Aim of study: The purpose of this study is to investigate the current knowledge management status within the Academic Information Service at the University of Pretoria. Research method: A literature study was conducted to establish the nature and value of knowledge management for organizations. A questionnaire was used to obtain reliable information with regard to the current value and nature of knowledge management within the Academic Information Service at the University of Pretoria. Core findings: Within an academic library like the Academic Information Service at Pretoria, there exist a certain misconception that libraries are already doing knowledge management for years. The management of knowledge for clients, and providing knowledge and information to the client are seen as knowledge management. It was indicated that within the Academic Information Service there is not much attention given to the management of tacit knowledge within the organization. This shows that libraries aren’t doing knowledge management for years. They are doing explicit management of knowledge but not tacit management of organizational knowledge. Within this study it is stressed why this tacit knowledge is so important for an organization to exist and compete within these turbulent times we live in. The academic information service is not managing their tacit knowledge to the fullest potential and for benefit of the organization. There is no culture or incentives conducive to knowledge sharing within the library. The existing technology namely the intranet and portal aren’t re ally enablers for knowledge management. There exist a lot of barriers to knowledge management within the AIS that should be attended to. A knowledge management strategy is suggested with a lot of shifts in connection to the culture of the organization, incentives and information technology. / Thesis (MIT)--University of Pretoria, 2002.

Thesis (M.S.)--Air Force Institute of Technology, 2006. / AFIT/GIR/ENV/06-01S. "September 2006." Title from title page of PDF document (viewed on: Nov. 16, 2007). Includes bibliographical references (leaves 107-111).

Artificial Intelligence Lab, Department of MIS, University of Arizona / Identified as an important management concept five years ago (Gamer 1999), knowledge management (KM) aims to enable organizations to capture, organize, and access their intellectual assets. This paper proposes a prototype system that applies a knowledge management approach to support concept-based multimedia information retrieval by integrating various information analysis and image processing techniques. The proposed system uses geographical information as its testbed and aims to provide flexibility to users in terms of specifying their information needs and to facilitate parallel extraction ofinformation in different formats (i.e., text, image). Our testbed selection is based not only on the fact that geographical information has become an important resource supporting organization decision making, but also on the diversity of its information media and the fuzziness of geo-spatial queries. We hope that the proposed system will improve the accessibility of geographical information in different media and provide an example of integrating various information and multimedia techniques to support concept-based cross-media information retrieval.

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This work draws on the discipline of Discursive Psychology for a theory of language, shown to be all but absent in the organizational knowledge management literature, and a methodology for the study of discourse. Organizational knowledge sharing is selected as the topic of primary research for its accessibility to analysis, and because it is considered to be an underpinning action to new knowledge creation. The research approaches discourse as action-orientated and locally situated, as constructed and constructive, with function and consequence for speakers. Indicative research questions are concerned with the discursively accomplished phenomena of trust, risk, identity and context, how these are accomplished in rhetorical interaction and with what effect on organizationally situated knowledge sharing. Recordings of organizations’ everyday knowledge sharing meetings, as well as an online discussion forum, are analysed focusing on these four themes. Findings show them to be accomplished as speakers’ live concerns in knowledge sharing talk. It is claimed that trust, risk and identity, as contexts displayed and oriented to by speakers themselves, are tacitly and collaboratively accomplished actions, shown to be co-relational and influential to knowledge sharing scope and directions. A further claim is that the analysis of discourse for what contexts in general speakers invoke displays speakers’ orienting to trust, risk and identity. Limitations of the present study are discussed, along with speculated implications for knowledge management and future directions for research. This work aims to contribute to the field of knowledge management in three ways. First, in extending the directions that some scholars and practitioners are already indicating through focusing the interest of study on organizational discourse. Secondly, the study seeks to understand how tacit knowing, as a phenomenon invoked by speakers themselves, is accomplished and how it influences the scope and directions of knowledge sharing actions, and with what effect. Finally, it is claimed that the research provides some support for those theorists in the knowledge management field who promote the knowing how-knowing that formulation, and those who are critical of conventional knowledge management’s heavy reliance on technology to deliver its objectives.

This research considers one of the most important of resources - knowledge. There is a widespread view that knowledge is important to organizations and this has led to the study of knowledge management. There are a plethora of definitions of knowledge and knowledge management, but knowledge sharing is recognised as being of fundamental importance. The literature shows the success of knowledge sharing is not only affected by factors including culture, management, technology, processes and structure but, more importantly, it is affected by how these factors interact and fit together. However there is little literature on alignment or strategic fit in knowledge sharing. This research adds to the literature by investigating the enablers and constraints of knowledge sharing and the possible effects of alignment. An interpretive approach using case studies triangulated with a survey is adopted, involving semi-structured interviews with 23 people across five organizations. The findings suggest that significant top management support and a strategy for knowledge sharing are necessary precursors of effective knowledge sharing. In the organizations which lacked this, there is little to encourage people to share and almost none of these organizations measured well on any aspect of knowledge sharing. There are widely varying uses of technology, but many are aimed at sharing data or information. Fewer uses of technology are geared to enabling or encouraging the communication necessary for knowledge sharing. The lack of senior management support may prevent any significant internal or external alignment so a possible approach to strategic fit for knowledge sharing is that strategy has to come first (and the management support that goes with it) and that this should lead to the embedding of the necessary behaviours for knowledge sharing. Only after this are processes and technology able to support knowledge sharing.

No description available.

This thesis focuses on what I have called truth management. First it traces how modernist and postmodern theorists play their versions of what counts as true. A key critique I stage of modernist theorising is that it privileges decontextualised ways of knowing and silences agency. Drawn from postmodern concerns and my critique of 'normal science', two maps of 'thinking tools' (Bourdieu 1992) are proposed as the basis of my theorising of how truth is managed in organisations. The first map aims to position contextualism within the empirical gaze. It is made up of three contingencies - discourses, time and space. The second map of thinking tools aims to bring agency back into view. It is made up of four contingencies - identity, capital, practices and power. Each of the seven contingencies is used to frame the story of an inter-organisational partnership between an Australian university and a financial institution in part two of the thesis. The story traces their engagement in a negotiated postgraduate degree program - the Work-Based Learning (WBL) program from 1996-2003. In this way, I aim to demonstrate the power of everyday decision making in determining what counts as true. The management of truth is seen to be dynamic, multiple and contingent rather than causal, singular and able to be plotted on a linear trajectory.

The objective of the research was to understand how customer knowledge was used in an organization and the role knowledge management systems (KMS) played in this use. Traditionally, organizations have relied on internal knowledge to shape their corporate strategy. Recently however they are tapping new sources of knowledge that are external to the firm. One important source of organizational knowledge is a company’s customers, as they present a source of knowledge that may provide new insights, innovations and ideas that are not necessarily found within the organization. The study examined the perceptions and beliefs of customer knowledge held by an organization’s employees, the types of customer knowledge available to the firm, the use of a KMS, and its impact on an organization’s use of knowledge. We posed the question of how these perceptions and beliefs influenced the types of customer knowledge available and the design and implementation of a KMS. Furthermore, we investigated the impact of customer knowledge types and knowledge management systems on how an organization uses customer knowledge in its regular operational routines. To answer these questions, a case study was conducted in a Canadian health care systems organization. By taking the approach that individuals in an organization are the key to sharing knowledge with customers, this research was able to gain an in-depth understanding of how employees view customer knowledge, including both positive and negative attitudes towards this new source of knowledge. The types of customer knowledge available to the study organization were identified, as were the ways that the newly implemented KMS helped and hindered knowledge sharing. The results of the research demonstrate how the types of customer knowledge available to an organization can be categorized by the perceived quality and the perceived accessibility of the knowledge. These findings contribute to the field of knowledge management by moving towards a theory of how customer knowledge is used by an organization, and how internal and external factors affect this use. Furthermore, this study raises awareness of the importance of a KMS in managing customer knowledge, including key aspects of its design and implementation.

The objective of the research was to understand how customer knowledge was used in an organization and the role knowledge management systems (KMS) played in this use. Traditionally, organizations have relied on internal knowledge to shape their corporate strategy. Recently however they are tapping new sources of knowledge that are external to the firm. One important source of organizational knowledge is a company’s customers, as they present a source of knowledge that may provide new insights, innovations and ideas that are not necessarily found within the organization. The study examined the perceptions and beliefs of customer knowledge held by an organization’s employees, the types of customer knowledge available to the firm, the use of a KMS, and its impact on an organization’s use of knowledge. We posed the question of how these perceptions and beliefs influenced the types of customer knowledge available and the design and implementation of a KMS. Furthermore, we investigated the impact of customer knowledge types and knowledge management systems on how an organization uses customer knowledge in its regular operational routines. To answer these questions, a case study was conducted in a Canadian health care systems organization. By taking the approach that individuals in an organization are the key to sharing knowledge with customers, this research was able to gain an in-depth understanding of how employees view customer knowledge, including both positive and negative attitudes towards this new source of knowledge. The types of customer knowledge available to the study organization were identified, as were the ways that the newly implemented KMS helped and hindered knowledge sharing. The results of the research demonstrate how the types of customer knowledge available to an organization can be categorized by the perceived quality and the perceived accessibility of the knowledge. These findings contribute to the field of knowledge management by moving towards a theory of how customer knowledge is used by an organization, and how internal and external factors affect this use. Furthermore, this study raises awareness of the importance of a KMS in managing customer knowledge, including key aspects of its design and implementation.