A research report submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Masters of Commerce in Management, 2018 / This study sought to contribute to a further convergence between three topical research areas: Personal Knowledge Management (PKM), Individual Work Performance (IWP) and SelfPerceived Employability (SPE). Specifically, this study investigated the moderating effect of SPE on the relationship between PKM and IWP. PKM is an interdisciplinary concept, connected with management science, information science; information technology and other disciplines. The shift from the industrial economy to the knowledge economy has contributed to the surfacing of the knowledge-based view of the organisations and the emergence of the concept of knowledge workers or “people who think for a living” (Davenport, 2005). Knowledge workers are individuals who possess or seek to develop unique cognitive competencies and skills built upon effective PKM. While it has been acknowledged in the literature that PKM encompasses a competency aspect on the one hand and a technological perspective on the other hand, the overall reflection conducted in this study claimed to be skills/competencies centric. In that regard, a competency model developed by Kirby (2005, 2008) comprising of four-fold dimensions was used in this study to measure PKM. These four dimensions include analytical competencies (ANL), social competencies (SOC), information competencies (INF) and learning competencies (LRN). The construct of IWP relates to the individual behaviours or actions displayed by knowledge workers which are relevant to the goals of the organisation. This implies that IWP focuses on behaviours or actions of workers rather than the results of these actions. In addition, these behaviours should be under the control of the individual, thus excluding behaviours that are constrained by the environment. IWP was measured using the three components relevant to the IWP namely task performance (TSK), contextual performance (CON) and counterproductive work behavior (CWB). Employability concerns the extent to which people possess the skills and other attributes to find and stay in the kind of work they want. Such individuals are assumed to display a greater propensity to IWP. SPE is relating to a self-assessment of the employees as to how the organisation they are working for value them as individuals. Most importantly, SPE is associated with v individuals’ self-perception of their merit based more on their personal competencies than features of their occupation. Through a review of relevant literature this study discussed how PKM impacts IWP, and how SPE can potentially impact that relationship. This study used a sample of working professional students studying at Wits Plus (the University of the Witwatersrand’s centre for part-time studies), Wits Business School and Wits School of Governance and will perform Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) and hierarchical regression for data analysis. / XL2019

El texto completo de este trabajo no está disponible en el Repositorio Académico UPC por restricciones de la casa editorial donde ha sido publicado. / The logistics processes of companies seek an adequate supply of merchandize, streamline processes, reduce costs, and distribution of their products to the customer in an efficient manner and allow them to develop corrective planning in order to be competitive in the market. However, these processes are less efficient in importing companies of the SME sector. Therefore, this article proposes the application of a change management model to improve the logistics process that generates a real transformation. This model is structured in three phases: first, pre-Implementation, which refers to participatory leadership and resistance to change; second, implementation of logistics management; and third, sustainability of the model over time. The model was validated in a Peruvian SME importer of household goods, whose satisfactory results implied an increase in available storage capacity, reduction of logistics costs, satisfaction of change, and organizational culture.

No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

Currently, computer-based support tools are widely used to facilitate the design process and have the potential to reduce design time, decrease product cost and enhance product quality. PDM (Product Data Management) and PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) are two types of computer-based information systems that have been developed to manage product lifecycle and product related data. While promising, significant limitations still exist, where information required to make decisions may not be available, may be lacking consistency, and may not be expressed in a general way for sharing among systems. Moreover, it is difficult for designers to consider multiple complex technical and economical criteria, relations, and objectives in product design simultaneously. In recent years, ontology-based method is a new and promising approach to manage knowledge in engineering, integrate multiple data resources, and facilitate the consideration of the complex relations among concepts and slots in decision making. The purpose of this research is to explore an ontology-based method to solve the limitations in present computer-based information systems for product design. The field of Design for Manufacturing (DFM) is selected for this study, and three primary aspects are investigated. First, a generalized DFM ontology is proposed and developed. The ontology fulfills the mathematical and logical constraints needed in DFM, as well as ontology editor capabilities to support the continuous improvement of the ontology. Second, the means to guide users to the proper information and integrate heterogeneous data resources is investigated. Third, based on the ontology and information integration, a decision support tool is developed to help designers consider the design problem in a systematic way and make design decisions efficiently based on accurate and comprehensive data. The methods and tools developed in this research are refined using example cases provided by the CFSP (The NSF Center for Friction Stir Processing). This includes cost models and a decision support environment. Errors that may occur in the research are categorized with management methods. An error ontology is built to help root cause analysis of errors and further reduce possible errors in the ontology and decision support tool. An evaluation methodology for the research is also investigated. / Ph. D.

A recurrent justification for knowledge management initiatives in the U.S. federal government workplace is the assertion that knowledge sharing groups, such as communities of practice, positively impact their members and benefit the organization by fostering a work environment that results in innovation. However, limited quantitative research existed to support the claims. The purpose of this research was to discover evidence for and explain the relationships between two of the dimensions of communities of practice (i.e., participation and connectivity) and a climate of innovation (e.g., vision, participative safety, task orientation, and support for innovation). This study provided empirical support for the relationship between participation and climate of innovation, as well as the relationship between connectivity and climate of innovation. Given the current economic and security challenges such as the global recession, homeland protection, and industry bailouts, the need for innovative products and services is paramount. Incorporating the results of this study and placing an emphasis on building or solidifying relationships, members of knowledge sharing groups within and across the federal government environment may better develop and implement strategies to address the current stresses and work toward stabilizing the worldwide situation. Perceptions were collected from 384 community of practice members within the U.S. federal government environment about participation, connectivity, and the community's climate of innovation. Items from three existing instruments, Communities Assessment Tool (Verburg & Andriessen, 2006), Sense of Community Index (Chipeur & Pretty, 1999; Peterson, Speer, & Hughey, 2006), and Team Climate Inventory (Kivimäki & Ellovainio, 1999), were consolidated into one online questionnaire. Once the data were collected from the respondents, they were checked for completeness, reorganized and relabeled as necessary, and then transported to SAS JMP, version 7. The reliabilities in this study were comparable to previously published reliabilities. Demographic data indicated that the respondents tended to see themselves as experts, were active within their community, and relied on virtual contact with community members, although they had the opportunity to meet face-to-face in the past. After a review of the correlations, a parsimonious model containing four variables (i.e., climate of innovation, perceived benefits of participation, nature of participation, and connectivity) was generated. In response to the research questions, multiple regression was conducted. The results showed that participation variables accounted for 22% to 26% of the variance in climate of innovation, with support for innovation being the best explained and vision following close behind with the second largest percentage of its variance explained. The connectivity variables explained 18% to 29% of the additional variance, with participative safety responsible for the largest percentages of the variance and vision having the second largest percentage. Together, the four participation variables explained about one quarter of the variance in each of the climate of innovation criteria. Adding the four connectivity variables explained more than an additional quarter of the variance for vision and participatory safety. Given the results, two themes emerged: The first was the importance of connectivity within communities of practice and in relation to a community's climate of innovation. The second was the refinement of the contemporary definition of participation within communities of practice. The findings signify that social approaches to knowledge management, such as communities of practice, may contribute to a climate conducive to innovation. Suggestions for future research and implications for practitioners are discussed. / Ph. D.

No / The intention of this paper is to promote the model of knowledge-based collaborative supply chain management (KBCSCM) system as an alternative strategy for organisations to resolve the problems in their current supply chain management (SCM) in the era of collaborative commerce (c-commerce).

Yes / In the new economy, innovation is regarded as one of the solutions for almost every organisation to survive in the new business era. Universities, especially in terms of research activities, are no difference since they strive for novelties which potentially lead to innovation. An experienced researcher in the university has continually created tacit knowledge in a specific domain, but typically found it difficult to share this tacit knowledge among other researchers for the problem solving purpose. To overcome this problem and to better stimulate knowledge sharing activities among university researchers, Knowledge Management and Knowledge Engineering, particularly KADS, are utilised in this paper to assist a group of different domain researchers in putting their experiences together. In this way, each researcher can make explicit his or her tacit knowledge into KADS task, inference and domain knowledge models. The structured knowledge models captured from different researchers can then be merged together. In this paper, the research in Knowledge Management is selected as a case study, and the results show that the relevant tacit knowledge has been made explicit from a researcher and allow other researchers to share the knowledge as well as to add their own knowledge. Hence, their common research theme is effectively created, and also maintained by a group of researchers.

No description available.