What is the competency advantage of company? What is the niche of company? These are the important question in management field. In this knowledge society, company¡¦s successes depend on company¡¦s special and particularly intellectual capital. Take Microsoft as an example, it¡¦s book value is not its software factory, actually it has no software factory, Microsoft¡¦s book value is constitute by its goodwill, person computer operation system stander, and the ability to form an alliance with other companies. The goodwill and abilities are Microsoft¡¦s intellectual capital. So, knowledge had become the most important active and result in economic actives. How to manage knowledge is the most important work for management in this century. Because the knowledge management becomes more and more important, many research and theses begin to study about knowledge management, and many software suppliers have developed it¡¦s own knowledge management framework and solution. The market of knowledge management software and knowledge management service keep growing, books and theses about knowledge management also create many new ideas, and all companies began to realize knowledge management is an important direction for company¡¦s development. The complete knowledge management including many components, and knowledge management involve many issues about company, including company¡¦s strategy, employees, technologies¡Ketc. So, this thesis studied the theses about knowledge management and did many case studies. And interviewed some companies, which carried out knowledge management in Taiwan and compared the cases with theses. By the comparison between cases and theses, this thesis tries to find some contribution for knowledge management. And this thesis wants to provide useful advices for companies, which want to carry out knowledge management.

K.U.Leuven University Library (Belgium) developed an experimental interface for subject search by UDC in the OPAC. The interface combines the search facilities of a classification with those of a word system, since it enables the end user to search by subject terms and to see these terms in the hierarchy of broader, parallel and more specific terms. This project should be seen as an important indication of the libraryâ s growing concern to present its information sources in a content-structured and user-friendly way. At the same time, it has to be situated in a new policy for knowledge organization, which aims to find a balance between the local and overall needs of a library network. Finally, this project comes at a moment when K.U.Leuven University Library is in full conversion to Aleph 500 software.

Thesis (M.I.S.) - University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2009. / Full text also available online. Scroll down for electronic link.

No description available.

In this paper I pair a contextualist theory of knowledge ascriptions with a non-contextual definition of knowledge, specifically the principle that knowledge is infallible belief. This combination is unusual because proponents of contextualism, understood as a semantic thesis, either do not engage epistemology or suggest that the criteria for knowledge are also context sensitive. In order to sustain the pairing that I suggest, the truth conditions of a knowledge ascription must be distinct from the criteria for knowledge. I believe that this distinction is important and fruitful for two reasons: 1) the distinction allows us to preserve both the principle that knowledge is infallible belief and the conviction that we know a lot; 2) the distinction explains the paradox that certain skeptical arguments are not obviously unsound even though their conclusion does seem absurd. Since I uphold a definition of knowledge that is not context sensitive, my treatment of skepticism is unlike prominent contextualist treatments. / Master of Arts

While the importance of knowledge creation and management has been widely recognised as vital to an organisation's ongoing competitiveness and success since the 1990s, there has been little systematic study of knowledge creation and transfer processes in organisations. Much of what has been reported in the literature is anecdotal in nature. Particularly lacking is research within an international context, exploring issues related to the transfer of knowledge across countries and culture. It is proposed that there is a need for theory building research in the area of knowledge transfer. Given the complex and social nature of knowledge, a qualitative approach to undertaking this research was adopted. The study is an inductive, theory-building case study in relation to a multinational company. In summary, this study evaluated the effectiveness of a best practice knowledge management program in achieving knowledge transfer in sales and marketing practices throughout the markets of Europe, Middle East, Africa and Latin America. It considered the methods by which knowledge was transferred and their relative effectiveness, and those factors which may have mediated or limited the knowledge transfer processes. The research was undertaken by the company's Knowledge Manager who had created the best-practice knowledge transfer program. The implications of this situation on the study's validity and reliability are discussed, and were taken into account in the design of the questionnaire and in the analysis of all findings. The case study site was a European-based, global travel technology company. The principal data-gathering method was a structured interview conducted by telephone with senior staff from within 28 European and Latin American markets. In total, 31 interviews were undertaken. This broad-ranging interview method gathered information and feedback on the processes used for identifying and distributing best practices in sales and marketing. The interview data were supplemented by feedback questionnaires from best practice forums, intranet usage statistics, observations from best practice forums and from interviews with staff in the central organisation. While there was evidence that knowledge transfer had occurred, the results of the study highlighted the difficulties in effectively measuring the knowledge transfer process. It is the researcher's view that clear and visible measures of knowledge transfer are not universal or even generic, but rather are to be discerned in a range of indicators across actions, behaviours, attitudes and outcomes in culture-specific settings. A time based knowledge measurement model was developed to assist in this regard. Other major outcomes from the research included: * The confirmation of the critical importance of face-to-face communication mechanisms for knowledge transfer to result in knowledge uptake. * The identification of the role of technology as an enabler of communication and distribution of knowledge, but not as a driver for action or knowledge uptake. * The recognition of the relationship between the broad factors impacting on knowledge transfer such as organisational factors, external environment and individual characteristics, in a complex and non-linear manner, suggesting that knowledge transfer is a multi-factorial process involving interacting variables to an extent greater than generally accepted hitherto. A tool for use within organisational settings has been developed in this regard. * The identification of the interplay between different individual specific characteristics or factors such as personal experience of change, experience of working in a different cultural context, ego/personality, and credibility of the person transmitting the practice which influence the decision to adopt or not adopt a practice from another market. * The identification of the need for cultural similarity and high levels of homogeneity, in terms of market maturity, market size and competitive position for practices to transfer more often between countries. * The recognition that many factors operate to influence and shape the knowledge or indeed to block the transfer of practices between countries, with resistance to other practices possibly relating to an individual's need for the application of creativity, personal ownership and control. Additionally, the researcher observed that much of the language within the existing literature describing those factors which block or limit knowledge transfer is negatively framed. The researcher believes that a change in attitude about the positive influence of an individual's filtering processes, together with a change in organisational language describing resistance to knowledge transfer, would yield a positive impact on individuals' attitudes and behaviour with regard to knowledge transfer. Several areas for further research as a result of the study were identified and include individual factors such as cultural characteristics, motivation, personality and adult learning styles. Additionally, a more detailed examination and understanding of the impact of organisational factors such as leadership and generational gaps on knowledge transfer would be of significant value to the body of knowledge.

Magister Commercii - MCom / The aim of this study is to understand how knowledge is created, shared and used within the fast moving consumer goods distribution centre in the Western Cape (WC). It also aims to understand knowledge sharing between individuals in the organisation. A literature review was conducted, in order to answer the research questions- this covered the background of knowledge management (KM) and KS and its current status with particular reference to SA’s private sector. The study found that technological KM infrastructure, cultural KM infrastructure and organisational KM infrastructure are important enablers of KS. A conceptual model was developed around these concepts. In order to answer the research questions, the study identified a FMCG DC in the WC, where KS is practiced

Studies in recent years have revealed that use of ICT can significantly impact knowledge sharing in organizations by enhancing the knowledge sharing process, reducing knowledge sharing barriers, and introducing technology barriers. While this has been identified in many studies and a significant research has been carried out to identify knowledge sharing barriers, there exists a considerable dearth of research when the question of ‘which knowledge sharing barriers can ICT reduce and how?’ is posed. This thesis aims to address this question by studying the case of an organization using ICT for knowledge sharing. The study was carried out using questionnaire and interview findings and results showed that if ICT is effectively used, a number of knowledge sharing barriers - in addition to time and space barriers - can be successfully reduced. Organizational and individual knowledge sharing barriers saw most reduction by ICT while technology barriers did not see any reduction by use of ICT alone. This is in coherence with different studies that use of ICT for knowledge sharing introduces its own technology barriers. However the results show that if employees are tech-savvy and management considerably supports employee involvement in the process of design and deployment of ICT enabled knowledge sharing, technology barriers can also be greatly reduced and even entirely eliminated.

Managing knowledge work and knowledge workers is of growing importance in theory as well as in practice. Organizations are continuously evolving value added work. It is observed over a period of time, that manual work is reducing and educated work force is delivering, executing and successfully performing organizational activities. Particularly in Indian context there is a phenomenal growth in employment of knowledge professionals. They contribute towards building value through their innovation, new technology and its application. Knowledge professionals possess the talent and required skills to cater to organizational competitive demands. Knowledge professional creates knowledge and transfer knowledge to other professionals. There are several univariate studies focusing on satisfaction, stress, motivation, there are also studies which talks about knowledge transfer aspects, but they are not studied in the context of knowledge professionals and linking them to value added behavior and well-being. This is a multi-construct study with an attempt to explain causal relationship between knowledge professionals, organizational & knowledge practice, knowledge transfer modes, enhanced valued behavior and well-being, for which the existing literature is reviewed. Literature review for this study has been broadly classified into four major headings, i.e. knowledge professionals, organizational and knowledge practices, knowledge transfer modes and finally well-being of knowledge professionals. Knowledge professionals are dealing with the increase in knowledge intensive work and therefore there is a need to link knowledge professionals to over all organizational strategies and focus on their well-being. The different practices in both organizational and knowledge identifies the purpose of such different practices and how it affects the expertise in the professionals. Practices tend to vary based on the human processes in the different sectors. Several studies focused on knowledge transfer and also identified the modes of transfer of knowledge in terms of one to one basis, formal and informal, on the job trainings, apprenticeships etc., in the past. Lastly, work profile, different practices and modes of knowledge transfer tends to have a bearing on well-being. There are several univariate and bivariate research studies conducted on knowledge and knowledge management practices existing within the organization. Knowledge professionals are the most valuable resource of the organization as they contribute to maximum growth of their organization. Hence there is a need to understand their well-being. But previous research has not focused on this dimension of knowledge professionals. Earlier studies have not focused in detail about the knowledge intensiveness in knowledge professionals work profile, nor its impact on their well-being. Therefore we found a need to focus our study on understanding the knowledge professionals work profile and their well-being. Though there are various studies on knowledge transfer but there is a paucity of studies in the area of knowledge professionals, and its impact on the valued behavior of the organization. We further felt the need to study the relationship existing between well-being of knowledge professionals and knowledge transfer modes. Based on this we framed our objectives of the study as follows: To develop a framework for relating knowledge work, organizational & knowledge practices, and the role of modes of knowledge transfer on valued behavior and well-being. To understand the effect of different knowledge intensive work on valued behavior and well-being. To suggest appropriate managerial initiatives to sustain knowledge work and well-being of knowledge professionals. In order to achieve the above mentioned objectives, conceptual framework was formalized. Thorough literature review helped in identifying gaps in the research. Discussions with practitioners in the field were useful in selecting the variables for the study. The different variables studied were work profile of knowledge professionals, organizational and knowledge practices. Knowledge transfer modes to determine the influence of transfer process on well-being and valued behavior. We attempted to understand the effect of different practices and transfer modes on valued behavior and well-being of knowledge professionals. To achieve the objectives, survey methodology was executed for the main study. Questionnaire developed was a 5 point Likert scale where professionals had to rate with options choosing from strongly disagree, disagree, neither agree nor disagree, agree and strongly agree. This was combined with in-depth interview on a one to one basis, between researcher and professionals without any external disturbance in a secure silent place. The main sample consisting of 439 professionals from five organizations, out of which 2 of them are Government sectors and remaining 3 are private sectors. Sample comprised of knowledge professionals working in IT and R & D sector with a minimum of 2 years of experience and working in the same or similar kind of projects, both male and female professionals with varied qualifications, and age ranging from 19 to 61 years. To validate our objectives of the study different statistical analysis was computed. We first confirmed the reliability of the designed questionnaire by computing cronbach alpha. Factor analysis helped us identify the groupings of the variables. To understand the effect of demographic variables such as age, gender, educational qualification, work experience, type of organization on the work profile on the knowledge professionals, obtained sample was studied on each of these variables by computing ‘t’tests. The differences in the demographical variables was analyzed and reported. This was further analyzed to understand the effect of independent factors on output factors and the effect of mediating factors on output by computing multiple regression. Regression was first done without mediating factors by regressing independent factors on output and later by adding mediating factors to verify the mediating effect of the different factors. The obtained regression value results are analyzed for firstly validating if the model can be accepted by verifying the significance of F value, next by checking the goodness of fit of the model by looking at the R square value and finally we verified the items which had an impact on the output factors by looking at their Beta coefficient value. Significant beta coefficient values were accepted and discussed further. We further diagrammatically depicted the connections of the independent factors on the output factors from the obtained findings. The findings of this chapter show that mediating factors have improved the R square value showing that mediating factors increases the explanatory power. It can be observed that all the hypotheses are proved. To further understand the different knowledge intensive work of knowledge professionals, input factors, mediating factors and output factors were regressed for each group separately and presented in next chapter. Knowledge professionals were grouped based on the knowledge intensive jobs being performed by them. It was observed that 5 unique groups were being formed and we aimed at systematically understanding the differences in the groups. Discussion was done group wise. All the groups were analyzed and understood based on their age, educational qualification, work experience, gender, type of job etc. Further multiple regression was computed on each of the group separately. Here again multiple regression was done without mediating variable in the first step and in the next step to verify the effect of mediating factors they were included in the analysis. Regression model was checked for significance level through F value, goodness of fit was verified by obtained R square and later significant beta values were analyzed and diagrammatically represented. From the findings it can be observed that each group is exclusive and tends to have significant differences between the groups based on the knowledge intensive jobs being performed by them. The findings can be summarized as there are differences between the groups with regard to the extent to which the different input, mediating factors affect the output factors. There exist differences in the way the factors influence each group, indicating the uniqueness of each group. It can be concluded that this study provides a profound understanding about the different groups of knowledge professionals based on the knowledge intensive job being performed by them. This finding can be used by other organizations while recruiting, training, and charting out clear career growth for professionals, and for job analysis. This study has attempted to understand well-being of knowledge professionals and how it tends to affect and vary based on the different knowledge professional groups. This framework of studying knowledge professionals and their well-being is a unique contribution to the existing literature and for organizational as well as managerial practices. An attempt has been made to understand the different knowledge transfer practices and its impact as value add for the organization. This research has contributed theoretically and it is methodologically unique by adapting a multi construct model, the different practices being studied will help in framing effective knowledge management practices in organizations.

This project presents an investigation into the viability of alternative knowl- edge acquisition strategies in knowledge management systems. The goal of this project is to illustrate that alternative means of knowledge acquisition can have a significant effect on the quality of the knowledge base. To accomplish this a modification of a wiki system, dubbed Prometheus, is proposed that uses a threshold based user vote acquisition mechanism. A simulation approach is used to compare a model of the Prometheus system against a model of a standard wiki system. A simulation framework is described that facilitates comparison between models of knowledge systems. The simu- lation framework is used to compare the knowledge systems in three different scenarios in an attempt to determine the conditions in which the Prometheus system may produce a higher quality knowledge base. The results of these ex- periments are presented along with some discussion and areas for future work.