Obtaining customer knowledge represents a key task across all firms given its importance for potential competitive advantage, improving service quality and achieving long-term relationships with agents. However, despite the fact that the interaction between customers and frontline employees during service encounters is considered a valuable source of customer knowledge, our understanding of the role of frontline employees as brokers in this respect remains embryonic. The purpose and motivation of this research are to explore the factors-namely, enablers and barriers-that influence frontline employees' motivation to serve as knowledge brokers. The process through which knowledge brokers transfer customer knowledge during service encounters is also considered important. This study further contributes to the theory of knowledge management by formulating a valid conceptual framework that illustrates the process of knowledge-brokering during these service encounters. This thesis adopted a qualitative research approach using an in-depth multiple case study analysis. In total, 30 semi-structured interviews with different informants (i.e. managers and employees) from three top commercial banks in Jordan were undertaken. In addition, other data sources, including documents and observations, were also informed the primary data collection. Contextually, Jordan's service-oriented economy combined with its developing nature provided a rich research environment for exploring these issues. The study reveals that frontline employees engage in knowledge-brokering during service encounters transfer through three types of customer knowledge, namely, knowledge about customers, knowledge for customers, and knowledge from customers. Furthermore, the main findings demonstrate four critical sets of factors facilitating or impeding knowledge-brokering during these events, i.e.; organisational-level factors (e.g. organisational culture, organisational structure, and organisational support), individual-level factors (e.g. job experience, prior customer knowledge, ability to understand customer knowledge, self-efficacy, and workload), technological-level factors (e.g. bank information system and a lack of a customer-relationship management system) and knowledge-level factors (e.g. tacit or explicit). It was also found that the process of knowledge-brokering during service encounters is accomplished in two ways: knowledge-brokering for the customer and knowledge-brokering for the organisation. This study also reports a set of managerial implications that provide a better understanding of the influential factors inherent in establishing and seeking to succeed in knowledge-brokering during the course of frontline bank employees' interactions during service encounters. Keywords: knowledge-brokering, frontline employees, customer knowledge, service encounters.

The literature in reading comprehension has demonstrated that both domain-specific knowledge and strategic knowledge are vital to good comprehension. However, few studies have actually compared the effects of the two types of knowledge on reading comprehension. Fewer studies have examined the effects of combining the two strategies even though cognitive theories indicate that true comprehension occurs when certain procedures act upon knowledge constructed from the text being read and "link" that knowledge with knowledge in the long-term memory. This study compared subjects receiving strategic knowledge and content knowledge to subjects receiving strategic knowledge only, subjects receiving content-knowledge only, and a control group. Subjects were 9- and 10-year-old students in four fourth-grade classrooms. The design was a pretest-posttest quasi-experimental design. Subjects were given the comprehension and verbal subtests of the Stanford Achievement Test. Based on these tests, subjects were identified as high- or low-ability readers. In addition, they were given a comprehension pretest designed by the instructor before intervention began. The intervention took place over a 4-week period and consisted of a different series of lessons presented by an independent instructor. After the intervention, subjects took the posttest. SAT subtest scores and pretest scores were used as covariates in the final analysis. Results showed a decrease in the posttest means and no differences among the four experimental groups. Lack of findings was attributed to several factors, including lack of interest in the reading material on the comprehension tests and brevity of the intervention.

With the change in the economic structures of Western industrialised countries and the shift of traditional industries towards knowledge and services in recent decades the challenge to stay competitive in increasingly globalised culturally diverse markets continues to be a priority for organisations. Of central importance is the need to acknowledge, utilise and share the diversity of employees' knowledge, particularly tacit knowledge that is ethnically influenced, a resource that is enormously rich yet overlooked, undervalued and under-utilised in the employment market. This PhD dissertation focuses on the implications of the knowledge era for how organisations manage their culturally diverse workforce. The purpose of the research is to explore the organisational strategies required for Australian businesses to support and encourage the development and sharing of knowledge between employees of different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. Arising from an extensive review of the literature on both Diversity and Knowledge Management, a framework for a holistic Diversity Knowledge Management/Sharing (D-KM/S) Strategy was developed. This framework identified the need for organisations to develop a productive diversity management model that consists of a number of elements including a two-way communication strategy, training in cultural intelligence (CQ) and the development of opportunities for social networking through Communities of Practice. A four-phased process for the organisational journey towards a holistic D-KM/S Strategy was proposed. An initial audit of several Australian organisations recognised for their award-winning diversity management strategies confirmed the validity of this framework. The framework was then used to underpin the qualitative interpretive case study of three of the organisations that had been part of the initial audit to determine to what extent these organisations had succeeded in progressing through these phases towards the final holistic D-KM/S Strategy. In so doing, the candidate also focused on the role of the Human Resources Department (traditionally responsible for implementing diversity policy within organisations) in implementing a more holistic approach. From a comparison of the findings from the primary research the candidate concluded that while each organisation had progressed through several of the phases towards a holistic D-KM/S Strategy, they differed in their progress and none had as yet achieved the final phase. The study did identify two additional elements that require further research which relate to the potential of Information Technology to provide opportunities for social networking, and the potential of 'narrative' to be used to share culturally influenced stories. The research concludes that the organisational strategies required for Australian businesses to support and encourage the development and sharing of knowledge between employees of different cultural and ethnic backgrounds includes: first, a productive diversity strategy that acknowledges both the explicit and tacit knowledge that a multicultural workforce brings to an organisation; and, second, processes that embed two-way communication opportunities for employees and managers, training in CQ for an increased number of managers and employees, greater support for social networking opportunities through Communities of Practice (supported by Information Technology tools), and encouragement of opportunities for employees to share cultural narratives. In addition, the thesis proposed an increased role for the Human Resources Department (working closely with line managers) in the achievement of a holistic D-KM/S Strategy.

<p>There is a common agreement in literature that a company can create a sustainable competitive advantage by mastering knowledge and knowledge transfer. This requires to forward knowledge to other units at the correct time and in the right way.</p><p>The purpose of this research study is to explain in the first step general theoretical considerations related to the concept of knowledge, knowledge management as well as knowledge transfer. In a second step these concepts are illustrated with the help of four points of impact.</p><p>Some important aspects are discussed. First, the individual in the process of knowledge transfer is regarded: its behaviors, its interactions with its professional environment. Second, key tools are extended and finally the factors which influenced the process are presented.</p><p>Out of this a model is developed in an approach divided into three parts: the individual, social/collective and company perspective. This model also includes a process of knowledge transfer, the knowledge sharing achievement through a description of the main tools and actions which create a dynamic between the actors. In the last part we focus on a technical solution which can help companies to implement a knowledge transfer dynamic.</p>

<p>This case study has been conducted within the Swedish fitness chain World Class to explore the opportunities for knowledge development and transfers within franchise networks. We have interviewed the product manager at the World Class headquarter, the owner of a franchise club and a local product manager from the same facility. Our finding indicates that various forms of knowledge transfer occur within the World Class network, particularly in product development and sales. The transfer occurs within the framework set by World Class with regularly scheduled meetings. In addition informal networks provide other means of knowledge exchange between some units. For the owner we found a lesser degree of knowledge exchange despite that they share the same kind of formal framework.</p><p>Our results points towards problems like the “not invented here”-syndrome, urge for independence and pride among the club owners. Besides that we found no resistance to share information from one unit to another. We found a lack of motivation for knowledge exchange, the benefits of knowledge transfer seemed unclear to the interviewed owner. Nevertheless, we found reasons to believe that entrepreneurship, innovation, creativity, the heterogeneity and the variety of market conditions within the franchise network gives high potential for knowledge exchange that may be unexploited.</p>

This case study has been conducted within the Swedish fitness chain World Class to explore the opportunities for knowledge development and transfers within franchise networks. We have interviewed the product manager at the World Class headquarter, the owner of a franchise club and a local product manager from the same facility. Our finding indicates that various forms of knowledge transfer occur within the World Class network, particularly in product development and sales. The transfer occurs within the framework set by World Class with regularly scheduled meetings. In addition informal networks provide other means of knowledge exchange between some units. For the owner we found a lesser degree of knowledge exchange despite that they share the same kind of formal framework. Our results points towards problems like the “not invented here”-syndrome, urge for independence and pride among the club owners. Besides that we found no resistance to share information from one unit to another. We found a lack of motivation for knowledge exchange, the benefits of knowledge transfer seemed unclear to the interviewed owner. Nevertheless, we found reasons to believe that entrepreneurship, innovation, creativity, the heterogeneity and the variety of market conditions within the franchise network gives high potential for knowledge exchange that may be unexploited.

Nowadays companies have changed the way they do the business and have realized that they must explicitly manage their intellectual resources and capabilities in order to remain competitive. The consequence is a rise in demand for knowledge management professionals. Since knowledge management is an emerging discipline, presently there is no widely accepted competency framework for knowledge management professions available. A quantitative content analysis was performed using 89 job advertisements from United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and Ireland in order to identify competencies of knowledge management profession. The results of the study show that most of the job advertisements asked for skills in Knowledge Management Technologies which are important for knowledge management professionals to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of knowledge management processes. The study shows also that knowledge management is more than creation, capturing, sharing and using of knowledge. Moreover it proves that knowledge management does not have a set of clear job titles and that it does not provide clearly bounded set of activities and tasks. Generally much misunderstanding exists about who and what knowledge management professionals are and what kind of skills they have to possess.

In order to achieve competitive advantage, organisations have to be strategic in their knowledge management. This specifically concerns the management of tacit knowledge, which is known as the intangible type of knowledge. Without an effective strategy for this, organisations stand the risk of losing valuable knowledge and expertise when employees leave the organisation. Research on how to manage tacit knowledge is limited. Therefore, this thesis has investigated the possibility of using organisational storytelling as a tool to manage tacit knowledge. Hence, the purpose with this thesis is to investigate whether organisational storytelling can be used as a strategy to manage tacit knowledge. This has been examined through a case study at SCA Packaging Sweden, which is a rare example of an organisation, which uses storytelling to share knowledge. Qualitative interviews and organisational stories have been analysed in order to investigate how storytelling can be used to create, retain and transfer tacit knowledge. The data collected has also been used to determine if organisational storytelling is effective when managing tacit knowledge.   From our analysis we could conclude that SCA Packaging Sweden’s usage of organisational storytelling creates, retains, and transfers knowledge within the organisation. In addition, our analysis has shown that the stories are rich in tacit knowledge. We can therefore argue that organisational storytelling can be an effective strategy to manage tacit knowledge.

There is a common agreement in literature that a company can create a sustainable competitive advantage by mastering knowledge and knowledge transfer. This requires to forward knowledge to other units at the correct time and in the right way. The purpose of this research study is to explain in the first step general theoretical considerations related to the concept of knowledge, knowledge management as well as knowledge transfer. In a second step these concepts are illustrated with the help of four points of impact. Some important aspects are discussed. First, the individual in the process of knowledge transfer is regarded: its behaviors, its interactions with its professional environment. Second, key tools are extended and finally the factors which influenced the process are presented. Out of this a model is developed in an approach divided into three parts: the individual, social/collective and company perspective. This model also includes a process of knowledge transfer, the knowledge sharing achievement through a description of the main tools and actions which create a dynamic between the actors. In the last part we focus on a technical solution which can help companies to implement a knowledge transfer dynamic.

In the knowledge economy age, the capability of a business to gain advantage depends not only on tangible assets but also on intangible assets, such as the knowledge owned by the organization. Given the importance of knowledge, knowledge management has become a very important task for business to remain competitive. Many literatures in knowledge management have emphasized the key role of knowledge creation activities and their impact on organizational performance. In particular, they have focused on the effect of creativity. In the study, we extend previous framework to add organizational learning to enhance the existing model. An empirical study was conducted to examine the extended model. Major findings include the following: (1) Socialization, combination and internalization have positive impacts on both organizational creativity and organizational learning, but externalization does not. (2) Both organizational creativity and organizational learning have positive impacts on organizational performance. (3) The explicitness of knowledge has a moderating effect on the effect of socialization and organizational learning and on the effect of externalization and organizational learning. (4) The degree of organizational knowledge has a moderating effect on the effect of internalization and organizational creativity.