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

The corporation of the 1990s: Information technology and organizational transformation

1. Introduction to Learning and Instruction. SECTION I: LEARNING. 2. Learning to Read Fluently. 3. Learning to Read for Comprehension. 4. Learning to Write. 5. Learning Mathematics. 6. Learning Science. SECTION II: INSTRUCTION. 7. Teaching by Giving Productive Feedback. 8. Teaching by Providing Concreteness, Activity, and Familiarity. 9. Teaching by Explaining Examples. 10. Teaching by Guiding Cognitive Processes during Learning. 11. Teaching by Fostering Learning Strategies. 12. Teaching by Fostering Problem-Solving Strategies. 13. Teaching by Creating Cognitive Apprenticeship in Classrooms. 14. Teaching by Priming Students' Motivation to Learn. References. Author Index. Subject Index.

Learning and Instruction

Costs and benefits.

Like the clothes in their suitcases, the technologies students bring to campus change every year. Occasionally, the change can be dramatic. It’s hard to believe, but when the college seniors we surveyed for this year’s study began their education four years ago, netbooks, iPhones, and the Nintendo Wii had yet to hit the market. When they went home for the holidays during their freshman year, some returned with a brand new game called Guitar Hero for the PlayStation 2, and some may have been lucky enough to score a $250 4-GB iPod nano or an ultrathin digital camera. Today’s freshmen have mobile phones that hold more songs than that 4-GB nano, and they can use them to take digital photos and videos of the same quality as the $400 camera today’s seniors got for their high school graduation.

The ECAR Study of Undergraduate Students and Information Technology, 2009—Key Findings

Recent emergencies have shown the positive impact of using social media and social networks for communicating and exchanging information. Citizens and authorities can make safer decisions during emergencies based on the real-time information available on social media. Decision-making starts with information gathering and social media provides the opportunity to inform multiple citizens at once. However, message and source uncertainty can place emergency stakeholders in a risky position, as it is not always possible to know if messages are accurate, rumours or even malicious. Current approaches for social media information verification focuses on technical resources like analytical packages. Little research has been developed to provide citizens and field workers with tools to evaluate social media information. This paper presents research in progress for developing a verification framework – for all emergency stakeholders – to support their decision-making process by managing social media uncertai...

Managing social media uncertainty to support the decision making process during Emergencies

Organizational change in today's competitive landscape is no longer just an option, but a fundamental strategy for success. In order to be the premier player in this type of competitive landscape, customer focus has to become a priority, and bearing this in mind both academia and competitive organizations have one key objective in common. Their current focus is on implementing successful support systems in order to meet their end-users' needs. As early as 1995, University College Cork (a Third-level Irish university) introduced on-line support to provide learning material for students ranging from full/part-time undergraduates and postgraduates to distance-learners. However, students identified a need for more support, the type that only a more interactive system can provide. This paper focuses on the evolution of e-learning and learning management systems (LMS) in considering e-learning as the academic equivalent to the customer relationship management (CRM) challenge. This research outlines the different characteristics necessary for the successful management of the learning process and the support needed by students, through the investigation of current research and the analysis of the case environment. It also highlights the potential of the system to overcome the physical barriers of the traditional classroom aligning the key critical factors necessary for e-learning with those of CRM. Through the adoption of the CRM philosophy, the system presented here strengthened its link between the different actors and additionally provided the university with a more in-depth view of its target audience.

A Case in Customizing E-Learning:

“Social media is now the most efficient method of delivering emergency response messages in a contemporary urban crisis scenario. In the immediate aftermath of an event, valuable spatially-related information can often be difficult to pinpoint in the melee of unhelpful or speculative social media ‘noise’. This paper explores the increasing need to be first, right and credible in the midst of unverified, speculative reports. Social media has changed the meaning of public participation and crisis response teams must now utilise the most popular media platforms to gain a foothold within the confusion of an unfolding catastrophic event Original research carried out by University College, Cork as part of the EU-funded S-HELP (Securing Health, Emergency, Learning, Planning) FP7 project has identified that in the 18 to 21-year-old age group, 33% would rely on social media as their initial source of information during a large-scale crisis event. A further 33% identified digital media news outlets as their...

Communication in a disaster - the development of a crisis communication tool within the S-HELP project

Developing decision support systems for emergency situations is a complex and challenging task. These difficulties are compounded further in the case of cross-border emergencies, which often requir...

Towards the development of a decision support system for multi-agency decision-making during cross-border emergencies

In an economic environment where organizations have been forced to take a step back and reevaluate their core competencies and ability to innovate, organizational knowledge has come to the forefront as a valuable strategic asset (Haghirian, 2003). While the concept of knowledge management (KM) is not new, the focus on knowledge management as a strategy has increased in recent times as organizations realize the importance of knowledge as an intangible asset contributing to the enhancement of competitive advantage (Bolloju, 2000). In the 21st century, it is believed that successful companies are those that effectively acquire, create, retain, deploy, and leverage knowledge (Cecez-Kecmanovic, 2000). Knowledge work is the ability to create an understanding of nature, organizations, and processes, and to apply this understanding as a means of generating wealth in the organization (Boland & Tenkasi, 1995). Evidently, the focus on knowledge management as a strategy has become central to organizations (Davenport & Prusak, 1998). Ichijo, Von Krogh, and Nonaka (1998) view knowledge as a resource that is unique and imperfectly imitable, allowing firms to sustain a competitive advantage. Additionally, knowledge management as a formalized organizational strategy is supported; it should not be left unintentional to become unsystematic and random (Ichijo et al.). This article provides an example of knowledge workers and experts collaborating to implement successful training and learning programmes to support knowledgemanagement activities in their organization. The authors hope that the case discussed will inform researchers of an appropriate model in designing an interactive learning environment that enables a positive knowledge-sharing environment and in turn contributes to the growth of an organization’s memory.

Karen Neville

Papers

Managing social media uncertainty to support the decision making process during Emergencies

A Case in Customizing E-Learning:

Communication in a disaster - the development of a crisis communication tool within the S-HELP project

Towards the development of a decision support system for multi-agency decision-making during cross-border emergencies

Mentoring Knowledge Workers