Formal Knowledge Management Research Articles

Community Archaeology as Knowledge Management: Reflections from Uneapa Island, Papua New Guinea

Over the last decade the concept of community archaeology has become a worldwide phenomenon; a convenient tagline largely describing the involvement of non-archaeologists in the practice of interacting with, uncovering, interpreting, and presenting the past. A plethora of new definitions and methodologies have been postulated, a marked increase in public funds invested in such initiatives is notable, as is the development of more rigorous evaluation strategies. Using Etienne Wenger’s ideas about ‘communities of practice’ (1998), I argue that community archaeology can be conceived as a form of knowledge management. In doing so, this paper reflects on the interactions between a small research team and local community during six months fieldwork on Uneapa, a remote island in the Bismarck Sea, Papua New Guinea. It considers the sets of relations that emerged whilst fi?eld-walking, surveying, and excavating Uneapa’s monumental landscape, and discusses how local ideas and knowledge influenced and altered the project methodologies and research questions being asked. This paper also highlights the challenges faced when reifying such engagements into research outputs.

Knowledge management practices in Malawi

In the 21st century, knowledge management has become as important as information technology and has therefore, led to significant gains in productivity and profitability. However, few organisations in Malawi have implemented formal knowledge management systems. The question arises as to whether such organisations do not have knowledge management practices in place at all, or whether such practices are more informal. This article reports the results of a study that looked at the extent to which Malawi organisations have knowledge management practices in place. A survey was done using questionnaire to establish how widely knowledge management practices were used by 40 organisations in different sectors in Malawi. Overall, 15-knowledge management practices were identified as the most important practices. The main findings was that although, most Malawi organisations may not have a formal knowledge management system, knowledge management practices are in place and that they benefit employees. Respondents accept that organisations in the future will be forced to introduce formal knowledge management practices by endogenous and exogenous factors. Key words: Knowledge management, knowledge management practices, tacit knowledge, KM, Malawi.

Balanced Scorecard for performance measurement and strategic planning of indigenous knowledge management

Indigenous knowledge is held locally in the memories and practices of the communities. The communities have their own processes of storage, leverage, practice, share, and developing indigenous knowledge. The form of knowledge management (KM) employed however distinctly differs from the current practices in organizations. The paper focuses on this less studied, but potentially invaluable, indigenous knowledge management (IKM) practices within these indigenous communities. The Balanced Scorecard (BSC) is a strategic planning and performance measurement system that has already a documented history of successful implementation in several industries and enterprises knowledge management initiatives. In this paper we explore a process-oriented knowledge management model for indigenous communities. We then propose a third-generation BSC approach in the design of a holistic approach for knowledge management systems of these communities. This work serves as an extension to the past experiences of the authors in mod...

WikiTeams: How Do They Achieve Success?

Web 2.0 technology and so-called social media are among the most popular (among users and researchers alike) Internet technologies today. Among them, Wiki technology—created to simplify HTML editing and enable open, collaborative editing of pages by ordinary Web users—occupies an important place. Wiki is increasingly adopted by businesses as a useful form of knowledge management and sharing, creating “corporate Wikis.” However, the most widely known application of Wiki technology—Wikipedia—is, according to many analysts, more than just an open encyclopedia that uses Wiki.

Segmenting critical factors for successful knowledge management implementation using the fuzzy DEMATEL method

Knowledge is a key source of sustainable competitive advantage. In response to increasingly drastic and competitive environments, many organizations wish to better utilize and manage knowledge for business success. For the purpose to execute formal knowledge management (KM) effectively, some works have suggested several critical factors of KM implementations. However, in a strategic view, such a list of critical factors must be further honed to increase practical usefulness, as not all critical factors necessarily share the same importance. Moreover, assessing the importance of critical factors inevitably involves the vagueness of human judgment. Hence, this study presents a favorable method combining fuzzy set theory and the Decision Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method to segment the critical factors for successful KM implementations. Also, an empirical study is presented to illustrate the proposed method and to demonstrate its usefulness.

Entre a dominação simbólica e a emancipação política no Ensino Superior em Enfermagem: Between symbolic domination and political emancipation

Nesta reflexão, problematizamos a atividade de cuidar e de ensinar a cuidar em enfermagem e, para tanto, vamos tomar por base alguns conceitos sobre a dominação e o poder simbólicos de Pierre Bourdieu. Nosso pressuposto foi pensar a saúde como um constituinte fundamental para a produção da nossa existência sobre a Terra. A educação, neste texto, é abordada, tendo por referência as ideias de Pedro Demo, entendidas como uma construtora de sujeitos políticos e bem mais amplas que o manejo do conhecimento formal. A educação é a base primeira sobre a qual se constrói a autonomia humana e, assim, permite a constante ampliação das oportunidades para o exercício da cidadania, qualificando a nossa existência cotidiana. No contexto acadêmico, no qual se cruzam a saúde, a educação e a enfermagem, o trabalho docente competente, crítico e, sobretudo, reflexivo, pode se tornar uma práxis altamente instituinte.

Acquisition, reuse and sharing of knowledge in property management firms

PurposeIn the knowledge economy, the management of knowledge is important because the value of corporations and individuals is directly related to their knowledge and intellectual capital. This is especially true for real estate management, which is of increasing concern to the public and plays an important role in the property market today. This paper aims to show the nature of property professionals' acquisition, sharing and reuse of knowledge in their work.Design/methodology/approachTo better understand the practices of knowledge management (KM) currently employed by property management firms, a study of the general practices of knowledge management in property management firms in Hong Kong was undertaken. This study described the notion of knowledge and knowledge management and investigated the norms of property professionals in acquiring, sharing and reusing knowledge in their daily practices. It also analyzed the relationship between size of firms and methods of knowledge acquisition and sharing. A questionnaire survey was conducted to study the opinions of professional property managers on the acquisition and reuse of knowledge and experience in their daily work. Questionnaires were sent to 103 PM firms with a response rate of 30 percent.FindingsThe survey results reveal that property managers mostly acquire their knowledge from the internet and newspapers. They also obtain knowledge from their colleagues and thus they are always important target persons with whom to share knowledge. In addition, property managers have close contact with professionals within and beyond their profession, allowing them to tap into and share knowledge across organizational boundaries. Although property managers are willing to share knowledge with others, there is no evidence to show that there are formal knowledge management strategies in PM firms. It seems that there is a need for explicit knowledge management strategies in property management, which could leverage their employees' knowledge assets.Research limitations/implicationsPast research that studied other types of knowledge workers may not be applicable to the unique nature of professionals working in the property management sector.Originality/valueThe originality of this paper is that it examines the practices of property professionals in acquiring, sharing and reusing knowledge in their daily practices which have not been studied systematically before. This paper also makes suggestions for improving knowledge‐managing strategies in this profession to prevent knowledge loss.

Bridging the Gap between Theory and Practice: Language Policy in Multilingual Organisations

A number of language policy researchers have discussed language needs of business, while nearly all of the scant literature on what a corporate language policy would look like has been conducted by human resource management scholars and published in management journals. This lack of attention in the academic literature is surprising, since corporate language policy (presumably) affects everyone who works or will work in a corporation. From a language management theory perspective, ‘language’ presents particular resources and challenges in multilingual organisations, such as how to reconcile power implications of language choice with organisational need for effective communication. In order for an international organisation to have an effective language management policy, it must carefully consider its linguistic needs and be able to develop and capture the linguistic knowledge of its employees to surmount communication barriers. Language management as a form of knowledge management is proposed and recommendations are made with regard to language management practices.

Do SMEs do Knowledge Management?

Recent studies of knowledge management indicate that the growth of interest in this area is primarily focused on the larger organization. Not only do large firms feature in the majority of published case studies but also their employees are regular contributors to conference proceedings.This article addresses the comparatively under-researched issue of knowledge and its management in small businesses. Looking beyond formal Knowledge Management (KM) initiatives and structures, emphasis is placed upon the importance of informal knowledge processes.Two related propositions are made: first, knowledge is managed by organizations without use of the language and concepts of KM and accompanying formal KM structures, and that this behaviour might uncontroversially be called `informal' knowledge management, and secondly, small firms are more likely to adopt such informal processes to manage knowledge.These propositions are explored within the context of small firms and the research revealed that small firms do indeed manage knowledge informally as part of their normal activities, without the use of the terminology and concepts of KM. However, contrary to expectations, on occasion some also engage in formal KM.

Issues in knowledge access, retrieval and sharing – Case studies in a Caribbean health sector

In knowledge sharing forums different actors access each others knowledge to assist in their own decision making process. However, in absence of a formal knowledge management system this knowledge may not be available for use/reuse. In this research, we explore different scenarios in the healthcare sector to identify the factors which either facilitate or impede the knowledge flows while sharing knowledge. Furthermore, based on the analysis of the scenarios we theorize about use and reuse of knowledge items and the issues in accessing and retrieving them in knowledge sharing events. The barriers and enablers in different case studies are identified which can be applicable to any knowledge sharing event where its actors are working towards a common objective. We examine the patterns of accessibility of a knowledge item in knowledge sharing events and its effect on perceived usability, and perceived usefulness and relevance of a knowledge item.

Improving corporate knowledge: a case study in China

To establish Knowledge Management (KM) in the organisation, one has to consider three functions. Depending on the organisation roles, knowledge exchange styles and organisation needs, one is able to develop different forms of KM. This research undertook interviews with six managers in an organisation that has implemented KM and analyses how this was successfully carried out. The paper then makes recommendations as to how other organisations can carry this out. The findings in this research would be beneficial to the managers in developing countries and to managers at the simple level of KM implementation.

Rewarding End-Users for Participating in Organizational KM

Organizations position their formal knowledge management (KM) initiatives as a continuous process of deriving strategic benefits from the knowledge resources dispersed in the various internal constituencies. While most organizations implement a rewards program attached to their KM initiative, the influence exerted by such programs on employees’ responses to organizational KM is less well understood. In this context, this article focuses on the KM initiative of Rexon,1 a leading Indian software services and products company recognised globally as a successful KM exponent. Adopting the case study methodology, we conducted intensive fieldwork for 6 months over a 2 year period at Rexon. Evidence from the case highlights how a KM-related rewards program was used to build awareness about organizational KMS and how employees responded to the rewards program. The theoretical and managerial contributions of the study are discussed.

Management Consultancy performance: Personal reflections on Knowledge Management and Networking in contributing to Added-value

This article proposes that the contractual relationship between client and customer can offer benefits for both parties in addition to those of consultancy provision and payment thereof. The author draws upon his personal consultancy experience to suggest that these added-value benefits in turn rely upon the consultant's ability to engage in networking in a focused way and actively utilise a formal Knowledge Management process. Each of the topics of Added-value, Networking and Knowledge Management are regarded as key competencies in contributing to Management Consultancy performance and are discussed in the article which concludes with some personal observations on these related topics.

Development and characterisation of error functions in design

As simulation is increasingly used in product development, there is a need to better characterise the errors inherent in simulation techniques by comparing such techniques with evidence from experiment, test and in-service. This is necessary to allow judgement of the adequacy of simulations in place of physical tests and to identify situations where further data collection and experimentation need to be expended. This paper discusses a framework for uncertainty characterisation based on the management of design knowledge leading to the development and characterisation of error functions. A classification is devised in the framework to identify the most appropriate method for the representation of error, including probability theory, interval analysis and Fuzzy set theory. The development is demonstrated with two case studies to justify rationale of the framework. Such formal knowledge management of design simulation processes can facilitate utilisation of cumulated design knowledge as companies migrate from testing to simulation-based design.

Knowledge cybernetics: a new metaphor for social collectives

AbstractKnowledge cybernetics is principally concerned with the development of agents like autonomous social collectives that survive through knowledge and knowledge processes. Deriving from epistemological antecedents created by Stafford Beer and explored through notions of ontology by Eric Schwarz, a new form of knowledge management arises that is connected with the notions of Marshall and her new radical classifications for knowledge. These ideas can be closely associated with concepts of lifeworld and the ideas of communicative action by Habermas, and leads to a useful knowledge cybernetic framework. This has the capacity to relate to and develop a variety of what might be thought of as otherwise disparate theories that can ultimately be expressed in terms of knowledge.

Dissemination of Competitive Intelligence

The paper argues that competitive intelligence is a vital function and attempts to study how it is distributed, especially by technologies, within organizations. Related topics, the sources of competitive intelligence, and who distributes and receives competitive intelligence, are also addressed. A literature-based study is extended by a quantitative survey of members of the Society of Competitive Information Professionals (SCIP) and email interviews with a self-chosen sample of respondees. The paper concludes that the distribution of competitive intelligence can be aided by technology but to be effective must be primarily ‘person-focused’. Competitive intelligence itself needs to be seen as a form of knowledge management rather than an information provision function. This has implications for sources and for the professional roots of those who provide competitive intelligence. Evaluation of competitive information provision is seen as a next step for research.

Book review

Cross-Cultural Management: A Knowledge Management Perspective, Nigel Holden (2002), Financial Times/Prentice HallThis book, by an academic with experience of working in Denmark, Austria and the Netherlands, attempts to reframe the field of cross-cultural management by focusing on how diversity can be transformed into organisational knowledge as a way of addressing issues in international management. Its central proposition is that cross-cultural management is a form of knowledge management, and it seeks to supply theorists, researchers, practitioners and consultants in the fields of international, inter-cultural, cross-cultural and comparative management (and such terms, often used interchangeably, imply very different perspectives and research agendas) with a new language and a new set of concepts, insights, models and tools.

Knowledge Management Initiatives in a Global IT Outsourcing Company: A Case Study of Infosys Technologies

Organizations position their formal Knowledge Management (KM) initiatives as a continuous process of deriving strategic benefits from the knowledge resources dispersed in the various internal constituencies. Thus, gaining a deeper awareness of the diverse viewpoints and attributes of their various units is a big challenge for organizations embracing formal KM strategies. Even with the challenges of organization-wide KM forming the theme of a number of studies, we see that these studies mostly feature organizations outside the Asian continent. The KM strategies of Asian organizations remain a relatively uncharted territory. This paper focuses on the KM strategies of Infosys Technologies, a leading Asian Information Technology (IT) firm. Adopting the case study methodology, we look at the consequences of initiating organization-wide formal KM, in four different organizational units within the company. Evidence from the case highlights the unfolding of unintended and intended consequences in the four units, and organizational efforts to reconcile them. Taking a subcultural perspective of the four units offers useful insights in understanding the consequences. The theoretical and managerial contributions of the study to the knowledge management arena are discussed.

A formal knowledge management ontology: Conduct, activities, resources, and influences

AbstractThis article describes a collaboratively engineered general‐purpose knowledge management (KM) ontology that can be used by practitioners, researchers, and educators. The ontology is formally characterized in terms of nearly one hundred definitions and axioms that evolved from a Delphi‐like process involving a diverse panel of over 30 KM practitioners and researchers. The ontology identifies and relates knowledge manipulation activities that an entity (e.g., an organization) can perform to operate on knowledge resources. It introduces a taxonomy for these resources, which indicates classes of knowledge that may be stored, embedded, and/or represented in an entity. It recognizes factors that influence the conduct of KM both within and across KM episodes. The Delphi panelists judge the ontology favorably overall: its ability to unify KM concepts, its comprehensiveness, and utility. Moreover, various implications of the ontology for the KM field are examined as indicators of its utility for practitioners, educators, and researchers.

Will knowledge management work in the government?

Knowledge management is the process of creating value from an organisation's intangible assets. The ability to share and leverage knowledge internally and externally to create knowledge and innovation is a cornerstone of knowledge management. Industry has been involved in formal knowledge management practices over the years, even hiring Chief Knowledge Officers to spearhead their knowledge management initiatives. The government has lagged behind a bit but realises the importance of knowledge management to their organisations in times of shrinking budgets, ensuing retirements and the need to better share information and knowledge within and across government organisations. The key question is whether knowledge management can succeed in the government. This paper explores some issues to help shed light on this subject.