Exploring the Risks of Knowledge Leakage: An Information Systems Case Study Approach

Abstract

Companies in high-tech industries are increasingly investing in 3D and virtual reality (VR) packages to support customers in understanding and using their products. These packages are now taking the form of 3D virtual reality environments (VREs) where employees can navigate, browse and learn in an authentic, close to reality context. These products supported by combinations of photographic techniques and virtual reality programming platforms are becoming increasingly popular and indeed very effective training tools. They provide for realistic contexts and easily navigable environments, which are ideal media for training in complex and specialised settings. These VREs promote specialised knowledge and technical skills within authentic environments and reinforce acquired knowledge by increased interactions with both the environment and the objects that compose it. These user-friendly and intuitive interactions encourage creativity and innovative thinking (Nunes & Annansingh, 2003). Furthermore, because these environments are usually web-based applications, hyperlinks enable access to vast amounts of both company specific and general information. This combination of use with precise descriptions of operational details have been identified by companies using them as posing possible risk of knowledge leakage (KL) exposure, thus, representing a threat to organisational knowledge management (KM). This chapter will discuss the findings of a study which explore this exact issue. Therefore, the motivation behind this chapter is based on the identification and characterisation of KL risks associated with information systems (IS), namely VREs. The concept of KL has now evolved and increasingly literature searches indicate that KL is now emerging as a major consideration for businesses and academia alike. The definition for KL used in this chapter is: “knowledge leakage is the deliberate or accidental loss of knowledge to unauthorised personnel within or outside of an organisational boundary”. (Annansingh, 2004) In the past, IS projects have adopted a positivist approach, which focuses primarily on the development process associated with the technology rather than the perception and perspectives of the people involved in the developmental process (Bharadwaj, 2004). From an IS point of view interpretivist is an epistemological stance, concerned with the users' understanding of reality. It embraces a wide range of philosophical and sociological stances, which share the common characteristics of attempting to understand and explain the social world from the perspective of the actors directly involved in the social process (Burrell &