Showing papers on "Domain knowledge published in 2001"

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

Abstract: 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.

Knowledge Management: An Organizational Capabilities Perspective

Abstract: A hallmark of the new economy is the ability of organizations to realize economic value from their collection of knowledge assets as well as their assets of information, production distribution, and affiliation. Despite the competitive necessity of becoming a knowledge-based organization, senior managers have found it difficult to transform their firms through programs of knowledge management. This is particularly true if their organizations have long histories of process and a tradition of business success. This research examines the issue of effective knowledge management from the perspective of organizational capabilities. This perspective suggests that a knowledge infrastructure consisting of technology, structure, and culture along with a knowledge process architecture of acquisition, conversion, application, and protection are essential organizational capabilities or “preconditions” for effective knowledge management. Through analysis of surveys collected from over 300 senior executives, this research empirically models and uncovers key aspects of these dimensions. The results provide a basis for understanding the competitive predisposition of a firm as it enters a program of knowledge management.

Introduction to Multiagent Systems

Abstract: From the Publisher: An agent is an entity with domain knowledge, goals and actions. Multi-agent systems are a set of agents which interact in a common environment. Multi-agent systems deal with the construction of complex systems involving multiple agents and their coordination. A multi-agent system (MAS) is a distributed computing system with autonomous interacting intelligent agents that coordinate their actions so as to achieve its goal(s) jointly or competitively.

Knowledge management in organizations: examining the interaction between technologies, techniques, and people

Abstract: Argues that the knowledge management process can be categorized into knowledge creation, knowledge validation, knowledge presentation, knowledge distribution, and knowledge application activities. To capitalize on knowledge, an organization must be swift in balancing its knowledge management activities. In general, such a balancing act requires changes in organizational culture, technologies, and techniques. A number of organizations believe that by focusing exclusively on people, technologies, or techniques, they can manage knowledge. However, that exclusive focus on people, technologies, or techniques does not enable a firm to sustain its competitive advantages. It is, rather, the interaction between technology, techniques, and people that allow an organization to manage its knowledge effectively. By creating a nurturing and “learning‐by‐doing” kind of environment, an organization can sustain its competitive advantages.

What is Organizational Knowledge

Abstract: Organizational knowledge is much talked about but little understood. In this paper we set out to conceptualize organizational knowledge and explore its implications for knowledge management. We take on board Polanyi’s insight concerning the personal character of knowledge and fuse it with Wittgenstein’s insight that all knowledge is, in a fundamental way, collective. We do this in order to show, on the one hand, how individuals appropriate knowledge and expand their knowledge repertoires, and, on the other hand, how knowledge, in organized contexts, becomes organizational. Our claim is that knowledge is the individual capability to draw distinctions, within a domain of action, based on an appreciation of context or theory, or both. Organizational knowledge is the capability members of an organization have developed to draw distinctions in the process of carrying out their work, in particular concrete contexts, by enacting sets of generalizations whose application depends on historically evolved collective understandings. Following our theoretical exploration of organizational knowledge, we report the findings of a case study carried out at a call centre in Panafon, in Greece. Finally, we explore the implications of our argument by focusing on the links between knowledge and action on the one hand, and the management of organizational knowledge on the other. We argue that practical mastery needs to be supplemented by a quasi-theoretical understanding of what individuals are doing when they exercise that mastery, and this is what knowledge management should be aiming at. Knowledge management, we suggest, is the dynamic process of turning an unreflective practice into a reflective one by elucidating the rules guiding the activities of the practice, by helping give a particular shape to collective understandings, and by facilitating the emergence of heuristic knowledge.

Toward a Theory of Knowledge Reuse: Types of Knowledge Reuse Situations and Factors in Reuse Success

Abstract: This paper represents a step toward a theory of knowledge reusability with emphasis on knowledge management systems and repositories, often called organizational memory systems. Synthesis of evidence from a wide variety of sources suggests four distinct types of knowledge reuse situations according to the knowledge reuser and the purpose of knowledge reuse. The types involve shared work producers, who produce knowledge they later reuse; shared work practitioners, who reuse each other's knowledge contributions; expertise-seeking novices; and secondary knowledge miners. Each type of knowledge reuser has different requirements for knowledge repositories. Owing to how repositories are created, reusers'requirements often remain unmet. Repositories often require considerable rework to be useful for new reusers, but knowledge producers rarely have the resources and incentives to do a good job of repurposing knowledge. Solutions include careful use of incentives and human and technical intermediaries.

General Perspectives on Knowledge Management: Fostering a Research Agenda

Abstract: We trace in pragmatic terms some of what we know about knowledge, information technology, knowledge management practice and research, and provide two complementary frameworks that highlight potential opportunities for building a research agenda in this area. The papers in this special issue are then discussed.

The role of tacit and explicit knowledge in the workplace

Abstract: Knowledge plays a key role in the information revolution. Major challenges are to select the “right” information from numerous sources and transform it into useful knowledge. Tacit knowledge based on common sense, and explicit knowledge based on academic accomplishment are both underutilized. Ways knowledge‐enabled organizations acquire, measure, teach, share and apply knowledge are discussed and illustrated. Methods to balance the use tacit and explicit knowledge at work and practical, proven ways to improve the understanding and use of knowledge are presented. Organizations must begin to create worker‐centered environments to encourage the open sharing and use of all forms of knowledge.

Knowledge processes and ontologies

Abstract: In this article, we present an approach for ontology-based knowledge management (KM) that includes a tool suite and a methodology for developing ontology-based KM systems. It builds on the distinction between knowledge processes and knowledge metaprocesses, and is illustrated by CHAR (Corporate History AnalyzeR), a KM system for corporate history analysis.

Understanding the influence of organizational change strategies on information technology and knowledge management strategies

Abstract: While discussion about knowledge management often centers around how knowledge may best be codified into an explicit format for use in decision support or expert systems, some knowledge best serves the organization when it is kept in tacit form. We draw upon the resource-based view to identify how information technology can best be used during different types of strategic change. Specifically, we suggest that different change strategies focus on different combinations of tacit and explicit knowledge that make certain types of information technology more appropriate in some situations than in others.

The knowledge management puzzle: human and social factors in knowledge management

Abstract: Knowledge management is often seen as a problem of capturing, organizing, and retrieving information, evoking notions of data mining, text clustering, databases, and documents. We believe that this view is too simple. Knowledge is inextricably bound up with human cognition, and the management of knowledge occurs within an intricately structured social context. We argue that it is essential for those designing knowledge management systems to consider the human and social factors at play in the production and use of knowledge. We review work—ranging from basic research to applied techniques—that emphasizes cognitive and social factors in knowledge management. We then describe two approaches to designing socially informed knowledge management systems, social computing and knowledge socialization.

Knowledge and Value Creation in Professional Service Firms: A Framework for Analysis

Abstract: This article presents a comprehensive framework for the analysis of value creation and knowledge development in general and, in particular, for professional service firms (PSFs). The framework integrates the relationship between the domain choice and the resource (or knowledge) base, and argues that the bridge between the two is best explained as value creation processes (VCPs) with two interrelated dimensions: direct value creation for the clients, and indirect value creation in terms of enhancing the knowledge base.

Organizational knowledge resources

Abstract: Decision-making episodes are knowledge intensive processes, operating on and adding to organizational knowledge resources. Decision support systems (DSS) perform some of the knowledge management (KM) that is integral to these episodes. Interest in the field of KM, among both practitioners and researchers has mushroomed in the late 1990s. Initiatives that aim to deliberately, explicitly manage organizations' knowledge resources have become commonplace. A basic prerequisite for fully understanding how an organization can, could, or should conduct KM is an appreciation of the kinds of knowledge resources it has. In this paper, a framework of knowledge resources is introduced, focusing on identifying and organizing basic classes of knowledge resources, and supplemented by the identification of attribute dimensions for characterizing knowledge across these classes. Developed via a Delphi methodology involving an international panel of practitioners and researchers, this framework is assessed as being relatively successful in terms of completeness, accuracy, clarity, and conciseness criteria. The result is a basis for investigating effects of alternative knowledge resource portfolios, and for studying how an organization does, could, or should conduct its KM — including its decision-making episodes.

Key Issues in the New Knowledge Management

Abstract: Table of Contents Preface Acknowledgements Introduction: What is The New Knowledge Management and What are Its Key Issues What is The New Knowledge Management? What are its issues? Who this book is for How to use this book Chapter 1 The Knowledge Conundrum Introduction On Definition Definitions of knowledge World 2 definitions World 3 definitions Data, information, knowledge, and wisdom World 3 data, information, knowledge and wisdom World 2 data, information, and knowledge Tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge Polanyi, implicit knowledge and Popper Individual level world 2 knowledge and motivational hierarchies Different types of knowledge Conclusion References Chapter 2 Origin of The Knowledge Life Cycle The Organizational Learning (OLC)/Decision Execution Cycle (DEC) New problems, Double-Loop Learning (DLL) and Popper's tetradic schema Learning and knowledge production: combining Argyris/Schon and Popper A transactional systems model of agent interaction The motivational hierarchy Aspects of motivational behavior in the transactional system Sense making in the transactional system The Knowledge Life Cycle (KLC): the expression of a change in instrumental motivation Conclusion References Chapter 3 Information Management and Knowledge Management Introduction: approach to KM Complex adaptive systems The Natural Knowledge Processing System (NKPS) Hierarchical vs. organic KM Some definitions of knowledge management Information management and knowledge management Knowledge processing and information processing Definition and specification of knowledge management Levels of knowledge management Breadth of KM processes Targets of knowledge management Social and technological, policy and program interventions The classification of KM activities More on how information management differs from knowledge management Conclusion References Chapter 4 Generations of Knowledge Management Three views of change in knowledge management The three stages of knowledge management Difficulties with the three stages view The two ages of knowledge management (with a third yet to come) Difficulties with the two ages view The two generations of knowledge management Snowden's forecast? A third age of KM KM and scientific management KM, content management and context Knowledge: process or outcome? Sense-making, complex adaptive systems, and the third age The Cynefin model and its problems Cynefin conclusions Conclusion: the three stages, the three ages, the two generations and comparative frameworks References Chapter 5 Knowledge Claim Evaluation: The Forgotten Factor in Knowledge Production Introduction Where Knowledge Claim Evaluation fits into knowledge production The kind of knowledge produced by Knowledge Claim Evaluation A framework for describing Knowledge Claim Evaluation Knowledge Claim Evaluation: specific An approach to evaluating Knowledge Claim Evaluation and knowledge claims Success criteria for Knowledge Claim Evaluation Realizing KCE effectiveness: the theory of fair comparison Knowledge Claim Evaluation software Key use cases in KCE software Structural features of KCE software Conclusion: significance and questions References Appendix to Chapter 5 Two Formal Approaches to Measuring "Truthlikeness" Introduction An AHP-based ratio scaling approach A fuzzy measurement model to "truthlikeness" Other approaches to combining criterion attributes of "truthlikeness" References Chapter 6 Applications of The Knowledge Life Cycle (KLC) Framework Introduction The Knowledge Life Cycle (KLC) KM strategy formulation KM and knowledge audits Modeling, predicting, forecasting, simulating, impact analysis, and evaluation Metrics segmentation Sustainable innovation Methodology IT requirements Intellectual Capital Education and training The Open Enterprise New value propositions for KM Conclusion References Chapter 7 KM As Best Practices Systems - Where's The Context? Best Practice: the lack of context problem Knowledge claims Meta-claims as context A better way Meta-claims in action Conclusion References Chapter 8 What Comes First: KM or Strategy? Introduction Biased methodologies The strategy exception Strategy and the New KM Where KM belongs Conclusion References Chapter 9 KM and Culture Introduction Alternative definitions of culture Culture or something else? What is culture and how does it fit with other factors influencing behavior? Do global properties exist? Culture and knowledge Conclusion: culture and Knowledge Management References Chapter 10 A Note on Intellectual Capital Introduction Social Innovation Capital False linearity A false orientation Two systems, not one Conclusion References Chapter 11 Conclusion Vision of The New Knowledge Management The New Knowledge Management Landscape More on defining knowledge The origin of the KLC Knowledge process management and information management Supply- and demand-side knowledge processing Meta-claims and Best Practices Knowledge Claim Evaluation The centrality of the Knowledge Life Cycle KM and strategy KM and culture The Open Enterprise Intellectual Capital Information Technology and the new KM The Future of the new KM SECI model The EKP Framework for analysis of KM software Role of credit assignment systems in KM software TNKM metrics TNKM and Terrorism The Open Enterprise, again Communities of Inquiry (CoI) KM methodology Value Theory in KM The New KM and KM Standards References Index About the Authors

Techniques for Plan Recognition

Abstract: Knowing a user's plans and goals can significantly improve the effectiveness of an interactive system. However, recognizing such goals and the user's intended plan for achieving them is not an easy task. Although much research has dealt with representing the knowledge necessary for plan inference and developing strategies that hypothesize the user's evolving plans, a number of serious problems still impede the use of plan recognition in large-scale, real-world applications. This paper describes the various approaches that have been taken to plan inference, along with techniques for dealing with ambiguity, robustness, and representation of requisite domain knowledge, and discusses areas for further research.

Generalized feature extraction for structural pattern recognition in time-series data

Abstract: Pattern recognition encompasses two fundamental tasks: description and classification. Given an object to analyze, a pattern recognition system first generates a description of it (i.e., the pattern) and then classifies the object based on that description (i.e., the recognition). Two general approaches for implementing pattern recognition systems, statistical and structural, employ different techniques for description and classification. Statistical approaches to pattern recognition use decision-theoretic concepts to discriminate among objects belonging to different groups based upon their quantitative features. Structural approaches to pattern recognition use syntactic grammars to discriminate among objects belonging to different groups based upon the arrangement of their morphological (i.e., shape-based or structural) features. Hybrid approaches to pattern recognition combine aspects of both statistical and structural pattern recognition. Structural pattern recognition systems are difficult to apply to new domains because implementation of both the description and classification tasks requires domain knowledge. Knowledge acquisition techniques necessary to obtain domain knowledge from experts are tedious and often fail to produce a complete and accurate knowledge base. Consequently, applications of structural pattern recognition have been primarily restricted to domains in which the set of useful morphological features has been established in the literature (e.g., speech recognition and character recognition) and the syntactic grammars can be composed by hand (e.g., electrocardiogram diagnosis). To overcome this limitation, a domain-independent approach to structural pattern recognition is needed that is capable of extracting morphological features and performing classification without relying on domain knowledge. A hybrid system that employs a statistical classification technique to perform discrimination based on structural features is a natural solution. While a statistical classifier is inherently domain independent, the domain knowledge necessary to support the description task can be eliminated with a set of generally-useful morphological features. Such a set of morphological features is suggested as the foundation for the development of a suite of structure detectors to perform generalized feature extraction for structural pattern recognition in time-series data. The ability of the suite of structure detectors to generate features useful for structural pattern recognition is evaluated by comparing the classification accuracies achieved when using the structure detectors versus commonly-used statistical feature extractors. Two real-world databases with markedly different characteristics and established ground truth serve as sources of data for the evaluation. The classification accuracies achieved using the features extracted by the structure detectors were consistently as good as or better than the classification accuracies achieved when using the features generated by the statistical feature extractors, thus demonstrating that the suite of structure detectors effectively performs generalized feature extraction for structural pattern recognition in time-series data.

Managerial concerns in knowledge management

Abstract: Knowledge differs markedly from information and data. At rock bottom, knowledge is socially constructed in discourse communities. Because knowledge is not synonymous with information, IT cannot deliver knowledge management. Since there will always be uncodified or uncodifiable knowledge content and contexts – given the social nature of knowledge – several barriers to the creation and utilization of knowledge exist. The task of knowledge management is to identify such barriers and to overcome them.

Evaluation of ontologies

Abstract: The evaluation of ontologies is an emerging field. At present, there is an absence of a deep core of preliminary ideas and guidelines for evaluating ontologies. This paper presents a brief summary of previous work done on evaluating ontologies and the criteria (consistency, completeness, conciseness, expandability, and sensitiveness) used to evaluate and to assess ontologies. It also addresses the possible types of errors made when domain knowledge is structured in taxonomies in an ontology and in knowledge bases: circularity errors, exhaustive and nonexhaustive class partition errors, redundancy errors, grammatical errors, semantic errors, and incompleteness errors. It also describes the process followed to evaluate the standard-units ontology already published at the Ontology Server.

Context moderates students' self-reports about how they study

Abstract: Models of self-regulate d learning hypothesize that learners selectively match study tactics to varying tasks and diverse goals. In this study, relative to each of 3 contexts—reading for learning, completing a brief essay, and studying for an exam—students rated the frequency with which they applied 26 study tactics, used 20 textbook features and other resources, and adopted 30 goals for studying. Analyses revealed substantial context effects in these self-reports. Nine separate principal component analyses of ratings corresponding to cells in a 3 X 3 matrix of (a) tactics, resources, and goals by (b) contexts, identified considerable discrepancies in items' assignment to components, and heterogeneous loadings across contexts. These findings bolster the premise that students' reports of self-regulati ng studying behaviors are context specific. They also raise questions about using self-reports of self-regulate d learning that do not reflect context effects. Strategic learners have four characteristics. First, they critically assess tasks, such as studying a textbook chapter, to identify features that may influence how they engage with the task and the degree of success they will have. Second, on the basis of their assessment, strategic students define short-term goals and probably overall goals for studying. Third, they know alternative cognitive tactics that provide options about tactics to apply to studying. Finally, strategic students make judgments about which tactic(s) or pattern(s) of tactics has the greatest utility for achieving the goals they choose to pursue (Hadwin & Winne, 1996; Winne, 1995, 1997; Winne & Hadwin, 1998). Goals provide standards against which strategic students may monitor unfolding engagement with the task or the product(s) constructed as they engage with it. When strategic students monitor these events, they are self-regulating learning (SRL; Winne, 1995). SRL updates self-knowledge and perceptions about the task's changing states, thereby creating information that selfregulating learners can use to select, adapt, and even generate tactics (Butler & Winne, 1995; Hadwin & Winne, 1997; Winne & Hadwin, 1998). The element of intent to adapt cognitive engagement distinguishes SRL from "just using" tactics. An expert whose domain knowledge includes well-formed, automated tactics that

Designing Organizational Memory: Preserving Intellectual Assets in a Knowledge Economy 1

Abstract: nowledge management is an essential capability in the emerging knowledge economy. In particular, organizations have a valuable asset in the informal knowledge that is the daily currency of their knowledge workers, but this asset usually lives only in the collective human memory, and thus is poorly preserved and managed. There are significant technical and cultural barriers to capturing informal knowledge and making it explicit. Groupware tools such as E-mail and Lotus Notes™ tend to make informal knowledge explicit, but they generally fail to create an accessible organizational memory. On the other hand, attempts to build organizational memory systems have generally failed because they required additional documentation effort with no clear short term benefit, or, like groupware, they did not provide an effective index or structure to the mass of information collected in the system. This paper explores the design of a project memory system that overcomes the barriers to capturing informal knowledge. The key component of this design is the use of a display system that captures the key issues and ideas during meetings. The emphasis in this approach is on improving K

Self‐transcending knowledge: sensing and organizing around emerging opportunities

Abstract: The paper introduces the concept of not‐yet‐embodied or self‐transcending knowledge. The concept of self‐transcending knowledge proposes a distinction between two types of tacit knowledge: tacit‐embodied knowledge on the one hand and not‐yet‐embodied knowledge on the other hand. The distinction is relevant because each of the three forms of knowledge – explicit, tacit‐embodied, and self‐transcending – is based on different epistemological assumptions and requires a different type of knowledge environment and learning infrastructure. Moreover, the differentiation among markets with decreasing, steady, and increasing returns suggests that, in order to successfully compete for increasing return markets, leaders need a new type of knowledge that allows them to sense, tune into and actualize emerging business opportunities – that is, to tap into the sources of not‐yet‐embodied knowledge.

The impact of knowledge repositories on power and control in the workplace

Abstract: Knowledge management systems designed to facilitate the storage and distribution of codified knowledge affect the distribution of power within organizations. Drawing on the literature that describes the impact of information technology on power and control, this article proposes two principal outcomes of the implementation and use of such knowledge repositories. The use of knowledge repositories by employees who are net re‐users of knowledge‐based work products is expected to increase the extent to which these employees are interchangeable while reducing the level of skill they need to carry out their work. For employees who are net contributors to knowledge‐based work products, the use of knowledge repositories produces the opposite effect. When managers choose to capitalize on these effects to increase their control, employees in the former group may find their power position eroded over time.

Situated Learning and the Situated Knowledge Web: Exploring the Ground Beneath Knowledge Management

Abstract: Knowledge is now recognized as an important basis for competitive advantage and many firms are beginning to establish initiatives to leverage and manage organizational knowledge. These include efforts to codify knowledge in repositories as well as efforts to link individuals using information technologies to overcome geographic and temporal barriers to accessing knowledge and expertise. We suggest that Knowledge Management (KM) efforts, to be successful, need to be sensitive to features of the context of generation, location, and application of knowledge. To this end, we highlight the situated organizational learning perspective that views knowledge as embedded in individuals, in connections between individuals, and in artifacts as a useful lens to examine phenomena related to the establishment of KM initiatives. In an ethnographic case study of an effort to change knowledge-work processes in a market research firm, we apply the situated knowledge perspective to highlight the factors responsible for the limited success of the initiative in the firm. This study suggests that a consideration of the situated knowledge web and the alignment of the initiatives with the features of the knowledge web are central to success in knowledge management efforts in firms.

Knowledge portals and the emerging digital knowledge workplace

Abstract: A fundamental aspect of knowledge management is capturing knowledge and expertise created by knowledge workers as they go about their work and making it available to a larger community of colleagues. Technology can support these goals, and knowledge portals have emerged as a key tool for supporting knowledge work. Knowledge portals are single-point-access software systems intended to provide easy and timely access to information and to support communities of knowledge workers who share common goals. In this paper we discuss knowledge portal applications we have developed in collaboration with IBM Global Services, mainly for internal use by Global Services practitioners. We describe the role knowledge portals play in supporting knowledge work tasks and the component technologies embedded in portals, such as the gathering of distributed document information, indexing and text search, and categorization; and we discuss new functionality for future inclusion in knowledge portals. We share our experience deploying and maintaining portals. Finally, we describe how we view the future of knowledge portals in an expanding knowledge workplace that supports mobility, collaboration, and increasingly automated project workflow.

Tacit to explicit knowledge conversion: knowledge exchange protocols

Abstract: In the knowledge management domain, the conversion of tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge is critical because it is a prerequisite to the knowledge amplification process wherein knowledge becomes part of an organization’s knowledge network. In this article, knowledge exchange protocols are examined as a vehicle for improving the tacit to explicit knowledge conversion process. In an experiment testing the use of knowledge exchange protocols, it is learned that while structure may significantly improve the tacit to explicit knowledge conversion process, it also may matter how the structure is employed in this process.

Making knowledge visible through intranet knowledge maps: concepts, elements, cases

Abstract: Establishes the conceptual and empirical basis for an innovative instrument of corporate knowledge management: the knowledge map. It begins by briefly outlining the rationale for knowledge mapping, i.e. providing a common context to access expertise and experience in large companies. It then conceptualizes five types of knowledge maps that can be used in managing organizational knowledge. They are: knowledge sources, assets, structures, applications and development maps. In order to illustrate these five types of maps, a series of examples is presented (from a multimedia agency, a consulting group, a market research firm and a medium-sized services company), and the advantages and disadvantages of the knowledge mapping technique for knowledge management are discussed. The paper concludes with a series of quality criteria for knowledge maps and proposes a five-step procedure to implement knowledge maps in a corporate intranet.