The Impact of Group Relationships on Knowledge Sharing

Author(s):  
Qiping Zhang ◽  
Vincent M. Ribiere ◽  
Thippaya Chintakovid

Organizations nowadays typically have several locations geographically dispersed around the world. Organizations distribute their resources around the world to reduce cost and remain competitive. As a consequence, globally distributed working teams are common, thereby rendering a need for knowledge sharing cross-culturally. This chapter presents a series of studies investigating the impact of cultures on how people handle knowledge management issues. It shows how in-group/out-group relationships determine people’s attitudes towards knowledge sharing in a global working environment. Findings of this project would help organizations’ executives understand better how to encourage their members to reap benefits from using the knowledge management systems.

2016 ◽  
Vol 20 (4) ◽  
pp. 621-636 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aino Kianto ◽  
Mika Vanhala ◽  
Pia Heilmann

Purpose This paper aims to propose that knowledge management (KM) could be a way to nurture job satisfaction and examine how KM can increase individual employees’ job satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach A theoretical model concerning the connections between five facets of KM (knowledge acquisition, knowledge sharing, knowledge creation, knowledge codification and knowledge retention) and job satisfaction is proposed. It is then empirically tested with a structural equation modelling partial least squares analysis of a survey data set of 824 observations, collected from the members of a Finnish municipal organisation. Findings Existence of KM processes in one’s working environment is significantly linked with high job satisfaction. Especially intra-organisational knowledge sharing seems to be a key KM process, promoting satisfaction with one’s job in most employee groups. Interestingly, significant knowledge-based promoters of job satisfaction differ as a function of job characteristics. Practical implications KM has a strong impact on employee job satisfaction, and therefore, managers are advised to implement KM activities in their organisations, not only for the sake of improving knowledge worker performance but also for improving their well-being at work. Originality/value This paper produces knowledge on a type of consequence of KM that has been largely unexplored in previous research, individual job satisfaction. Also, it promotes moving the KM literature to the next stage where the impact of KM practices is not explored as a “one size fits all” type of a phenomenon, but rather as a contingent and contextual issue.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shankar Sundaresan ◽  
Zuopeng Zhang

Purpose This paper aims to investigate the role of AI in facilitating knowledge sharing and learning in organizations and the redesign of AI-enabled knowledge workers’ roles and processes. Design/methodology/approach This paper develops a framework for analyzing AI’s role in different knowledge management activities, explores the impact of AI in transforming knowledge workers’ roles and processes in knowledge sharing and learning and presents recommendations for tailored AI-enabled knowledge management systems for modern knowledge worker environments. Findings The authors synthesize the elements from different parts of the relevant literature and develop a unified framework consisting of three dimensions of AI systems, three knowledge management (KM) activities and two types of AI–human interactions. Based on this framework, the authors summarize the primary use cases supported by AI-enabled knowledge management systems (KMS) and compare them with the traditional KMS use cases. The authors find that a single type of AI system is insufficient to support the increasingly complex nature of knowledge workers’ activities, manifested in three dimensions – process, engagement and content; a tailored AI system should be developed to support knowledge workers in their unique roles and processes. Originality/value With the growing interest in AI and its applications to KM, this research provides managerial insights for practitioners to effectively adopt AI in managing knowledge assets in organizations.


2008 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 77-101 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holli McCall ◽  
Vicky Arnold ◽  
Steve G. Sutton

ABSTRACT: In an era where knowledge is increasingly seen as an organization's most valuable asset, many firms have implemented knowledge-management systems (KMS) in an effort to capture, store, and disseminate knowledge across the firm. Concerns have been raised, however, about the potential dependency of users on KMS and the related potential for decreases in knowledge acquisition and expertise development (Cole 1998; Alavi and Leidner 2001b; O'Leary 2002a). The purpose of this study, which is exploratory in nature, is to investigate whether using KMS embedded with explicit knowledge impacts novice decision makers' judgment performance and knowledge acquisition differently than using traditional reference materials (e.g., manuals, textbooks) to research and solve a problem. An experimental methodology is used to study the relative performance and explicit knowledge acquisition of 188 participants partitioned into two groups using either a KMS or traditional reference materials in problem solving. The study finds that KMS users outperform users of traditional reference materials when they have access to their respective systems/materials, but the users of traditional reference materials outperform KMS users when respective systems/materials are removed. While all users improve interpretive problem solving and encoding of definitions and rules, there are significant differences in knowledge acquisition between the two groups.


Author(s):  
Maryam Fazel-Zarandi ◽  
Mark S. Fox ◽  
Eric Yu

Knowledge Management Systems that enhance and facilitate the process of finding the right expert in an organization have gained much attention in recent years. This chapter explores the potential benefits and challenges of using ontologies for improving existing systems. A modeling technique from requirements engineering is used to evaluate the proposed system and analyze the impact it would have on the goals of the stakeholders. Based on the analysis, an ontology-based expertise finding system is proposed. This chapter also discusses the organizational settings required for the successful deployment of the system in practice.


2011 ◽  
pp. 1042-1050 ◽  
Author(s):  
Irma Becerra-Fernandez ◽  
Rajiv Sabherwal

Rapid changes in the field of knowledge management (KM) have to a great extent resulted from the dramatic progress we have witnessed in the field of information and communication technology. ICT allows the movement of information at increasing speeds and efficiencies, and thus facilitates sharing as well as accelerated growth of knowledge. For example, computers capture data from measurements of natural phenomena, and then quickly manipulate the data to better understand the phenomena they represent. Increased computer power at lower prices enables the measurement of increasingly complex processes, which we possibly could only imagine before. Thus, ICT has provided a major impetus for enabling the implementation of KM applications. Moreover, as learning has accrued over time in the area of social and structural mechanisms, such as through mentoring and retreats that enable effective knowledge sharing, it has made it possible to develop KM applications that best leverage these improved mechanisms by deploying sophisticated technologies.


Author(s):  
Dag von Lubitz

Information Technology (IT), and the subsequent broad acceptance of Information and Knowledge Management (IM/KM) methods revolutionized the way business is thought of and practiced. With e-business facilitating the ability to do more, more, faster, at a wider range, and to influence ever larger and more diverse consumer groups, the impact of technology on commerce, finance, and global economy has been frequently compared to the “paradigm shift” that Kuhn (1970) proposed as the essence of scientific revolution. Yet, despite the transformational influence of modernity on the ancient art, the fundamental principles of business have not changed: overreliance on the facilitation of business operations as the substitution for the adherence to the soundness of their conduct fuelled rampant growth of corporate laisse faire, and already twice brought the world to the brink of economic disaster (Stiglitz, 2003; Steingart, 2008).


Author(s):  
Austin Tonderai Nyakurerwa

The chapter focused on the institutional repository as a knowledge management tool that enhances the visibility of libraries in the 21st century. The researcher mainly relied on content analysis to gather research data. The researcher took a swipe on the uptake of institutional repositories the world over and an analysis of how an institutional repository could be used as a knowledge management tool was done. The researcher also conducted a situational analysis of the MSU institutional repository and assessed the impact of the digital repository on the visibility of the library. The author used the Webometrics Ranking of Universities in Zimbabwe to assess how universities are ranked in Zimbabwe.


Author(s):  
Mahmoud Abdelrahman ◽  
Firas Masri ◽  
Dimitra Skoumpopoulou

With the advent of the knowledge economy and the growing importance of knowledge societies, organizations are constantly seeking new ways of leveraging and sharing knowledge to support decision-making (DM) processes. This chapter presents an initial insight to the little-researched phenomenon of how knowledge management systems (KMSs) can facilitate knowledge sharing (KS) to support DM processes in organizations. In this chapter, authors aim to extend the existing literature of knowledge management, decision making, and knowledge sharing by proposing a new conceptual framework, namely “ECUA” (easiness, communication, unification, and analytics characteristics). In this study, 42 semi-structured interviews have been conducted. The proposed conceptual framework will benefit managers in both public and private sectors in finding new ways of leveraging and sharing knowledge to support DM processes via using KMSs. This framework can be used to explore KMSs characteristics that can support DM processes by facilitating knowledge sharing in organizations.


Author(s):  
Chun-Tsung Chen

This article intended to explore technological frames held by organisational group members that implicitly served to shape their interpretations of events to give meaning and deliver actions in knowledge management procedures. The research used the existing technological frame (Orlikowski & Gash, 1994) concept to interpret the social aspect of the problems associated with the introduction and utilisation of information technology in conducting knowledge management systems. This research was carried out in the context of four different industries in Taiwan and four cases based on each industry were chosen.


Author(s):  
Joowon Park ◽  
Sooran Jo ◽  
Junghoon Moon

Knowledge has been recognized as a valuable resource for organizational activities. As businesses are entering the world of Web 2.0, knowledge sharing is widely regarded as a critical issue in the area of organizational knowledge management (KM). Recently, organizations have started adopting blog-based knowledge management systems (KMS) with encouraging results. Used as a tool for sharing organizational knowledge, blogging can aggregate the intellectual power of individual members, serve as innovative KMS, and lead to the creation of a trust-based corporate culture. However, despite the increasing adoption of blogs by organizations, a theoretical framework for understanding a blog-based KMS has not been developed. This chapter attempts to present a framework for understanding a blog-based KMS in an organizational setting, grounded in a socio-psychological approach and the application of social identity and symbolic interaction theories.


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