How Should Students Prepare for Exams

This study identifies the key best practices College Students should utilize from a knowledge management perspective in order to best prepare for mid-term or final exams. This study also ascertains whether all stages of the knowledge cycle are required in order to achieve success. Data was collected from both subject matter experts and students in regards to exam preparation. The findings suggest that knowledge management may be a useful framework to identify both threshold and exceptional behaviours required to achieve knowledge based goals or outcomes. The findings of this study also provide some validation regarding a methodology which can be used in organizations to identify key best practices related to knowledge management.

Team Learning and Reflexivity in Technology-Mediated Collaboration

This study examines technological, educational/learning, and social affordances associated with the facilitation of team learning during technology-mediated collaborative problem solving. An empirical interpretive research approach using direct observation is used to interpret, evaluate and rate observable manifested behaviors and qualitative content (i.e., discussions) associated with team learning and team reflexivity. The theory of affordances and social impact theory are integrated to develop a conceptual model that asserts that collaboration mode (collocated vs. non-collocated and videoconferencing supported) will dictate the quality of information exchange, progressive elaboration of ideas, and the social processes that influence team learning. Team learning is then suggested to give rise to task and social reflexivity behaviors aimed at monitoring and evaluating acquired understanding, adaptation of task strategy, and maintenance of quality intra-team interactions. Results showed that collocated teams did engage in better quality team learning behaviors. Further, persistent reflection on task progress and solution accuracy yielded better team productivity while maintenance of a mutual supportive and positive climate yielded higher perceived quality interpersonal interactions. Theoretical, methodological and practical implications of the study are also discussed.

Merging Controlled Vocabularies for More Efficient Subject-Based IR Systems

One of the most important tasks of a librarian is the assignment of appropriate subject(s) to a resource within a library’s collection. The subjects usually belong to a controlled vocabulary that is specifically designed for such a task. The most widely adopted controlled vocabulary across libraries around the world is the Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH). However, there seems to be a shifting from traditional LCSH to modern thesauri. In this paper, a methodology is proposed, capable of incorporating thesauri into existing LCSH-based Information Retrieval–IR systems. In order to achieve this, a mapping methodology is proposed capable of providing a common structure consisting of terms belonging to LCSH and/or a thesaurus. The structure is modeled as a Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) ontology, which can be employed by appropriate subject-based IR systems. As a proof of concept, the proposed methodology is applied to the DSpace-based University of Piraeus digital library.

KM Approach for Improving the Labor Productivity of Vietnamese Enterprise

In knowledge society, knowledge management (KM) is considered the best strategy for improving the labor productivity of an enterprise. However, the effectiveness of KM on labor productivity is not known exactly, especially since it depends on the development level of a country. To find a solution based on KM approach for improving the labor productivity of Vietnamese enterprise, a new model is proposed, which includes knowledge capability, technology capability, KM, employee satisfaction, and labor productivity. By analyzing data from Vietnamese enterprises, the model is tested and suggestions for improving the labor productivity of Vietnamese enterprises are made. Some results of data analysis are: employee satisfaction positively affects the labor productivity and that KM has a strong effect on employee satisfaction. Further, some suggestions for improving the labor productivity of Vietnamese enterprises are: organizing frequent meetings for shortening cultural gap between managers and employees, replacing old machines combined with improving employees’ self learning skill, improving innovation capability by creating an open culture for encouraging employees to voice their opinions.

The Practice of Jordanian Business to Attain Customer Knowledge Acquisition

This paper examines how Jordanian companies use the knowledge process to support Customer Knowledge Acquisition (CKA) and how they foster it. The empirical study is based on a sample of the data collected from 156 respondents, drawn randomly from three software business solution companies working in the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) area, and four companies which are employing the CRM system. The results show that the three selected factors (need for Customer Knowledge, Verify Customer Source, and Capture Customer Knowledge) have a significant impact on customer acquisition. However, the source identification of knowledge is not significant in Jordanian business software environments. The empirical findings will help both researchers and practitioners in future Knowledge Management (KM) and Customer Acquisition research to gain a better understanding of the knowledge processes about customers on Customer Acquisition. This paper provides a contribution to the literature about Customer Knowledge Acquisition in one of the developing countries as a framework to keep organizations competitive within the global business environment.

A Knowledge Management Tool for the Interconnection of Communities of Practice

In their daily practice, practitioners belong to local communities of practice (CoPs) within their organisation. This knowledge is rarely capitalised upon because discussions are mainly verbal. Practitioners can also belong to general CoPs online. Within these general CoPs, discussions are rarely linked to the context in which they appeared, since the members are from different companies or institutions. This paper (1) connects these two levels of CoPs by contacting practitioners belonging to CoPs centred on the same general activity but who are geographically distributed and (2) capitalises on the produced knowledge by contextualising, allowing it to be accessible and reusable by all the members. The authors detail the main results of the research: (1) a model of the interconnection of CoPs (ICP) to support knowledge sharing and dissemination; and (2) a specific knowledge management tool for the ICP knowledge base. The authors apply the model and platform to university tutors by: (1) developing a use case, which links the model and the TE-Cap 2 platform and highlights the new possibilities offered by the knowledge management tool; and (2) conducting a descriptive investigation lasting for five months.

Valuing Knowledge-Based Initiatives

The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the current state of theory and practice on valuing Knowledge-Based Initiatives (KBI). Drawing on the literature concerning IT and business value, this paper summarizes what is known about valuing IT-based initiatives, discusses the specificity of KBI and outline main challenges that continue to limit research in this area. This paper also examines how managers deal with these challenges and what metrics they use to assess knowledge value. These managerial insights are derived from interviews as well as empirical analysis of several Silicon Valley firms. This paper gives an emerging approach for valuing KBI and illustrates its implementation with a case study from IBM.

Measuring Knowledge Management/Knowledge Sharing (KM/KS) Efficiency and Effectiveness in Enterprise Networks

Knowledge Management (KM) is critical in ensuring process efficiency, outcome effectiveness and improved organizational memory for the modern day business enterprises. Knowledge Sharing (KS) is fast becoming a rapidly growing area of interest in the domain of knowledge management. The purpose of this paper is to enlist a set of generalized metrics that can be used to evaluate the efficiency and the effectiveness of knowledge sharing in an enterprise network. The metrics proposed in this research are those that can be readily measured by various types of enterprise knowledge sharing systems, and link usage information to organizational outputs. The paper uses an illustrative case example of how an enterprise might make use of the metrics in measuring the efficiency and effectiveness of its knowledge sharing system.

Community-Based Development of Knowledge Products

International organizations and government agencies have developed and collected a wealth of knowledge resources relevant to poor communities; however, the people who need these resources most often do not know these materials exist or are unable to access or understand them. Electronic sources of knowledge materials and means of communication are rarely integrated with traditional methods of knowledge delivery. This paper addresses the issue of knowledge sharing with poor communities and presents a software tool for developing multimedia knowledge materials suitable for people with little or no formal education. A multimedia editor uses a data structure composed of multimedia objects (texts, images, video, and audio clips) to generate the knowledge browser. Local specialists with a basic knowledge of computing can modify and customize how the knowledge is presented by adding new materials relevant to the local environment.

Impact of Knowledge Management Dimensions on Learning Organization

Knowledge and knowledge driven learning determines the organizational ability to achieve sustainable competitive advantage. To excel in business, organizations need to develop processes that facilitate streamline information flow resulting in enhanced learning. This paper investigates the learning capabilities demonstrated by Indian organizations and for the differences between business excellence awarded and non-awarded organizations. This paper examines the impact of Knowledge Management (KM) dimensions on Learning Organization (LO) and tests if the impact is significantly different for these groups. A convenience sample of 57 executives from 16 Indian organizations participated in the study. The results show that organizations awarded for business excellence fare better on all items of LO as compared to non-awarded ones. However, statistical difference is found only in Vision and Strategy and Performance Improvement Process. The results show that most of the KM dimensions have a positive impact on LO dimensions.