scholarly journals Knowledge Management in Social Work: Management Support, Incentives, Knowledge Implementation, and Employee Empowerment

2021 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Colnar ◽  
Vlado Dimovski
2014 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 108-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
Morteza Shokri-Ghasabeh ◽  
Nicholas Chileshe

Purpose – A research study has been undertaken at the University of South Australia to introduce application of lessons learned process in construction contractors ' bidding process in the context of knowledge management. The study aims to identify barriers to effectively capture lessons learned in Australian construction industry and how knowledge management can benefit from lessons learned application. Design/methodology/approach – The research study has been undertaken through conducting a “methodological triangulation” and “interdisciplinary triangulation”. This involved an extensive literature review of knowledge management, organisation learning, lessons learned and associated processes and administration of a questionnaire to a sample of construction contractors operating in Australia to elicit opinions on the main barriers to capturing lessons learned, practices such as existence and retention of documentation procedures. A total of 81 useable responses were received from 450 organisations. Response data were subjected to descriptive and inferential statistics with correlation analysis to examine the strength of relationship among the barriers. Findings – The top-3 barriers to the effective capturing of lessons learned were “lack of employee time”, “lack of resources” and “lack of clear guidelines”, whereas, “lack of management support” was the least ranked barrier. The study established that despite the majority of the ACCs having formal procedures for recording the tenders submitted and their outcomes, only a minority actually retained the lessons learned documentation for each project. The larger contractors were found to be more aware of the importance of lessons learned documentation. A comparative analysis with previous studies also found a disparity in the ranking of the barriers. Research limitations/implications – The majority of the participants were small construction contractors in Australia. The reason is that the researchers were not aware of the contractors ' size prior to inviting them for participation in the research study. Second the findings may not generalize to other industries or to organisations operating in other countries. Originality/value – The findings of this survey help ACCs to understand the importance of lessons learned documentation as part of lessons learned implementation and identify the barriers to effectively document their lessons learned. The study provides insights on the barriers and proposes advocated solutions in form of drivers and enablers (critical success factors) of organisational learning capturing among the Australian construction contractors. By reviewing the current literature, “post-project reviews” and “lessons learned” as important elements of organisation learning knowledge transfer, are addressed. Finally, contribution of this study to knowledge and practice has been discussed in this paper.


2018 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 48-69 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyprian Ifeanyi Ugwu

Abstract Objective – University libraries in Nigeria are facing challenges arising from poor funding, increasing user demands, and a competitive information environment. Knowledge management has been accepted by information professionals as a viable management tool, but issues surrounding its application require empirical investigation. The aim of this study is to determine the organizational factors that are correlates and predictors of knowledge management practices in federal university libraries in Nigeria. Methods – The study was based on a correlational research design. Twenty heads of university libraries in Nigeria responded to a structured questionnaire developed by the researcher. The questionnaire was validated by experts and its internal reliability was 0.78 obtained through Cronbach’s alpha procedures. The data collected were analyzed using Mean, Standard Deviation, One-Way ANOVA, Pearson’s Product Moment Correlation Coefficient, and regression analysis. Results – The study found that management support and collaboration were the most significant predictors of knowledge management practices in federal university libraries in Nigeria.  Even though human resources policy and rewards systems had positive correlations with knowledge management practices, their correlation coefficients were not significant. Conclusion – The success of knowledge management in university libraries in Nigeria depends on some contextual factors such as the support given by the management staff and the extent of collaboration among staff.


Author(s):  
Juan José Rojas Herrera

A pesar de la globalización de la economía y los incesantes intentos por subordinar todas las formas de producción a la lógica de la acumulación capitalista, la resistencia de los trabajadores persiste mediante la implementación de diversos modelos de gestión social del trabajo, entre los que destacan los puestos en marcha por los actores de la economía popular, la economía social y la economía solidaria. Precisar la identidad organizacional de estas tres formas de trabajo, para el caso específico de México, constituye el propósito principal del presente artículo, habiéndose identificado que, por su naturaleza, el sistema de trabajo que corresponde a cada una de ellas es de tipo autónomo, asociativo-autogestionario y asociativo-autogestionario-solidario, respectivamente. Despite the globalization of the economy and the incessant attempts to subordinate all forms of production to the logic of capitalist accumulation, the resistance of workers persists through the implementation of various models of social work management, among which the posts launched by the actors of the popular economy, the social economy and the solidarity economy. Specify the organizational identity of these three forms of work, for the specific case of Mexico, is the main purpose of this article, having identified that, by its nature, the work system that corresponds to each of them is of autonomous type, associative-self-management and associative-self-management-solidarity, respectively.


Author(s):  
Maryna Lekholetova

The article presents an analysis of different approaches of domestic scientists to the interpretation of the concept of «social work management». The author surveys the features of management as an object of governance in the activities of a social worker. Features include the social nature of management information; the need for motivation methods that effectively influences and motivates professionals to better results in social work; availability of social workers' professional competence; the presence of problems with forecasting the results of management in the social sphere; the importance of current and final management results. The author proves the necessity of social workers' self-management skills (time management, motivation, stress resistance and recuperation, development of emotional intelligence) for the effective performance of management tasks in professional activities.  The article highlights the principles that should be followed in solving organizational and managerial tasks in social work management (purposefulness, ability of realization, adaptability, efficiency). The researcher presents the structure of social work management methods in the study (economic, administrative, social counselling, psychological and pedagogical influence, social influence). Research characterizes the methods of social work management while working with recipients of social services (methods of individual social work, methods of group social work, methods of community work, methods of social service design).


Author(s):  
Rozana A Huq

Abstract- There is a growing realisation that in the complexity of the post-modern world, it is becoming less and less feasible to concentrate leadership and decision-making solely at the top of the organisation.  Hence, one of the reasons for empowering employees is that employees are able to take decisions quickly, without looking for manager’s approval all the time, in a participative decision-making capacity. But, the lack of knowledge about employee empowerment and the absence of a framework for implementation has created problems.  Although there is high consensus in the management literature that employee empowerment is necessary for the survival and success of organisations, there are still considerable gaps in our knowledge and understanding of a range of issues concerning employee empowerment, both at the conceptual and practice levels [Conger and Kanungo, 1988; Morrell and Wilkinson, 2002; Huq, 2008; 2010; 2015].  This lack of knowledge is dangerous, as it has serious implications how ‘managers and non-managers conceptualize employee empowerment’ [Hill and Huq, 2004: 1025]. The aim of this research titled: An Investigation of What Employee Empowerment Means in Theory and in Practice [Huq, 2008] was to investigate the meaning of employee empowerment both at the conceptual and practice levels.  An interpretivist approach employing qualitative methods was adopted; it involved conducting two in-depth information-rich case studies, described in this paper as Large Organisation and Small Organisation respectively. The knowledge drawn from the management literature review proved unsatisfactory, hence this author felt the need to conduct a multi-disciplinary research review in order to draw knowledge from another discipline, namely social work [Huq 2008; 2015], where empowerment is an important construct.  However, it is important to note that due to limited space, this author is unable to go into details of both the literature reviews, management and social work, in this paper.It is sufficient for this paper to report that a number of ‘themes’ of employee empowerment exist, but they are fragmented in the management literature. These ‘themes’ are not found in any one place, which leads to confusion when organisations try to implement employee empowerment.  Furthermore, there is a gap with regards to the knowledge of employee empowerment in the management literature and it is important to look at another discipline to get a fuller understanding of ‘empowerment’. A multi-disciplinary literature review thus enabled this author to put together themes of empowerment from the management and social work literature that are relevant to employee empowerment.  These seven themes of employee empowerment are as follows: power-sharing, participative decision-making, devolution of responsibility, people-oriented leadership style, access to information, collaboration and enablement, described as a ‘kaleidoscope of themes’Huq’s Model C, [Huq, 2015], as illustrated in the ‘Introduction’ section of this paper. One of the conclusions of this research is that leaders and managers need to pay attention to the impact of participative decision-making with regards to empowering employees, which has significant implications for human resource management and if implemented properly can lead to a more judicious utilisation of human resources at all levels.


2011 ◽  
pp. 291-296
Author(s):  
Fredrik Ericsson ◽  
Anders Avdic

This chapter introduces a framework of knowledge management systems acceptance labeled Requirements of Acceptance Model (RAM). It argues that acceptance of knowledge management systems is dependent on perceived relevance, systems accessibility, and management support. Together these components constitute the RAM. Further, it argues that implementation of systems is at large a process of acceptance where the requirements of acceptance are attained. Finally, it argues that to achieve the requirements of acceptance, implementation should be iterative and cooperative between users and developers by continually developing, implementing, and testing prototypes


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