Organizations use various resources to achieve business objectives, and for financial gain. In modern business, knowledge is a critical resource, and organizations cannot afford not to manage it. Knowledge Management (KM) aims to support learning and to create value for the organization. Based on three levels of inquiry (why, what, how), work presented in this thesis includes a synthesized view of the existing body of knowledge concerning KM and hence a holistic characterization of KM. This characterization reveals a strong dependency between KM and Learning Organization (LO). Neither of them can be successful without the other. We show that a KM project resulting in an IT-supported knowledge repository is a suitable way to start when the intention is to initiate KM work. Thus, our research focuses on ITsupported knowledge repositories.Large numbers of KM projects fail, and organizations lack support for their KM undertakings. These are the main problems that our research addresses. In order for an IT-supported knowledge repository to be successful, it must be used. Thus, the content of the repository is critical for success. Our work reveals that the process of capturing new knowledge is critical if the knowledge repository is to include relevant and updated knowledge. With the purpose of supporting the capture process, this thesis provides a detailed characterization of the capture process as well as guidance aiming to facilitate the implementation of the capture process in such a way that knowledge is continuously captured, also after the KM implementation project is completed. We argue that the continuous capture of new knowledge which can potentially be stored in the knowledge repository will, in the long term perspective, have a positive influence on the usefulness of the repository. This will most likely increase the number of users of the repository and accordingly increase the number of successful KM projects.All the work presented in this thesis is the result of a qualitative research process comprising a literature review and an empirical study that were carried out in parallel. The empirical study is a case study inspired by action research, which involved participation in the project Efficient Knowledge Management and Learning in Knowledge Intensive Organizations (EKLär).
The advantages of sharing knowledge when participating in a Supply Chain (SC) are well established in the literature, but the challenge of knowledge leakage, and how to manage it, is still in its infancy. In order to increase the understanding of knowledge leakage, when SMEs participate in SCs, this study describes types of knowledge that may leak away, how they are valued, and how knowledge leakage can occur. The result includes two frameworks that also have shown to be potentially useful for examining the maturity of a specific SME with regard to knowledge leakages when participating in the SC.
Organizations of today must learn how to learn in order to become competitive. How an organization reaches maturity clearing this area is not clear. This paper presents an initial version of a maturity model aiming to set directions for how to become a learning organization, and to assist people when discussing where in this process the organization finds itself in. Future work consists of detailing the model and develops guidelines for how to measure maturity.
Knowledge forms an important asset in modern organisations. In order to gain and sustain competitive advantage knowledge has to be managed. One aspect of doing this is to build knowledge repositories. In this paper we extend the strategic knowledge management framework to betters suit the process of constructing knowledge repositories. The extended framework highlights, for example, the impact of organizational culture and the importance of distinguishing between the individual and organizational knowledge processes and relating them to each other. The application of the extended framework to analyze a case in the public health care sector revealed a number of important aspects in the preparation and implementation of a knowledge management project. In particular we highlight the importance of having a strategic vision and making the dual relationship between usage and design explicit when implementing a knowledge repository.
Knowledge forms an important asset in modern organizations. In order to gain and sustain competitive advantage knowledge has to be managed. One aspect of this is to use Electronic Knowledge Repositories (EKR) to enhance knowledge sharing, reuse and learning. The success of an EKR is dependent on the quality of its content. For knowledge to be stored in an EKR, it has to be captured. One crucial part of the capture process is to evaluate whether the identified knowledge should be incorporated in the EKR or not. Therefore, to increase quality in an EKR, the evaluation stage of the capture process must be successfully carried out. Based on an interpretive field study and an extensive literature review, this paper identifies and characterizes Critical Success Factors (CSF) in the evaluation stage and presents guidance aiming to support implementation of the evaluation stage with the purpose to increase the quality of an EKR. In particular, the guidance supports the decision whether identified knowledge should be stored or not and it highlights the importance of performing evaluation addressing correctness, relevance, protection and redundancy. The characterization of the capture process contributes mainly to KM theory, and the guidance to KM practice.
In this paper, the authors demonstrate the suitability of IT-supported knowledge repositories for knowledge retention. Successful knowledge retention is dependent on whatis stored in a repository and, hence, possible to share. Accordingly, the ability to capture theright (relevant) knowledge is a key aspect. Therefore, to increase the quality in an IT-supported knowledge repository, the identification activity, which starts the capture process, must besuccessfully performed. While critical success factors (CSFs) for knowledge retention andknowledge management are frequently discussed in the literature, there is a knowledge gapconcerning CSFs for this specific knowledge capture activity. From a knowledge retention perspective, this paper proposes a model that characterizes CSFs for the identification activity and highlights the CSFs’ contribution to knowledge retention.
IT-supported knowledge repositories are an important part in Knowledge Management (KM) work. The success of an IT-supported knowledge repository is dependent on what is stored in the repository and hence the ability to capture the right knowledge is a key aspect. Therefore, to increase the quality in an ITsupported Knowledge Repository, the identify activity, which starts the capture process, must be successfully performed. While Critical Success Factors (CSF) for KM and KMS are frequently discussed in the literature, there is a knowledge gap concerning CSF for this specific knowledge capture activity. Based on an interpretive field study and a literature review, this paper proposes and characterizes CSF for the identify activity. For example, we highlight the importance of having organizational knowledge about what knowledge to capture and where to find it, i.e. having knowledge about potential sources of knowledge.
Knowledge forms an important asset in modern organisations. In order to gain and sustain competitive advantage knowledge has to be managed. One aspect of this is to use Electronic Knowledge Repositories (EKRs) in order to enhance knowledge sharing, reuse and learning. The success of an EKR is dependent on the quality of its content. For knowledge to be stored in an EKR, it has to be captured. One crucial part of the capture process is to evaluate whether the identified knowledge should be incorporated in the EKR or not. Therefore, to increase information quality in an EKR, the evaluation stage of the capture process must be successfully performed. This paper characterizes Critical Success Factors (CSF) for knowledge evaluation and presents six evaluation criteria to guide the evaluation stage in order to increase information quality in EKR:s. In particular we highlight the importance of performing evaluation addressing correctness, relevance, protection and redundancy.
When information systems (IS) are developed and implemented, in any context, a number of success factors determine whether or not the effort will succeed. Attention to success factors helps to avoid some costly mistakes, and speeds up the way change is managed. This paper is focused on how to manage critical success factors (CSF) in organisations involved in standards-based Business-to-Business (B2B), with a focus on organisational CSFs. An existing CSF framework in IS planning is applied theoretically to a B2B setting. Activities in a B2B standards implementation model are compared and matched against the framework. Results show that the framework is suitable for planning B2B implementations, essentially for strategic planning. Based on these results we have developed concrete guidelines to be used in the planning phase by strategic planners. Future work will consist of empirical validation, further detailing the guidelines in order to develop a practically useful ”tool” for managing CSF in a B2B standards implementation.
Society is based on knowledge and the availability thereof. Access to knowledge empowers people, and organizations must reuse knowledge to be competitive. The right knowledge to the right person at the right time is important for success, and IT plays an important role in order to achieve this goal, for example in the form of Electronic Knowlege Repositories (EKR). The success of an EKR depends on what is stored therein, and the ability to capture the right knowledge is hence a key aspect. This, however, is a complex issue. The goal of this paper is to identify and describe different types of knowledge loss, seven of which have been identified and characterized. As an example, one knowledge loss shows that not all knowledge can be stored, and critical knowledge elements may therefore be lost when attempting to store it. Some knowledge loss may be desirable, since an organization should not want to store everything. The results contribute to capturing the right knowledge, and hence to successful EKR. The results thus contribute to elevating the competitive power of an organization.
Many studies have focused on retrospectively identifying critical success factors (CSFs) for healthcare information system (HIS) development projects. In this paper the central question is how in advance selected CSFs can be applied in the best way. An action research study has been carried out in a large Swedish healthcare organization during 2010 and 2011 where the application of four CSFs has been planned, documented and reflected upon. Challenges are identified that may arise when tailoring general CSFs to situational circumstances. For example, the self-evident CSF of ?having a clear and accepted objective? becomes tricky and complex in practice when facing 15 autonomous boards that all need to support the project. Similar insights are gained for other CSFs. More research is needed to illuminate the complexities of how to apply CSFs. Another important observation is that different CSFs strengthen one another, which implies that they should be applied and analysed in concert rather than isolated. Finally, healthcare practitioners need to be aware that CSFs are very helpful, but that tailoring general CSFs to the unique situation of the HIS development project requires much effort and continuous reflection from a holistic perspective embedded in systems thinking.
Studies on Critical Success Factors (CSFs) in Healthcare Information Systems (HIS) development projects have traditionally often been limited to retrospectively identifying CSFs in a finished project. In this paper, we focus on how to prospectively apply and manage CSFs in HIS projects. Based on a holistic perspective and systems thinking, an inductive research strategy was applied and a single in-depth case study was conducted. The findings include detailed descriptions that contribute to further understanding of how to prospectively apply and manage CSFs in HIS projects. The analysis reveals that CSFs must be applied differently and managed on various system levels. Furthermore, it shows how interactions exist between different system levels, both in the case of a specific CSF and between different CSFs on various system levels. Our analysis framework and findings indicate new directions for future research: how to prospectively apply and manage CSFs in HIS development projects can now be investigated both in a more holistic way and more in detail. Finally, healthcare practitioners can use the descriptions as practical checklists for guiding them in how to realize situational adaptation of CSFs in HIS projects across different system levels.
In the context of succession planning a huge number of critical knowledge can be at risk. This challenges smaller firms in particular. Based upon this, the chapter intends to highlight the contribution of IT-supported repositories to small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) succession planning as a promising approach to better cope with the risk of knowledge loss. More precisely, the aim of this chapter is to analyze different types of knowledge loss in the capture process with SME succession planning to demonstrate the potentials and deficiencies with IT-supported knowledge repositories. The findings presented in this chapter will hopefully contribute to a better understanding of how to deal with knowledge loss in the capture process when using IT-supported knowledge repositories for SME succession planning.
Purpose – This paper aims to review research on the topic of knowledge leakage to establish the current body of knowledge and, on this basis, to suggest some promising avenues for future research.
Design/methodology/approach – The study consists of a systematic review of 57 refereed empirical articles on knowledge leakage.
Findings – The findings contribute to a more holistic view of the topic and complement the study of knowledge management. Additionally, a conceptual framework is proposed that aims at guiding and informing future research activities.
Research limitations/implications – This study may not have enabled a complete coverage of all empirical articles in the field of knowledge leakage. Yet, based on the chosen research methodology, it seems reasonable to assume that the review process covered a large share of studies available.
Originality/value – To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no systematic literature review on knowledge leakage has previously been published in academic journals.
Establishing business intelligence analytics (BIA) in small- and medium-sized manufacturing enterprises is a pervasive problem. SME’s - the majority of businesses - play an important role in creating jobs, but research is primarily focused on large corporations. The authors worked with small manufacturing companies at the aspirational capability level but found that their motivation to introduce BIA was low. They had many business challenges but perceived the obstacles (primarily cost and effort) as too great, and their priorities were with operational issues. A two-phase approach based on a well-known analytics maturity model was devised to help raise company motivation. The article describes three studies in different companies using variations of the approach. Comparative analysis of the cases shows that demonstrating a clear path to improved functional efficiency is key to improving motivation, and that simple, easy to learn tools can provide these insights at little cost.
Undertaking to implement a knowledge management approach is inherently difficult and risky for organizations. This article describes and discusses an implementation of a knowlege management system that took place at Skaraborg Hospital, a group of hospitals in the South West of Sweden. The article describes how the implementation process was carried out. Based on the experiences from this case and some previous cases, the article suggests a number of best practices for implementing a knowledge management approach.
An approach to building knowledge repositories, Enterprise Knowledge Patterns (EKP), has been developed and applied throughout a number of research projects, most recently in the ELEKTRA, HyperKnowledge1 and EKLär projects. The EKP approach combines Enterprise Modelling with organisational patterns. Systematic evaluations of applying the approach have been carried out in two of the projects, while the third project is currently running. The aim of this paper is to provide an overview of the evaluation results and to share practical experiences from building knowledge repositories with Enterprise Modelling and organisational patterns. We discuss issues concerning the knowledge content of pattern based knowledge repositories, the language used to express knowledge in organisational patterns and technology support for storing and retrieving knowledge components. .
Champions are commonly suggested as a means of promoting the adoption of information systems. Since there are many different definitions of the concepts of champion and champion behaviour in the literature, practitioners and researchers may be confused about how to exactly use these concepts. A qualitative analysis of a single case study in a Swedish health-care organisation enabled us to explain how different champion behaviours relate to each other and how multiple champions interact. Combining our rich case observations with an analysis of champion literature reveals how champion behaviours form a coherent and meaningful whole in which networks of different types of champions at different levels in an organisation utilise their network of relations, their knowledge of the organisation and their insight into strategic decision-making politics to time and orchestrate the framing of innovations and the involvement of the right people. In conclusion, championing is a complex performance of contextually dependent collective social interaction, varying over time, rather than a heroic act of one individual promoting an idea. Future studies need to focus more on how the relations between different champions and their behaviours develop across innovations and over time, in order to develop a richer understanding of championing.