The Role of Social Media in Knowledge Management

2017 ◽  
pp. 230-248
Author(s):  
Syed Afzal Moshadi Shah ◽  
Shehla Amjad
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Business Environment ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Professional Service Firms ◽  
Media Usage ◽  
The World ◽  
Knowledge Intensive

The purpose of this chapter is to highlight the importance of social media and theoretically link it with Knowledge Management (KM). A massive increase in social media usage around the world and its enhanced role in everyday life of employees offer enormous opportunities to businesses. One of the most important challenges that management faces in today's dynamic business environment is knowledge management. This becomes the key concern in professional service firms that are knowledge intensive in nature. The chapter discusses the association between social media and knowledge management. A theoretical model (SECI-SM) proposed by Shah, Khan, and Amjad (2013) is presented and discussed which is an extension of the seminal work of Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995). The model puts social media at the heart of knowledge management system and processes. It purports social media as an ideal vehicle for knowledge sharing and retaining. The chapter discusses the superiority of SECI-SM Model and lays out some useful suggestions for businesses.

scholarly journals The tensions of defining and developing thought leadership within knowledge-intensive firms

2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
William S. Harvey ◽  
Vince-Wayne Mitchell ◽  
Alessandra Almeida Jones ◽  
Eric Knight
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Professional Service Firms ◽  
Senior Leaders ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Knowledge Based ◽  
Leadership Strategy ◽  
Knowledge Intensive ◽  
Thought Leadership

Purpose A major part of knowledge management for knowledge-intensive firms such as professional service firms is the increasing focus on thought leadership. Despite being a well-known term, it is poorly defined and analysed in the academic and practitioner literature. The aim of this article is to answer three questions. First, what is thought leadership? Second, what tensions exist when seeking to create thought leadership in knowledge-based organisations? Third, what further research is needed about thought leadership? The authors call for cross-disciplinary and academic–practitioner approaches to understanding the field of thought leadership. Design/methodology/approach The authors review the academic and practitioner literature on thought leadership to provide a rich oversight of how it is defined and can be understood by separating inputs, creation processes and outcomes. The authors also draw on qualitative data from 12 in-depth interviews with senior leaders of professional service firms. Findings Through analysing and building on previous understandings of the concept, the authors redefine thought leadership as follows: “Knowledge from a trusted, eminent and authoritative source that is actionable and provides valuable solutions for stakeholders”. The authors find and explore nine tensions that developing thought leadership creates and propose a framework for understanding how to engage with thought leadership at the industry/macro, organisational/meso and individual/micro levels. The authors propose a research agenda based on testing propositions derived from new theories to explain thought leadership, including leadership, reducing risk, signalling quality and managing social networks, as well as examining the suggested ways to resolve different tensions. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, they are the first to separate out thought leadership from its inputs, creation processes and outcomes. The authors show new organisational paradoxes within thought leadership and show how they can play out at different levels of analysis when implementing a thought leadership strategy. This work on thought leadership is set in a relatively under-explored context for knowledge management researchers, namely, knowledge-intensive professional service firms.

Picking professionals: a client-centric knowledge assessment framework

2018 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 333-345
Author(s):  
Tale Skjølsvik ◽  
Karl Joachim Breunig
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Professional Services ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Professional Service Firms ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Recent Developments ◽  
Knowledge Intensive

Purpose This paper aims to explore how professional competences are defined and assessed by clients of professional service firms (PSFs). Extant research has studied the knowledge base of professionals, but limited research has been conducted to develop an understanding of how clients value this knowledge. Design/methodology/approach The study is based on in-depth qualitative research design, which is suitable for inductive theory building. The collected data consist of interviews with 80 clients and sellers of professional services. Findings The authors offer a framework detailing the interrelationships between knowledge, experience and references as assessed by clients. In particular, references are used to evaluate experience, which in turn function as a proxy for how clients assess knowledge. Also, the study shows how the clients’ assessment of professional knowledge assets involves multiple levels and factors. Research limitations/implications Limited research has been conducted to understand client preferences and PSF competitive advantage from a client perspective. This paper contributes to extant literature on knowledge management by integrating it with insights from recent developments within service marketing focusing on client centricity and the role of clients in value creation. This perspective complements and extends what is already known about knowledge management. Practical implications The paper suggests that while it is essential to manage knowledge as such, references and experience has a very central role in selling and commercializing knowledge-intensive services. Thus, to the degree that clients buy knowledge, sellers should think carefully about how experience and references are developed, captured and conveyed to clients. From a client point, the identified framework has value in offering a client-centric conceptualization of knowledge that can be used as a starting point in defining their knowledge needs and in structuring and professionalizing their purchasing efforts related to professional services. Originality/value Knowledge-intensive service organizations sell their knowledge and resources to clients directly as experts and indirectly through their services. It is therefore imperative for these organizations to understand how their knowledge is evaluated by buyers. The paper takes a unique client-centric perspective in understanding knowledge from a buyer’s point of view and as perceived by the buyer, which largely has been lacking in existing knowledge management research.

Language at work in the Big Four: global aspirations and local segmentation

2018 ◽  
Vol 31 (7) ◽  
pp. 2031-2054 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominic Detzen ◽  
Lukas Loehlein
Keyword(s):  
Corporate Culture ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Professional Service Firms ◽  
Organizational Relationships ◽  
Native Languages ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
Big Four

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine how professional service firms (PSFs) manage the linguistic tensions between global Englishization and local multilingualism. It achieves this by analysing the work of Big Four audit firms in Luxembourg, where three official languages co-exist: Luxembourgish, French, and German. In addition, expatriates bring with them their native languages in a corporate environment that uses English as its lingua franca. Design/methodology/approach The paper combines the institutionalist sociology of the professions with theoretical concepts from sociolinguistics to study the multifaceted role of language in PSFs. Empirically, the paper draws from 25 interviews with current and former audit professionals. Findings The client orientation of the Big Four segments each firm into language teams based on the client’s language. It is thus the client languages, rather than English as the corporate language, that mediate, define, and structure intra- and inter-organizational relationships. While the firms emphasize the benefits of their linguistic adaptability, the paper reveals tensions along language lines, suggesting that language can be a means of creating cohesion and division within the firms. Originality/value This paper connects research on PSFs with that on the role of language in multinational organizations. In light of the Big Four’s increasingly global workforce, it draws attention to the linguistic divisions within the firms that question the existence of a singular corporate culture. While prior literature has centred on firms’ global–local divide, the paper shows that even single branches of such firm networks are not monolithic constructs, as conflicts and clashes unfold amid a series of “local–local” divides.

Knowledge Management in Professional Service Firms

2011 ◽  
pp. 1841-1850
Author(s):  
Dieter Fink ◽  
Georg Disterer
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
High Potential ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Professional Service Firms ◽  
Professional Groups ◽  
Capacity To Act ◽  
Market Pressures ◽  
War For Talent

For professional service firms, such as consultants, accountants, lawyers, architects, and engineers, knowledge is a capacity to act. Knowledge can be used to take action and to serve the client. As market pressures increase, so does the demand for securing and exploiting knowledge for the firm. In addition, a shortage of high-potential professional service providers has increased the ‘war for talent’ in which firms compete in employing the most talented professionals. These situations are exacerbated by the decrease in lifelong loyalty, a traditional value within professional groups, and the departure and retirement of professionals, often the most experienced ones.

Knowledge Management in Professional Service Firms

2011 ◽  
pp. 381-388 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dieter Fink ◽  
Georg Disterer
Keyword(s):  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Service Providers ◽  
High Potential ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Professional Service Firms ◽  
Professional Groups ◽  
Capacity To Act ◽  
Market Pressures ◽  
War For Talent

For professional service firms, such as consultants, accountants, lawyers, architects, and engineers, knowledge is a capacity to act. Knowledge can be used to take action and to serve the client. As market pressures increase, so does the demand for securing and exploiting knowledge for the firm. In addition, a shortage of high-potential professional service providers has increased the ‘war for talent’ in which firms compete in employing the most talented professionals. These situations are exacerbated by the decrease in lifelong loyalty, a traditional value within professional groups, and the departure and retirement of professionals, often the most experienced ones.

Social and Cultural Barriers for Knowledge Databases in Professional Service Firms

2011 ◽  
pp. 124-130 ◽  
Author(s):  
Georg Disterer
Keyword(s):  
Information Technology ◽  
Knowledge Management ◽  
Cultural Barriers ◽  
Professional Service ◽  
One Dimension ◽  
Service Firms ◽  
Professional Service Firms ◽  
Complex Problems ◽  
Innovative Solutions

Professional Service Firms (PSF), where professionals (consultants, lawyers, accountants, auditors, tax advisors, engineers ...) work, are interested in knowledge management, because their business is heavily dependent from the knowledge of their employees. Core asset is their ability to solve complex problems through creative and innovative solutions, the basis for this is their employees’ knowledge. Therefore, PSF are on the forefront of knowledge management. Experiences show that Information Technology (IT) is only one dimension of knowledge management, more important are social, cultural, and organizational dimensions.1

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