Knowledge is a broad and abstract notion that has defined epistemological debate in western philosophy since the classical Greek era. In the past few years, however, there has been a growing interest in treating knowledge as a significant organizational resource. Consistent with the interest in organizational knowledge and knowledge management (KM), IS researchers have begun promoting a class of information systems, referred to as knowledge management systems (KMS). The objective of KMS is to support creation, transfer, and application of knowledge in organizations. Knowledge and knowledge management are complex and multi-faceted concepts. Thus, effective development and implementation of KMS requires a foundation in several rich literatures.

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Review: Knowledge management and knowledge management systems: conceptual foundations and research issues

How has Japan become a major economic power, a world leader in the automotive and electronics industries? What is the secret of their success? The consensus has been that, though the Japanese are not particularly innovative, they are exceptionally skilful at imitation, at improving products that already exist. But now two leading Japanese business experts, Ikujiro Nonaka and Hiro Takeuchi, turn this conventional wisdom on its head: Japanese firms are successful, they contend, precisely because they are innovative, because they create new knowledge and use it to produce successful products and technologies. Examining case studies drawn from such firms as Honda, Canon, Matsushita, NEC, 3M, GE, and the U.S. Marines, this book reveals how Japanese companies translate tacit to explicit knowledge and use it to produce new processes, products, and services.

The knowledge-creating company : how Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation

How to ... be a reflective practitioner.

Organizations are attempting to leverage their knowledge resources by employing knowledge management (KM) systems, a key form of which are electronic knowledge repositories (EKRs). A large number of KM initiatives fail due to the reluctance of employees to share knowledge through these systems. Motivated by such concerns, this study formulates and tests a theoretical model to explain EKR usage by knowledge contributors. The model employs social exchange theory to identify cost and benefit factors affecting EKR usage, and social capital theory to account for the moderating influence of contextual factors. The model is validated through a large-scale survey of public sector organizations. The results reveal that knowledge self-efficacy and enjoyment in helping others significantly impact EKR usage by knowledge contributors. Contextual factors (generalized trust, pro-sharing norms, and identification) moderate the impact of codification effort, reciprocity, and organizational reward on EKR usage, respectively. It can be seen that extrinsic benefits (reciprocity and organizational reward) impact EKR usage contingent on particular contextual factors whereas the effects of intrinsic benefits (knowledge self-efficacy and enjoyment in helping others) on EKR usage are not moderated by contextual factors. The loss of knowledge power and image do not appear to impact EKR usage by knowledge contributors. Besides contributing to theory building in KM, the results of this study inform KM practice.

Contributing knowledge to electronic knowledge repositories: an empirical investigation

While the study of psychology has offered little in the way of explaining the creative process, Koestler examines the idea that we are at our most creative when rational thought is suspended--for example, in dreams and trancelike states. All who read The Act of Creation will find it a compelling and illuminating book.

The Act of Creation

Preservation of organizational memory becomes increasingly important to organizations as it is recognized that experiential knowledge is a key to competitiveness. With the development and widespread availability of advanced information technologies IT, information systems become a vital part of this memory. We analyze existing conceptualizations and task-specific instances of IT-supported organizational memory. We then develop a model for an organizational memory information system OMIS that is rooted in the construct of organizational effectiveness. The framework offers four subsystems that support activities leading to organizational effectiveness. These subsystems rest on the foundation of five mnemonic functions that provide for acquisition, retention, maintenance, search, and retrieval of information. We then identify the factors that will limit the success of OMIS implementation, although full treatment of this issue is outside the scope of the paper. To initiate a research agenda on OMIS, we propose an initial contingency framework for OMIS development depending on the organization's environment and its life-cycle stage, and discuss the relationships between an OMIS and organizational learning and decision making.

Actualizing Organizational Memory with Information Systems

Organization memory: Review of concepts and recommendations for management

Theorizing about communication media attitudes and behaviors has drawn upon multiple theories (e.g., media richness, social influence). But these theories have often been pitted against each other rather than considered as complementary in more comprehensive studies. Furthermore, previous research has tended to focus more on newer communication media such as electronic mail rather than more traditional media. Finally, communication media research has studied attitudes toward media, use of media, and only occasionally media choice. Yet, all three dependent variables are important.This comprehensive survey hypothesized and tested multiple influences (based on multiple theories) in a study of media attitudes and behaviors. The media included electronic mail, fax, letters, and face-to-face meetings. The outcomes included media choice (an individual's decision to use a medium in a particular communication incident), media use (an individual's general pattern of use over time), and media attitudes (an individual's general subjective evaluation of media).Results suggested that a number of factors differentiated among media choices, including medium symbolism, message equivocality, distance between message partners, perceived media richness, number of message recipients, and perceived message recipients' attitudes. General attitudes toward the different media were influenced most consistently by perceived medium richness. New media attitudes were also influenced by person/technology interaction factors. General medium use was influenced by different factors for the different media.The results generally supported a comprehensive theoretical approach to understanding media attitudes and behaviors. All of the theories have some merit in explaining media attitudes and behaviors. But different factors, derived from different theories, were more important in accounting for each of the dependent variables--media choices, attitudes, and use. We hope that this investigation will help research in this area move toward the development of more integrative theoretical models.

Making Connections: Complementary Influences on Communication Media Choices, Attitudes, and Use

The purpose of this research was to develop a model for decision-makers to rank various renewable and non-renewable electricity production technologies according to multiple criteria. The model ranks electric power plants using wind, solar, geothermal, biomass, hydropower (i.e., renewable sources), nuclear, oil, natural gas and coal in terms of four comprehensive criteria clusters: financial, technical, environmental and socio-economic-political. The model was built using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) with empirical data from government and academic sources. The results indicate that wind, solar, hydropower and geothermal provide significantly more overall benefits than the rest even when the weights of the primary criteria clusters are adjusted during sensitivity analysis. The only non-renewable sources that appear in three of the 20 top rank positions are gas and oil, while the rest are populated with renewable energy technologies. These results have implications for policy development and for decision makers in the public and private sectors. One conclusion is that financial incentives for solar, wind, hydropower and geothermal are sound and should be expanded. Conversely, subsidies for non-renewable sources could be diminished. The work concludes with ideas for future research such as exploring a full range of sensitivity analyses to help determine an optimal mix of renewable and non-renewable technologies for an overall energy system. The scope of the model could also be expanded to include demand as well supply side factors.

A comprehensive multi-criteria model to rank electric energy production technologies

Higher-order organizational learning occurs when a company adopts new principles, assumptions, and paradigms, which often turn into competitive advantage. Systems development and implementation offer an opportunity for higher-order organizational learning that is rarely exploited. Advanced information systems, in particular expert systems (ES) and executive information systems (EIS), provide ample opportunities for higher-order organizational learning if the development process is structured in certain ways. This work includes an analysis of three organizations in terms of project outcomes, organizational learning outcomes, and organizational performance. On the basis of these assessments, five critical success factors are identified that may contribute to organizational learning during advanced system development. The relationships between these factors and organizational outcomes are summarized in a preliminary model that can form the basis for future research. The work closes with some recommendations for ways information systems managers can encourage higher-order organizational learning during advanced system development.

Eric W. Stein

Papers

Actualizing Organizational Memory with Information Systems

Organization memory: Review of concepts and recommendations for management

Making Connections: Complementary Influences on Communication Media Choices, Attitudes, and Use

A comprehensive multi-criteria model to rank electric energy production technologies

Organizational learning during advanced system development: opportunities and obstacles