Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited / On January 12, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake occurred 16 miles west of the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince. The earthquake and ensuing destruction killed as many as 300,000 persons and displaced as many as 1.5 million more creating a humanitarian crisis and economic disaster of enormous scale. As the earthquake was in close proximity to the U.S. mainland, it was determined that three U.S. agencies would take leading roles: USAID would coordinate and lead the relief effort, the U.S. State Department would handle diplomatic issues and the Department of Defense (DoD) would take the lead on logistics and security issues. One social networking tool used by the DoD and relief organizations to share information and coordinate relief efforts was the All Partners Access Network (APAN). Communications between the various agencies were recorded and include chat logs, blogs and e-mails. A content analysis was conducted to develop insight into the way relief workers used APAN when responding during the Haiti humanitarian assistance / disaster relief (HA/DR) operation. Coding and analyzing the communication data collected during the relief effort provided insight into how individuals and organizations used APAN, a social networking tool, to collaborate during the disaster. Suggestions for improving APAN are discussed.

In today’s business world, strategic alliances are becoming a common method for achieving a competitive advantage towards industry rivals. This tool, however, is not a guarantee for success as the failure rate of alliances is between 30-70%. Even with this high failure rate, strategic alliances continue to grow and becoming more and more common. Through strategic alliances, the organizations can gain the possibility to access, acquire and implement new knowledge from its partners as a step to achieve competitive advantage. However, by engaging in alliances or inter-firm arrangements they also place themselves in the risk zone of giving away knowledge, both intentionally or unintentionally, which is also known as knowledge leakage. Studies have shown that trust is important in knowledge sharing, and managers must understand the role of trust and distrust in this equation, in order to be able to successfully achieve an effective and trustworthy knowledge transfer for a firm. Previous research has focused mainly on the effects of trust on knowledge sharing and a few exceptions have focused on knowledge leakage. However, these articles have been ignoring the factor of distrust. The purpose of this thesis therefore lies in investigating the effect the dimensions of both trust and distrust simultaneously have on knowledge sharing and leakage, as theory view trust and distrust as separate but co-existing concepts. The dimensions chosen for investigation are goodwill trust, competence trust, goodwill distrust and competence distrust. In order to achieve this purpose, a quantitative research method was used. A questionnaire was developed and sent out to Swedish firms operating in knowledge-intensive industries according to Eurostat. 55 companies fully completed the questionnaire. From this a factor analysis and regression analysis was conducted in order to fulfill the purpose of this thesis. This thesis found that goodwill trust has a positive effect on knowledge sharing and negative effect on knowledge leakage. Competence trust and competence distrust was found to have a positive relationship with knowledge leakage. Also, the authors developed the dimensions of goodwill and competence distrust as well as empirically proved their existence. This thesis contributes by acknowledging the importance of both concepts, trust and distrust, and also providing managers with an idea of what dimensions of trust and distrust are important when associating it to knowledge exchange.

Knowledge is often tacit and "sticky", i.e. highly context-specific and therefore costly to transfer to a different setting. This paper examines the methods used by firms to facilitate cross-site knowledge sharing by "thinning" knowledge, that is, by stripping knowledge of its contextual richness. An interview-based study of cross-site knowledge sharing in three industries (consulting, industrial materials, and high-tech products) indicated that highly developed knowledge-sharing systems do not necessarily involve extensive codification and recombination of personalized knowledge. Many multinational firms evidently conceive their knowledge-sharing systems with more modest objectives in mind than any large-scale "learning spirals" featuring iterative conversion of personalized knowledge into codified knowledge and vice-versa. A typology of knowledge-thinning systems was derived by interpreting the field study results from the perspective of knowledge-thinning methods used in earlier eras of history. The typology encompasses topographical, statistical and diagrammatic knowledge-thinning systems. (authors' abstract)

Uminova Innovation AB is an organization that helps entrepreneurs to develop and support a business idea and build growing company. The company also provides important knowledge, network and business coach which helps an entrepreneur to think bigger with free of charge (Uminovainnovation, 2013). Uminova Innovation AB also contributes commercialization of business ideas. The company offers structured process, network and creative setting. It focuses on business ideas from students, employees and researchers at Umeå University and hospital in general. Uminova Innovation creates inspiring environment which is comfortable for working process by offering full infrastructure; from conference room to fully equipped office. At the same time, they also work to develop multi- aspects in the areas of leadership, book-keeping, financing, business development, communication, sales and intellectual property. Knowledge management made a considerable development over the last 40 years. During 1990’s knowledge management was considered as one of the critical part of service provision. In the current knowledge based economy, competitive advantage and organizational performance are highly influenced by the human capital which depends on the knowledge of the manual labor. The concept became a source of competitive advantage in the last few decades in many organizations. This thesis investigates the role of knowledge management and knowledge transfer in an innovation supporting firm setting. It specifically deals how the interpersonal knowledge sharing perceived by the actors(employees) involved in an innovation supportive firm and how the knowledge transfer process function in the firm. The thesis aspires to contribute its role on interpersonal knowledge sharing/transfer process in innovation supporting firm as there is a limitation of study in that specific area.  The purpose of the study is to explore the mechanism of knowledge sharing (transfer) in an innovation supporting firm. The study follows qualitative approach; case studies are applied by using semi-structured data collection mechanism. Furthermore, purposive sampling is used to select the five respondents for the empirical chapter. The theoretical part of the thesis is written in the way to increase the understanding of the research area and to answer the research question by examining various concepts which is related to the study. The analysis part is made incompatible with the theoretical parts which were; knowledge, knowledge management, knowledge transfer, knowledge sharing, knowledge management and innovation supporting firm and communication The finding of the thesis shows Uminova Innovation AB has given emphasize on the inter-personal employees communication. Interpersonal communication has been characterized by open, outgoing, very informal and good climate. The main channel of communication identified in the study is: internal meetings, weekly meetings, dialogues, e-mail, conference, telephone, business coaching and intranet document save system. A similar finding shows that knowledge transfer process conducted 60% by informal and 40% formally. This study has found that generally communication, personal knowledge (tacit), socialization, Trust & culture, organizational structure and motivational factors are the factors that the study highlights would influence interpersonal knowledge sharing/ transfer process in innovation supporting firm. / Uminova Innovation AB

Introduction: More and more companies have realized that keeping and using the knowledge in their companies is getting more important to get or keep a competitive advantage. The companies’ organizational culture and knowledge management are essential to create knowledge transfer. Also that the employees and the leaders of the company knows how knowledge- and information transfer arknkoe done best for them. That is why we chose our purpose to be: The aim is to understand the differences between managers and employees perception about knowledge- and information transfer in a manufacturing company. Methodology: A qualitative method with an abductive approach has been used in this thesis. We had our focus on one specific company so we chose to do a case study with semi-structured interviews and observations. We did five interviews where two was with leaders and three with employees. In addition to this we did two observations. Theory: The different theories for this study are mainly about information, knowledge, knowledge transfer, organizational culture and motivation. Analysis: The analysis is about managers and employees perception about information, knowledge, knowledge transfer, how they get motivated and how the culture of the company affects this. The empirical material is analyzed with the previous theories to get a conclusion. Conclusion: The perception of information- and knowledge transfer differs between managers and employees mostly when it comes to working-process and motivation to knowledge transfer. With more standardization the employees get more stressed and less motivated. They believe that this leads to their knowledge to be less important and that the knowledge is transferred less. The employees believes that motivation to knowledge transfer should be prioritized but the managers believe that the motivation should be a part of the job. Reflection and further research: For further research it would be interesting to investigate how “newer” employees at the company see the subject of knowledge- and information transfer to get another perspective. Also how companies can work with lean-production but still make the employees to feel good about their assignments. / Inledning: Fler och fler företag har insett att det blir allt viktigare att tillvarata samt använda den kunskapen som finns i företaget för att få en konkurrensfördel. Ett företags organisationskultur och knowledge management är ytters väsentliga för att kunna skapa kunskapsöverföring. Det är också viktigt att både ledarna och de anställda har samma uppfattning om hur kunskapen ska kunna föras över på bästa sätt. Därför blev vårt syfte: Syftet med denna kandidatuppsats är att förstå skillnaderna mellan ledarnas och medarbetarnas uppfattning om kunskaps- och informationsöverföring i ett produktionsföretag. Metod: I uppsatsen valde vi en kvalitativ metod med ett abduktivt angreppssätt. Vi gjorde studien på ett företag och valde att göra en fallstudie med semi-strukturerade intervjuer samt observationer. Vi gjorde individuella intervjuer med tre medarbetare och två ledare samt två observationer. Teori: De teorier som använts i uppsatsen handlar om information, kunskap, kunskapsöverföring, organisationskultur och motivation. Analys: Analys kring medarbetares och ledares uppfattningar om information, kunskap, hur kunskapen ska överföras samt hur motivation och kulturen påverkar detta. Materialet analyseras med de teorier som tagits upp tidigare för att komma fram till en slutsats. Slutsats: Uppfattningen om informations- och kunskapsöverföring skiljer sig mellan medarbetare och ledare framförallt när det gäller arbetssätt och motivation till att överföra dessa. Ett mer standardiserat arbetssätt har gjort medarbetarna mindre motiverade och mer stressade. Detta tror de leder till att kunskapen blir mindre viktig och att kunskapen också överförs mindre. Motivationen anser medarbetarna borde läggas mer energi på medan ledarna tycker att motivationen till att dela kunskap och information ska ingå i arbetssättet. Reflektion och vidare forskning: Vid fortsatt forskning om ämnet skulle det vara intressant att undersöka hur ”nya” anställda på företaget ser på informations- och kunskapsöverföring samt hur företag kan arbeta med lean-production men ändå få medarbetarna att trivas med sina uppgifter.

Focusing on the potential use of telemedicine among other efforts for better treatment of stroke patients, this study explored the role of telemedicine in the management of stroke patients and knowledge sharing among health care providers in Afghanistan. To this end, fourteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with physicians, specialists, neurologists, and decision makers from the Afghan Ministry of Public Health (MoPH). Actor-network and diffusion of innovations theories provided a theoretical framework for this exploratory qualitative study. The study was intended: 1) to find out about the major challenges and problems associated with managing stroke patients in Afghanistan; 2) to explore the perceptions of Afghan health professionals about the application of telemedicine as a means of improving the delivery of health services for stroke patients in Afghanistan; and 3) to understand the perceived barriers to knowledge sharing and to ascertain the potential role of telemedicine in knowledge sharing among health care providers in Afghanistan. The findings of this study demonstrated that almost all of the participants were optimistic about the potential positive role telemedicine could play in the management of stroke patients and knowledge sharing among health care providers in Afghanistan. Some important existing organisational, socio-economic, geographical, security, and cultural barriers to the management of stroke patients and knowledge sharing among health care providers in Afghanistan were revealed. To the best knowledge of the researcher, there has been no study of this kind conducted in Afghanistan yet; thus, the findings of this study will likely contribute to the development of health communication in the context of Afghanistan, and could likely be used as a resource for future research about the applications of telemedicine in various medical specialities.

This study conceptualizes inpatriates – foreign nationals who are temporarily assigned to the corporate headquarters (HQ) of a multinational corporation (MNC) – as knowledge agents that link the HQ to its subsidiaries. Along these lines, the thesis examines the determinants of knowledge sharing between inpatriates and HQ staff as well as the resulting implications for inpatriates’ careers. Integrating research on international assignments and MNC knowledge flows with social capital theory, the main argument is that inpatriates can only share their local subsidiary knowledge with and learn from HQ employees if they establish social capital with them. The empirical investigation of inpatriates as the study’s principal unit of analysis follows a multi-method approach. First, a qualitative and inductive case study based on 13 interviews with inpatriates at three German MNCs is conducted, aiming to provide a deeper understanding of the inpatriate phenomenon. The interview findings highlight inpatriates’ role as knowledge conduits and derive various factors that may impact on inpatriates’ knowledge sharing, such as inpatriates’ acculturation attitudes, their host language fluency, host ethnocentrism and available organizational support.

Thesis (MA (Information Science))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: When studying information and knowledge management case studies, it becomes evident that barriers to information and knowledge sharing persist, even in organisations that are lauded for their IKM initiatives. This study set out to probe why this is the case. To this end the study explored persistent barriers to information and knowledge sharing through an investigation of a Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise (MAKE) award winning organisation. It was predicted that the persistent barriers would correspond to the characteristics of organisations as complex social systems. Results indicated that the persistent barriers identified in the MAKE award winning organisation mirror the characteristics of complex social systems. The findings suggest one possible explanation for the persistence of barriers to information and knowledge sharing, namely that these barriers are rooted in the nature of organisations as complex systems. Viewing poor information and knowledge flows through a complex social systems lens draws attention to the ‘wicked’ nature of the issue, i.e. the reality that persistent barriers form interacting meshes that can at best be mitigated but not eliminated. Also, viewing persistent barriers as inherent in organisations suggest alternative ways of attending to these barriers. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: ‘n Oorsig van inligting- en kennisbestuur (IKB) gevallestudies wys duidelik dat hindernisse tot inligting- en kennisdeling gedurig volhou, selfs in organisasies met hoogs aangeskrewe IKB inisiatiewe. Die oogmerk van hierdie studie was om vas te stel waarom dit so is. Die studie het daarom hardnekkig volhoudende hindernisse tot inligting- en kennisdeling binne ‘n erkende Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise (MAKE) organisasie ondersoek. Dit is voorspel dat die volhoudende hindernisse sou ooreenstem met eienskappe van organisasies as komplekse sosiale stelsels. Die bevindinge het gewys dat volhoudende hindernisse wat binne die erkende MAKE organisasie identifiseer is, wel die eienskappe van komplekse sosiale stelsels weerspieël. Die bevindinge wys op een moontlike verklaring vir die hardnekkig volhoudende bestaan van hindernisse tot inligting- en kennisdeling, naamlik dat hierdie hindernisse spruit uit die aard van organisasies as komplekse stelsels. Deur na suboptimale inligting- en kennisvloei deur die lens van ‘n komplekse sosiale stelsel te kyk, word die ‘wicked’ aard van die probleem uitgewys, dit wil sê ‘n realiteit waar volhoudende hindernisse interaktiewe strikke vorm wat bloot aangespreek, maar nie elimineer kan word nie. Alternatiewe maniere word voorgestel hoe sulke hindernisse aangepak kan word.

Learning from one’s experience is crucial for success. If a companylearns to share knowledge in an effective way their mistakes will befewer and could lead to more productive ways of working, largerprofits and increased competitiveness.The purpose of this study has been to investigate formal andinformal knowledge management within a consultant firm’s projectbusiness, as well as investigating how far the various sorts ofknowledge travel through the organisation. The purpose has also beento develop an understanding for what encourages knowledge sharing inan organisation with several national offices distributed over largegeographical areas.This abductive study has been designed as a case-study at aconsultancy firm were the authors have done qualitative research byconducting both formal and informal interviews and observations, aswell as studied the company’s governing documents. The studyattempt to show to what degree the consultants follow their formalknowledge management, like the governing documents and for whatreasons do they follow or not follow their knowledge managementroutines. Factors which seems to promote or inhibit both formal andinformal knowledge sharing for the employees, as well as factors forknowledge sharing between the different regions in Sweden have beenpicked out. By doing so, potential improvements for the organisations“local” knowledge management routines have been defined. The aimhas also been to find ways to improve organisations knowledgefeedback with focus on the knowledge sharing between differentgeographic locations.Our research findings seem to both align with and oppose previousresearch. Often knowledge sharing is not done when a project istoo similar to another project, which is the opposite to previousresearch and that the common notion of “knowledge is power” doesnot seem to be a factor that hinders the knowledge shared in thestudied organisation. It is concluded that the company needs a datalibrary to be able to easily share knowledge across the regions anddevelop both institutional and organisational factors. They also need toclean up their governing documents and operation managementsystem and make sure to have both carrots and sticks when it comesto managing both formal and informal knowledge.

Este trabalho tem por objetivo analisar o processo de gestão, participação e compartilhamento de saberes no projeto de Cooperação Internacional Descentralizada (CID) Purefood (Urban, peri-urban and regional food dynamics: toward an integrated and territorial approach to food) a partir dos pressupostos da Gestão Social. O projeto em questão é financiado pela União Europeia, através do fundo Marie Curie, e desenvolvido por um consórcio de sete universidades, cinco europeias, uma de Uganda e uma brasileira, a Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, por meio do Programa de Pós-graduação em Desenvolvimento Rural (PGDR), objeto central da análise. Como pilares teóricos e epistemológicos, o estudo toma como pressuposto: (a) a existência de sistema-mundo (WALLERSTEIN, 2001) na dinâmica das relações e da cooperação internacional; (b) o entendimento da diversidade de modelos de desenvolvimento (MILANDO, 2005); (c) a pluralidade, compartilhamento e articulação dos saberes (SANTOS, 2004, 2009) e (d) a compreensão de que a Gestão Social (CARRION, 2009, 2012) pode oferecer alternativas ao modelo de gestão de projetos de Cooperação Internacional Descentralizada. A pesquisa se caracteriza como exploratória e qualitativa, optando, em função das características do objeto, por um estudo de caso único. Para a coleta de dados, se utilizaram fontes documentais (convocatória, relatórios, sites) e a realização de seis entrevistas semiestruturadas, com atores envolvidos no subprojeto brasileiro. Em seguida, se realizou análise de conteúdo nos dados colhidos. Como resultado, foi possível perceber que a gestão do projeto é centralizada, atendendo às regras da Comissão Europeia para o financiamento, diferente do que pressupõe um projeto de CID. Além disto, a participação dos agentes, apesar de se sugerir autônoma, se configura como uma participação instrumental, não estando eles, de fato, apropriados de todas as decisões sobre o projeto. Verificou-se, ainda, que o processo de compartilhamento e articulação dos saberes é limitado, uma vez que existe pouca interação entre os agentes, encontrando-se eles separados pela distância e com dificuldades de compartilhar os seus trabalhos. Foi possível perceber, sutilmente, a diferença de importância e papéis dos vários países participantes do projeto. Outra observação emergente foi a necessidade de se preparar as universidades para receber projetos desta natureza. No contexto da CID, este estudo contribui para a discussão da aproximação do campo da Gestão Social e da Cooperação Internacional e até que ponto os preceitos de um projeto de cooperação internacional, que visam ao ‘desenvolvimento’, estão alinhados a um olhar de gestão mais inclusivo e transformador. / This study has aimed to analyze the management process, participation and knowledge sharing in the Project Decentralized International Cooperation (CID) Purefood (Urban, peri-urban and regional food dynamics: toward na integrated and territorial approach to food) from the perspective of Social Management assumptions. The Project has been funding by the European Union through the Marie Curie fund, and it has been developing by a consortium of seven universities – five european, one from Uganda and one from Brazil, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, through the Post Graduation Program in Rural Development (PGDR), the central object of analysis. As theoretical and epistemological background, this study is based on: (a) the existence of a worldsystem (WALLERSTEIN, 2001) on the dynamics of international cooperation and relations; (b) the understanding of diversity of development models MILANDO, 2005); (c) the knowledge plurality, sharing and integration (SANTOS, 2004, 2009); and (d) the understanding that Social Management (CARRION, 2009, 2012) may offer alternatives to the model for projects management of Decentralized International Cooperation. This research is characterized as exploratory and qualitative, and choosing the single case study, according to the characteristics of the object. In the data collection were used documentary sources (notices, reports, websites) and six semi-structured interviews with key actors involved in the Brazilian subproject. Short after, it was performed the content analysis on the data collected. It is highlighted that the results show that the project management is centralized, according to the rules of the European Union for the funding, which implies a different design of CID. Besides, the actors participation, although it is suggested to be autonomous, it actually configures a instrumental participation, as they are not conscious of all the decisions taken about the project. It was also possible to verify that the sharing and integration processes are limited, because there is little integration between the actors, since they are separated by the distance and they find difficulties to share their work. Furthermore, it was noticeable, subtly, the difference in the importance and role of the various participating countries in the project. Another emerging observation was about the need to prepare the universities to house projects with similar nature to this. In the CID context, this study has contributed to the discussion of the approximation of the Social Management and International Cooperation fields, and to what extent the precepts of an international cooperation project, which aim the ‘development’, are aligned with a more inclusive and transforming management view.