Knowledge Management Systems

The aim of this paper is to explore the dichotomous role of knowledge through an examination of tacit and explicit knowledge in organizational change contexts. The study's aim is achieved by an analytical review of the seminal and contemporary knowledge management literature. The paper contributes to the current body of knowledge management literature by analyzing a wide range of key literature and presenting a contemporary overview that compares the role of tacit and explicit knowledge within organizational change contexts. The findings contribute towards theoretical development in the knowledge management field by providing researchers with future research directions to build upon previous theoretical understandings and advance our collective knowledge of the research domain. The paper offers practical and pragmatic insights that will help firm managers to use tacit and/or explicit knowledge to manage organizational change. This article presents an original comparative table that summarizes and compares the key understandings and insights from across the literature sources on a range of important aspects, and then presents implications for the two knowledge typologies. The paper also presents an original research framework containing a structured database of related calls for research by the latest academic publications. Furthermore, it provides specific and informed managerial recommendations for best practice in the integration of these knowledge typologies into organizational change management.

There appears to be several problems with repositories in knowledge management systems (KMS). During the twenty-plus years of KMS there have been many criticisms of the use of repositories and the KM initiatives giving rise to them. Such repositories have been used by a range of company types and sizes and in a number of sectors. However, many of the initiatives have failed to achieve their expected benefits, as evident in the literature, which obscured any real benefits. There may have been misguided expectations arising from the capacity to remember ‘knowledge’ that ‘information’ systems (IS) provide, and from the ease with which old or mislaid knowledge may be found using them. Such expectations weren’t aligned to the goals of KM initiatives and the organizational needs that led to them. We perceive two issues. The first is that many scholars and practitioners still view KMS as a category of IS. Secondly, KMS are implemented retrospectively – they are designed and built to meet current needs as informed by past challenges which may orientate a KMS towards tackling past issues and make KMS inflexible. KMS need to be less rigid and more adaptable to the constantly evolving needs of an organization. We report on a KM project with a company that delivered a successfully flexible and adaptable KMS based on a standard IS repository. The project was carried out based on an action research approach within a knowledge-intensive service provider which had been experiencing problems it believed could be addressable through KM. By adopting the socio-technical perspective of KMS and a hybrid strategy between personalisation and codification a KMS was built, evaluated, and modified through action research within the customer service department of the Firm. The paper represents a work-in-progress report and describes the R & D approach including findings from the relevant literature in knowledge management and change management. In our findings we put forward a new perspective into how knowledge repositories could be viewed and put into practice mainly through the removal of a rigid structure, which arguably hinders participation in KM. We argue that our approach empowers the users and produces greater trust enhancing collaboration. We contend that these well-established aspirations of KM have not yet been thoroughly or widely explored with traditional repository-based KMS. Through our findings we consolidate a number of good/best practices previously documented. These show that by empowering and trusting the end user, and through the introduction of a flexible design of a KMS and its repository, help motivating the users. The paper describes how this has been observed within the situation of an IT customer service department. A side effect of the research is a set of new insights into tacit knowledge.

Organizational knowledge is at the center of the debate focused on the nature of knowledge, where the perspective of knowledge as possession opposes the perspective of knowledge as practice. These two views are rooted in the radical versions of realist and constructivist epistemology, respectively, according to which knowledge is an object or a practice. Far from being a Byzantine dispute, the adoption of one or the other has relevant and concrete consequences for the design and management of IS/IT, because as such, the two paradigms result incommensurable in both theoretical and methodological aspects. However, from a moderate and middle-ground version the following fruitful implications would stem: 1) the juxtaposition would dissolve, and a dual nature of knowledge as object and practice would emerge; 2) the epistemology of pragmatism would be able to account for all the concepts and methods employed by the two fronts, thus terminating a sterile “paradigm war”; 3) the theory of autopoiesis would become irrelevant and eventually even misleading; 4) standard scientific methodologies and simulation models would be acknowledged as useful and common tools for progressive confrontations among the supporters of both the paradigms; 5) the development of IS/IT studies and the design of knowledge management systems would substantially benefit.

This paper presents and describes a new pragmatism orientation technique for identifying and measuring knowledge management to grow an organisation. The technique brings together Dilip Bhatt KM components. The empirical study presents results, a Kiviat diagram, highlights the principal significance for comparison alignment between two KM models (Non-IT and IT connections) using Composite Features Diagramming methodology.

This method illustrates an abundance characteristics component results in visual qualitative technique that also enables conducted quantitative evaluation to fundamentally analyse, measure and transform an organisation success level retrospectively. It studies these links in a Healthcare organisation context, where KM is a strategic concern. Finally, further recommendation is subsequently addressed for future exploration works.

Product development activities in a company involve cooperation between functions, either from inside or outside the company. Various systems employed by these functions make the knowledge transfer from one function to another one becoming more difficult. This condition makes the product development process to be not optimal. In this research, we aim to analyze and design a knowledge management system that can help a company in managing its knowledge with respect to product development activities. The case of this research is a manufacturing company that develops arcade game machines. Our research produces knowledge management system which is capable in managing documents and communications during the product development process.

This research paper discusses about people issues
that impact knowledge management practices and how
organizations address it. Issues such as lack of collaboration,
mistrust, missing leadership qualities and inadequate
knowledge sharing have been discussed and how they would
result in failure of knowledge management practices in an
organization. Finally different strategies were provided to
address these people issues.

Knowledge is one of the key strategic growth & development pillars facilitating the path towards a smart and sustainable competitive advantage. Theories within the field of knowledge management usually make the distinction between data and knowledge. However, over the recent years knowledge management has moved towards integrating diverse information with the purpose of generating valid decision-making processes. Big data is a relatively new concept that still raises many questions related to its relevance in knowledge management studies. Big data offers businesses the means to extract extensive information about their customers’ subjective preferences. However, making sense of the big data and transforming them into valuable knowledge that brings consistent and sustainable value added requires core human competences such as critical thinking. This process of analysing big data drives the conversion of business intelligence into knowledge that can therefore be useful in avoiding strategic risk and finding smart and effective business solutions. This main goal of the paper is to analyse the concept of big data in the theoretical framework of knowledge management and assess the implications of developing such a connection. We present the most important conceptual definitions and characteristics of big data and assess the possibility to integrate this concept within the traditional theoretical models of knowledge management. A secondary objective of our paper is to lay out the prerequisites of developing new knowledge management strategies according to the needs of the digital economy. Authors draw from the e-commerce experience in using big data for improving the decision-making process. We have collected data from a number of e-commerce SMEs that are acting on the Romanian online fashion retail market. An analysis of the impact of demographics and sales data on firms’ growth strategies was conducted. Simultaneously, our study looked at how business intelligence systems used by SMEs were applied in order to analyse the aforementioned data. Conclusions drawn from the study show the benefits and best practices in integrating big data into SMEs knowledge management strategies. The main focus is on identifying the best ways to improve net results through proper use of knowledge obtained from big data.

One of the most significant keys to value creation comes from placing emphasis on producing knowledge. The production of knowledge must a major part of the production strategy. This study aims to harness the concept of knowledge management (KM) as an essential element in the creation of sustainable competitive advantage for organisations. Accordingly, this research seeks to highlight the concept of knowledge management systems (KMS) as an essential element, in which the decision support system (DSS) and organisational performance (OP) are elements that control the survival of organisations in the marketplace. The industry requires creative thinking to generate innovation, learning and excellence in knowledge cognition and knowledge inertia, as well as knowledge acquisition (KA), and spending in three types of DSS: the group decision support system (GDSS), executive support system (ESS) and the expert system (ES). It also requires investment in experience inertia and in work teams fo...

As the basis of value creation increasingly depends on the leverage of the intangible assets of firms, knowledge management systems (KMS) are emerging as powerful sources of competitive advantage. However, the general recognition of the importance of such systems seems to be accompanied by a technology-induced drive to implement systems with inadequate consideration of the fundamental knowledge problems that the KMS are likely to solve. This paper contributes to the stream of research on ...

The substitution of knowledge to information as the entity that organizations process and deliver raises a number of questions concerning the nature of knowledge. The dispute on the codifiability of tacit knowledge and that juxtaposing the epistemology of practice vs. the epistemology of possession can be better faced by revisiting two crucial debates. One concerns the nature of cognition and the other the famous mind-body problem. Cognition can be associated with the capability of manipulating symbols, like in the traditional computational view of organizations, interpreting facts or symbols, like in the narrative approach to organization theory, or developing mental states (events), like argued by the growing field of organizational cognition. Applied to the study of organizations, the mind-body problem concerns the possibility (if any) and the forms in which organizational mental events, like trust, identity, cultures, etc., can be derived from the structural aspects (technological, cognitive or communication networks) of organizations. By siding in extreme opposite positions, the two epistemologies appear irreducible one another and pay its own inner consistency with remarkable difficulties in describing and explaining some empirical phenomena. Conversely, by legitimating the existence of both tacit and explicit knowledge, by emphasizing the space of human interactions, and by assuming that mental events can be explained with the structural aspects of organizations, Nonaka’s SECI model seems an interesting middle way between the two rival epistemologies.

This paper presents our proposal for an exploratory research study. The objective of the research is to develop a conceptual framework of the interpretations, meanings, perceptions, and beliefs related to the role, development, and future of the knowledge management (KM) discipline. We propose to develop a holistic model that will depict professionals' perceptions of this issue: the combined perceptions of both KM consultants and knowledge managers. The proposed qualitative research will be based on three research tools: Semi-structured in-depth interviews, focus groups, and content analysis. The data will be analyzed using a thematic analysis method based on the grounded theory approach. We collected preliminary empirical evidence from international KM experts during 2020. The findings revealed a remarkable variety of issues that exist at the core of the KM discipline. These issues include the role and purpose of KM in knowledge-intensive organizations, the implications of the existence or absence of KM, and views about future avenues for its development. Our intention is to explore these issues further by expanding the research to other KM professionals. Through this, we hope to assist in the positioning of the discipline in the age of knowledge. This research may contribute significantly to both the theoretical and practical aspects of KM. Its uniqueness is reflected in the voices of KM professionals. We foresee that our research will enable a better understanding of the evolution of KM as a discipline, its contemporary role, and its future possibilities.

Abstract Recent disasters in Malaysia which was composed of major floods and landslides events proved that despite past experiences and strong disaster management mechanism, life and property losses is still unavoidable. Our proposition is the disaster planning and response efforts need a more prudent solution in order to reduce life and property losses. This paper attempts to answer how emergency managers and responders can benefit from an information and communication technology (ICT) in the form of a Knowledge ...

Knowledge is increasingly thought of as a common good. This is exhibited in the fact that
many central economies are moving towards economic paradigms where knowledge plays a
fundamental role. This paper explores the confluence between both processes, asking in what
ways an economic model based on the knowledge commons can open up new socioeconomic
scenarios in the face of overwhelming neoliberal financialization.

Knowledge management is fast becoming a commercial necessity for many organizations, in order that they manage their intellectual assets and gain competitive advantage. To maximise that advantage, knowledge management needs to be available across the whole of the enterprise. Before a knowledge management system can be built, the knowledge that pervades the organization must be identified and modelled. This paper reviews four important modelling techniques that are used to develop knowledge management systems.

The purpose of this paper is to provide a methodological framework which could support managers in the selection of Knowledge Management Systems. The framework is based on the Analytic Hierarchy Process approach. Several aspects should draw the attention of an organization’s upper level of management seeking to implement a Knowledge Management System and many specific issues have to be considered. As such, the framework has been built by making use of an ad-hoc hierarchical structure, where each singular specificity is described and compared, second-order criteria are studied and analysed, and optional decisions are highlighted and evaluated. This methodological framework offers a good applicability to different business contexts, since its hierarchical arrangement suits most of the needs of numerous organizations. Consequently, it can be regarded as a holistic approach able to assist decision makers in their Knowledge Management System selection process

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to introduce a model for the knowledge‐based development (KBD) of a region using a research chair strategy at Tecnológico de Monterrey, to describe its impact and to propose its use in organizations that generate scientific and technological knowledge, especially research groups, in a university environment.Design/methodology/approachThe approach employed in this research evolves around a strategy for setting up research chairs (research groups headed by a lead investigator) which is a type of action research methodology whose steps are: planning a research program which is clear, focused and with an impact on regional development, implementing it, observing the corresponding processes and results, and reflecting on them. The components of the KBD model include human and intellectual capital (research professors and research students), research products (journal articles, conference papers, books and patents), research funding, entrepreneurial spi...

This chapter discusses wiki in the context of the debate over seemingly ‘democratizing’ properties of Web 2.0 technologies. Basic features of wiki cannot be easily identified: it can be described as a technology of organizing primarily textual information, in a web-like hyperlinked environment, in which parts can be easily edited by one or multiple users. Tracing the origins of wiki reveals in-built social norms, stemming from the hacker culture, and the idealistic pursuits to democratize the Web. However, in practice wiki technology supports not only innovative open collaboration systems, such as Wikipedia, but also proprietary systems of organization of knowledge, largely strengthening existing power relations in organizations. Employing the concept of technology affordances, the authors outline how organizational consequences of wiki depend on the social context of its implementation.

In the emerging service economy, many traditional product manufacturing companies are seeking innovative ways to do business, focusing on product-service combinations. Development of these offerings requires the integration of a wider span of expertise from several companies, which poses new challenges in the way knowledge is captured and managed. On the basis of a case study from an aerospace supply chain, this paper fi rst identifi es the limitations of current knowledge-management systems in such a setting and then discusses the role of Web 2.0 technologies in managing knowledge across the knowledge life cycle. Web 2.0 technologies have potential to lower barriers to leveraging informal and unstructured knowledge, contextualized information, networks of connections, and collective creation and maintenance of knowledge assets, which could complement current knowledge-management systems in multicompany product development efforts.

Whereas knowledge management systems (KMS) continues to gain popularity as a corporate most advanced information systems, the acceptance of standardized KMS assessment approaches has logged. Developing metrics to assess a corporate KMS is inherently problematic due to the intangible nature of knowledge-based resources, and for the fact that measurement is a precursor to improvement. This is true for knowledge management capabilities of an organization. Nonetheless, assessment is of vital importance for valuation purposes as well as to help managers determine whether particular KMS are effective working. The main focus of this paper is to explain the value of knowledge management and provide a general overview of measurement approaches. Finally, developing an improved measurement system for corporate KMS is considered the key to the competitive success of the organization.

Boğaziçi Üniversitesi, Barış Eğitimi Uygulama ve Araştırma Merkezi ile Doğan Gazetecilik tarafından ''Baba Beni Okula Gönder'' Projesi kapsamında, kız öğrenci yurtlarında çalışan görevlilerin ihtiyaçları ve yurtlar hakkında görüş ve önerilerin belirlenmesi için ihtiyaç analizi çalışmaları yapılmıştır. Bunun yanında Yurt Ortamı Ölçeği (Moos,19, Kerimol-Orçan19) ve Duygusal Zeka Ölçeği (Coleman, Bar-On) kullanılarak katılımcıların yurtlarla ilgili ölçek çerçevesinde algıları ve bireysel yaklaşımları ele alınmıştır. Yurt müdürleri ve belletmenlerin maddi manevi ihtiyaçlarını hem kendileri hem de kız öğrenciler açısından saptamak için odak grup çalışması (4 grup)  ve de ölçekler kullanılmıştır.
    Çeşitli illerde yaptırılan toplam 32 adet kız öğrenci yurdunda bölgesel olarak farklılıklar görünmesine rağmen koşullar genellikle birbirine benzemektedir. Kız öğrenci yurtlarında kalan kız çocuklarının çoğunlukla ilgi alanlarını geliştirebilecekleri veya sosyalleşebilecekleri alanların ve olanakların kısıtlı olması, yurttan sorumlu müdür yardımcısı ve belletmen öğretmenlerin çocuklara karşı ilgisi, iş yapabilme becerisi çocukların koşullarını etkilemekte ve gelişimlerini destekleyici yaşam alanı oluşturma ihtiyacını artırmaktadır.
    Bu raporun amacı, yurt görevlileri ve öğrencilerin ihtiyaçlarının belirlenmesinden sonra geliştirilecek faaliyet modellerinin hazırlanması için daha sistemli bir alt yapı oluşturulmasıdır. Kız öğrencilerin okul-yurt arasında geçen yaşamlarında evleri sayılabilecek yurtlarının daha yaşanabilir olması, ilgi alanlarını geliştirebilecekleri, sosyalleşebilecekleri ve aynı zamanda yurt görevlilerinin de benimseyip yürütebileceği daha iyi bir yaşam alanı oluşturmak için önemli bir bilgi kaynaği oluşturmaktadır.