Corporate lifelong learning 2.0: design of knowledge management systems with social media functions as learning tools

Abstract

In companies, lifelong learning requires adequate tools that foster knowledge exchange between employees as part of their daily work. Common solutions are knowledge management systems (KMS). However, such tools are often not tailored to the needs of the employees. A new promising approach is the extension of KMS with Enterprise 2.0 components — social software platforms. In this paper, the results of three studies regarding the design of social media-based knowledge management systems (KMS 2.0) are presented. The results indicate that a main design challenge is understanding and supporting knowledge acquisition and sharing as chains of social and communicative activities. As a main prerequisite for acceptance, the respondents mention task-, role-, and context-tailored solutions that fit the requirements of their daily work. They demand functions that help them create adequate content and get information on demand by means of effective employee-to-employee communication. The results are useful for communication experts who design and introduce social media-based knowledge management systems in enterprises.