Abstract Facing the advent of the knowledge-based economy, enterprises realization that the continuous competitive advantages are no longer land, labor and capital, but have been replaced by knowledge capital such as intellectual and innovation. Knowledge has become the critical core capital in the age of a knowledge economy flowing from information technology. The sole source of competitive advantage today is an organization¡¦s capability to learn through value cognition to create innovation value. Knowledge management has become the primary focus for enterprises in the 21st century. Enterprises shall review the informative degrees of production and working process for the implementation of knowledge management. China Steel already has all production and working process data digitalized and acts as an e-business pioneer among domestic peers in the implementation of knowledge management. This study establishes knowledge management documentation as the basis for questionnaire design. The relationships among knowledge management, engineering professionals¡¦ core competence and job performance for engineers at China Steel were studied through quantitative analysis and case study with moderating variables such as personal initiative and contextual factor. After analyzing the data, the results of the study indicate that: 1.Variations from different educational levels: For the task performance, personal performance is higher when the educational level of the engineering professionals¡¦ is lower. For the operation consciousness, although all are willing to take action for the benefit of the organization, the engineering professionals¡¦ with a lower educational level is the more enthusiastic. 2.Variations from different seniority: For the control cognition, people of higher seniority are more capable of forecasting the relationship between effort and performance, are more confident in judging an event, and are under less stress to carry out a task. While people of lower seniority are the opposite. 3.Variations from different age: In the task performance, the personal performance of older staff is superior. In control cognition, older staff is more capable of forecasting the relationship between effort and performance, are more confident in judging an event, and are under less stress to carry out a task. 4.Variations from different positions: Staff holding managerial positions above superintendent typically shows the leadership ability to influence job performance and motivate the changing. 5.A significant positive correlation was identified among knowledge management, engineering professionals¡¦core competence and job performance. 6.Knowledge management and engineering professionals¡¦core competence was positively significant to job performance. 7.Engineering professionals¡¦core competence was found to have a significant mediating effect between knowledge transfer and job performance. 8.Personal initiative and contextual factor were found to have a significant moderating effect among relationships of knowledge management, engineering professionals¡¦core competence and job performance.

<p>In today’s fast changing environment it is important for knowledge intense companies that want to stay competitive to actively work with their knowledge, knowledge sharing and Knowledge Management (KM). Barriers decrease the efficiency of how knowledge is created, stored and shared, and they are therefore important to reduce or preferably remove making the KM activities result in as much value for the organisation as possible. To achieve this, it is important that the KM activities become a natural part of the employees’ daily work. Activities become natural when employees are truly motivated, which can be achieved through for example further education, reward systems and supporting work conditions.</p><p>In this study we have focused on existing barriers for knowledge sharing and we ask ourselves “what barriers exists?”, “how is existing IT being used as a support?” and “how does motivation, reward and punishment affect knowledge sharing?”. By conducting a qualitative case study at a knowledge intense company in Huskvarna, we will answer these questions and also recommend how the company can reduce the barriers we find, thus creating prerequisites for more effective knowledge sharing. We carried out an interview and an observation of how an employee at the company worked with knowledge sharing.</p><p>Through the case study, we found that the company worked with knowledge sharing using both a discussion forum and a CV database located on the company’s intranet. However, we did find barriers and the most important ones were low awareness and realisation amongst staff of the value and benefit of possessed knowledge, lack of an intentional KM strategy and lastly their IT systems were not adjusted to employees’ needs. The foremost consequence of these barriers is that the company can not effectively utilize their knowledge, which is their most important resource making the company competitive. Since motivation and understanding are the two primary factors for employees to work more naturally with knowledge sharing, and to achieve this we recommend that the company implement some sort of reward or incentive system combined with education.</p><p>In working with this thesis, we have learnt that knowledge sharing exists in all companies, with or without an intentional strategy and with or without IT supporting the activities. Thus, barriers also exist in all companies. The cardinal thing to understand is that companies must work to reduce or remove barriers, regardless how many they are. Knowledge has become such an important resource that no knowledge intense company today can afford to ignore this fact.</p> / <p>För kunskapsintensiva företag är det viktigt att arbeta aktivt med kunskap, kunskapsdelning och Knowledge Management (KM) för att vara konkurrenskraftiga på dagens föränderliga marknad. Vi har i denna studie fokuserat på existerande hinder för kunskapsdelning, användning av IT som stöd och hur motivation, belöning och bestraffning påverkar kunskapsdelningen. Hinder inom KM minskar effektiviteten av hur ny kunskap skapas, lagras och delas, vilket därför måste tas hänsyn till och helst minskas eller undanröjas för att uppnå högsta möjliga värde för organisationen. För att företag ska få största möjliga värde av sitt KM-arbete, är det viktigt att det blir en naturlig del av de anställdas vardag. Därför är det viktigt att skapa en inre långsiktig motivation genom till exempel utbildning, belöning och arbetslivsförutsättningar.</p><p>Utifrån problemdiskussionen ovan ställer vi oss frågorna ”vilka hinder finns?”, ”hur används befintlig IT som stöd?” och ”vilken påverkan har motivation, belöning och bestraffning på kunskapsdelning?”. Genom att utföra en kvalitativ fallstudie på ett kunskapsintensivt företag i Huskvarna, ska vi svara på frågorna ovan och även ge rekommendationer för hur företaget kan reducera de hinder vi kartlägger och därmed skapa förutsättningar för mer effektiv kunskapsdelning. Vi genomförde en intervju och observation av hur en anställd på företaget arbetade med kunskapsdelning.</p><p>Genom fallstudien fick vi reda på att företaget arbetade med kunskapsdelning genom ett diskussionsforum och en CV-databas på deras intranät. Dock kunde vi kartlägga hinder och de viktigaste var att personalen hade låg medvetenhet av värdet och fördelarna med den innestående kunskapen för andra anställda, företaget hade inte en medveten KM-strategi samt att de IT-system som företaget använde inte var anpassade efter personalens behov. Den främsta konsekvensen av hindren blir att företaget inte mer effektivt kan nyttja den kunskap som är den främsta resursen för att företaget ska vara konkurrenskraftigt. Eftersom motivation och förståelse för kunskapsdelning är två av de viktigaste faktorerna för att personal naturligt ska vilja arbeta med kunskapsdelning, rekommenderar vi företaget att införa någon form av belöningssystem kombinerat med utbildning för att uppnå detta.</p><p>Vi har genom denna uppsats lärt oss att kunskapsdelning förekommer på alla företag, med en medveten eller omedveten strategi och med eller utan IT som stöd. Således förekommer det också hinder på alla företag. Det viktiga att förstå är att företag aktivt måste arbeta med att reducera eller undanröja hinder, oavsett om det är ett eller flera. Kunskap har idag blivit en så pass viktig resurs att inget kunskapsintensivt företag har råd att ignorera detta faktum.</p>

<p>The essence of an effective knowledge transfer process for a technical organization cannot be overemphasized. It does not only translate to its advancement but also improves the learning capacity of the staff in the organization.</p><p>The purpose of this work is to analyze and diagnose the current process of technical knowledge transfer</p><p>It goes further to proffer a suitable model of design process for the technical instructions (which is one form of knowledge that is present in the organization) so as to improve not only the instructional manual but also the processes involved.</p><p>The instructional model is a model gotten from the field of instructional technology (a sub-sect of educational technology) which is used to achieve this feat.</p>

Mémoire numérisé par la Division de la gestion de documents et des archives de l'Université de Montréal

Inledning: Det har blivit allt vanligare att företag driver sin verksamhet i projektform. Projektarbetet har fått större betydelse och är vanligt förekommande inom industri och förvaltning. Studiens fallföretag är Södra Cell Mörrum som är verksamt inom processindustrin. Inom företaget bedrivs projekt på daglig basis med varierande storlek. Södra Cell Mörrum har stött på problem i deras projektstyrning gällande säkerställandet av kunskapsöverföring mellan projekt. Forskningen inom ämnesområdet projektstyrning är utbredd, däremot när den utförs i samband med kunskapsöverföring är den inte lika väldokumenterad. Efter en genomsökning av ämnesområdet har en brist av forskning inom ämnesområdet påträffats relaterad till processindustrin. Syftet: Syftet med studien är att via en genomgång av Södra Cell Mörrums projektstyrning kartlägga projektarbetet i en sammanställning. Ur sammanställningen skall barriärer för kunskapsöverföring mellan projekt identifieras. Vidare är syftet att utföra en jämförelse och analys av Södra Cell Mörrums projektarbete utifrån befintlig litteratur inom ämnesområdet projektstyrning kopplat till kunskapsöverföring för att föreslå en uppdaterad modell som utvecklar kunskapsöverföringen. Metod: Området som har utforskats har varit Södra Cell Mörrums projektstyrning, vilket innebär att detta är en fallstudie och studien har en deduktiv ansats. Utgångspunkten har varit i befintliga teorier som sedan har vävts samman med empiriskt material från semi-strukturerade intervjuer och dokument. En kvalitativ inriktning har valts för studien för att få en tydligare insikt i Södra Cell Mörrums projektarbete. Slutsats: De barriärer i Södra Cell Mörrums projektstyrning som identifierats är tidsbrist samt en avsaknad systematik för dokumentering av lärdomar och misstag. För att säkerställa kunskapsöverföring inom projektstyrningen rekommenderas Södra Cell Mörrum genomföra förändringar i planeringsfasen av projektstyrningen. Det som föreslås är en addering av till två milstolpar i milstolpeplaneringen, vilka är reflektionsmöte och projektrapporter som behandlar ovanstående barriärer. / Introduction: It has become more common for companies to operate their businesses on a project basis. Projects have gained significance and are frequently occurring within the industry and administration. The company at hand for this case study is Södra Cell Mörrum, a company that operates within the processing industry. Projects are conducted on a daily basis with varying sizes at Södra Cell Mörrum. The company has experienced issues in their project management when it comes to ensuring knowledge transfer in between projects. Science within the area of project management is comprehensive, although when conducted in connection with knowledge transfer it is not as extensive. A gap has been found after a thorough search within the area of project management combined with knowledge transfer related to the processing industry. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to map the project management of Södra Cell Mörrum in a compilation. The compilation identifies flaws regarding knowledge transfer in between projects. Furthermore, the project management of Södra Cell Mörrum will be compared and analyzed based on existing theories within the research area of project management related to knowledge transfer in order to suggest a developed model that ensures knowledge transfer. Method: The area of research for this study has been the project management of Södra Cell Mörrum, hence being a case study following a deductive research approach. The premise takes place in existing theories whom have been intertwined with empirical material ranging from semi-structured interviews and documents. A qualitative direction has been chosen for this study to gain an enhanced insight in the project management of Södra Cell Mörrum. Conclusion: The flaws that have been identified within the project management of Södra Cell Mörrum are constituted by a lack of time as well as a deficiency regarding a systematic documentation of mistakes and experiences. In order for the company to secure knowledge transfer within the project management it is recommended that the milestone planning is changed towards including two additional milestones. These milestones consist of reverberation meetings and project reports, both of whom manage the flaws mentioned above.

For many firms, particularly those operating in high technology and competitive markets, knowledge is cited as the most important strategic asset to the firm, which significantly drives its survival and success. Knowledge management (KM) impacts the firm's ability to develop process features that reduce manufacturing costs, product designs with the features and functionality to match consumer demand, and time to market. Unfortunately, many firms lack an understanding of how to develop and exploit knowledge capabilities for success. In this thesis I develop a rich and multifaceted understanding of how KM strategies lead to successful outcomes for a firm. The thesis comprises three essays, described below. The first essay (Chapter 2) examines how volume-based learning influences the relationship between a buyer and supplier in a two-period Stackelberg game. Three types of knowledge management practices are considered. First, in contrast to the literature, I recognize that knowledge accumulated from current in-house production contributes to the buyer's future product and process development efforts. Second, I allow the supplier to invest in integration process improvement (a form of knowledge development) to reduce the buyer's integration cost. Therefore, the supplier has two mechanisms to impact the buyer's demand: price and process improvement. Lastly, both the buyer and supplier benefit from volume-based learning that reduces their respective production costs. I provide conditions under which the buyer partially outsources component demand as opposed to fully outsourcing or fully producing in-house. In addition, I identify conditions for which the supplier's price and investment in integration process improvement can serve either as substitutes or complements. In the second essay (Chapter 3), I consider knowledge development (KD) strategies in a new product development (NPD) project with three stages of activities conducted concurrently: prototyping, pilot line testing, and production ramp-up. I capture the link between successive stages of engineering activities by recognizing that knowledge accumulated in one stage and transferred to another stage improves the efficiency of knowledge development in the recipient stage. A Base Model and two extensions are introduced that differ in the manner in which knowledge transfer (KT) occurs. I find that the NPD manager pursues different dynamic strategies for KD in each stage of the project. In addition, I explore how the effectiveness of KD and the returns to KT impact the optimal strategies adopted in each stage. In the third essay (Chapter 4), I introduce a dynamic model to explore the impact of KT on a manager?s pursuit of an existing product improvement project and a new product development project. These two projects consume costly knowledge development resources. A key feature of the model is the characterization of the knowledge transfer process from the new product development project to the existing product improvement project. As a result of KT, the ability of the existing product improvement project to generate new knowledge is enhanced. However, the ability of the new product to generate expected net revenue when it is released to the marketplace is reduced due to the loss of proprietary knowledge. I obtain dynamic optimal strategies of KD in both projects and the optimal strategy of KT from the new product development project to the existing product improvement project.

Det kunskapssamhälle som råder idag medför att organisationer måste rusta sig och hålla ett högt tempo i den förändringsbenägna omvärlden. Kunskap och lärande ses däremellan som nyckelaktiviteter i relation till förändring vilket i sin tur föder innovation. Forskning har påvisat att småföretag förväntas bidra till en större del av näringslivets tillväxt, men att småföretagen samtidigt har behov av att höja sin innovationskapacitet för att möta utmaningen. Studien avsåg därför att utforska småföretag i extern samverkan för att se huruvida ett sådant kunskapsutbyte skapat förutsättningar för innovation hos den egna organisationen. Med hjälp av en kvalitativ forskningsmetodik undersöktes sex småföretagsledare som deltagit i det lärande nätverket, Tillväxtmotorn, via semistrukturerade intervjuer. Resultatet påvisade att småföretag inte aktivt arbetade med att ta tillvara på kunskapsutbytet som framkommit från Tillväxtmotorn på grund av tidsbrist, en bristfällig strategisk ledning eller värdesättandet av kunskap och lärande. En modell skapades i riktning att ge småföretagsledare verktyg till att ta tillvara samt integrera kunskapsutbytet med den egna organisationen i större utsträckning och på så vis öka dess innovationskapacitet. / The knowledge society that currently exists demands that organizations must adequately equip themselves and be able to maintain a fast pace of learning and adaptation in the changing environment. Knowledge and learning are seen as key activities in relation to change, which in turn generates innovation. Research has shown that small businesses are expected to contribute to a larger percentage of economic growth, than previously, and that small businesses simultaneously have the need to raise their innovation capacity to meet these challenges. The study intended, therefore, to explore small businesses participation in external partnerships to see whether such an exchange of knowledge for innovation in the organization is effective. Using a qualitative research technique, six small business leaders who participated in the learning network were interviewed, using semi-structured questionnaires concerning the ”engine of growth”. The results demonstrated that small businesses are not proactively working to take advantage of the knowledge exchange that emerged from the growth engine due to a lack of time, inadequate strategic direction or their value planting of knowledge and learning. A model was created to provide small business leaders tools to utilize and integrate knowledge exchange with its own organization to a greater extent, thus increasing its capacity for innovation.

This thesis aims to develop an inter-organisational knowledge transfer (KT) framework for SMEs, to help them have better understanding of the process of the KT between a SME and its customer (or supplier). The motivation is that knowledge management issues in SMEs is very neglected, which is not in line with the importance of SMEs in the UK national economy; moreover, compared to KT within an organisation, between organisations is more complicated, harder to understand, and has received much less attention. Firstly, external knowledge is generally believed to be of prime importance for SMEs. However, there is little empirical evidence to confirm this hypothesis. In order to empirically evaluate the hypothesis, and also specifically to identify SMEs' needs for external knowledge, a mail questionnaire survey is carried out. Then, based on the key findings of the survey, some 5MB managers are interviewed. The conclusions triangulated from both the key findings and the interview results strongly support the hypothesis, and demonstrate that SMEs have very strong needs for inter-organisational KT, and thus provide very strong empirical underpinning for the necessity of the development of the framework. Secondly, drawing support from a process view, a four-stage process model was proposed for inter-organisational KT. Then a co-ordinating mechanism underpinned by social networks and organisational learning is developed. The process model, co-ordinating mechanism together with cultural difference between organisations constitute an initial framework. Through interviews with SME managers, the initial framework is revised a final framework. The framework validation exercise shows that the final framework could help SMEs have better understanding of the KT. In order to remind and help SMEs to address the 'boundary paradox' embedded in interorganisational KT, and further reflect its complexities and difficulties, the important factors related to each stage of the framework are identified from a strategic perspective, with the help of the co-ordinating mechanism and relevant literature. The factors are also verified by interviews in SMEs. As a result, the initial factors are revised by removing the factors that are perceived as unimportant. The interview results demonstrate that the important factors, as a checklist, can remind and help SMEs to address the 'paradox', and are thus very useful for them.

Organizational learning through experience has been found to be associated with enhanced firm performance. Organizational experiments are a method of experiential learning that enable organizations to learn from experience and gain context-specific knowledge of how and why to implement new knowledge. Pilot projects, a type of organizational experiment, involve making intentional, systematic efforts to gather and analyze feedback in order to accurately assess the action-outcome relationships of adopting new knowledge prior to embarking on full-scale implementation. Despite the popularity of pilot projects used to test products, programs, and services as well as reports on the outcomes of such experiments, there is a dearth of research focusing on how organizational learning occurs during organizational experiments, and on the processes and structural mechanisms of organizational experiments that contribute to organizational learning. A qualitative, multiple-case study of eight pilot projects was carried out within nursing units across five acute health care organizations during Fall 2008. Interviews were conducted with 32 individuals, including pilot project leaders, nursing program managers and direct care nurses. An inductive approach to data analysis was applied and themes identified. Results were compared to 14 propositions that were developed based on the knowledge transfer, innovation diffusion, and organizational learning literature, and which were bracketed before data analysis to allow findings to emerge from the data. The findings advance existing organizational learning, innovation diffusion, and knowledge transfer models by illuminating the complexity of organizational learning processes. Several processes and structural mechanisms of organizational experiments were found to facilitate single-loop organizational learning, leading to incremental changes to meet existing goals and objectives. Although double-loop organizational learning, which may result in fundamental changes in an organization’s assumptions, norms, policies, goals and objectives was not observed, the study revealed a number of processes and structural mechanisms that have the potential to encourage this type of learning. Studies of organizational experiments are rare. Future directions for research and theory development are suggested to build on the findings of this study. Practical implications are offered to organizations in any industry interested in realizing the potential that organizational experiments have for double-loop learning and enhanced organizational performance.

This thesis examines the learning dynamics underpinning the resurgence of Canada's office furniture manufacturing sector, which underwent dramatic growth following its near collapse in the wake of the North American trade liberalization beginning in the late 1980s. It investigates the role that design and quality have played in prompting a move up-market and enhancing the sector's competitiveness. It also focuses on other leaning processes that drive economic growth, looking at attempts to transfer workplace practices from Continental Europe to Canada, as well as the institutional obstacles that shape and constrain these processes. Finally, it examines how furniture firms learn from their customers, and the key role played by market intermediaries such as sales agents, dealers, interior designers, and architects in linking producers with consumers as well as influencing the final furniture product. The learned behaviour hypothesis that is central to this thesis suggests that globally competitive firms operating in a Canadian institutional context prosper by learning how to produce (i.e. industrial practices and processes) and what to produce (i.e. design-intensive, high quality products) from the above sources that are both internal and external to the manufacturing firm. The scope of research considers the social and organizational practices through which manufacturing knowledge is integrated into innovation processes, as well as their dynamics, spatiality and temporality, the institutional forces that shape the skills, training, tenure and design dimensions of a high performance workplace, and the mechanisms and conditions that mediate the transfer of manufacturing knowledge at a distance. The empirical analysis entails a mixed-methods approach including a survey questionnaire and in-depth interviews with industry experts. The analysis contributes to core debates in economic geography and the social sciences concerning the role of proximity and distance in innovative production, and the structure / agency debate. In summary, it finds that economic growth in the office furniture sector in Canada is dependent upon not only local knowledge networks and flows but also global sources of innovation and competitive advantage. It also advances an agency-centered institutionalist economic geography by showing that institutions interact in complex ways with the decision-making of economic actors to shape local labour dynamics and the behaviour of firms.