Social capital" in the context of Knowledge Management means the power of social relations and intellectual creativity ("intellectual capital") to act as reserves and resources for capital. Although Knowledge Management had its origins in industry, the service sector also adopted KM practices in the 1990s.
Augmenting Transitions and Transformations in Expertise
1 Introduction
Any answer to the question at hand must relate to what the question opens up in terms of conventional beliefs about knowledge and technology. The answer to the question addressed in this chapter is answered by proposing a model - the Conversation for Reflection - for designing (and assessing) ways to complement transformations and transitions in expertise.
2 Professional Practice and Reflective Inquiry
- Sch¨ on’s Concern About Professional Knowledge
- A First Step Toward Modeling Reflective Conversations
- The Language Action Perspective
- Integrating LAP and Reflective Inquiry
- Toward a Model for Reflective Inquiry
First, LAP's core model, Conversation for Action (CfA), defines the object of reflection and the basis for reflective inquiry into professional practice. The improvements offered by these innovations will be important in the development of the reflective inquiry model.
3 Conversations for Reflection: A Model for Reflective Inquiry
Accounting Sequences as a Basis for Reflective Inquiry
That is, accounts are designed to be acceptable and responses to accounts are designed to increase the possibility of the account being accepted (Pomerantz, 1978). The preference for agreement suppresses, diminishes and dulls over the expression or expansion of doubts, disagreements and opposition that may arise about the performance of the account.
The CfR Model
It is in reference to this layer of discourse that reporters recognize that something is responsible and that detractors recognize what is questionable or unpleasant about a report. It is in reference to this layer of discourse that reporters recognize that something is responsible and that detractors recognize what is questionable or unpleasant about a report.
4 Designing Support for CFR
Micro and Macro Support for Reflective Inquiry
The generative feature of the CfR for reflective inquiry is the dialectical pairing of accounts with opposition. These assumptions can be summarized and fed back to the CoR participants to further expand the reflective inquiry supported.
5 Conclusion
So an application based on CfR was developed that allowed the medical students to reflect on difficult conversations (for further discussion see Makoul, Aakhus, Altman, & Flores, 2004). A key issue in the design and implementation of the application was to construct a safe space for the medical students to discuss these difficult conversations (see Fig. 4).
Abstract: Knowledge management theory and practice are dominated by two general concepts: tacit and explicit knowledge. It is argued in this chapter that tacit knowledge is poorly conceptualized and applied to various phenomena.
2 Tacit Knowledge
Tacit Knowledge—The Lack of Theory
The rule-following argument is probably the central theme of Wittgenstein's that informed the concept of tacit knowledge (Pleasants, 1996). Collins (2001b), however, focused on Wittgenstein's notion of "forms of life" and argued that it alone provided the strongest support for the idea of tacit knowledge.
What Does “Tacit Knowledge” Indicate?
In light of such fundamental differences among scholars, it seems unwise to build a theory of tacit knowledge on Wittgenstein's ideas. The phrase was also used where the actors claimed that tacit knowledge was involved, but no action could be observed.
Explaining Tacit Knowledge Phenomena
Thus, to the extent that the content of these internal knowledge structures was tacit, information processing models support the idea of tacit knowledge. Some motor skills researchers have referred to tacit knowledge in the context of motor skills research (e.g., Blais, 1993; .
3 Explicit Knowledge
Knowledge Transfer
Knowledge transfer is generally understood as the process by which knowledge is transferred from one person to another (Argote & Ingram, 2000; Garavelli, Gorgoglione & Scozzi, 2002; Szulanski, 2000). The knowledge transfer literature is based primarily on Shannon and Weaver's mathematical model of the communication process (Szulanski, 2000, p. 11; Argote & Ingram, 2000, pp. 160–163;).
Reading Research
That they were able to understand the documents of the British engineers cast doubt on the latter, and the feeling that they were not good at documenting their work is also questionable. Of course, to the extent that the latter set of processes can be "contained" in the former, documents produced within and for a separate division of labor will be comprehensible to people working in the same field with work processes such as those of the Japanese engineers. , i.e. their ability to use documents from British engineers.
The Transactional Theory of Reading
A reading process is thus a "reader-formed experience under the direction of the text" (Rosenblatt, 1994, p. 12) through which meaning emerges for the reader. In this passage the centrality of the reader's activity emerges for Rosenblatt, suggesting that "text."
4 Knowledge—Object or Process?
An important distinction in the literature is between authors who treat knowledge as an object, and those who treat it as a process (Kakihara & Sørensen, 2002; Sahdra & Thagard, 2003). Kakihara and Sørensen proposed that there are three “anti-representational perspectives”: knowledge as interpretation, knowledge as process and knowledge as relation (2002, pp. 51–4).
5 Routine and Reflective Activities
Implicitly, reflective experiences involve the suspension of non-reflective experience vis-à-vis that part of the world acted upon. As one of the authors was an experienced blacksmith, further extensive reflective activity was not necessary.
6 Conclusion
Tacit knowledge': the diversity of meanings in empirical research. The role of tacit knowledge in the context of nursing work.Journal of Advanced Nursing.
Theory and Practice
Creating an environment of trust so that knowledge can be created, shared and used effectively is an ambitious undertaking, but all categories of information professionals working with knowledge representation (system managers, information service managers, line, archivists, marketing personnel, website coordinators and specialist librarians) can lead in creating such an environment because knowledge is based on information. Knowledge communities can be characterized by the shared sense of values that their members possess, the shared meanings and vocabulary they use, and the connections they make with each other in solving problems rather than being directed by.
2 The Case for Knowledge Sharing, not Knowledge Management
Wilson lays out the argument that many have simply replaced the term "knowledge" with the term. Wilson's arguments are compelling if the words 'knowledge management' are taken literally, but the term has come to mean much more than just 'knowledge management'. At the core of knowledge management practice and KM literature today is a desire to encourage knowledge sharing, not control over personal knowledge.
3 Considerations in the Sharing of Knowledge
In addition, there are benefits associated with sharing knowledge, because it may be necessary to be able to exploit and explore knowledge. Writers often use "knowledge" and the management or sharing of knowledge as a figure of speech when what they really mean is the creation and use of "knowledge objects" or the "representation of knowledge," or even the process of knowledge itself.
4 Trust—The Basic Environmental Factor for Knowledge Sharing
While one can argue that such knowledge sharing depends on the organizational context and type of knowledge, processes can be put in place to overcome potential barriers, for example the approach to knowledge markets proposed by Davenport and Prusak (1998) in which buyers, sellers and brokers interact to exchange knowledge in the performance of organizational tasks. This same locus of control, i.e. based on individuals, is also true in the knowledge sharing process.
5 Establishing an Environment of Trust
Using Creative Ways to Elicit and Present Information
They talked about the future of the insurance industry with one person typing notes on the laptop; the notes were then transferred to a central source. When all the notes were compiled, the company representatives gave them to a company of actors who then created a play that included the essence of all the teams' ideas.
Presenting Opportunities for Ongoing Development of Knowledge: Case 2—Finding Knowledge Objects
Certainly, the organizers of the knowledge cafe believed that the employees and managers of Skandia would accept such a different approach to conversation and knowledge sharing, as it was risky to present the "report" in such an unusual format (McNurlin & Sprague, 2002). A further distinction between knowledge and information can be based on justified true belief on the part of the knower and the critical importance of context in establishing knowledge, meaning that information is relatively context-free, while knowledge is completely context-dependent (Blair, 2002). ).
An Environment that Tolerates and Encourages Risk Taking
A learning organization with active knowledge sharing is the ideal, but who will organize information that comes from meetings like those in the knowledge cafe described above. The next section of this paper is a discussion of research that has studied knowledge management in large organizations in New Jersey and the findings related to trust and the role of information professionals in creating a knowledge sharing environment.
6 Knowledge Sharing in Organizations—Research Results from a Study of KM in New Jersey Companies
Theoretical Constructs and Problem Statement
Another goal was to see if librarians and other information professionals played a role in the planning and operation of KM. As mentioned earlier, trust was not a primary question in the study, but emerged as an important issue as the study progressed.
Methodology
At a summary level, all fourteen organizations demonstrated some degree of involvement in formal knowledge management programs (Table 1), with the most frequently used methods being tele- and videoconferencing for information exchange and e-mail for distribution of target group information (12 organizations). The assessment of planned and unplanned benefits of organizations was done using a seven-point Likert scale; Fig.
7 Implications for Practicing Managers
The characteristics of communities of practice mentioned by McDermott (1999) include the open exchange of knowledge between members as an integral part of the fabric that binds working communities together. As mentioned earlier, this level of trust must be established by being visible throughout the organization, ubiquitous in our use, and representing the cooperation and support of senior staff (Davenport & Prusak, pp. 34–35).
8 Limitations of the Research
Despite efforts by the acquiring company to deal honestly and openly with employees, misunderstandings may arise about the need to quickly evaluate all of the acquired company's assets, including the so-called "intellectual property" that exists as tacit knowledge with the employees (from an interview with a representative of a pharmaceutical company). These examples reinforce the importance of trust as a critical factor enabling this kind of knowledge sharing.
9 Conclusion
In situations of mergers and acquisitions, management support for information sharing can become problematic when the newly acquired organization appears to be uncooperative in sharing information easily.
Acknowledgements
Communication and exchange of knowledge through information technology. Journal of Information Technology Trust in knowledge management and systems in organizations; Hershey, PA: Publishing Idea Group. Coming to the crossroads of knowledge, learning and technology: Integrating knowledge management and learning in the workplace.
Barriers to the Diffusion of Best Practices
This chapter reviews and builds on selected literature from various fields to provide a more comprehensive account of the possible barriers to the transfer and implementation of best practices. However, successful best practice transfer goes beyond the dissemination process and implies the full integration of the practice into the recipient unit's activities.
2 Contextual Factors: Characteristics of the Organization
- Institutional Factors—Industry, Organization, and Unit Levels We propose that there are three levels of institutional factors that can act
- Environment Uncertainty
- Absorptive Capacity
- Prior Success
- Organizational Identity and Human Cognition
- Organizational Culture
- Organizational Size
- An Industry Example of Contextual Barriers and Facilitators: The Case of ABB
Kostova (1996) found that the success of the diffusion of best practices is higher when the institutional environment of the receiving unit is supportive of the practice. Becker (1993) and Westbrook (1993) argue that organizational level cultural changes are necessary to promote the diffusion and implementation of the TQM philosophy.
3 Diffusion Process Factors
Stages of the Diffusion Process: From Identification to Continued Use
Organizations can learn either directly, through its members and organizational experiences, or indirectly from networks by adding new members who have new knowledge and find out about other organizations' experiences (Johnson & Rice, 1987; . Levitt & March, 1995; Locke & Jain, 1995; Rice & Rogers, 1983; Simon, 1991). Benchmarking as a fundamental activity in TQM is a specific form of proactively seeking indirect learning from other organizations.
Attributes of Innovations, Recipient and Source, Knowledge, and Source-Recipient Relationships
Characteristics of the recipient, knowledge and source-recipient relationship can also influence the dissemination of best practices. Indeed, the initial benefit of best practice may be lost in the change process (Alange et al. 1998).
An Industry Example of Diffusion-Related Barriers and Facilitators: The Case of HP
Because the dissemination of tacit knowledge involves reinvention, the process of transfer itself is difficult to measure: the definition of practice may change as the organization changes (Winter, 1994). However, it is sometimes impossible to make tacit knowledge explicit enough for full transfer. 1991) note that the transfer of knowledge and experience is never complete, as some knowledge remains in the minds of employees and is not transferable.
4 Management-Related Factors
- Managerial Commitment
- Training
- Reward System
- An Industry Example of Management-Related Barriers and Facilitators: The Case of Texas Instruments
Therefore, it is necessary to consider the characteristics of the employees in the receiving unit in order to assess the impact of managerial commitment in the transfer of best practice. The reward system should be aligned with a best practice orientation (control versus learning—Simard & Rice, 2006; Sitkin et al. 1996).
5 Strategies for Diffusing Best Practices
O'Dell and Grayson (1998) review the most commonly used methods for best practice transfer in organizations. Information technology (such as best practice databases, intranets and online discussion lists) can serve as support for sharing best practices, but does not represent a solution in itself (O'Dell & Grayson, 1998).
6 Conclusion: The Need for a Holistic Approach to Best Practice Transfer
An overemphasis of extrinsic rewards for knowledge sharing and use of the practice is negatively related to more successful best practice transfer. Diffusion of "best practice" in multinational firms: prospects, practice and contestation. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 9(4), August 1998.
2 Unlearning Theories in the Wake of Organizational Learning: Roles and Processes
This overview allows a broader conceptualization of the unlearning issue under the name of knowledge neutralization. First, managers represent a strategic part of the organizational "hardware" in which knowledge is recorded and they can translate this knowledge into action.
3 Unlearning: A Controversial Process
Knowledge Validity
This usually leads organizational actors away from the realm of objective validity to perceived validity. All organizational actors try to establish the perceived validity of knowledge against objective data (Daft and Weick, 1984).
Validation, Invalidation, and Strategies for Unlearning
When first-order knowledge is proven to be no longer appropriate, it will be "bracketed" or marked with invalidity. Second-order knowledge can be understood from concepts such as frames of reference (McCall, 1977), myths and perceptual filters (Hedberg, 1981), theories of action (Argyris and Sch¨on, 1976) and basic assumptions (Kuwada, 1998). ).
Matters of Knowledge Activation
A more important type of knowledge is that of corporate-level knowledge, which includes the entire organization and the activities performed. A piece of knowledge is active only within a specific register that governs the relevant organizational behavior (Kim, 1998).
4 Unlearning and Knowledge Neutralization
Knowledge Neutralization Through Rivaling Enforced Enactment
For example, in response to large-scale disasters, the various organizations involved act on their own peculiar second-order knowledge. All causal arrows have two heads” – organizational actors are invited to dialectical reasoning to challenge their own tacit assumptions;.
Knowledge Neutralization Through Knowledge Inactivation Whenever managers don’t have the means or time to influence the perceived
They argued that the inclusion of an informal Swedish team in the organizational chart acted as a shield against the diffusion of new knowledge created by the work groups. The absence of such a shield caused the loss of this knowledge in the Spanish plant.
Neutralizing Knowledge Through Unlearning
Cognitive deployment can nevertheless be performed based on first-order knowledge, such as programs or standard operating procedures that are closely linked to an immediate outcome. Although such a method is readily available, specialists may have to spend a lot of time until they are able to identify negative first-order knowledge.
5 Discussion and Conclusion
Bracketed learning in organizations: Towards an unlearning model of learning. Journal of Management Studies. Organizational knowledge, learning, and memory: Three concepts in search of theory. Journal of Organizational Change Management.
Production, Process and Practice
For each perspective, the assumptions they make about the nature of knowledge, the nature of innovation, and the practical tasks and tools of KM are presented. Finally, the chapter concludes with a discussion of the tensions and trade-offs between these different approaches to KM in the context of efforts to innovate.
2 Case Vignette: Cataracts Project at East General Hospital
The general practitioner, who is not an eye specialist, will generally trust the optometrist's diagnosis and refer the patient to the hospital for a short consultation appointment. While there were many advantages to the new system, there were also pockets of resistance.
3 Production Perspectives
Implications for KM at East General Hospital
As seen, the production perspective can be seen in some of the thinking of transformation team members at the Eastern General Hospital and, despite criticism, is also pervasive in many KM initiatives (Newell et al. 2002). For example, assisted by the transformation team, knowledge about the new treatment process was captured in the form of new assessment forms and Roadmaps, supported by objective measures of the effectiveness of the process (eg patient satisfaction scores and waiting time measures).
4 Process Perspectives
Implications for KM at East General Hospital
Recognizing the social and politicized nature of innovation means that attempts to manage knowledge must be sensitive to the interests and interpretations of the various groups involved. However, it is also worth noting that even where specialists in other hospitals shared an understanding of the new system and could see how it would benefit their own hospitals, they still had difficulty translating this knowledge into action.
5 Practice Perspectives
Implications for KM at East General Hospital
The first type—the syntactic boundary—refers to differences centered in grammar, symbols, labels, and languages. Semantic boundaries therefore refer to differences in accepted interpretations and meanings between actors at a boundary (Carlile, 2002).
6 Conclusions
They can also create a bridge between approaches to KM that view knowledge as either an objective entity—the production view—or as entirely subjective, constructed through human social interaction—the process view. Meaning making and artifacts: an exploration of the role of tools in knowledge management.Journal of Knowledge Management.
Exploring Multiple Versions of KM in Organizations
These provide explanations of sociotechnical phenomena in organizations spanning different levels of organizational order and different time frames. It is clear that knowledge was managed at many different levels (the "where" of the title) and at many different stages (the "when").
2 Multiple Versions of KM
Wilson discusses the occurrence of the term in various magazines to show inconsistency in usage; the sample is based on its own feeling as to which publications are relevant to computer science. What is needed, we suggest, is an approach that follows a line of explanation through different time zones.
3 From Versions to Versioning
One approach is to focus on knowledge trajectories within a single organization: Bowker's (1994) organizational biography of Schlumberger is an example. The second is to take an important institutional form, a clinic or a prison, as in Foucault's "archaeological."
4 A Method to Explore KM Trajectories
The second element in our framework is framing, a concept first elaborated in the social sciences by Goffman (1974). In the next section, we present a case study that shows how the concepts of framework, movements and trajectories can be applied in the study of organizational KM.
5 The Case Study: Project M
By establishing a timeline for a set of choices, an analyst can map the intentions and resources that have characterized that series over time, noting configurations of actors involved and the material traces of these in the form of contracts, project templates, correspondence and other documents.
6 KM Versions in Project M: Data Sharing
7 KM Versions in Project M: Mundane Practice Knowledge
Ultimately, the rapid response team's activities remained unaffected by the introduction of the mobile technology. While access to the mobile technologies meant that the team members felt they could meet their own team, and other team members while out of the office (eg a client's home to fill out an ABC form), it does not seem to have a significant influence on the time they spent in/away from the office.
8 KM Versions in Project M: Process Engineering
9 KM Trajectories
This can be considered part of the technology's gamble (Hamelink, 1988), where ICT outcomes are uncertain but expenditures are perceived as necessary (see Thrift, 2005). There are e.g. some very strong players who have links to most networks in the relevant field.
10 Conclusion
The 'winning' discourse between competing interesting rhetoric will draw its strength from association with proven players, often those who can provide 'integrated turnkey solutions' in the form of implementation plus training, and economies of scale that undercut the costs of those who get involved in a detailed analysis of local user requirements. Williams (ed.), The social shaping of information superhighways: European and American pathways to the information society (pp. 299–238).
Dynamics in Mobile Telework
Following this, the literature review outlines the central features of the practice-based knowledge perspective in use before reviewing the virtual work literature to reveal the extent to which it neglects the topic of spatial mobility. The first part outlines the nature of consultants' spatial mobility patterns and shows how this affects the temporal rhythm of their communication dynamics.
2 Defining Mobile Telework
Consequently, the question of how workers' spatial mobility patterns affect communication dynamics within virtual teams is a topic that requires more attention. In relation to spatial mobility, for example, such a definition covers people with a wide range and diverse patterns of mobility.
3 Literature Review
The importance of the relationship between interpersonal social relations and ICT mediation of communication processes is reflected in the fact that seven out of 23 empirical articles consider how the frequency of face-to-face interactions affects the dynamics of such work arrangements (Fiol & O'Connor 2005, Grabowski &. Ker uses a practice-based knowledge perspective, this is achieved by paying close attention to the work practices and communication behaviors of the examined mobile workers.
4 Research Methodology
