Improvement of Organizational Knowledge Transfer through Integration of Functional Silos in Smart Network

This chapter presents the possibility for improving inter-organizational knowledge transfer in the public sector by implementing adequate organizational change through analysis of public enterprises in one European capital. The structure of public enterprises is often fragmented in groups of specialized companies. Internal organizational models of particular companies are most often functional organizational structure models. Functional organizations are characterized by formation of organizational silos, where knowledge, power, and information can often be trapped and secluded from other parts of organization, among other structural weaknesses. Further, isolated structures exist not only on the level of functions within single organizations but also between different public companies in the same municipality, in spite of common ownership. Thus, knowledge transfer is restrained, not just among functions in individual organizations, but also on even higher levels, among different companies. The main purpose of this chapter is to describe how introduction of smarter, networked organizational forms can reduce these barriers and enable knowledge transfer.

Developing a Framework of Human Resource Management, Organizational Learning, Knowledge Management Capability, and Organizational Performance

This chapter introduces the framework and the practical concepts of Human Resource Management (HRM), organizational learning, Knowledge Management Capability (KMC), and organizational performance. This chapter also explains the role of HRM, organizational learning, and KMC on organizational performance. The developed framework presents the relationship among the constructs (i.e., HRM, organizational learning, KMC, and organizational performance) and contributes toward a better understanding of the specific mechanisms through which HRM, organizational learning, and KMC positively influence organizational performance. HRM effectively acts as a trigger toward effective organizational learning and KMC processes, thus creating a valuable organizational performance. Organizational performance that can usually help to perform a task in an integrated manner is a source of sustainable competitive advantage. Understanding the role of HRM, organizational learning, KMC, and organizational performance through the framework will significantly enhance the organizational performance and achieve business goals in the modern business world.

SME Succession Planning and Knowledge Loss Assessment

The aging workforce will soon lead to a number of retirements in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) that cannot be compensated for by the decreasing pool of succeeding individuals. Consequently, SMEs need to find ways to cope with the demographic challenge and its possible consequences. Otherwise, its capability to act is at risk in situations when critical staff is leaving. This clearly illustrates the need for a proper succession planning. One that takes into consideration the knowledge at stake. The aim of this chapter is to draw attention to the danger of knowledge loss as a consequence of an aging workforce and to discuss three approaches SMEs can use to better understand the knowledge at risk. Set against the importance of SMEs in most of the world, the study´s results provide relevant insights into how to cope with knowledge at risk in order to secure the firms´ survivability.

Influences of Factors of Human Resources for Innovation in Services Companies

The chapter aims to understand how human factors influence and contribute to have an organizational climate conducive to creativity and innovation in service companies. The chapter also proposes an analytical framework to assess the influence of human resources, and understanding how they contribute to that has a climate conducive to innovation. The proposed methodology is the multiple case study and qualitative research in Brazilian companies. The analyses and discussions identify that conducting innovative decentralized actions may harm the process, and efficient management practices, such as the use of collaborative work, skills assessment, and identification of technology trends, assist in the innovation process.

Knowledge Management for the Development of a Smart Tourist Destination

This chapter presents, through a case analysis, the linking between knowledge management and the development of a smart tourist destination. The case here proposed, concerning the city of Prato, is an experimental project of the Region of Tuscany referring NECSTouR model (www.necstour.eu) for the implementation of a Tourism Observatory for competitiveness and sustainability of the destination. The aim of this chapter is to demonstrate how the Tourism Destination Observatory (TDO) is a knowledge management tool for the further development of tourism in this area, and how this could act as a driving force for the creation of a smart city. The methodology includes an original set of indicators on the sustainability and the competitiveness of tourist destinations, in a perspective of integrated and complementary measurements between tourist destination sustainability and city smartness. This may be a starting point for local government process.

Drivers of Innovation

Innovation helps organizations to grow. Growth, though measured in turnover and profit, can also occur in knowledge, experience, efficiency, and quality. Innovation is the process of making changes to existing, and it can be radical or incremental, applied to products, processes, or services. It can happen at all levels, from management teams to departments to individual. Various factors encourage and drive an organization to innovate. Each of these drivers demands continuity and learning. These drivers create a sense of urgency to create new organizational goals and generate new ideas for meeting these goals. The term innovation is often associated with products, but can also occur in processes that make products, services, or deliver products and services, including intangibles. This chapter focuses on innovation in the organizational context, describes concepts underlying innovation, and tries to understand the core of the innovation process: What drives innovation in organizations?

Intellectual Capital Measurement and Reporting Models

This chapter extends the earlier study of Bontis (2001) by critically reviewing the existing methods to measure and report intellectual capital. Bontis's (2001) study contributed significantly to the intellectual capital measurement and reporting literature. However, despite the growth in the field of IC and development and introduction of several new approaches to measure and report intellectual capital, no recent study has synthesized the IC measurement and reporting models. The objective of this chapter is to fill this gap in the literature by providing a critical review of 28 IC measurement models. To achieve this objective, the author partially adopts Sveiby's (2007) suggested classification scheme for categorizing the existing measurement models. The classification will enable the reader to uncover the common attributes of each model and to contrast the dissimilarities.

Knowledge Sharing Barriers in Procurement

This chapter introduces knowledge management as a means to analyse the process of knowledge sharing in organisations, specifically knowledge-sharing barriers faced by companies in procurement on the level of an individual employee, as well as at the level of an organisation. It argues that at the individual level knowledge sharing process is frequently hoarded by internal resistance, lack of trust, insufficient motivation, gap in awareness and knowledge, and at the organizational level, by bureaucracy and hierarchy, paradigm incoherency, lack or organisational reciprocity, absence of common legitimate language, organisational and national cultures, competition between the business units and departments, poor communication infrastructure, and localization. The chapter does not aspire to provide a complete list of the knowledge-sharing barriers faced by the companies within procurement but instead to draw attention to the complexity and problematic of the knowledge-transfer process. Awareness of the potential knowledge-sharing barriers allows the managers and companies to proactively respond to these challenges and develop solutions for a specific organisation.

Self-Organization as a Perspective for Organizational Learning

This chapter introduces the perspective of self-organization for organizational learning. Using the perspective of organizations as actor networks in which common activities are established through the connected behaviour of individual actors, it argues that organizational learning entails altered and different behaviour on the part of actors, leading to alterations in the ways in which individual behaviour is interconnected. Organizational learning is fuelled by ambiguity perceived by the organization's actors who try to make “sense” of their surroundings, when they observe it, grapple with it, grasp it, and manipulate it. In this chapter, the author elaborates on the implications of this perspective for organizational learning and the learning practitioner in the role of leader.

A Descriptive Study of Intellectual Capital in SMEs Operating in Electrical and Electronics Manufacturing Sector in Malaysia

The aim of this chapter is to find the existence of the components of intellectual capital in SMEs operating in the electrical and electronics manufacturing sector in Malaysia. To find the objective of this study, a valid research instrument was established to conduct a survey of 237 from 77 SMEs operating in Penang and Selangor. A descriptive statistical analysis was conducted to explore the existence of the six components of intellectual capital, namely human capital, customer capital, structural capital, social capital, technological capital, and spiritual capital in SMEs operating in the electrical and electronics manufacturing sector. The results reveal that the respondents of Malaysian SMEs perceive that the six components of intellectual capital play a pivotal role in competitive advantage and superior performance.