This thesis is based upon the assumption that in Swedish school today it is a wide gap regarding the information flow when pupils are switching school. This was one of the reasons Skolverket published a report clearly stating that this is the case. The purpose of this thesis is to examine and describe how teachers are working in a teacher team at transitions to see and understand what their work may mean individually, in a group and to the school as an organisation. The questions at issue is to see how the teachers cooperate during transitions and how they notice students in need of extra support and students level of knowledge during transitions. The two last questions at issue is first to see how teachers approach parent’s expectations on the school and the teachers, secondly it is to examine what implications their work will have on the school. The examined group is a teacher team in an independent school working in grade seven. The school has the grades six to nine. The result was achieved through two qualitative interviews and six qualitative questionnaires in order to describe the informants experience as good as possible. The analysis is based upon two concepts: organisational learning and reflection as a collective process and how these concepts are dependant on the other. The main points of the analysis show how important the teacher team’s work is to both the individual and the organisation’s competence and learning development. It also shows how it helps the pupils to get a smooth transition even though the lack of information teachers has to deal with when the new pupils arrive.

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.

Knowledge is a key resource. It enables individuals and organisations to perform through social interactions. New knowledge is created and shared that gives an organisation the edge to succeed in a highly complex and demanding world. Higher education institutions need to value and nurture the knowledge of academic staff and support and encourage social interactions that exist. One way of doing this is through the utilization of communities of practice. Communities of practice may improve performance of an organization and encourage and facilitate learning, collaboration and knowledge sharing. The purpose of this study was to establish the extent to which communities of practice are defined and utilised within higher education institutions to foster learning and facilitate the sharing of knowledge among academic staff, in order to advance the scholarship of teaching and research in the humanities at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and the University of Zululand. The study intended to establish how communities of practice were understood, the nature of communities of practice and their formation, factors that support or inhibit the formation of communities of practice and the ways in which communities of practice can be cultivated and fostered within higher education institutions. Questionnaires, focus groups and semi-structured interviews were used to collect data. The study found that most academics at the University of KwaZulu-Natal and University of Zululand were involved in communities of practice and had an understanding of communities of practice. The study also established that both institutions did not have a policy on communities of practice. The major problems facing the academics at UKZN and Unizul were that they had very heavy workloads, family responsibilities, lacked support from the institution, time constraints, the absence of policy on communities of practice and organizational culture (see Table 6). / Thesis (M.I.S.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.

Today's teachers work in exhausting times. Curriculum and assessment change has been unrelenting and even the most conscientious teachers often feel overwhelmed. At national and local levels, professional development programmes have assisted teachers to address these changes and a number of approaches have been adopted. However, while teachers have engaged in professional development programmes, the actual benefits to classroom teaching and learning have been less certain. The quantity and frantic pace of these changes have worked against the achievement of quality outcomes. This thesis makes an important contribution to existing knowledge about professional development practice because it investigates teachers' experiences of educational change and school improvement processes to show what is both helping and hindering teachers as learners. The findings suggest that currently many schools are not effective learning organisations. This research uses the example of the National Education Monitoring Project (NEMP) reports to explore teacher learning processes in action. It is argued that the impact of the NEMP reports and their assessment information is being compromised because classroom teachers are already fully committed to curriculum document developments mandated by the Ministry of Education. In fact all professional development projects are faced with the same dilemma that schools are working with multiple projects at the same time. While this continues to happen the potential benefits of the NEMP reports as assessment exemplars for effective assessment practice remain unrealised because teachers' time is drawn to so many other competing priorities. It is this reality which now makes answers to key questions about teacher learning especially important. These questions concern who makes the decisions about what it is that teachers should be learning and how this learning might be presented to them. It is a matter of concern that teachers are cast as 'victims of change' and decisions about their learning largely determined by others. Rather than helping schools to help themselves and become 'agents' of change, this practice increases teachers' dependence on others for learning. A three stage approach to data collection is used in order to suggest improvements to current practice in professional development for teachers. This begins with questionnaire surveys to establish baseline data on the impact of the NEMP reports on classroom teachers in the Canterbury region. From this information an intervention is introduced to eight teachers who share a quality learning circle experience in order to learn more about the NEMP reports. Then observations and interviews of teachers in case study schools show teacher learning in action and reveal the strengths and weaknesses of current professional development experiences within schools. It is argued that the future effectiveness of schools will depend upon their capacity to determine their own learning needs and then find ways of addressing them. Schools will therefore need to acquire a more extensive repertoire of data gathering and analysis skills if they are to know how they can make significant improvements and not just duplicate what others find suitable for other settings. It is argued that improvements to teacher learning and development must address the focus of how teachers learn and will require a major review of how schools are structured and organised for teacher learning. Different arrangements will be required to allow 'learner centred' practice and the emergence of teacher learning communities from within schools. Schools will stand a better chance of being learning organisations when steps are taken to remedy the current structural arrangements which at the moment work against quality learning for teachers.

Science and mathematics education in Australian senior secondary years is experiencing declining enrolments, negative student attitudes, a shortage of qualified teachers and a curriculum that lacks relevance to contemporary life (Masters, 2006, Smith, 2003, Tytler, 2007). Such evidence calls for transformation in secondary science and mathematics education and acknowledges that teachers’ professional learning is central to achieving required transformation. Fulton Senior Secondary School is a purpose built school designed to respond to the perceived crisis in teaching and learning of science and mathematics in the final years of schooling. It is also the site in which this qualitative interpretive case study was conducted. The purpose of the research was to investigate the processes and outcomes of teachers’ professional learning in a setting that was designed to promote innovation and reform. The research, conducted over a period of six years, used grounded theory methods to answer questions about what supported and sustained teachers’ learning, and what were the outcomes of this learning for teachers, students and the school. To achieve an authentic account of the teachers’ lived experiences, I positioned myself as an insider-researcher, working intensely and thoughtfully with staff at Fulton over a period of six years. The study revealed the nature of the interactions between contextual conditions, organisational elements and relationships factors that influenced teachers’ professional learning. An explanatory model of professional learning was developed as an outcome of the theorising process. This identified the importance of alignments between: teachers’ capacities, characteristics and sense of personal agency; and specific contextual conditions, organisational elements and relationship factors. Successful alignments were identified as affordances for teachers’ learning and formed the basis of the explanatory model. In essence, the contextual conditions, organisational elements and relationship factors of Fulton provided the architecture of an explanatory model of professional learning. The teachers acted as explorers of this architecture. The research revealed that teachers brought existing beliefs and practices to Fulton, but through incidental and intentional learning, these beliefs and practices were expanded and often changed. Teachers developed deep understanding of many factors associated with effective pedagogy including: learning and learning processes; new science and mathematics content; effective curriculum design; and authentic assessment processes. The teachers were open to challenges and recognised their roles as learners in achieving the vision of the school. Their outcomes varied, but each teacher’s learning influenced both the students and the school as a learning organisation. There was considerable evidence that the investment in teachers as learners was pivotal to achieving the vision of transforming science and mathematics education in the senior secondary years at this school.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Knowledge Transfer is one of the key knowledge management practices that organisations employ to ensure cross-pollination of knowledge across their various divisions. It should be a cornerstone of a learning organisation and should pervade the entire organisation in all its manifestations. In general it is a question whether public sector organisations in South African are employing such practices in their quest to render services effectively, efficiently and economically. This thesis focuses on an attempt at knowledge transfer in a department in an underdeveloped province, i.e. the Department of Roads and Public Works in the Eastern Cape. It centres on a case study of Cuban engineers who were contracted by the South African government to design and build infrastructure. The thesis is divided into the following chapters: Chapter 1: deals with the problem of knowledge transfer in a developing context. The chapter focuses on the objectives of the research and sketches a contextual backdrop to the study. Chapter 2: discusses the key concepts of Learning, Organisational Learning, Knowledge, Knowledge Transfer, and Knowledge Transfer Strategies. It also identifies barriers to knowledge transfer and highlights a few suggestions on how to deal with those barriers. Chapter 3: deals with the case study of six Cuban engineers and presents the results of the case study. Chapter 4: describes some of the local initiatives taken by the Department to cater for the needed skills in their sector. Chapter 5: evaluates the topic by bringing the literature discussed in chapter two to bear on the findings of the case study. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Kennisoordrag is een van die kern kennisbestuurspraktyke waardeur organisasies kruisbestuiwing van kennis oor ‘n verskeidenheid onderafdelings moontlik maak. Dit behoort die basis van ‘n ‘learning organisation’ te wees en die hele organisasie te deursuur. In die algemeen is dit ‘n vraag of publieke sektor organisasies in Suid-Afrika sodanige praktyke aanwend in hulle pogings om dienste te lewer. Hierdie tesis fokus op ‘n poging tot kennisoordrag in ‘n departement wat in ‘n onderontwikkelde provinsie in Suid-Afrika geleë is, naamlik die departement Paaie en Openbare Werke in die Oos-Kaap. Die tesis draai om ‘n gevallestudie van Kubaanse ingenieurs wat deur die Suid-Afrikaanse regering gekontrakteer was om infrastruktuur te ontwerp en te bou. Die tesis is verdeel in die volgende hoofstukke: HOOFSTUK 1 handel oor die probleem van kennisoordrag binne ‘n ontwikkelingskonteks. Dit sit die doel van die studie uiteen en beskryf die sosiale konteks daarvan. HOOFSTUK 2 bespreek die kernkonsepte, naamlik Leer, Organisatorise Leer, Kennis, Kennisoordrag en Kennisoordragstrategieë. Dit identifiseer ook faktore wat kennisoordrag teenwerk en bespreek moontlike oplossings vir laasgenoemde probleem. HOOFSTUK 3 behels ‘n gevallestudie van 6 Kubaanse ingenieurs en bied die resultate daarvan aan. HOOFSTUK 4 beskryf sommige lokale inisiatiewe deur die Department om kennisoordrag te bevorder. HOOFSTUK 5 evalueer die onderwerp deur die literatuur in hoofstuk 2 in verband te bring met die gevallestudie.

Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2015. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT:Central to this study is the transfer of knowledge in organisations. The aim of this study is to ascertain how the concept of Knowledge Transfer (KT) is represented thematically in the three journals MIS Quarterly, Organization Science, and Management Science. It reviews the growth and development of KT in the context of organisational management and determines the historical and emerging themes and trends thereof. The study focuses on articles that listed any of the following concepts: ‘knowledge transfer’, ‘knowledge sharing’ and ‘knowledge flow’ either in the abstract, as a keyword, or in the title of the paper. A total of 146 articles were identified and analysed through the use of bibliometric and content analysis research methods. The results show that there has been a gradual increase of articles addressing KT related issues in organisations. The historical themes identified include contextual factors, mechanisms, geographic factors, business context, areas of study, agents, flow of knowledge and different knowledge types. From the historical themes, knowledge transfer is a growing literature with many different theories and models, contexts and goals, practices and measures. It is an active process and not a simple act of imitating an example of good practice from one organisation to another. Practices need to be modified to fit new contexts and cultures and authors find that the very process of transferring knowledge, if not implemented properly, has a severe impact on organisational efforts aimed at knowledge management. The emerging trends include organisational performance, organisational learning, organisational change, innovation and change and knowledge networks. From the emerging trends, the clear result is that knowledge transfer is conducted by organisations in order for them to maximise profits and work efficiently. It is in the emerging themes that authors are questioning the popular view of knowledge transfer as a mechanical process. Emerging themes reveal that knowledge transfer is a complex process, involving many different players and factors that must be addressed before a successful transfer can occur. These include, motivating the employees, creating an enabling environment in terms of organisational culture and structure. The study concludes that knowledge transfer as a notion of management in organisations must be re-examined in order to clarify it and establish the relationship it has with other managerial concepts. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Sentraal tot hierdie studie is die voorstelling van kennisoordrag in die literatuur. Die doelwit is om te bepaal hoe die begrip “kennisoordrag” in drie tydskrifte naamlik MIS Quarterly; Organization Science en Management Science begryp word. Die studie bied ‘n oorsig van die groei en ontwikkeling van die begrip binne die konteks van organisatoriese bestuur en identifiseer die historiese en opkomende temas en tendense daarvan. Die studie fokus op artikels met die terme ‘kennisoordrag’, ‘deel van kennis’ of ‘kennisvloei’ in die opsommings óf titels van artikels. ‘n Totaal van 146 artikels is geïdentifiseer en ontleed met behulp van bibliometriese- en inhoudsanalitiese navorsingsmetodes. Die resultate van die studie toon ‘n geleidelike toename in artikels rakende kwessies rondom kennisoordrag in organisasies. Die historiese temas wat geïdentifiseer is, sluit in kontekstuele faktore, meganismes, geografiese faktore, organisatoriese konteks, studie areas, agente, kennisvloei en verskillende tipes kennis. Volgens die historiese temas is kennisoordrag ‘n groeiende literatuur met talle teorieë en modelle, kontekste en doelwitte, praktyke en maatstawwe. Dit is ‘n aktiewe proses en nie bloot die nabootsing van goeie praktyke tussen organisasies nie. Praktyke moet verander word om nuwe kontekste en kulture te pas. Outeurs het verder gevind dat die proses van kennisoordrag ‘n ernstige impak op organisasies se kennisbestuur pogings het. Die opkomende tendense sluit in organisatoriese prestasie, organisatoriese leer, organisatoriese verandering, innovasie en verandering en kennis-netwerke. ‘n Ontleding van opkomende tendense toon dat kennisoordrag in organisasies plaasvind met die oog op ‘n toename in wins en doeltreffendheid. Outeurs bevraagteken die gewilde siening dat kennisoordrag ‘n meganiese proses is. Die opkomende temas toon dat kennisoordrag ‘n komplekse proses is wat verskillende faktore behels wat aandag moet geniet voordat suksesvolle oordrag kan plaasvind. Hierdie faktore sluit in die motivering van werknemers en die skep van 'n gunstige omgewing met betrekking tot organisatoriese kultuur en struktuur. Die studie sluit af met die oogpunt dat kennisoordrag as ‘n inisiatief van ‘n organisasie se bestuur herevalueer moet word in ‘n poging om dit verder te verduidelik en die verhouding daarvan met ander bestuurskonsepte te bepaal.

Needs are crucial in organisational learning processes, but yet not formally conceptualised as a distinct type of knowledge. In this conceptual paper, I establish a knowledge perspective on needs and the transformation process from needs towards need satisfaction. Based on an ontology clarifying the concept of need and its means of satisfaction, I introduce need-based solution knowledge consisting of three distinct capacities to act. I argue why these capacities should be made explicit in group settings and point at possible leverage points for organisational practice.

It is estimated that each direct job in the automotive industry supports at least 5 indirect jobs in the global community, resulting in more than 50 million jobs to the global auto industry (Ellis, 2006). In South Africa the automotive sector, as an employer, is widely viewed to be second only to mining. In the automotive industry globally, it is being discovered that knowledge, as opposed to “data” or “information”, is becoming harder to locate as a knowledge-bleed is occurring due to the phenomenon of the “brain drain”, retirement of experienced professionals, changing work behaviours among the younger generations and the general lack of infusion of new talent into the South African automotive industry over the past decade (Liebowitz, 1999). This realisation has spawned a growing interest in the concept of knowledge management (KM). KM is the development of tools, processes, systems, structures and cultures explicitly to improve the creation, sharing and use of knowledge critical for decision making. The effective use of KM helps organisations to improve the quality of their decision making and correspondingly to reduce costs and increase efficiency (Kinicki and Kreitner, 2008). Most automotive Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) have made some attempt at KM initiatives, and these attempts have been well-documented. However, among the automotive component suppliers, limited evidence exists of attempts at KM (Piderit, 2007). No standard KM application framework could be established in the literature for industry practitioners in automotive component manufacturers within the Eastern Cape. The aim of this research study is therefore to develop a framework for the application of KM in automotive component manufacturers within the Eastern Cape. The research consisted of a study of the knowledge management literature and the subsequent development of a knowledge management framework and empirical evaluation of the framework in the automotive component supply industry of the Eastern Cape. In conclusion the report presents a knowledge management framework which converts a company assessment to recommended corrective actions to be implemented and also presents the author’s findings, conclusions and recommendations derived from the study.

The field of knowledge sharing, especially within the context of ICT, is a fairly new field of study. This limits the extent to which research can be used to facilitate the practical application of KS and KM interventions. This study attempted to establish a standardised measuring instrument, which could be used to benchmark an organisation and organisational disciplines against industry peers. This study will assist organisations with the identification of intervention opportunities for implementing KM using ICT. The general organisational KT culture, its ICT proficiency and the factors which might constrain the effective transfer and management of knowledge were assessed and identified. / MBA, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2015