M.Com. (Business Management) / The knowledge that people create, possess and share can easily go unnoticed in organisations that do not put effort in identifying it. Knowledge, among other factors, is what people in organisations use to make decisions that can possibly give organisations a competitive advantage. Knowledge, as with other traditionally recognised resources, is a strategic resource that organisations can use to bring about positive change in business. Knowledge can be tacit or explicit and both types need to be managed strategically. Explicit knowledge tends to be easily accessible if it is stored in places such as databases where people can locate it, however, tacit knowledge can be slightly more challenging to access as it lies in the minds of people. Eskom’s Project Development Department (PDD) has 32 project developers who actively develop projects that the organisation will invest in. These projects include electricity generation stations, transmission lines or even pollution mitigating technologies. The project developers work with various stakeholders in and outside of the organisation to ensure that the projects are aligned with the strategic objectives of the organisation. This study aimed to identify the knowledge that the project developers possess and a knowledge audit was conducted on the project developers. The results show that the project developers possess vast amounts of knowledge, skills and are subject matter experts in various fields. The project developers also communicate with various other departments within Eskom when developing projects. A contributing fact to the varying knowledge and skills that the project developers possess is the different projects that each project developer develops. These projects can take up to three years to develop and this can enable a person to acquire knowledge in a specific field of operation. The majority of the project developers also stated that they preferred one on one physical conversations to acquire and share knowledge. Knowledge is gaining recognition as a strategic resource within organisations and strategic management of the knowledge is necessary as it can provide benefits for people and organisations as a whole.

A research report submitted to the faculty of commerce, law and management, university of the Witwatersrand, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of master of management (in the field of public and development management). YEAR: 2015 / Knowledge sharing is a critical component of knowledge management and a new phenomenon in the South African public sector. To introduce knowledge sharing in government, the Department of Public Service and Administration included it as one of the core management competencies for senior management service officials. There is a general perception that government employees are not keen to share what they know, as sharing empowers your colleague to compete with you for power and promotional opportunities. The purpose of this research study was therefore to investigate the perception of staff members on knowledge sharing activities in Limpopo Provincial Treasury department. In particular, the study was aimed at answering the following questions about the department: (1) What is the perception of employees on knowledge sharing as a catalyst to achieve operational and service delivery objectives? (2) What is the readiness level of LPT employees to share their experiences and know-how for the benefit of the institution? This was a qualitative research. The data was collected through the questionnaire distributed to employees grouped in two stratas, namely senior management and middle management services. Discussions were held, mostly with members of the dysfunctional knowledge management committee and other identified staff members. Relevant departmental documents were also reviewed as part of the research process. The outcome of the study is that the state of employees’ perception towards knowledge sharing is generally positive but in practice, there is little knowledgesharing taking place due to unconducive organisational culture and lack of leadership to position knowledge management as a strategic focus of the department. The study recommends that LPT adopts knowledge management as a strategic focus and put plans in place to preserve institutional memory

M. Tech. Business Administration / The focus of this study is to understand and examine the challenges of knowledge retention as it relates to knowledge management, types of knowledge, present labour market, workforce crisis, behavioural factors, personality traits and culture. The purpose of this dissertation is to understand the challenges of knowledge retention in start-up, small or medium enterprises, using Machite Engineering Pty Ltd as a case study. The difficulties of retaining knowledge are faced by organizations of all sizes. Hence, this dissertation examines the knowledge retention factors in relation to employees' decisions to stay in an organization; the types of knowledge; the meaning of knowledge worker; the labour market most organizations operate in; work force crises; behavioural factors that influence knowledge retention; organizational structure; personality traits and lifestyle; culture; career development; labour turnover; and other variables that impact knowledge retention as identified in the literature review.

D. Tech. Business Information Systems / Review of previous and related works highlighted significant gaps in the previous strategic information systems planning studies, and these gaps need to be addressed. Firstly, the examination of strategic information systems planning success and five contextual factors (environmental uncertainty, organisational structure, government and policies, business strategy orientation and information systems maturity) has not yet been thoroughly and empirically researched simultaneously, notably in the context of a developing country like South Africa. The investigation of the moderating role of contingency variables in the relationship between strategic information systems planning process phases and strategic information systems planning success in the context of South African medium enterprises provided an empirically informed understanding of these factors and their effect, which tend to be different from that of studies conducted in the developed countries. Secondly, literature lacks a developed and empirical validated contingency model for measuring the success of strategic information systems planning. The present study developed such model, using a Structural Equation Modelling and analysis in the context of South African medium enterprises. That is, the use of Structural Equation Modelling helped provide a validated contingency model which indicates the pertinent factors for measuring strategic information systems planning success, in the context of South African medium enterprises.

D.Phil. / In today's knowledge-intensive economy, an organisation's available knowledge is becoming an increasingly important strategic resource. The effective management of this resource is, consequently, one of the most important challenges facing today's organisation. Organisational learning processes which are responsible for the creation and sharing of knowledge should produce a core competence, which represents a form of valuable intellectual capital for the organisation and this has become a business imperative in the knowledgeintensive economy Without knowledge sharing between individuals, in groups, amongst groups and in the organisation as a whole there can be no knowledge and no sustainable competitive advantage through the use of organisational knowledge. Discovering the enablers and barriers to knowledge sharing is one of the aims of the study. I believe the proposed study could contribute to the "how" of knowledge sharing. This study will explore what the systemic relationship between knowledge management; knowledge sharing and organisational ethos is with the aim of developing a substantive knowledge-sharing model that explicates the knowledge-sharing processes. Based on the literature review, the reasons for organisations to focus on knowledge management and knowledge sharing are relatively consistent across organisations. At one level, organisations are concerned with keeping people informed regarding information and business processes to avoid duplication of effort, but also to stimulate collaboration and encourage group sharing. On a deeper level, most executives would agree that focusing on knowledge management is likely to increase organisational adaptability and competitiveness. Knowledge sharing can be viewed as a type of constant business innovation process.

M.Com. (Business Management) / This study focuses on one specific knowledge management process, namely the knowledge sharing process within an operational risk management cluster of a chosen South African retail bank. The study specifically focuses on the bi- weekly meetings that are used as platforms for knowledge sharing sessions. The primary objective of the study, is to ascertain how well the corporate investment bankers, shared services and CIB Africa operational risk management cluster is effectively utilising its meetings in terms of knowledge sharing to ensure that the operational risk management strategies of the chosen bank, provides optimal assurance to its stakeholders that the bank operates within its operational risk appetite. The study is divided into five chapters. The first chapter provides the readers with a thorough understanding of the research problem and topic. The second chapter provides the theoretical framework of the literature pertaining to the context of knowledge management with a specific focus of knowledge sharing. The third chapter discusses the research methodology adopted to conduct the study. The fourth chapter discusses the empirical findings and discussion of the study. Lastly, chapter five provides conclusions, recommendations and possibilities for further research. The theoretical framework of study began by focusing broadly on the concept of knowledge management weaving its way to the specific concept of knowledge sharing. A single case research approach was adopted. All respondents were attendants of the bi-weekly knowledge sharing sessions held in the chosen bank. The empirical findings of the study revealed that there is no common awareness and understanding of the concepts of knowledge management and knowledge sharing within the chosen bank. It was further established that factors such as the role of organisational culture, leadership involvement and participation, and rewards and incentives were key factors that had the ability to either enable or hinder the knowledge-sharing within the chosen bank.

M.A. ( Information studies) / Information and knowledge are the new wealth of our time. Knowledge is a resource that is valuable to an organisation's ability to innovate and compete. As every business has to operate in an increasingly competitive and dynamic environment, business managers should base all decisions on their competitive standing in the world economy and the competitiveness of their knowledge competencies. The ability of a company to mobilise and exploit its intangible and invisible assets has become far more important than investing and managing physical, tangible assets ...

Thesis (M.B.A.)-Business Studies Unit, Durban Institute of Technology, 2005 xiii, 96 leaves, Annexures A-C / Project managers are faced with the challenge of matching skills to a task rather than merely assigning people to a job. If these skills are not readily available, the project may not be able to be executed with the desired level of quality and timescales may not be met. Nowadays, organisations need to respond faster to market requirements than before due to increased competition and rapid advances in technology. Coupled to this is the trend for human resources to be more mobile, as lifelong commitment to an organisation becomes a thing of the past. These two trends present modern organisations with the requirement that their human resources require increasing levels of skills, yet they are faced with the risk that these skills may be lost due to their mobility. Organisations, therefore, need to understand what their core competencies are and ensure that these competencies are developed such that the organisation retains an adequate supply of core skills. The aim of the study is to identify the core competencies and associated skills within an organisation and devise a method whereby these competencies and skills can be measured and duplicated such that core knowledge is retained and developed within the organisation. / M

A Master’s dissertation submitted to the Faculty of Commerce, Law and Management, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg in fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Masters of Commerce (School of Economic and Business Sciences) Johannesburg, 2016 / It has been suggested that a global ‘Second Generation’ of innovation (SGI) is required in order to address the deficiencies of contemporary innovation practice. In the commercial context, contemporary innovation practice is often constrained by market forces and the profit mechanism, effectively resulting in stagnation in the innovation pipeline. As a consequence, many potentially profitable and beneficial innovations are not pursued. SGI is a proposed new paradigm that makes use of open innovation, open source and crowdsourcing in order to extricate the full potential of distributed knowledge systems to ultimately ameliorate the free flow of knowledge and innovation. Much of SGI theory relates to pharmaceutical research but there exists a paucity of literature that applies SGI theory in the academic research context, where similar problems exist. It has been purported that academic research is inherently non-innovative and the occurrence of ‘academic failure’, or the inability of academia to produce innovative research output is a serious concern. In order to examine the relationship between SGI and academic research, a mixed methodology approach, which incorporated both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies has been used. First, a model of relationships between important theoretical concepts was derived from the literature. Next, a questionnaire survey was distributed to a sample of 529 academic researchers across South African universities and research institutions in order to gauge potential ‘SGI Propensity’ in relation to academic research output (or productivity) along with all other relevant variables in the literature-derived model. It is argued that the relationship between SGI Propensity and academic research productivity can provide a clear indication of the potential of SGI in the South African academic context. Aggregated data collected from this sample was then tested using a variety of statistical tests, including correlation analysis, hierarchical multiple regression, as well as tests of moderation and mediation. Additionally, a sample of 30 high-ranking South African academic researchers was also sampled for a parallel qualitative study, which occurred through a one-on-one interview process. Results from both studies were recorded, analysed and contrasted. Thereafter, conclusions were drawn and recommendations made. / MT2017

M. Tech. Business Information Systems / Knowledge Management is an increasingly important driver in today's economy which functions mainly on knowledge. In view of that, knowledge is valuable asset for an organization to sustaining competitive advantage. The challenge faced by organization is the loss of critical organizational knowledge held by employees who are departing due to circumstances such as retirement, termination of contracts, resignation and transfer. This challenge is further aggravated by the lack of capturing and preserving knowledge before experienced employees depart from the organization. The purpose of this study is to assess the effectiveness of SharePoint in the public sector as a tool for Knowledge Preservation. The objectives of the study were; to determine the use of SharePoint in the public sector; the processes used to preserve the knowledge within the public sector; the benefits of using SharePoint for Knowledge Preservation; the challenges of using SharePoint for knowledge preserving and the factors for effective use of SharePoint as a tool for preserving knowledge.