Abstract   The purpose of this study was to explore how knowledge and management of knowledge is experienced and perceived at a consultancy firm and derive from the experiences of the participants when portraying the phenomenon of knowledge in such a setting. Aspects covered in this research are individual and collective knowledge, the complexity of project-based organisations and the different ways of perceiving knowledge (structural and practice). All of these aspects were accounted for in order to gain a deeper understanding of the experiences of the consultants, the knowledge environment at a consultancy firm, and how knowledge can be managed in such a setting.   The research was inspired by my personal/professional experience of knowledge at a consultancy firm where I, prior to this research, was given the task of re-designing the content management system. In the initial planning phase I recognised a need to find out more about the way the consultants were working, how they used knowledge and how they perceived the knowledge had been managed.   Qualitative data was collected through individual and group interviews and the philosophical tradition of phenomenology was derived from.   The findings from the interviews showed three main themes of how knowledge was perceived; 1) ways of working (differing experiences depending on the context of internal or external work or individual or group project assignments), 2) the knowledge culture and 3) the process and structure of knowledge management at the firm.   Based on the findings it is concluded that regardless of practice based knowledge sharing the project-based setting of consultancies requires more, it requires some documentation in order to enable collective knowledge through embedded artefacts. It can also be concluded that the lack of structure or processes contributes to further complexity which would suggest that implementing structure through for example a process oriented approach would ease the process of knowledge management and improve the perception of knowledge at the consultancy firm.

Si l'apprentissage organisationnel est un thème central des théories de l'organisation, l'oubli organisationnel a été beaucoup moins étudié. Dans un environnement en mutation, les risques d'obsolescence des savoirs et des capacités retiennent prioritairement l'attention des entreprises et des chercheurs. Cette thèse entend montrer que de nombreuses transformations contemporaines des entreprises (de leur organisation comme de leurs ressources) invitent à reconsidérer les risques associés à la continuité de leurs capacités d'action. Dans le cadre d'une recherche menée en collaboration avec un centre d'ingénierie spécialisé dans la réalisation de grands projets industriels complexes, nous avons montré que des difficultés opérationnelles liées à un contexte de forte croissance de la charge de travail et des effectifs révélaient en fait un problème plus profond. Une longue période d'absence de projets et un profond renouvellement générationnel des équipes d'ingénieurs avaient en effet rendu nécessaire une phase de réapprentissage collectif. Mais les travaux de recherche existants sur l'oubli organisationnel ne permettent que très partiellement de penser et gérer ce type de situation. À travers notre cas d'étude, nous montrons que dans une activité d'ingénierie, le diagnostic de l'oubli organisationnel doit moins reposer sur une analyse de la performance que sur une attention aux signaux envoyés par les ressources humaines ainsi qu'aux temps et aux modes de constitution des capacités d'action. Ce changement de posture nous permet, dans un premier temps de qualifier une situation de « mur d'apprentissage » comme paroxystique des phases de réapprentissage. Nous mettons ensuite en évidence le caractère pluriel et hétérogène des sources de l'oubli organisationnel, qui complique les opérations de diagnostic et d'orientation de l'action. Nous nous efforçons enfin d'appréhender les conditions macro- et micro-organisationnelles qui permettent de franchir ce « mur ». / Although organizational learning is a central topic in organization theory, organizational forgetting has been much less studied. In a changing environment, researchers and practicioners have primarly focused on the risk of knowledge and skills obsolescence. This thesis starts from the idea that the transformations undergone by many companies make it necessary to tackle the risks related to the maintenance of their capabilities. As part of a collaborative research with an engineering department in charge of steering large and complex industrial projects, we have shown that operational difficulties, in a context of rapid growth of workload and staff, revealed a deeper problem. Indeed, a deep generational renewal of teams along with a long period without new projects, generated a need for a collective relearning process. However, existing research on organizational forgetting is silent on how to think and manage this kind of situations. Through our case study, we show that, in engineering environments, diagnosing organizational forgetting requires paying attention to human signals and to capability building processes and length. First, it enables us to describe a situation of "learning wall" as a paroxysmal phase of relearning. We then highlight the plural and heterogeneous sources of organizational forgetting, which complicate diagnosis and action. Finally, we strive to identify the macro- and micro- organizational conditions that bridge this learning wall.

The research in this thesis focuses on the intangible resources of organisations. Intangible resources include an organisation's collective knowledge and learning, leadership talent, the values that shape its culture, routines and processes and the collaborative relationships. These intangible resources are known as intellectual capital (IC) because they support organisational activity along with financial and physical capital. Previous research has classified IC into three principle components of human, organisational and relationship capital and has established a link between IC and organisational value. Recent studies have also emphasised the notion of interrelationships between the three components of intellectual capital in developing capabilities that drive value creation. Yet it is often unclear how the various elements interrelate to one another to generate organisational value. This thesis investigates how IC contributes to organisational value creation. Central to this research is the examination of the mechanisms through which IC factors are integrated within organisations in order to develop capabilities. As innovation is widely agreed to be a determinant of organisational value creation, this research adapted and extended the model of intelligence and innovation proposed by Glynn (1996) to develop a comprehensive theoretical framework for empirically examining the synergistic effects of IC. Building upon four major theoretical streams: resource-based view of the firm, innovation theory, intellectual capital theory and organisational capabilities, this research has elaborated the ideas and constructs presented in the original model and de-contextualised them to an intellectual capital perspective. A qualitative, interpretive approach was applied to two in-depth case studies for investigating the intangible resource-base of two knowledge intensive companies. The results were then expanded to a cross-case context in order to compare and contrast the value creating potential of the IC factors. The findings of this research are presented in the form of a descriptive framework that classifies the characteristics of a value creating process. The purpose of the framework is to provide pointers for identifying IC resources and developing capabilities in a way that provides an organisation with sustainable competitive advantage, and thereby, value.

The goal of the paper is to suggest a solution of an inefficiency in searching for previously searched and found information. The suggested solution is based on the use of a personal knowledge base built upon existing technologies and adapted to needs of common users. The thesis is focused especially to the search based on semantic similarities between tags. Collective knowledge is used for finding the similarities. The first part of the paper introduces the repetitive search problem by a few real world scenarios. In the second part the problem is analyzed from the personal knowledge base point of view. The third part explains the suggested solution that is built upon Delicious, a bookmarking service and DBpedia. The suggested solution is implemented as a prototype. In the final part the prototype is tested and evaluated. The test results suggest that the presented solution can make the repetitive search easier, but at the same time it exposes some performance issues that the proposed method brings up. The paper recommends modifications that could improve the performance and allow more extensive prototype testing. Powered by TCPDF (www.tcpdf.org)

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No. of bitstreams: 1 Versão final.pdf: 2421835 bytes, checksum: ab2bd033b112f25f861585e1f79b188b (MD5) Previous issue date: 2013 / Esta pesquisa teve como objetivo compreender como ocorreu a formação de formadores enquanto formavam docentes para atuar na educação profissional de nível médio e na educação tecnológica de nível superior. Portanto, uma formação realizada na prática. A pesquisa, realizada entre agosto de 2010 e maio de 2011, foi desenvolvida durante as atividades do Módulo I da Licenciatura para a Educação Profissional e Tecnológica oferecida pelo Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio Grande do Sul, Câmpus Rio Grande. No relatório apresento como um grupo de professores, entre os quais me incluo, com experiência em lecionar diferentes cursos de nível médio – integrado, subsequente e PROEJA – passou por um processo de formação docente objetivando atuar em licenciaturas para a educação profissional. Como, simultaneamente, atuávamos em um curso que formava professores, a nossa formação ocorreu com a perspectiva de formar-se ao formar. Para alcançar este objetivo, tacitamente, nos organizamos sob a forma de uma Comunidade Aprendente. Nos encontros presenciais as atividades foram realizadas em Roda (Warschauer, 2001), ou seja, na Roda dos Formadores. O corpus de análise desta pesquisa é constituído pelas informações construídas durante as atividades desenvolvidas no Módulo I da Licenciatura. Compreende o Diário de Campo, com minhas percepções dos encontros presenciais, os e-mails trocados entre os integrantes da Comunidade, como complemento dos planejamentos realizados nos encontros presenciais e os relatos pós-aulas dos professores que observavam alguma peculiaridade ocorrida naquele dia ou encontro. Estas informações foram analisadas mediante a Análise Textual Discursiva proposta por Moraes e Galiazzi (2007). A partir da fragmentação dos textos que compõem o corpus da pesquisa, com o processo de unitarização, surgiram novos significados dos fatos ocorridos. Significados que permitiram a emergência de categorias e possibilitaram a compreensão de como ocorreu o processo de formação dos formadores. Esta formação, ocorrida na prática, na Roda dos Formadores, em uma Comunidade Aprendente, rompe com os modelos tradicionais de formação de professores. A Tese defendida é a possibilidade de formação docente na prática, desde que o conhecimento que conduz a formação seja construído coletivamente, em uma Comunidade Aprendente. Conhecimento construído com a reflexão das experiências vivenciadas e escritas pelos membros da Comunidade. Registros que, além de possibilitar refletir sobre as ações desenvolvidas, também oportunizam relatar a história que está sendo construída pelo grupo formado por professores e alunos de uma Licenciatura para a Educação Profissional e Tecnológica. / This research aims to comprehend how the teacher education process proceeded to those who were training teacher-students in order to enable them to teach in secondary education (vocational and technical high school and junior college). Thus, it is about an education that was forged in praxis. The research, which was conducted between August 2010 and May 2011, was developed through the activities presented in Módulo I of the Licenciatura para a Educação Profissional e Tecnológica course, offered by Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia do Rio Grande do Sul, Campus Rio Grande. My report shows how a group of teachers (including myself), all experienced in teaching different programs in the institution – which offers three types of secondary education: vocational and technical high school, junior college, and PROEJA –, went through a teacher education program in order to be qualified to teach in technical education courses. As we were both students and teachers at the same time, and to each other, our educational process happened under the perspective of receiving teaching qualification while qualifying. In order to achieve our goal, we organized ourselves as a Comunidade Aprendente (Communities of Practice). During the presential meetings, the activities were done in Roda [Wheel] (Warschauer, 2001), also known as Roda dos Formadores (Teachers Wheel). The corpus consists of information gathered during the development of the activities in Módulo I of the Licenciatura course. Both the Diário de Campo (Field Journal), which consists of my perceptions of the face-to-face meetings, and the emails exchanged among members of the Communities of Practice complement the planning performed during the face-to-face meetings and also the after-class reports done by the teacher who noticed any peculiarity which could have happened in some day or during some meeting. That data was analyzed based on Written Discourse Analysis, proposed by Moraes and Galiazzi (2007). After the fragmentation of the texts of the corpus of this research, and the subsequent unifying process of such data, new meanings were given to the reported and experienced information. Such meanings allow the awareness of some categories as well as also facilitate the comprehension of in what manner the teacher education process occurred. When applied in practice, through the Teachers Wheel technique and within the Communities of Practice, this teacher education training breaks with the traditional structures of teacher education. The thesis statement claims the possibility of a teacher education program that is based on a practical approach, if the knowledge shared during the training program is built in group, mutually, within the Communities of Practice. This knowledge would also have to be build based on the reflection upon the written description of the Community members’ experiences. These records allow the members to reflect upon the actions developed in the program, and also grant them the opportunity to report the history that is being written by the group of teachers and students of the Licenciatura para a Educação Profissional e Tecnológica course.

Within dynamic 21st century knowledge economies, future-building knowledge, that bears capacities to transcend existing boundaries and create something new, is of particular importance. Within the first decade of the new century, new concepts such as "learning from the future" or "self-transcending knowledge" developed within knowledge management. So far, they lacked a theoretical grounding in relevant learning theory as well as a sound acknowledgement and consideration of such knowledge structures' emergence and social embeddedness. Thus, key principles and leverage factors for designing respective knowledge processes were difficult to derive. This dissertation investigates theoretical ground that can provide a basis to explain the creation of future-building knowledge in collective structures. It is guided by the following research question: "How can the emergence of self-transcending knowledge in collective organizational settings be rooted in theories of knowledge, learning and cognition?" Starting from the model of knowledge-based management, the model is expanded by exploring cognitive, creative and social systemic aspects of knowledge creation on a transdisciplinary basis. Research draws on constructivist learning theory, complexity-based approaches in knowledge management and organizational learning, recent accounts in cognitive science (enaction/embodiment) and a creative logic of emergence to derive an integrated model for collective self-transcending knowledge. The model contributes to the integration of knowledge management, organizational learning and cognitive science, expanding knowledge-based management towards attention-based management. The model's three dimensions and three domains form an integrated theoretical basis to derive key principles and leverage factors for steering future-building knowledge processes. Simultaneously, they reveal leverage factors' limited - i.e. enabling, not determining - impact on processes of "organizing future". (author's abstract)

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal. / Pour respecter les droits d'auteur, la version électronique de cette thèse ou ce mémoire a été dépouillée, le cas échéant, de ses documents visuels et audio-visuels. La version intégrale de la thèse ou du mémoire a été déposée au Service de la gestion des documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal / Pour respecter les droits d'auteur, la version électronique de cette thèse ou ce mémoire a été dépouillée, le cas échéant, de ses documents visuels et audio-visuels. La version intégrale de la thèse ou du mémoire a été déposée au Service de la gestion des documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal.

The study goes beyond knowledge existing in the literature study of the philosophy and theory of knowledge, knowledge management, African knowledge and the management of knowledge by African institutions, including the peace and security architecture of Africa, to reveal a coherent conceptual framework and themes to guide the field research. During the field studies of specific cases in the Great Lakes region of Africa, principles and practices emerged that formed a framework for a constructed Trans-dimensional Knowledge Management Model (TDKM-M) to develop a theoretical model for the management of knowledge for conflict resolution as the first step towards the revival of Africa. The study proposes practical solutions for the management of knowledge that would empower decisionmakers to intervene successfully in conflict situations. Furthermore, the study serves to expand the knowledge base in the field of trans-disciplinary African studies, transcending the boundary between political science and epistemology to navigate the middle ground between disciplines and the space that lies beyond all disciplines and dichotomised thinking towards a new holistic understanding. A systems approach using MIT (multi-disciplinarity, interdisciplinarity and trans-disciplinarity) and qualitative research methodology on a transnational level was followed. The study consists of a literature study and a field study consisting of a pilot study, semi-structured interviews and participation in communities of practice to access the worldviews of diverse cultures. An observable knowledge dimension, consisting of a normative foundation, empirical knowledge domain and analytical knowledge domain, is identified. Furthermore, a tacit metaphysical knowledge dimension is identified that is informed by the observable dimension. The two dimensions transacts with each other to attain a higher level of trans-dimensional knowledge. The TDKM-M proposes principles and practices of how trans-dimensional knowledge, including indigenous African knowledge and external knowledge, can be managed in a collective middle ground to produce holistic understanding. This higher level of understanding can activate intervention into the causes and consequences of conflict. Innovation of African society could follow, achieving desired outcomes such as peace, justice, human rights, self-empowerment and innovation towards transformative growth, competitiveness and negotiate equilibrium with the global community, and ultimately the revival of Africa. / Political Sciences / D. Litt. et Phil. (Politics)

The study goes beyond knowledge existing in the literature study of the philosophy and theory of knowledge, knowledge management, African knowledge and the management of knowledge by African institutions, including the peace and security architecture of Africa, to reveal a coherent conceptual framework and themes to guide the field research. During the field studies of specific cases in the Great Lakes region of Africa, principles and practices emerged that formed a framework for a constructed Trans-dimensional Knowledge Management Model (TDKM-M) to develop a theoretical model for the management of knowledge for conflict resolution as the first step towards the revival of Africa. The study proposes practical solutions for the management of knowledge that would empower decisionmakers to intervene successfully in conflict situations. Furthermore, the study serves to expand the knowledge base in the field of trans-disciplinary African studies, transcending the boundary between political science and epistemology to navigate the middle ground between disciplines and the space that lies beyond all disciplines and dichotomised thinking towards a new holistic understanding. A systems approach using MIT (multi-disciplinarity, interdisciplinarity and trans-disciplinarity) and qualitative research methodology on a transnational level was followed. The study consists of a literature study and a field study consisting of a pilot study, semi-structured interviews and participation in communities of practice to access the worldviews of diverse cultures. An observable knowledge dimension, consisting of a normative foundation, empirical knowledge domain and analytical knowledge domain, is identified. Furthermore, a tacit metaphysical knowledge dimension is identified that is informed by the observable dimension. The two dimensions transacts with each other to attain a higher level of trans-dimensional knowledge. The TDKM-M proposes principles and practices of how trans-dimensional knowledge, including indigenous African knowledge and external knowledge, can be managed in a collective middle ground to produce holistic understanding. This higher level of understanding can activate intervention into the causes and consequences of conflict. Innovation of African society could follow, achieving desired outcomes such as peace, justice, human rights, self-empowerment and innovation towards transformative growth, competitiveness and negotiate equilibrium with the global community, and ultimately the revival of Africa. / Political Sciences / D. Litt. et Phil. (Politics)