Knowledge is now considered the most important organizational resource, surpassing other resources like land and capital. It has, therefore, been acknowledged that knowledge can play an important role in ensuring an organization’s competitive edge. The purpose of this study was to investigate if knowledge sharing is being used to improve service delivery at the National University of Lesotho’s Thomas Mofolo Library. The researcher held the view that Librarians at Thomas Mofolo Library have different sets of skills which, if combined, could improve service delivery. By not sharing and retaining this existing wealth of knowledge, the researcher claimed that when librarians retire or resign from work, they will certainly take with them the knowledge they possess and the result of this knowledge loss is that the Library may be plagued by an inability to learn from the past experiences, which leads to reinvented wheels, unlearned lessons and the pattern of repeated mistakes. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed in the case study design in order to allow for multiple methods of data collection. Data were collected by means of questionnaires and interviews. Questionnaires were administered to all librarians who were available at the time and purposive sampling was used to determine interview participants. Out of the 25 questionnaires administered, 15 were returned, providing a response rate of 60%. The data collected by means of questionnaires was processed using Microsoft Access and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) software (Version 17). The results of analysis were exported into Microsoft Excel for visual presentation and reporting of the results. The data from the interview sessions was analyzed manually by content analysis, using the notes that were taken by the researcher from the respondents during the interview sessions. The findings pointed to the fact that knowledge sharing does occur at TML, although mostly in an informal manner. This was largely due to a number of impediments such as lack of trust and the absence of motivations and rewards. The study concluded by recommending a number of initiatives that could be implemented in order to retain knowledge within the Library. The recommendations included developing a knowledge management strategy and formalizing knowledge sharing by formulating the desired policies. / Information Science / M.A. (Information Science)

Agile methods for software development have become popular, especially since the agile manifesto was written in 2001. Many positive effects have been found in organizations using agile methods, but also several dangers. Communication and collaboration in teams is often mentioned as something that works well with the methods, but interactions between teams are often lacking. Since agile teams are cross-functional and focused on products rather than specializations, knowledge becomes spread out in the organization. Within teams, different members often have different deep knowledge, but instead have a lot of knowledge about their products in common. This allows them to discuss knowledge related to the product well, but limits their possibility to discuss advanced topics and experiences regarding their deep knowledge or specialization within their team. These issues are important to consider when applying agile methods in organizations, and the research about the issues is quite thin.   In this research, I have taken an interpretive approach and carried out a case study at the development department of a medium-sized IT company providing large software systems for the healthcare industry, for which I have used the pseudonym MedTech. Three different teams have been studied through interviews with all members as well as observations of agile practices like daily meetings. Further, I have studied three different knowledge practices that MedTech uses to complement the creation and sharing of knowledge that happens in teams. These three complementary knowledge practices had different forms and handled knowledge in different ways. One was closely related to what literature often calls communities of practice, which are groups where members share an interest and interact to deepen their knowledge. In this practice at MedTech, meetings were used to discuss experiences and knowledge about topics within specific areas. Another was more focused on one-way communication through presentations and reading tips, spreading more basic knowledge to a wider audience. The third complementary knowledge practice let employees use 12 work hours every sixth week to do whatever they wanted that related to their knowledge, allowing them to e.g. explore new technologies and be creative or simply read up on some interesting topic.   My results show that agile teams support some sharing and creation of knowledge, especially through having members work closely to each other and share experiences, and through practising their skills in daily work, with help from each other when necessary. Like other research has shown, there was however a lack of practices for interactions between teams in the agile methods. Such interactions were crucial since I found teams to be comparable to theories about communities of knowing, where teams create strong perspectives, the sharing of which is important for utilization and creation of knowledge. The complementary knowledge practice that related to communities of practice was shown to be good for connecting employees with similar specializations, who would normally be separated in different teams. This allowed for creation and sharing of knowledge as individuals needed to explain their experiences and could combine knowledge from different members of the community. The other two complementary knowledge practices were shown to be good for increasing motivation to create and share knowledge, and showing that the organization valued the knowledge of individuals.

No description available.

The field of technical consultancy is centered around the value that each individual consultant can provide. This value has its ground in the set of skills and knowledge which the consultant possesses, and from an organizational standpoint, must be probably managed as to be fully utilized within the organization. The knowledge that consultants acquire during project missions is not every fully utilized within the base organization, due to the restrictions of knowledge barriers, prohibiting the transfer and retention of knowledge.    Knowledge management therefore becomes an important aspect to consider in the technical consultancy field, as technology is constantly changing at a higher pace. This are of knowledge management has been neglected in the past, as most research regard knowledge management focus on more linear organization and management consultancy. This report aims to identify what and how knowledge barriers are created within the technical consultancy field and how the barriers affect knowledge acquisitions, transfer, and retention. This report follows a qualitative study approach, with semi structured interviews of 12 managers in key positions at 9 consulting firms, ranging from senior consultancy managers to senior consultants.    The results of the empirical study identified 19 knowledge barriers affecting knowledge acquisition, transfer, and retention. The aspect of knowledge and organizational culture was found to be a foundational part of KM affecting the entire cycle of KM. The major barriers related to technical consultancy holding specialized and diverse knowledge, a lack of adequate knowledge management systems implemented, economic factors affecting KM utilization, market drivers creating barriers and internal as well as external cultural factors affecting the KM cycle.

In product development, lead-time reduction, cost reduction, and quality improvement are issues that companies want to improve on to increase competitiveness. One recent approach to reach this - particularly in the aerospace industry where the complexity of product offers is steadily increasing - is to manage risk by forming virtual enterprises. A virtual enterprise is a network of partner companies that join on equal terms when an opportunity arises to develop a product offer, e.g. a jet engine offer, in a more agile manner than if any of the partners would realise it by themselves. They therefore team up to share risk, investment and resources - to in return also share revenue and profit. A driver for the formation of the virtual enterprise is the ability to effectively utilise partner knowledge assets. However, when sharing and managing knowledge effectively across the virtual enterprise, current practices have yet to evolve to meet the needs of knowledge workers, who may come from different aerospace companies, have different roles, belong to different disciplines and that may also be situated in geographically dispersed locations. Improving product development includes allowing developers from all disciplines to know - as early as possible in the product development process - more about the customer needs, the desired product properties, and the downstream impact of the decisions they choose to make throughout the process. Knowing about the impact in downstream phases would allow for significant time and cost savings due to the avoidance of unnecessary and expensive rework that would otherwise occur much further on in the product's life cycle. Among other things, a virtual enterprise can start organising and mapping the knowledge assets available in their teams, and information overload can be managed by assuring that the right knowledge ends up with the right person, to mention but a few things that can facilitate the everyday work of engineers and their colleagues. When working in a product development project, the virtual enterprise needs to assess the quality of the created knowledge as early as possible to devise the correct actions early. In this thesis, a Gated Maturity Assessment technique including the concept of knowledge maturity has been developed as an example of an improved stage-gate decision-making process. With this approach development teams are able to assess the knowledge maturity level in the content and rationale that is put forward as a basis for a decision - as opposed to only assessing the raw data of the results (i.e. thrust, weight, fuel burn, etc.). Knowledge maturity is used to support decision makers when in the process of assessing a decision base to make a decision whether to go ahead, abort the process, or order rework to be done. Naturally, if the decision base is poor, a decision to go ahead should probably not be taken, as the consequences might be negative. In assessing maturity, decision makers can determine at decision points if the knowledge base is good enough to move forward to the next step in the jet engine component design, if there is need for rework, and what specific areas need to be improved. Decision makers can divert and focus resources to areas of importance due to, for instance, too low maturity levels. Knowledge maturity is a way to - using a criteria scale that prescribes the knowledge needed at each level - help development teams assess and visualise how well they know what they know, and subsequently, what they need to know. This thesis explores the feasibility of using knowledge maturity as a way of supporting knowledge engineering in the context of a development process in aeronautics. / Faste Laboratory

International Telemetering Conference Proceedings / October 28-31, 1996 / Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center, San Diego, California / We report on the initial design and development of a prototype computer-mediated response system, the Fault Induced Document Officer (FIDO), at the UC Berkeley Center for EUV Astrophysics (CEA) Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer project (EUVE). Typical 24x7 staffed spacecraft operations use highly skilled expert teams to monitor current ground systems and spacecraft state for responding to anomalous ground system and spacecraft conditions. Response to ground system error messages and spacecraft anomalies is based on knowledge of nominal component behavior and the evaluation of relevant telemetry by the team. This type of human-mediated operation is being replaced by an intelligent software system to reduce costs and to increase performance and reliability. FIDO is a prototype software application that will provide automated retrieval and display of documentation for operations staff. Initially, FIDO will be applied for ground systems. Later implementations of FIDO will target spacecraft systems. FIDO is intended to provide system state summary, links to relevant documentation, and suggestions for operator responses to error messages. FIDO will provide the operator with near realtime expert assistance and access to necessary information. This configuration should allow the resolution of many anomalies without the need for on-site intervention by a skilled controller or expert.

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2004. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The question of what it means to say one knows something, or has knowledge of something, triggered an epistemological study after the nature of knowledge and its acquisition. There are many different ways in which one can go about acquiring knowledge, manydifferent frameworks that one can use to search after truth. Because most real systems about which one could desire knowledge (organic, social, economic etc.) are non-linear, an understanding of non-linear systems is important for the process of acquiring knowledge. Knowledge exhibits the characteristics of a dynamic, adaptive system, and as such could be approached via a dynamic theory of adaptive systems. Therefore, chaos theory and complexity theory are two theoretical (non-linear) frameworks that can facilitate the knowledge acquisition process. As a modernist instrument for acquiring knowledge, chaos theory provides one with deterministic rules that make mathematical understanding of non-linear phenomenaa bit easier, but it is limited in that it can only provide one with certain knowledge up until the (system's) next bifurcation (i.e. when chaos sets in). After this, it is near impossible to predict what a chaotic system will do. Complexity theory, as a postmodern tool for knowledge acquisition, gives one insight into the dynamic, self-organising nature of the non-linear systems around one. By analysing the global stability complex systems produce during punctuated equilibrium, one can learn much about how these systems adapt, evolve and survive. Complexity and chaos, therefore, together can provide one with a useful framework for understanding the nature and workings of non-linear systems. However, it should be remembered that every observer of knowledge does so out of his/her own personal framework of beliefs, circumstances and history, and that knowledge therefore can never be 100 percent objective. Knowledge and truth can never be entirely relative either, however, for this would mean that all knowledge (and thereby all opposing claims and statements) is equally correct or true. This is clearly not possible. What is possible, though, is the fulfilling and successful pursuit of knowledge for the sake of the journey of learning and understandi ng. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die vraag na wat dit eintlik beteken om te sê mens weet iets, of dra kennis van iets, het na 'n epistemologiese soeke na die wese van kennis en die verwerwing daarvan toe gelei. Daar is baie maniere waarop mens kennis kan verwerf, baie verskillende raamwerke wat mens kan gebruik om te soek na waarheid. Omdat die meeste wesenlike stelsels waarvan mens kennis sou wou verkry (organies, sosiaal, ekonomies ens.) nie-lineêr is, is 'n verstaan van nie-lineêre stelsels belangrik vir die kennisverwerwingsproses. Kennis vertoon die eienskappe van I n dinamiese, aanpassende stelsel, en kan dus via 'n dinamiese teorie van aanpassendestelsels benader word. Daarom is chaosteorie en kompleksiteitsteorie twee teoretiese (nie-lineêre) raamwerke wat die proses van kennisverwerwing kan vergemaklik. As I n modernistiese instrument vir kennisverwerwing, verskaf chaosteorie deterministiese reëls wat die wiskundige verstaan van nie-lineêre verskynsels bietjie vergemaklik, maar dit is beperk deurdat dit net sekere kennis tot op die (stelsel se) volgende splitsing (d.w.s. waar chaos begin) verskaf. Hierna, word dit naasonmoontlik om te voorspel wat I n chaotiese stelsel gaandoen. Kompleksiteitsteorie, as I n postmodernistiese gereedskap vir kennisverwerwing, gee mens insig in die dinamiese, selforganiserende aard van die nie-lineêre stelsels om mens. Deur die globale stabiliteit wat komplekse stelsels gedurende onderbreekte ewewig ("punctuated equi/ibrium"}toon te analiseer, kan mens baie leer van hoe hierdie stelsels aanpas, ontwikkel en oorleef. Kompleksiteit en chaos, saam, kan mens dus van a nuttige raamwerk vir die verstaan van die wese en werkinge van nie-lineêre stelsels, voorsien. Daar moet egter onthou word dat elke waarnemer van kennis dit doen uit sy/haar persoonlike raamwerk van oortuiginge, omstandighede en geskiedenis, en dat kennis dus nooit 100 persent objektief kan wees nie. Kennis en waarheid kan egter ook nooit heeltemaal relatief wees nie, want dit sou beteken dat alle kennis (en hiermee ook alle teenstrydige aansprake en stellings) gelyk korrek of waar is. Hierdie is duidelik onmoontlik. Wat wel moontlik is, is die vervullende en suksesvolle strewe na kennis ter wille van die reis van leer en verstaan.

The purpose of this thesis is to highlight how tacit and silenced knowledge appear in various contexts in the nuclear power industry.  Attention is paid primarily to the dilemma that the instructor is faced in the teaching of courses and programs of theoretical and practical nature. Organization and leadership are considered to be important parameters in the education context as well.   The method used is called “the dialogue seminar method”. The empirical material has its foundation in the examples that originates from the dialogue seminar sessions in the masters programme, as well as from previous dialogue seminar series at KSU. From a linguistic perspective, some parts of the text have gone the whole hog out in order to create a greater depth in what is written. Some call it poetry.   The thesis considers that tacit knowledge takes a long time to achieve, but it can be lost quickly.  It also describes various dilemmas associated with knowledge and learning, from both the instructor and the student's perspective. The thesis demonstrates the importance of the three knowledges, namely propositional, procedural and personal knowledge. These three types of knowledges can not be separated. For example, if procedural knowledge is reduced to a minimum, it will affect the other two as well.   Since the aim is to highlight training in the nuclear power industry, the primary goal has not been to achieve any specific results. But what emerges is the importance of an organization or leadership which does not restrict the individual, but affirms thirst for knowledge and desire to do good work. Furthermore, it is needed to create opportunities for “on the job training” and in the continuation of self-development. The thesis also shows the importance of welcoming new employees in a good way as well as how knowledge from a colleague who will retire or quit is conveyed to another employee.   In the nuclear power industry, "operational excellence" refers as something to strive for. But what it means or how it affects instructor’s practice is not defined yet. Excellence can be seen as something that comes from within oneself and cannot come from outside and in. / Syftet med den här uppsatsen är att lyfta upp tyst och tystad kunskap och hur den ter sig i olika sammanhang i kärnkraftsbranschen. I första hand ägnas uppsatsen åt de dilemman som instruktören står inför vid genomförande av kurser och utbildningar av teoretisk och praktisk karaktär. Även organisation och ledarskap beaktas som viktiga parametrar i sammanhanget utbildning. Uppsatsen syftar inte till att ge några entydiga svar och gör inte heller anspråk på att komma med lösningar. I de resonemang som förs kommer emellertid svar och lösningar att beröras. Den metod som använts kallas för dialogseminariemetoden och den har tillämpats fullt ut genom de exempel som används. Det empiriska materialet bottnar i de exemplen som har sitt ursprung från de dialogseminarietillfällen som föregått uppsatsskrivandet i masterutbildningen samt från tidigare dialogseminarieserier. Sett ur ett språkligt perspektiv har svängarna tagits ut en del med syfte att skapa ett större djup i det som skrivs. En del kallar det för poesi. Då uppsatsen i första hand betraktar tyst kunskap kommer det fram att den tar lång tid att erövra, men kan förloras snabbt. Uppsatsen beskriver olika dilemman som hänger ihop med kunskap och kunskapsinhämtning både ur instruktörens samt kursdeltagarens perspektiv. Uppsatsen visar vikten av att de trekunskapstyperna påstående-, färdighets- och förtrogenhetskunskap inte glider ifrån varandra. Om till exempel förtrogenhetskunskapen reduceras till ett minimum kommer det att påverka de andra två kunskapstyperna också.  Då syftet är ett belysa utbildning i kärnkraftsbranschen har målet inte varit primärt att nå några resultat. Men det som framkommer är vikten av att en organisation eller ledarskap inte begränsar individen utan bejakar kunskapstörst och viljan att göra ett bra arbete. Därtill kommer att skapa förutsättningar för verkspraktik och fortsatt egen utveckling. Uppsatsen visar också på vikten av att ta emot nyanställda på ett bra sätt såväl som hur kunskap förmedlas från en kollega som kommer att gå i pension. I branschen nämns "Operational excellence" som något att sträva efter. Men vad det innebär eller hur det påverkar instruktörernas praxis går inte att läsa ut än. Excellence kan ses som något som kommer inifrån en själv och kan inte komma utifrån och in.

In the service economy of the 21st century, companies face intense competition in providing customer-centric products and services. In an environment where emerging technologies constantly stimulate innovative methods of service delivery, customer and technological knowledge remain the primary types of information applied by a company in providing customers with quality products and services. Managing knowledge interactions for synergetic business operations is critical in building a service-oriented infrastructure for continuous innovation. This study explores the pattern of knowledge interaction between R&D and marketing departments. Knowledge possessed by R&D department is defined as technological knowledge, while knowledge possessed by marketing department is defined as customer knowledge. First, the concepts, theories, and relevant research regarding the relationship between customer and technological knowledge is reviewed. Based on boundary-spanning theory, this study conducts an exploratory case study to examine the interaction between customer and technological knowledge. The case study focuses on the interaction between sales personnel and R&D employees across three levels of interaction, the syntactic, semantic, and pragmatic. This study found that different types of knowledge and activities between R&D and marketing departments generate different results. This study also found that most business knowledge for innovation is generated at the knowledge interaction between semantic and pragmatic level. Another finding is that Field Application Engineers play the important roles of boundary spanner because they possess both technological knowledge and customer knowledge for their specialized field. Boundary spanners serve as both filters and facilitators in information transmittal between internal units, and play an important role in the transfer of ideas within organizations. To develop critical innovations, businesses should interact according to what type of knowledge accessed.

In the emerging field of knowledge translation (KT) evaluation is typically assigned the role of quality control, constructing judgments about the merit and worth of knowledge translation activities. To date however, there has been little, if any, record of attempts to use evaluation to facilitate knowledge translation. The purpose of this research was to examine the potential role of evaluation as a mechanism for integrated knowledge translation (IKT). This study was completed in two phases and employed a prospective multiple methods case study design. Phase one explored the context of primary care, the setting in which phase two was conducted. Phase two involved the implementation of an evaluation designed to facilitate knowledge translation; an evaluation of a Memory Clinic within a primary care setting in Ontario, Canada served as the case. The evaluation was participatory and used intentional strategies to support knowledge translation. A framework from the evaluation literature, Pathways of Influence, was used to examine the influence of the evaluation at the level of the individual, interpersonal and collective. This research provides the first known description of a KT-informed evaluation. At the level of the individual, a KT-informed evaluation influenced the individuals’ knowledge about the program, attitudes towards practice-based knowledge and clinical practices and processes. At the team/interpersonal level the evaluation was seen to influence the team’s social norms, supporting the team in thinking beyond their disciplinary boundaries and to develop a shared vision and common language. The evaluation did not have influence at the level of the broader organization, however had diffuse impact on two external organizations. Results of this study suggest that adding knowledge translation to the repertoire of evaluation purposes is a natural extension of the field. Integrated knowledge translation is designed to engage individuals in the synthesis, exchange and ethically sound application of knowledge and the results of this study demonstrate that a collaborative evaluation approach promotes this interest in a potentially powerful way. / Thesis (Ph.D, Education) -- Queen's University, 2013-08-30 16:48:36.698