Studies have shown that knowledge management is an enabler of organisational processes and helps achieve projected objectives. This research is aimed at investigating the role of knowledge management in enabling development project management to achieve the following objectives; project success, faster completion times, efficiency, innovation, knowledge sharing and best practices. The research conceptual model (The CRAI-Codification, Reproduction, Assimilation and Interpretation model) focused on four types of primary knowledge needed by development projects for successful execution. These are: -Interpretative knowledge, Assimilative knowledge, Reproductive knowledge and Codified knowledge. Using a mixed method approach, qualitative and quantitative data were collected from over 1000 respondents from development organisations in 8 regions in 11 development project areas. Data were obtained using web questionnaires, structured interviews and organisational documentation. The selection of case studies arose as a result of responses to the online survey. The research used four case studies which exhibited KM 'consciousness and other criteria which enabled the researcher to identify them as knowledge generating projects. The cases were drawn from Nigeria, Uganda and Senegal. The research applied the CRAI model within these case studies and also compared the results of the survey data with the case study data. The survey achieved a 30.3% (303) response rate. The data gathered were analysed using quantitative analysis tools (SPSS) and techniques (regression, correlation, hypothesis testing, analysis of the model and other general analysis techniques). The survey and case studies focused on identifying best practices, knowledge sharing and management practices, knowledge processes in the project management cycle as reflected by the conceptual model, technology and other aspects of Knowledge Management. Some of the findings made by the research are: (a) No standard best practice exists across the board among development projects. Each project has a set of practices that represent best practices for managing their projects; (b) KM was found to be a factor in speeding up project completion times. It was also linked to project success, knowledge sharing, innovation and efficiency; and (c) The CRAI model was found to be applicable to development projects and the type of knowledge projects embody. The model positively correlated with each of the expected outcomes-innovation, completion times, efficiency, project success and knowledge sharing. Recommendations made by this research include: 1. Development Projects should begin to design KM strategies as part of Project Management systems; 2. A development project should begin with mapping essential knowledge needed by the project; 3. Development PM should pay closer attention to the existence of communities in the project; 4. KM should be included in the list of critical success factors; and 5. DPs should use PM technologies which integrate KM capabilities.

The purpose of knowledge resource development is considered to be to generate and acquire the necessary knowledge for developing a firm's specific capability. In this research, I explore the patterns of knowledge resource development practice among privately-owned Chinese SME manufacturers in the informal network-based labour market. More specifically, this research focuses on exploring how privately-owned Chinese SME manufacturers attain skilled workers by bridging information asymmetries to improve both employers and employees' awareness of the skill availability in the informal labour markets that can usually be viewed as complex networked systems in the Chinese context. Through conducting an in- depth, qualitative study of 86 Chinese engineers, I identify three key aspects that explain the pattern of this phenomenon: (1) the informal rules existing within the social networks; (2) the employer's ability and strategy for acquiring skilled workers from the social networks; and (3) the skilled worker's (employee's) use of social networks to enhance employability and eventually contribute to the firm's knowledge resources. I develop an organizing framework for the process of knowledge resource development through social networks in the Chinese context to connect these three aspects. I found that, in Chinese society, the owner, senior managers and employees use guanxi (social capital in the Chinese context) to identify the individual workers, in their social network, who possess the specific skills, and encourage them to share their expertise and manpower with each other and the firm. The key contributions of this thesis are: (l) extending the current understanding of social networks by examining their application in the privately-owned Chinese manufacturing sector by providing a comprehensive picture of the way in which they develop knowledge resources through bridging information asymmetries in the network-based informal labour market; (2) identifying seven specific informal rules (namely, "anonymity", "huibao", "lun", "liyi", "mianzi", "renqing", and "integrated" rules) that have been widely used in guiding this labour matching process in the privately-owned Chinese SME manufacturing sector; (3) exploring how the owners and senior managers of privately-owned Chinese SME manufacturers use different dimensions of guanxi to gain advantages when engaging in recruitment practices through social networks to acquire skilled workers; (4) exploring the influences of different dimensions of guanxi with regard to job searching, job matching and compensation negotiating activities; and (5) extending the current understanding about connecting social capital and guanxi by providing a more detailed discussion of the connection between social capital and guanxi; developing guanxi specifications that link to specific dimensions of social capital, and using these connections to interpret the data. In general, this thesis explores Chinese firms' strategies for using social networks to attain skilled workers who contribute towards their knowledge of the resource development process. It also offers managerial insights for entrepreneurs who wish to enter the industry. 3

Knowledge and its acquisition are seen to be an increasingly important aspect of business management. Universities, through initiatives such as Knowledge Transfer Partnerships (KTP), are influential in the effective co-production and transfer of business management knowledge, however the mechanisms of knowledge acquisition within KTPs have been under researched. This thesis explores the acquisition of knowledge in three KTPs where process mapping was used in order to deliver business process improvements. It utilises Activity Theory as its research framework, adopting a Participatory Action Research approach with multi-site triangulation and employing cyclic data capture and analysis. Data is captured using semi-structured interviews and instantaneously sampled field notes. The research identifies the organisational community in which the KTP is conducted to be the most significant source of tensions or disturbances that impinge upon the work that is being undertaken. It makes a contribution to knowledge by classifying a source of tensions or disturbances that are not currently identified by Activity Theory and proffers an extension to the framework to include the ‘Tacit Skills’ of the individual undertaking an activity. It also identifies issues of governance, such as the stewardship of public funds that pervade KTPs and threaten to undermine the stated aims of the KTP initiative. Furthermore it highlights the complexities of KTPs and emphasises the need to support the psychological, emotional and training needs of those that are involved in their execution.

Since an understanding of 'culture' positively affects the wayan information systems practitioner influences and initiates actions in an organization, this research aims to get insight into an organizational infomlation systems management culture. In this research, a case study has been carried out in the context of the four major telecommunication companies operating in Thailand. The information systems management culture has been interpreted in terms of value systems embedded in the organization's managerial process of information systems and the manifestation of Thai values in such value systems. As such, the research domain of study is defined as 'the soft socio-technical aspect of the managerial process of information systems of the telecommunication companies operating in Thailand'. To tackle the research domain of the 'soft socio-technical aspect', the research embraces a 'soft systems' concept and adopts a 'soft' and 'socio-technical' approach to information systems. This is because of the fact that the research context is involved with human-machine inter-connections, pluralism, and multi-facets of a problem situation. The research enquiry process is formed by the systemic tools and techniques available in the socio-technical methodology namely SISTeM (Atkinson 1997; Atkinson and Brooks 2008) and 'Generative Systemic Metaphor' (Atkinson and Checkland 1988; Atkinson 2003). In order to obtain an in-depth understanding of the research domain of study, the constructed research enquiry process is used to interpretatively analyze the 'managerial process of information systems of the telecommunication companies operating in Thailand', as well as the value systems embedded in such managerial process and the influences of Thai culture on the identified value systems. Because within the Thai information systems research community, there is no previous 'soft systems' research, it could be argued that, for such a community, the research carried out in this thesis opens up an arena for a further 'soft systems' approach to information systems research, particularly those relevant to the soft socio-technical aspect of information systems.

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This study provides an understanding and identification of knowledge management challenges in project teams within a single organization. Identification of challenges has generated discussion and recommendations are put forward for improving the level of knowledge management within the organization. This information is useful to those who are involved in knowledge management in project environments in construction; equally, the methodology can be applied to other types of project teams.

The information audit (lA) provides a method to identify, evaluate, and manage an organisation's information resources. With such a central information management role, it might be reasonable to assume that the lA would be an accepted element of information management best practice, particularly given the growth of information based services, and growing recognition of information as a primary resource and tradable commodity.

Since 1978, China has gradually reformed its economic system from the traditional planning economy to a more competitive market-oriented economy. After an effort of three decades, China has now become the world's fourth-largest economy behind the US, Japan and Germany. Nevertheless, the continuous national economic reform and entrance of foreign companies have significantly changed China's business status quo, and resulted in increasingly drastic market competition in the domestic market. Faced with this competitive environment and economic pressure, thousands of Chinese companies have implemented Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems in order to improve operational efficiency and enhance core competencies.

The recent global credit crunch? has brought sharply into focus the need for better understanding of what it takes for organisations to survive. This research seeks to help organisations maintain their viability? – the ability to maintain a separate existence and survive on their own. Whilst there are a multitude of factors that contribute to organisational viability, information can be viewed as the lifeblood of organisations. This research increases our understanding of how organisations can manage information effectively to help maintain their viability. The viable systems model (VSM) is an established modelling technique that enables the detailed analysis of organisational activity to examine how the structure and functions performed in an organisation contribute to its viability?. The VSM has been widely applied, in small/large companies, industries and governments. However, whilst the VSM concentrates on the structure and functions necessary for an organisation to be viable, it pays much less attention to information deployment in organisations. Indeed, the VSM is criticised in the literature for being unable to provide much help with detailed information and communication structures and new theories are called for to explore the way people interact and what information they need in the VSM. This research analyses qualitative data collected from four case studies to contribute to our understanding of the role that information plays in organisational viability, making three key contributions to the academic literature. In the information management literature, this research provides new insight into the roles that specific information plays in organisations. In the systems thinking literature, this research extends our understanding of the VSM and builds on its powerful diagnostic capability to provide further criteria to aid in the diagnosis of viable organisations. In the information systems literature, this research develops a framework that can be used to help organisations design more effective information systems.

This thesis examined information systems strategic planning in multinationals from the perspective of the subsidiaries. A research framework was synthesised from a combination of literature in the fields of multinational strategy and IS strategic planning. The research was carried out using multiple case studies involving eight multinational subsidiaries operating in Malaysia and a multinational subsidiary operating in the UK. The subsidiaries were units in four European-based, three US-based, and two Japanese-based multinationals. The main methods and instruments used for the study were site visits and semistructured interviews. Three corporate headquarters were visited, in Switzerland, the US, and The Netherlands and a telephone interview was held with another corporate IT interviewee based in the US. The evidence gathered from the case studies reveals that, in these organisations, there is a lack of alignment between IS and business strategy. IS planning is more tactical rather than strategic and is more dominated by the IT infrastructure rather than the IS portfolio. The main focus of IS planning in many of these companies is to control cost and achieve scale economies, while knowledge transfer and subsidiary initiative get less priority. IS planning in these companies is centralised or currently moving toward more centralisation. Project implementation was the main criterion used for measuring IS planning success. With a low level of involvement of the local business management in the IS planning, in general, the subsidiary business managers are less satisfied with the IS planning approach than the subsidiary IT managers. Analysis of the evidence gathered from the case studies also indicates that there are links between business orientation, IS planning orientation, IS planning approaches, and the perceived success of IS planning. Small subsidiaries also tend to have less autonomy in IS planning and IS managers who report to the financial controllers tend to be less satisfied with the IS planning approach.