Weblogs for organizational knowledge sharing and creation: a comparative case study

The use of weblogs as an information and communication technology for knowledge sharing and creation is a novel social and organizational phenomenon. In this paper, we identify and explain contingency factors that influence the successful use of weblogs for knowledge sharing and creation. We start from the assumption that successful knowledge management requires the motivation of people to engage in knowledge-related communication. Based on a comparison of two antithetic cases, we identify and discuss four contingency factors that directly influence the motivational impact of weblogs on organizational knowledge sharing and creation.     

战略人力资源管理与企业知识创造能力：对科技型企业的实证研究

 通过对83家科技型企业的实证研究,探讨了战略人力资源管理实践如何用于构建和支撑组织的知识创造能力以及知识创造能力与企业绩效之间的关系。以企业的知识基础观点、组织学习和知识创造以及战略人力资源管理理论为基础,提出了企业组织的知识创造能力概念模型并通过实证研究加以验证。研究结果表明,作为战略人力资源管理体系组成部分的人力资本获得、保持和激励影响着企业组织的知识创造能力,进而作用于企业创新,而人力资本开发和组织结构因素在科技型企业知识创造中的作用并不显著。     

Successful knowledge management requires a knowledge culture: a case study

Culture is widely acknowledged to be a critical success factor in knowledge management (KM). This paper presents the case of KM implementation at MKS, an IT consulting firm based in India. Although the KM initiative at MKS had many of the hallmarks associated with successful KM projects, the initiative failed to get off the ground due to the absence of a ‘knowledge culture’ within the organisation. Subsequent interviews with MKS staff uncovered a range of cultural themes that appeared to impede the institutionalisation of KM at MKS. These cultural themes included:

• internal competitiveness among MKS staff resulting in ‘knowledge hoarding’,
• a lack of personal reward and incentive to engage in knowledge sharing,
• concerns over job security and the ‘devaluation’ of employees,
• stigma associated with the reliance on someone else's ideas,
• preference for a face-to-face mode of knowledge sharing over a tool-supported approach and
• doubts over the quality of knowledge shared by more junior staff.

     

The knowledge-creating theory revisited: knowledge creation as a synthesizing process

This paper is a part of our attempt to build a new knowledge-based theory of the firm and organization to explain the dynamic process of knowledge creation and utilization. For this, we revisit the theory of knowledge creation through the SECI process and ba, and try to advance them further by incorporating the dialectic thinking. In this paper, knowledge creation is conceptualized as a dialectical process, in which various contradictions are synthesized through dynamic interactions among individuals, the organization, and the environment. With the view of a firm as a dialectic being, and strategy and organization should be re-examined as the synthesizing and self-transcending process instead of a logical analysis of structure or action. An organization is not an information-processing machine that is composed of small tasks to carry out a given task, but an organic configuration of ba. Ba, which is conceptualized as a shared context in motion, can transcend time, space, and organization boundaries to create knowledge.     

International academic knowledge creation and ba. A case study from Finland

Knowledge is created through discourse in ba that is the physical, mental and/or virtual arena of knowledge creation. This article studies ba in international humanist (H-group), technical (T-group) and scientific (S-group) research groups. These international groups consist of members originating from many countries. The empirical evidence is derived from interviews and discourse analysis of three research groups from the University of Oulu which, by staff, is the most international large university in Finland. The article advances understanding of ba by considering the theory of ba in relation to the discourse and exploratory case study. In the case groups, ba is formed in relation to the knowledge type created, suitable characteristics of a group member and structural factors related to administrative responsibilities. Humanist knowledge, with abstract concepts and philosophical discussions, is created with deeper attention to language and social bonds inside the H-group than the more accurate scientific and technical knowledge in the S- and T-groups.     

Organizational culture and its relationship with knowledge management strategy: a case study

In this paper, we study the relationship between organizational culture and knowledge management strategy in Pars Oil, an Iranian oil refining public company. The Denison organizational culture model is used. The model measures four essential traits of culture and leadership: involvement, consistency, adaptability, and mission. Each of these traits has three indices providing a richness of detail about the trait. Data collection method is a survey using a suitable questionnaire. The results of data analysis show that there are significant relationships between four dimensions of knowledge management strategies (creation and transfer of knowledge) and organizational culture in the organization studied. Moreover, the results of ranking the factors influencing the knowledge management strategy show that the priority and importance of the organizational culture traits based on their effects on knowledge management strategy are, respectively, participation, adaptability, consistency, and mission cultures.     

Unravelling knowledge creation and management in educational organisations: barriers and enablers

Knowledge Creation and Management (KCM) is one of the main strategies for fostering improvement in any kind of organisation, including educational organisations, on which this paper is focused. While KCM is being widely studied, little attention has been given to KCM in organisations supplying education, training and/or assessment services to learners (i.e., primary and secondary schools or higher education institutions, among others). From an educational management approach, the aim of this paper is to describe and analyse the factors that foster or inhibit KCM processes conducted within educational organisations. Professionals (n=84), moderators and managers or institutional leaders of four selected cases were surveyed and interviewed. Results show the importance of the main organisational and procedural factors (i.e., organisational values and goals, leadership, structure, culture, dynamics, Information and Communications Technologies, KCM processes and people) to improve KCM results in educational organisations.     

The value creation cycle: moving towards a framework for knowledge management implementation

Researchers have emphasized on the need for advances in knowledge management (KM) research to better understand how organizations accrue benefits from their knowledge resources. Thus, an integrated approach, rooted in the theoretical streams of knowledge-based view, KM and institutional theory, is proposed to explain how a successful KM program creates value. The approach discusses four organizational capabilities that firms need to develop simultaneously to create KM-enabled value, and identifies possible organizational actions to develop these capabilities. Various feedback and feed-forward processes, originating inside as well as outside the firm, integrate these capabilities into a KM-enabled value creation cycle (VCC). Key propositions were developed, and were examined with the help of three case studies.     

基于B-SECI模型的颠覆性创新过程解构：知识创造视角

知识创造是创新主体不断吸收与转化知识,并将不同领域的显性知识和隐性知识进行有效利用的过程。从知识创造视角出发,构建了契合颠覆性创新特征的SECI改进模型(B-SECI),根据知识转移流动和创造演化等维度对颠覆性创新的发展特征与演化过程进行解构,旨在更能精准把握颠覆性创新演化的内在机理。研究发现,颠覆性创新主要包含隐性知识与显性知识,遵循社会化、外显化、组合化和内隐化等过程,并在具体形式上经历了创意社会化、方案外显化、技术雏形化以及最终的产品商业化阶段。     

基于过程的知识资本管理模式研究

本文首先分析国内外基于不同学科背景的知识资本管理模式及其存在的局限性;其次,基于知识资本理论、质量管理理论、过程管理理论,提出了知识资本存在于企业就如同质量存在于企业,知识资本管理就如同质量管理,是动态过程管理假设;第三,基于上述假设,构建包括知识资本创造、固化、评估以及知识资产价值实现四个关键子过程的知识资本过程管理模式,以期为我国企业实施知识资本管理描绘一幅线路图;最后,以江苏省电力设计院为例,分析上述管理模式的实际应用状况。     

Structuring fragmented knowledge: a case study

When the need to record and track the point of view of different actors in organizational processes becomes a key point for decision makers, a common representation of knowledge from different perspectives and a map of the situation and the decision and action needs could be useful. A methodology that easily and transparently integrates different ‘soft’ and ‘hard’ tools in a common knowledge structuring approach is proposed to deal with complexities and uncertainties in a socio-technical contest. The purpose of this paper is to show the potentialities of this methodology in a real case, in terms of organizational knowledge acquisition and structuring in a multi-actor public context, a university faculty, in relation to a radical change.     

Impelling research productivity and impact through collaboration: a scientometric case study of knowledge management

A case study for impelling university research productivity and impact through collaboration is presented. Scientometric results support the hypothesis that a knowledge management model increased research collaboration and thereby boosted a university’s number of publications and citations. Results come from fifteen years of data at a Mexican university with 2400 researchers who produced 24,000 works in fifteen research disciplines. These data are treated with social network visualizations and algorithms to identify patterns of collaboration and clustering, as well as with normalizations to make disciplines comparable and to verify increasing citation impact. The knowledge management model implemented in the study may be a cost-effective way for universities to intensify collaboration and improve research performance.     

转型升级中的学会学习:好孩子公司案例研究

本文首先对传统上本土企业"知识溢出"的思想进行质疑,认为代工企业存在学习失效。本文通过好孩子公司沿全球价值链攀升的案例,认为代工企业转型升级需要组织学习模式的转化:从学习方向上来说成功地从外驱式学习转化为内省式学习、从学习方式上来说从单一的探索式或利用式学习转化为两者均衡的双元学习。此过程中公司创业是制度保证。本文最后还强调了技术创新与管理创新的同步性,并对有些代工企业不成功的原因进行了解读。     

Aggressively pursuing knowledge management over 2 years: a case study at a US government organization

As the US federal civilian workforce is ‘graying’, knowledge management (KM) can play a critical role in the strategic management of human capital in a government organization. KM should probably be a key pillar of the human capital strategy, along with competency management, performance management, and change management. Even though the need is great for knowledge management in government organizations, many of these agencies do not have a clear vision or strategy as to how to implement KM in their organization. To help those in the federal sector in implementing KM, this paper will discuss components of the knowledge management implementation plan at a leading US government organization (using GOV as the pseudonym) following a KM pyramid framework.     

A sensemaking model of knowledge in organisations: a way of understanding knowledge management and the role of information technologies

The objective of the paper is to demonstrate how a sensemaking model of knowledge enables better and deeper understanding of knowledge management (KM) processes in organisations and the role of information technologies (IT) in these processes. Inspired and informed by a sensemaking view of organisations, the model identifies four types of knowledge, corresponding to four sensemaking levels: the individual, collective, organizational, and cultural. Each knowledge type, as the paper shows, is of different nature and has different characteristics but is constituted and affected by all other knowledge types. An organisation is thus seen as a ‘distributed knowledge system’ composed of numerous instances of these four knowledge types and their dynamic interplay. By drawing from three empirical studies, the paper illustrates how the sensemaking model of knowledge can be applied to investigate different ways companies (try to) manage knowledge and use IT-based systems to improve KM and ultimately company performance. A deeper understanding of these processes through the lens of the model reveals mechanisms and forces underlying KM phenomena that help explain why some processes were successful and others failed. The paper intends to make the following contributions: propose a theoretical framework of knowledge and KM in organizations, which is reasonably comprehensive and empirically grounded and also demonstrate its relevance and usefulness to both researchers and practitioners as they investigate and make sense of specific KM processes and IT applications in practice.     

Managing the knowledge environment: a case study from healthcare

An organization's future is viable to the degree it can create, obtain, and leverage its intellectual capital in an effort to manage knowledge for sustained, competitive advantage in the market place. Failure to do so can spell disaster. Case in point: Due to a festering crisis between his strategic intent and the organization's operational capacity to support it, in May 2000, the Spartanburg Regional Healthcare System (SRHS) board of directors voted for its chief executive officer (CEO) to resign. His resignation signaled the need for new learning, in addition to more effective management and communication practices in improving the identifying and codifying of knowledge and then facilitating the sharing of it organization-wide. This article focuses on delineating the process principles in managing a supportive environment necessary for the sharing of knowledge to spark creative thinking in devising innovative solutions that the hospital used in adapting to its market.     

IT管理气候和知识应用过程对IOS吸收的研究

 信息系统的成功使用已成为提高企业绩效的关键要素,如何提升跨组织信息系统(IOS)在企业内外使用程度为企业带来价值已成为亟需解决的重要问题。文章基于IT管理气候的构念、企业知识理论和信息技术吸收理论,对IOS在成员企业内采纳后吸收阶段的影响因素进行了研究,构建了组织IT管理气候和组织知识应用过程对IOS吸收的理论模型。运用偏最小二乘（PLS）结构方程模型方法检验了模型的路径和假设。结果表明IT管理气候和知识应用过程对IOS吸收具有显著的正向影响,并且知识应用过程在组织IT管理气候对IOS吸收影响中起完全中介的作用。研究结论将丰富信息系统采纳吸收理论,对实施企业有效地吸收IOS具有指导作用。     

不同新颖度知识创造与企业成长动态关系研究——基于华为时间序列数据的探索性案例研究

知识创造作为企业内生性知识存量积累的来源以及获取自主知识产权的基础,在我国强调自主创新的转型经济背景下变得日益重要。相关研究多基于过程视角探索知识创造过程(能力)对企业创新绩效的影响,却对企业创造的新知识到底如何影响企业成长关注不够,这使得现有研究不能解释为什么具有相同知识创造过程的企业最终会获得不一样成长结果的现象。本文基于新颖度区分的企业知识创造结果视角,以华为时间序列数据为对象进行探索性纵向案例研究,对企业所创造的不同新颖程度的新知识与企业成长间动态关系进行研究。发现:知识创造对企业成长的积极效应具有一定的滞后期,并随时间推移呈现出先递增再递减的倒U型特征;随着所创造知识的新颖程度提高,知识创造对企业成长的影响呈现出近似U型的特征。最后,文章讨论了理论贡献、管理意义与研究局限。     

Emergency knowledge management and social media technologies: A case study of the 2010 Haitian earthquake

The US response to the 2010 Haiti Earthquake was a large effort coordinated by three major agencies that worked in tandem with the Government of Haiti, the United Nations, and many countries from around the globe. Managing this response effort was a complex undertaking that relied extensively on knowledge management systems (KMS). For the first time, however, US government agencies employed social media technologies such as wikis and collaborative workspaces as the main knowledge sharing mechanisms. In this research we present a case study developed through action research of how these social media technologies were used, what influences they made on knowledge sharing, reuse, and decision-making, and how knowledge was effectively (and at times ineffectively) maintained in these systems. First-hand knowledge of the response is used, offering strategies for future deployment of social media and important research questions that remain regarding social media as knowledge management systems, particularly for disaster and emergency management.     

Understanding of knowledge management roles and responsibilities: a study in the Australian context

Most of the studies in knowledge management (KM) argue for leadership as a vital success factor for any initiative. Top management leadership enables the effective promotion of knowledge sharing by creating an appropriate organisational culture, and making arrangements for corresponding policies and procedures across the organisation to facilitate management of knowledge resources and practices. There is little empirical research reported that has focussed on capturing the awareness and understanding of KM teams’ constitutions and their responsibilities. This study reports on the survey of top managers with respect to KM strategy development and implementation. It is based on a survey data collected from leading Australian companies, and builds on other empirical case studies, which looked at mechanisms of KM strategy development and implementation. The results provide a better understanding of the roles and responsibilities for successful KM strategy development and implementation, and can assist with designing KM teams in organisations.