Although the learning function can be regarded as constituent for both organisational forms, the specific learning mechanisms are connected with opposing features (e.g. long-term, trustful collaboration versus short cyclical, disruptive collaboration). Referring to the first results of qualitative research conducted on the Munich software cluster, this paper aims to explore the functional interplay between projects and firms with regard to organisational learning. The main thesis is that processes of improvement, failure eradication and knowledge accumulation are more likely to take place in firms whereas processes of structural change are more likely to be organised in a project. In complementing one another these functions, however, also generate inconsistencies like contravening learning incentives or contingency traps. Therefore, projects and firms may be regarded as “discordant complements”.     

Managing and leveraging knowledge for organisational advantage

This paper focuses on two elements of process knowledge that we call sticky and fluid knowledge. Process knowledge, we argue, differs from the more commonly described tacit or explicit knowledge due to its domain specificity. Process knowledge is a potential source of competitive advantage for an organisation and is key to the development of intellectual capital for an organisation. Knowledge management is the operational means of delivering this intellectual capital value. From empirical research conducted, two cases are presented that illustrate process knowledge and its value and exploitation for the development of intellectual capital. The findings emphasise the necessity for a multiplicity of means for process knowledge transfer in order to ensure the widest possible distribution. In particular, in order to ensure that sticky process knowledge is transformed into fluid process knowledge, it is recommended that, communities and face2face discussions supplement knowledge exchanges via electronic networks.     

Variability in organisational forms of biotechnology firms

This paper examines the variability of organisational forms in terms of forward and backward networking versus vertical integration in biotechnology SMEs. The study examines forms of organisation in a set of firms across application segments. The forms of organisation vary by application segment in biotechnology, but differences are not clear-cut, and a firm can apply different forms to different application segments in its activities. The reasons for this variability are related to the stringency of the regulatory approval systems, technological risks, and the costs of building full-scale manufacturing facilities which influence funding needs and thus also the choice of organisational form. The paper finally discusses the notion of networking as a separate form of organisation of economic activity and the extent of its applicability to biotechnology.     

以特色产业为龙头以科学普及为支撑全面提升藏族地区科学文化素质

西藏与四川地处近邻，自古有“川藏一家”之说，西藏同志一直视四川为其大后方，对加强川藏科技经济合作交流充满着希望与激情。自1996年第一次科技援藏工作座谈会以来，我省一直重视科技援藏工作。由于四川特殊的地理位置和省情，科技援藏一直是我省科技工作的重点。四川科技援藏工作不仅要直接援助西藏，     

以特色产业为龙头以科学普及为支撑全面提升藏族地区科学文化素质

西藏与四川地处近邻,自古有"川藏一家"之说,西藏同志一直视四川为其大后方,对加强川藏科技经济合作交流充满着希望与激情.自1996年第一次科技援藏工作座谈会以来,我省一直重视科技援藏工作.由于四川特殊的地理位置和省情,科技援藏一直是我省科技工作的重点.     

Narrative approaches to the transfer of organisational knowledge

Narratives, or stories, have been identified as one of the ways in which knowledge might be transferred, shared or exchanged in organisational settings. Beyond their identification, little consideration has been given to the ways in which narrative approaches can increase our understanding of the creation and dissemination of knowledge in organisations. This paper reflects upon some of the ways in which narrative approaches might contribute towards a better understanding of organisational knowledge management. It contributes to the debate on the nature and significance of the contextual features of organisational knowledge, particularly the role of tacit knowledge, and identifies some of the distinctions between formal and informal knowledge transfer mechanisms, which operate (with or without effective management) within organisations.     

Congenital learning,organisational performance and work-life balance culture

A possible explanation for the numerous failures in the implementation and use of work-life balance (WLB) practices may relate to the fact that the majority of companies have introduced them without exploring the nature and extent of their founders’ or owners’ prior knowledge of WLB and WLB practices. This paper analyses the relationships between congenital learning and WLB culture and tries to identify whether WLB culture impacts on business performance through an empirical study of 229 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Spanish metal industry. Our findings show that in order to create positive attitudes toward WLB, managers need to create and support a learning process. These findings provide interesting insights into the drivers of organisational performance for SMEs that develop and support a WLB-supporting culture.     

A knowledge schema for organisational learning in academic libraries

This article introduces a formal methodology for deriving conceptual knowledge schema for today's academic libraries. This knowledge schema is defined in the form of a set of knowledge structures and their relationships, and with the purpose of identifying organisational learning requirements. These schemas will then form basis for an organisational knowledge base that assists collaborating librarians to identify appropriate links to relevant knowledge sources within the context of the tasks that they perform. The article demonstrates that the proposed schema when used in conjunction with a specialised knowledge map called the Awareness Net will constitute a suitable conceptual framework for identifying knowledge sharing and organisational learning requirements in today's university libraries.     

The means of managing momentum: Bridging technological paths and organisational fields

This paper examines how technological and organisational changes are mediated through different means of mutually monitoring and collectively coordinating technological developments in the field of semiconductor manufacturing. As collective practices, both monitoring and coordinating aim at generating momentum in order to stabilise or redirect technological paths in organisational fields. The empirical analysis of innovation practices in the field of semiconductor manufacturing technology shows that the means of managing momentum, above all roadmaps, conferences, and R&D consortia, influence and transform the development of new technologies as well as the social relations within the organisational field. The transformative capacity of these means is elaborated conceptually using Giddens’ theory of structuration.     

大数据时代双创型财务管理专业人才培养模式探讨——以湖北汽车工业学院为例

在大数据、互联网+、人工智能深度发展融合环境下,商业模式不断创新;"业财融合"进一步深化;"大智移云物"推动财务技术发生质的变革.财务管理人才需具备跨界融合的共享思维,具备运用大数据深挖掘、善处理、会决策的能力.通过校企深度合作,以企业需求为导向,"业财融合"为目标,培养双创型人才,改革财务管理专业人才培养模式,提升培...