Abstract Over the past half a decade, new forms of knowledge sharing, collaboration and online participation have emerged. As a result, a new generation of IT tools are being used for the creation and exchange knowledge. This dissertation uses a knowledge management framework known as the 7C model and applies a multi-method approach to deepen the understanding on how new knowledge emerges with these tools. As the benefits of knowledge are realized when it is applied, this dissertation places special emphasis also on the usability of the knowledge. The results indicate that the knowledge creation sub-processes of comprehension and conceptualization need more scientific attention. In addition, the results suggest that comprehension can be supported by helping users to reflect and by utilizing guideline information. Supporting deeper interaction and improved linking with the existing content, allowing users to stay in a state of flow, and using decision aids can help in comprehension. Conceptualization can be supported through knowledge rationale, metaphors and analogues, decision aids, and by helping users to reach common ground and shared understanding. In order for the knowledge to be really usable, the knowledge creation should aim at producing knowledge in explicit and actionable form. Producing knowledge in the form of guidelines was found to be beneficial for the utilization of knowledge. Guidelines support learning-by-doing and reflection-in-action, which are crucial for the emergence of new tacit knowledge. Evidence-based information and decision aid tools can help in choosing the knowledge that is to be applied. Finally, the results suggest that in the era of Web 2.0, many low-cost experiences inducing constant exposure to knowledge might work better than a few high-cost experiences requiring very deep thinking. The reason for this is that contemporary users seem to be so accustomed to the ease-of-use of Web services that they simply will not use more useful but less usable solutions.

Abstract The purpose of this research is to study knowledge management in the context of organizational learning as a process in communities of practice. The aim of the study is to examine the ways in which knowledge is created and managed, and how organizational learning works as a process in communities of practice in order to offer some further insight into improving and developing the management of knowledge, know-how and organizational learning. Knowledge and learning are at the heart of strategic thinking and success in the new economy. Much of knowledge is embedded in practice, and therefore professions have organized their learning processes in ways that facilitate the learning of tacit knowledge. By supporting learning and knowledge through fostering communities of practice, an organization can generate value for its business, in this case for the supply of effective rehabilitation work. This study is inductive, emphasizing the fit between the grounded theory method and the exploratory case study research strategy. I have deliberately applied both in studying the phenomenon in question, organizational learning. Grounded theory is the inductive analytical approach used, whereas the exploratory case study strategy is utilized as a broader framework for drawing theoretical conclusions from the empirical material describing the organizational case under study. The contribution of this study is both theoretical and empirical. The result is an abstract, refined and enriched picture of communities of practice. The multilevel framework of this study facilitated deeper understanding of the meaning of communities of practice in organizational learning and in managing knowledge and know-how. There exist two different worlds: the world of informal communities of practice and the world of the formal organization which interact with each other in many ways. Communities of practice are often also occupational communities. They perform various functions, but the ways in which these communities are structured and how they operate reveal that they focus mainly on one or two activities. According to the empirical findings, communities of practice are beneficial to the business in various ways, the community itself and to employees. My research highlighted that invisible, socially constructed knowledge has a greater tendency to flow within the case organization in comparison to explicit knowledge. The empirical results show that knowledge management is also inherently in the management of time – time was a critical factor in the efficient creation and sharing of knowledge and know-how. The study developed a substantive framework to describe knowledge creation and organizational learning processes in communities of practice. By focusing on the social processes and seeing organizational learning as a process in communities of practice, I was able to look for new dimensions of learning as well as knowledge creation and utilization as local and emergent processes.

Background: Companies operate in a dynamic and challenging business environment with a constant battle to become and stay competitive and achieve sustainable growth. The business environment has transformed rapidly in the past decade due to major globalization and internationalization processes, which have created a demand for mapping and understanding business value and core competences. Parting from the traditional, the focus within companies and research is shifting from tangible assets to human capital, such as knowledge, as the primary competitive resource. Knowledge is a concept that is both complex and volatile. Knowledge emerges and develops through processes of each individual and also from individuals merging together into groups – making it hard to manage. Sadly, without proper management of such resources and processes, it is competitive advantage cannot be exerted. Nowadays, most companies can be identified as knowledge intensive firms, where competitive advantage is related to the ability to create and apply new knowledge through mergers and acquisitions. For about 3 decades, researchers, governments and companies have been trying to develop methods to evaluate and measure intangible assets, but there is a lack of research on how it is done in reality.                                                 Purpose: The purpose of the study is to investigate Swedish holding companies’ approach to working with intangible assets, primarily knowledge; investigating the way it is leveraged and used in the holding structure to create knowledge as a competitive resource across the entire corporation.   Method: A qualitative research is used with a sample of 10 Swedish holding companies varying in size, structure and sector in order to test a proposed integrative model formulated on theory. Purposive sampling is used for participant selection based on personal networks.   Conclusion: Firstly, we found that the majority of the Swedish holding companies do not have a method for evaluating intangible assets in general. In the event of mergers and acquisitions, on the other hand, human capital is emphasized as a main factor for decision making. From the managerial point of view, there is an elevating need for developing a systematic approach to assess human capital when acquiring new subsidiaries, primarily in order to understand the value and context of knowledge. Secondly, Swedish holding companies have internal structures and work-approaches to identify key persons within the newly acquired subsidiaries and transfer their knowledge to the mother company. Furthermore, they try to maintain and create knowledge by investing on education and leadership, but in general, knowledge management is done subconsciously. Therefore, the general finding of this research is that the concept of knowledge management is in the beginning of its lifetime and there is a clear need to put more managerial emphasis on restructuring processes.

Magister Commercii - MCom / This study explores the relationship between knowledge creation and organisational and managerial control. I explore how organisational control impacts, influences, shapes, fashions and lay the foundation for the creation of the various types of knowledge within a research organisation. In particular, the aim of the study is to explore the influence that organisational control systems have on knowledge workers' capacity to generate new research knowledge. The literature on knowledge management reveals that there has been a lot of focus on knowledge creation. However, from my review of the literature there have not been sufficient research studies that explore organisational control mechanisms in facilitating or inhibiting the creation of knowledge. In addressing the research problem, this study intends to explore this gap. From an organisational control aspect, I draw on the Foucauldian toolbox using disciplinary power, pastoral power, and technologies of the self. Thereafter I develop a conceptual model in which I integrate knowledge creation and organisational control mechanisms. The research approach that I employed is a qualitative approach. In particular, I adopted a case study research design. Data was primarily collected using interviews and observation. Data analysis was conducted using a thematic approach. The research site was a national research company with their head office in Cape Town. All individuals within the organisation, including the managing director were comprehensively interviewed. From the data analysis, using the conceptual model I formulated, I made the claim that mechanisms of organisational and managerial control aided and facilitated certain modes of knowledge creation. Furthermore, the findings highlighted that employees acknowledged that organisational and managerial practices aided them in producing knowledge. The data analysis further confirmed the explanatory power of my conceptual model. The original model was structured on the premise that a particular organisational mechanism was dominate for each of the various stages in the knowledge creation process. The data provided evidence that all organisational control mechanism overlapped for each of the knowledge creation processes and therefore the model was re-worked. However, due to certain limitations, more research in this field is required to be able to explore further the nature of the relationship between knowledge creation and organisational control practices.

In recent years nearly every aspect of how we function as a society has transformed from analogue to digital. This has spurred extraordinary change and acted as a catalyst for technology innovation, as well as big data generation. Big data is characterized by its constantly growing volume, wide variety, high velocity, and powerful veracity. With the emergence of COVID-19, the global pandemic has demonstrated the profound impact, and often dangerous consequences, when communicating health information derived from data. Healthcare companies have access to enormous data assets, yet communicating information from their data sources is complex as they also operate in one of the most highly regulated business environments where data privacy and legal requirements vary significantly from one country to another. The purpose of this study is to understand how global healthcare companies communicate information derived from data to their internal and external audiences. The research proposes a model for how marketing communications, public relations, and internal communications practitioners can address the challenges of utilizing data in communications in order to advance organizational priorities and achieve business goals. The conceptual framework is based on a closed-loop communication flow and includes an encoding process specialized for incorporating big data into communications. The results of the findings reveal tactical communication strategies, as well as organizational and managerial practices that can position practitioners best for communicating big data. The study concludes by proposing recommendations for future research, particularly from interdisciplinary scholars, to address the research gaps.

This study explores the implications for knowledge creation of customer knowledge in a contact center’s CRM system. A previously developed research model which depicts CRM systems’ support to knowledge creation of customer knowledge was utilized for evaluation and comparison of collected data. Data was collected through observations semi-structured interviews with 14 customer service agents who utilized a CRM system in a contact center at a medium-sized European airline.Analysis of the data suggests that the CRM system’s support for knowledge creation of customer knowledge is in line with previous research. Additionally, the results indicate that there are two processes, knowledge base usage and internal communication processes, which have the potential to increase the CRM system’s support. Based on the reviewed literature, this study suggests that organizational culture and IT infrastructure, are two tools which could be utilized to incorporate those two processes better into the organization’s CRM system.

An agile approach is most often used in software development but has been applied in other areas such as manufacturing and project management as well. Within literature, there are only a few studies that investigate the use of an agile approach for authoring educational content. This study explores how an agile approach could facilitate rapid and collaborative authoring of educational content. This qualitative study utilised a multiple case study strategy. The data were collected through semi-structured interviews and observations. The insight gained from this study indicated that the agile approach that emerged was a valuable lens through which to explore rapid and collaborative authoring of educational content. The study also revealed that community building among those participating in the authoring process is fundamental to the success of an agile approach. Further insights include offering training and support to the participants of the authoring sprints regarding an agile process, the applications utilised and imminent change. An agile approach in education emerged from the study and could be an alternative to traditional content authoring approaches for educational content. Finally, the study revealed the need for a comprehensive software package that included file sharing, instant messaging, task management, screen sharing and conferencing capabilities alongside the authoring software. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2017. / Science, Mathematics and Technology Education / MEd / Unrestricted

Usability is a concept that describes the extent to which users can achieve specific goals with effectiveness, efficiency, and satisfaction in a specific context. Despite that many studies have been written about usability and usability tests, surprisingly few have explored how organizations work with usability knowledge. Since previous studies have indicated that usability issues are commonly encountered the purpose of this study is to increase usability knowledge among software developers within organizations by analyzing which obstacles are in the way of spreading usability knowledge and how it is possible to counteract these. Six software developers in organizations have been interviewed about their experience with usability knowledge for this study. The result of the study shows that the respondents’ organizations prioritized usability knowledge lower than technical knowledge for dissemination of knowledge, which meant that software developers had to take almost all initiatives to learn about usability themselves. When opportunities did present themselves for dissemination of usability knowledge the respondents were not made aware of it by their superiors or upper management. Usability knowledge also becomes outdated quickly which leads to failures in many attempts to create common knowledge databases within this area of expertise. The software developers interviewed indicated that some of the most informative moments for usability knowledge were direct observation of end users. Despite this they were very rarely given the opportunity to personally participate in these activities because of how difficult it is to convince both supervisors and end users that it is a rewarding activity for all involved parties. The obstacles to spreading usability knowledge that were identified were categorized in accordance with the SECI-model, namely Socialization, Externalization, Combination and Internalization. The study contributes with knowledge that the SECI-model can successfully be utilized to identify deficiencies and lost potential among knowledge creating moments for usability. The study also presents an explanation to that dissemination of usability knowledge is prioritized lower than technical knowledge in the form of selective functional stupidity, an  unwillingness to critically reflect about difficult questions in order to maintain productivity and suppress insecurity within a specific area. Furthermore the study presents explanations to why usability knowledge is difficult to teach based on the theory of tacit and explicit knowledge. Since usability knowledge is contextually dependent as well as hard to formulate and generalize it is difficult to translate it from tacit to explicit, which makes many knowledge creating moments within the subject fail. Finally a number of recommendations are presented for counteracting the identified obstacles to spreading usability knowledge and thereby achieve the purpose of increasing usability knowledge among software developers within organizations. / Användbarhet är ett begrepp som beskriver hur ändamålsenligt, effektivt och tillfredsställande någonting är att använda. Trots att många studier har utforskat användbarhet och användbarhetstester är förvånansvärt lite skrivet om hur organisationer arbetar med användbarhetskunskap. Eftersom tidigare studier indikerat att användbarhetsproblem är vanligt förekommande är syftet med denna studie att öka användbarhetskunskap bland mjukvaruutvecklare inom organisationer genom att analysera vilka hinder som finns mot att sprida användbarhetskunskap och hur man kan arbeta för att motverka dessa. Sex mjukvaruutvecklare inom organisationer har intervjuats för denna studie om deras erfarenheter av användbarhetskunskap. Studiens resultat visar att respondenternas organisationer prioriterade användbarhetskunskap lägre än tekniska kunskapsområden för kunskapsspridning, vilket gjorde att mjukvaruutvecklare själva fick ta nästan alla initiativ för att lära sig om användbarhet. När det väl fanns möjlighet för kunskapsspridning inom användbarhet fick respondenterna inte vetskap om detta från chefer eller ledning. Användbarhetskunskap blir dessutom lätt utdaterad vilket gör att många försök inom organisationer till att skapa gemensamma kunskapsdatabaser för området misslyckas.  Mjukvaruutvecklarna som intervjuades indikerade att några av de mest lärorika tillfällena för användbarhetskunskap var direkta slutanvändarobservationer. Trots detta gavs det väldigt sällan möjlighet för dem att personligen delta i dessa aktiviteter på grund av hur svårt det är att motivera både slutanvändare och chefer att det är en givande aktivitet för alla parter. De hinder som identifierades mot att sprida användbarhetskunskap kategoriserades enligt SECI-modellen, dvs.  Socialisering, Externalisering, Kombinering och Internalisering. Studien bidrar med kunskap om att SECI-modellen framgångsrikt kan användas för att identifiera brister och förlorad potential bland kunskapsskapande moment för användbarhet. Studien  presenterar också en förklaring till att kunskapsspridning inom användbarhet prioriteras lägre än teknisk kunskap i form av funktionell dumhet, en ovilja att kritiskt reflektera över svåra frågor för att hålla produktivitet uppe och osäkerhet nere inom ett specifikt område. Vidare presenterar studien också förklaringar till varför användbarhetskunskap är svårt att lära ut utifrån teorin om tyst och explicit kunskap. Eftersom användbarhetskunskap är kontextuellt beroende, svårformulerad och svårgeneraliserad är det svårt att översätta den från tyst till explicit, vilket gör att många kunskapsskapande moment inom ämnet misslyckas. Slutligen presenteras ett antal rekommendationer för hur man kan motverka de hinder som identifierats mot att sprida användbarhetskunskap och på så vis uppnå syftet att öka användbarhetskunskap bland mjukvaruutvecklare inom organisationer.

Since the management of experiences is an essential activity in the military context, this study aimed to conduct an analysis on the lessons learned process carried out by air combat units of the Swedish Air Force, based on the organizational knowledge creation theory. Through an action research approach, a quantitative investigation evaluated and categorized a set of 36 indicators for monitoring modes related to the creation of new knowledge within the air fighter divisions. These indicators were measured in a survey in which the findings, obtained from 87 officers and civilian employees of the six JAS39 divisions, showed an elevated perception of the dimensions based on the individual and the tasks oriented to the sharing of implicit knowledge. Conversely, the dimensions grounded on the exchange of explicit knowledge at the organizational level and on the use of technology disclosed the lower scores in the survey.  In addition, the study found similarities in the perception of the respondents when the empirical material was analyzed in four hypotheses outlined in the investigation. These propositions were designed to provide comparisons among the six JAS39 divisions, as well as seek for correspondences between the length of service in the SwAF of the respondents of the survey and their perception of the lessons learned process.

Various challenges in local government are forcing municipalities to consider alternative models and methodologies of management to deliver services and improve the quality of people’s lives. A literature review of the entrepreneurship field of study confirms the need for entrepreneurship in the public sector, which includes local government, and indicates that it is not only applicable but in fact essential for the public sector to become more entrepreneurial. The research study examines specific individual behavioural and organisational factors that facilitate knowledge creation and enhance the potential of entrepreneurial success in public institutions and local government specifically. The city where the research was conducted implemented alternative operating models and structures by establishing separate utilities and agencies for trading and key service delivery functions, that relate to the concepts of public and corporate entrepreneurship (CE). The research objective was to determine whether the interventions implemented contributed to entrepreneurial knowledge creation, affected managerial behaviour, and had any relationship with the entrepreneurial characteristics and performance of the relevant entities (agencies) and traditional core departments that were maintained. The entrepreneurial performance (intensity), organisational characteristics and key business dimensions as variables related to firm-level entrepreneurial orientation (organisational culture), as well as knowledge creation dimensions (learning styles) of managerial staff, which include the concepts of ‘cognitive analytical propensity’ (CAP) and ‘progressive action propensity’ (PAP), were assessed. The entrepreneurial performance index (EPI) measurement instrument was used to assess the performance of each selected agency and core department. The CAP as well as PAP levels of managerial staff were measured by the Honey and Momford (1992) learning style questionnaire (LSQ). The results indicate that there are no significant variances in the entrepreneurial performance of core departments and independent municipal entities (agencies) of the local government organisation. Significant variances in key business dimensions of core departments and municipal agencies have however been identified, which indicate that the managerial staff regard agencies as being less bureaucratic in terms of resource management practices. Organisational characteristics and ‘Active initiative’ (AI) levels of senior management staff have a positive correlation with entrepreneurial performance, while CAP levels of managerial staff have a negative correlation. These findings have serious and extensive implications for the nature of recruitment, as well as training and development practices to promote entrepreneurship in general and in local government specifically. The primary emphasis that is currently placed on the development of ‘cognitive’ competencies to promote entrepreneurship is subsequently questioned and it is accordingly argued that ‘active initiative’ should be developed instead. The study concludes that the extensive transformation programme that was implemented in the local government organisation, and that resulted in the establishment of independent municipal agencies did not have a significant positive effect on the entrepreneurial and overall performance of organisational units. It is further deduced that the adjustment of structures, operating practices and corporatisation alone are not sufficient to improve entrepreneurial and overall performance and that the primary distinguishing factor might in effect be related to entrepreneurial behaviour, leadership skills and competencies of managerial staff which should be developed. / Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2011. / Business Management / unrestricted