Considerable research has focused on understanding the journey of knowledge from inception to application. However, this body of work often needs more exploration of how knowledge is effectively utilized for strategic advancement within an organization once it reaches its destination. Moreover, existing research has primarily concentrated on large corporations, neglecting small to medium-sized businesses, particularly those in the nonprofit sector. My dissertation addressed this gap by developing a model that comprehensively examined how employees within nonprofit membership-based organizations leverage knowledge. I defined knowledge leveraging as the proactive use of accumulated knowledge to enhance an organization’s strategic performance through mission-critical activities. I proposed six hypotheses within this model to deepen our understanding of knowledge utilization and its subsequent impact. The findings supported the knowledge leveraging (KL) model, with two distinct scales identified: individual (KL-I) and team (KL-T). The model was only partially substantiated because many hypotheses were not supported. However, the results still suggest promising opportunities for future studies on this emerging topic. / Business Administration/Strategic Management

This study into the architectural profession reviews developed decision support frameworks (graphics to inform and improve decision making through access to more information) as knowledge sharing devices. These developed frameworks first, influence decision makers: the students and their decisions in their personal architectural design process and second, develop a framework on vegetated assemblies (building assemblies that incorporate plants such as green roofs and walls) as vegetated assemblies relate to color theory and its implications in design methodology. This decision support framework assists students in their design process in studio and studio-like educational environments. The purpose of this decision support framework is to influence the students in using vegetated assemblies in their future design inquiry. After implementation, the purpose was to determine the worth of the framework as a mechanism for knowledge sharing. Both purposes were reviewed in developing the framework using immersive case studies, classes both in traditional studios and studio-like courses, website development and member feedback. The evidence of the resulting improvement of decision making or design work was found through the use of surveys, student reflective writing, and personal interpretation of student works and my own immersive design studies, classes, and development of the framework and its website. The surveys and reflective writing were collected from multiple years of involvement in traditional studio and studio-like classes to refine the framework and its use. The results of the study suggest that students do have a larger body of knowledge to make decisions about utilizing vegetated assemblies than before the use of the framework and go on the continue using vegetated assemblies in design work. The framework presents the various factors that impact decisions into vegetated assemblies and develop future designs. By influencing and improving knowledge of such factors on the design of vegetated assemblies early in a student's education, improves decision making in future designs and later professional work. Future work would be targeted at refining the framework and potential courses to include other topics of interest in relation to vegetated assemblies. Finally, the framework could be adapted into a more codified, interactive tool in the future. / Ph. D. / This study looks at how graphics and representation can improve the making of decisions on the basis of access to more information across different learning environments. This process of gathering and then sharing information with others can develop into knowledge sharing devices. These devices also known as decision support structures are a scaffold or framework for influencing decision makers: the students. The influence is on their developed design process, how students go about designing, and on their knowledge of vegetated assemblies, which are parts of buildings that incorporate plants such as green roofs and walls, and color theory, which is a method for using color in design. This decision support structures assists students in their design process in studio and studio-like educational environments. The purpose of this dissertation is to review how decision support structures can be used various learning environments to assist students in exploring lines of inquiry. These lines of inquiry are a deliberate process of exploring an idea or family of ideas. This use of the decision support structure was reviewed using immersive case studies, classes both in traditional studios and studio-like courses, and the development of a website. The results of the study suggest that students do have a larger body of knowledge to make decisions when using the developed decision support structure. This work presents the various factors that impact decisions into developing future designs based on vegetated assemblies and color theory as topics. This work also improves decision making in future designs and later professional work. Future work would be targeted at refining the developed decision support structure and potential courses to include other topics of interest in relation to vegetated assemblies. Finally, the framework could be adapted and expanded in the future.

近年來，有兩項重要的發展影響了我們的社會，一為非營利組織的興起，一為知識經濟時代的來臨。這兩項看似無關的事，卻給予我們一些啟發。非營利組織的興起，改變了過去由政府壟斷公共領域的局面，而知識經濟則是以「知識」為基礎的「新經濟」運作模式，改變了傳統企業運作所賴以生存的生產三要素—土地、勞力和資本。 在知識經濟體系中，如何掌握及有效管理知識以促進組織的效能，已成為每一個組織重要的議題，其中的關鍵在於「知識分享」。由於非營利組織的公共性所形成的公共領域，是共同體（社區）成員之間，針對其生活領域中的公共事務，進行討論、學習和對話，而這個過程與知識的分享有關。顯見「公共性」與「知識分享」同時存在非營利組織之中，二者是否關聯，遂引發了本研究的動機。 因此，本研究進一步以「公共性」與「知識分享」為主軸，探討非營利組織的公共性與知識分享意願的相關議題。定義「公共性」的主要因素，包括公開度（透明度）、公信力、參與度、知名度、非私有性以及公共利益的功能等六大項。同時建構出非營利組織知識分享機制與公共性相關的內涵，包括建立知識分享的報酬制度、建立組織成員間的工作關係、建立組織成員的共同知識、提供組織成員一些知識交流的場所與時間、建立組織的知識仲介、建立組織內知識分享文化的領導者等六項構成要素。 本研究採用個案研究的方式進行，深入探討主婦聯盟的共同購買，這一國內具有代表性的組織，無論在公共性或知識分享上均可呈現清楚的研究成果。研究發現： 公共性是非營利組織的本質，也是非營利組織的重要特徵。非營利組織的公共性有益於組織形成有效率的知識市場，所以非營利組織可藉由提升公共性來克服知識分享的障礙，增進組織成員的知識分享意願。而增進組織成員的知識分享意願，可藉由公共性作為組織知識市場的核心，並以個人的動機、組織成員間的信任關係、以及組織文化等三個層面為架構，來建構促進組織知識分享的機制。 非營利組織除了可以藉由實施知識分享機制的活動來促進知識的分享外，同時也可維持組織的公共性，因為知識市場具有公共性的特性，所以組織在實施知識管理時，即提高了組織的公共性。 因此，非營利組織公共性與知識分享的關係，可以分為兩個層面來看，一個是彼此的因果關係，另一個是內在（內涵）與外在（表現）的關係。首先，非營利組織的公共性促進了組織的知識分享，知識分享活動則強化了組織的公共性，並且公共性與知識分享彼此有相互促進的作用。其次，非營利組織的公共性是知識分享的內涵，非營利組織的知識分享是公共性的表現。 本研究的貢獻在於提出非營利組織可藉由提升組織的公共性來增進組織成員的知識分享意願，同時也可藉由知識分享活動來強化組織的公共性。 建議對於後續的研究，可依據本研究的架構，針對「公共性不高的非營利組織」或「營利組織」進行比較、分析與研究。 / In recent years, there are two important developments impacting on our society. One is the rise of non-profit organizations (NPOs); the other is the coming of knowledge economic age. These two seemingly unrelated phenomena give us some revelations. Although the government has monopolized the public sphere, the rise of NPO changes the situation. The knowledge economy is a ‘New Economy’ based on knowledge. It also changes the traditional business operation model, which depends on three production factors—land, labor, and capital. In knowledge economy system, one important issue of every organization is how to do knowledge management effectively, so that the organization will increase its work efficiency. The key is ‘knowledge sharing’. NPO’s publicness forms a public sphere, which means the discussion, learning and discourse among community’s members about the public matters in their daily living sphere. This process is related to knowledge sharing. Obviously, ‘publicness’ and ‘knowledge sharing’ exist in NPO simultaneously. Is there any relation between these two factors? The question provides the motive of this research. The research, therefore, would like to probe further and take ‘publicness’ and ‘knowledge sharing’ as the main shaft, and investigate the relevant subjects of the publicness and the willingness of knowledge sharing in NPO. The research will define the six major factors of publicness, which includes transparency, credibility, participation, celebrity, unprivitization, and public interests. It will also construct a mechanism of knowledge sharing in NPO and the connotation of publicness. The connotation of publicness includes, (1) establish a reward system of knowledge sharing, (2) establish a operative relationship between organization and its members, (3) establish a common knowledge among organization members, (4) provide a place and time for knowledge sharing among members, (5) establish knowledge agents of organization, and (6) establish a leadership of knowledge sharing culture in the organization. The research is a case study of a representative organization in Taiwan, Homemaker’s Union Consumer Cooperation. The result shows clearly about publicness and knowledge sharing: Publicness is the nature and an important characteristic of NPO. Since knowledge sharing is based on publicness, if NPO can raise its publicness, then it can overcome the obstacles of knowledge sharing, enhance knowledge sharing in the organization, and promote the willingness of knowledge sharing among its members. NPO can also take its publicness as an axis of the knowledge market in the organization. Having the axis, it can use personal motive, trustful relationship among members, and organizational culture, to construct the organization’s mechanism of knowledge sharing. The publicness of NPO will facilitate an effective knowledge market and enhance knowledge sharing in the organization. Moreover, since publicness is the characteristic of knowledge market, so when the organization carries out knowledge management, it will increase publicness at the same time. Consequently, the relation of publicness and knowledge sharing in NPO can be seen as two aspects: one is a cause and effect relation between publicness and knowledge sharing. The other is a relation between the internal (connotation) and the external (representation). Firstly, the publicness of NPO enhances knowledge sharing in the organization, and the knowledge sharing activities strengthen its publicness. It’s a reciprocal relationship between publicness and knowledge sharing. Secondly, NPO’s publicness is the connotation of knowledge sharing, while the knowledge sharing is a representation of its publicness. The contribution of this research is addressing that NPO can promote the willingness of knowledge sharing of its members by increasing its publicness. Meanwhile, it can also strengthen its publicness through the activities of knowledge sharing. A suggestion of further study is using this research as a basis, then compare, analyze and study NPOs, which possess lower publicness, or profit organizations.

The purpose of the study was to investigate knowledge practices in Nkangala District Municipality (NDM), situated in the Mpumalanga Province, South Africa. The objective of the study was to discover NDM managers’ level of understanding participation and establish any challenges of knowledge sharing in NDM. This study employed qualitative research method. An interview guide was designed to collect data through in-depth interviews. To determine the number of participants for the interview, stratified and purposive sampling methods were used. The study established that there is little knowledge and understanding of the knowledge sharing concept by NDM managers, hence, it is not formally recognised by the institution. However, managers acknowledged that knowledge sharing could play a huge role in improving service delivery. The study recommends that NDM should consider introducing the knowledge sharing concept, through the establishment of a knowledge sharing section. A culture of knowledge sharing could be developed through the development of knowledge sharing policies, which should be aligned to the Integrated Development Planning (IDP) process of NDM. In addition, the study recommends an upgrade on the existing ICT infrastructure and internet connection, especially in rural municipalities. This will ensure that ICT fully supports knowledge sharing activities. The study suggested that an additional study is conducted to establish knowledge sharing practices among the lower level staff members of NDM. / Information Science / M.A.(Information Science)

Problematiken som denna fallstudie försöker belysa är problemet med att mindre företag inte arbetar, åtminstone formellt, med kunskapshantering inom sina organisationer. Detta är givetvis något som är problematiskt i den generation vi lever i idag där en effektiv process för kunskapshantering är en förutsättning för att nå konkurrensfördelar. Tidigare forskning bevisar detta och menar på att kunskapshantering är ett komplext begrepp där avsaknad av formella tillvägagångssätt för hur man ska främja, bevara och sprida kunskap är något som är problematiskt för just mindre företag. Byggindustrin är en intressant bransch då det verkar råda mycket tyst kunskap bland arbetarna och de verkar ha delvis hittat ett effektivt tillvägagångssätt för att hantera kunskap.   Syftet med fallstudien är att ta fram ett ramverk och tillvägagångssätt för hur mindre företag kan påbörja, formellt eller informellt, sitt arbete med kunskapshantering och lärande genom att dra inspiration från byggbranschen i förhållandet mellan fullärd snickare och lärling.   Det teoretiska ramverket består av teorier om individuellt kunskapsskapande samt organisatoriskt lärande, där teorier såsom social inlärningsteori, stimulus och respons, lärcirkeln, Nonakas SEKI modell, Community of Practice och Argyris teori för enkel-och dubbelkretslärande tillämpas för att analysera undersökningens empiri.   Den tillämpade metoden som används för att möjliggöra studien är kvalitativ ansats där semistrukturerade intervjuer genomförts med VD, arbetsledare, tre snickare och tre lärlingar på Företag A.   Diskussion visar hur mycket av denna undersökning som överensstämmer med tidigare forskning men även några områden som inte överensstämmer. Tidigare forskning tillämpar ett negativt perspektiv på informella processer, medan vår studie visar att så inte behöver vara fallet. I slutsatsen redovisas fem aspekter som har identifierats som mindre företag kan tillämpa börja arbeta med kunskapshantering på ett effektivt tillvägagångssätt, även om processerna förblir informella. Dessa fem aspekter är fysisk kommunikation, stark gemenskap, bonus, trial-and-error samt främja och prioritera byggnadsarbetarnas och lärlingarnas reflektion kring avslutade projekt för att på ett systematiskt, standardiserat och kontinuerligt sätt fånga upp, bevara och sprida kunskap. Genom att, som mindre företag, tillämpa dessa aspekter undviker man behovet av att anlita dyr extern hjälp för att formalisera sina processer för kunskapshantering. / The major concern this case study tries to address is the identified problem of how smaller companies, at least formally, work with knowledge management within their organizations. This, of course, is something that is problematic in today's generation where an effective process for knowledge management is necessary to provide qualification to reach competitive advantage. Past research also shows this and says knowledge management is a complex area where missing a formal approach to how to promore, preserve, evolve and spread knowledge is problematic for smaller companies. The construction industry is very interesting to this regard, since they have a lot of tacit knowledge among the workers and they seem to partially have found an effective approach as to how to handle that knowledge.   The purpose of this case study is to identify a framework and approach that smaller companies can apply to start, formally or informally, their work with knowledge management and learning by taking inspiration from the construction sector in the relation between a fully learned construction worker and an apprentice.   The theoretical framework consists of theories about individual knowledge creation as well as organizational learning, where theories like social learning theory, stimulus and response, learning circle, Nonaka's SECI model, Community of Practice and Argyris theory of double-loop learning is applied to analyze the empiric findings of this research.   The applied method of conducting this research was a qualitative approach with semi structured interviews performed on the CEO, supervisors, three workers and three apprentices.   Discussion shows how a lot of this research corresponds with previous research but also a few areas that does not correspond. Past research approaches with a negative perspective on informal processes, while our study shows that there can be some positive aspect if learned to handle. In the conclusion we present a framework consisting of five aspects that have been identified  and to which smaller companies can start to apply in order to get to work with knowledge management in an effective way, even if the processes may stay informal. These five aspects are physical communication, a strong community, a performance based bonus and trial-and-error as well as promote and prioritize the construction workers´ and apprentices reflections for finished projects in order to in a systematic, standardized and consistent way catch, preserve and share knowledge. By applying, as a smaller company, these aspects the company can avoid the need of the hiring expensive external companies to help with formalising the processes for knowledge management.

ABSTRACT Title: Knowledge sharing from an employee perspective- Social factors effect on the spread of tacit knowledge at outsourcing Level: Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business Administration Author: Evelina Ödling and Ronja Zander Supervisor: Stig Sörling and Thomas Källquist Date: 2016 - January Aim: It has become increasingly common that organizations use external co-workers for temporary tasks and activities, that is, they choose to outsource parts of their operations. This has proven to be important to how the organizations knowledge capital is affected and, consequently, how knowledge is spread between the internal and external co-workers. Tacit knowledge is most affected by outsourcing, and there are social factors that affect co-workers motivation to share their knowledge. The purpose of this study is therefore to illustrate how knowledge is spread between internal and external co-workers with regard to tacit knowledge and social factors. Method: The study was conducted from a qualitative approach and a multiple case study which different types of employment have been studied. Social constructionism has implemented our theory of science and the hermeneutics the knowledge approach we decided to take account with the focus on interpretation and understanding. The empirical collection consists of semi-structured interviews with ten employees when we chose to proceed from an employee perspective. The theoretical framework builds on previous research about our area of interest and has acted as a base of our interview guide. The interview guide has then been used as a template to categorize empirical data and to analyze the empirical outcome. Result & Conclusions: We have according to the social factors in this study noticed that reflexitivity and the socio-psychological factor, focusing on the internal motivation is what affects the spread of the tacit knowledge between internal and external co-workers.Suggestions for future research: When the research on knowledge sharing between different forms of employment are limited, we suggest that further research should focus on studying different project groups or teams to create a deeper qualitative study. Contribution of the thesis: By highlighting the spread of knowledge between internal and external co-workers and converging multiple social factors in the same study, we have provided a theoretical contribution to the current research. The study has also generated a distribution pattern that shows that the internal co-workers spread their knowledge to both internal and external co-workers, while spread from external to internal is weak. This can be classified as the study´s practical contribution and the measures that organizations may need to use so that knowledge are spread between all co-workers. Key words: Outsourcing, knowledge sharing, external/internal co-workers, tacit knowledge, social factors / SAMMANFATTNING Titel: Kunskapsspridning ur ett medarbetarperspektiv- Sociala faktorer och dess påverkan av den tysta kunskapens spridning vid outsourcing Nivå: C-uppsats i ämnet företagsekonomi Författare: Evelina Ödling och Ronja Zander Handledare: Stig Sörling och Thomas Källquist Datum: 2016 – Januari Syfte: Det har blivit allt vanligare att organisationer använder sig av externa medarbetare till temporära uppgifter och aktiviteter, det vill säga de väljer att outsourca delar av deras verksamheter. Detta har visat sig ha betydelse för hur organisationernas kunskapskapital påverkas och följaktligen hur kunskaper sprids mellan interna och externa medarbetare. Den tysta kunskapen påverkas mest av outsourcing och det finns sociala faktorer som påverkar medarbetarnas drivkraft till att dela med sig av sina kunskaper. Syftet med denna studie är därmed att belysa hur kunskap sprids mellan interna och externa medarbetare med avseende på tyst kunskap och sociala faktorer. Metod: Studien har genomförts ur en kvalitativ ansats och en multipel fallstudie där olika typer av anställningsformer har studerats. Socialkonstruktionismen har präglat vårt vetenskapsteoretiska synsätt och hermeneutiken den kunskapssyn vi valt att beakta med fokus på tolkning och förståelse. Den empiriska insamlingen består av semi-strukturerade intervjuer med tio medarbetare då vi valt att utgå från ett medarbetarperspektiv. Den teoretiska referensramen bygger på tidigare forskning kring vårt intresseområde och har fungerat som en grund för upplägget av vår intervjuguide. Intervjuguiden har sedan använts som mall för att kategorisera empirin och för att analysera det empiriska utfallet. Resultat & slutsats: Vi har utifrån de sociala faktorerna som belysts i denna studie uppmärksammat att det främst är reflexitivitet och den sociopsykologiska faktorn med inriktning på den inre motivationen som påverkar spridningen av den tysta kunskapen mellan interna och externa medarbetare.Förslag till fortsatt forskning: Då forskning kring kunskapsspridning mellan olika anställningsformer är begränsat föreslår vi att vidare forskning bör fokusera på att studera olika projektgrupper eller team för att skapa en djupare kvalitativ studie. Uppsatsens bidrag: Genom att belysa kunskapsspridning mellan interna och externa medarbetare och sammanstrålat flera olika sociala faktorer i samma studie har vi lämnat ett teoretiskt bidrag till den aktuella forskningen. Studien har även genererat ett spridningsmönster som visar att de interna medarbetarna sprider sina kunskaper till både interna och externa medan spridningen från extern till intern medarbetare är svag. Detta kan klassas som studiens praktiska bidrag och vilka åtgärder som organisationer kan behöva vidta för att kunskaper ska spridas mellan alla medarbetare. Nyckelord: Outsourcing, kunskapsspridning, externa/interna medarbetare, tyst kunskap, sociala faktorer

Knowledge management literature identifies numerous barriers that inhibit employees' knowledge seeking and knowledge contributing practices via information and communication technologies (ICTs). Presently, there is a significant gap in the literature that explains what factors promote common knowledge sharing barriers. To bridge this gap, this study examined two research questions: 1) What are the potential factors that contribute to the commonly accepted barriers to knowledge sharing?, and 2) How do these factors impact employees' use of ICTs for knowledge seeking and knowledge contributing? Literature review of 103 knowledge management articles identified three major barriers to knowledge sharing practices (lack of time, poor communication skills, and lack of trust) and three underlying factors that promoted these barriers (role conflict, role ambiguity, and locus of control). A six-stage content analysis study of the 103 knowledge articles identified 199 references to the observed contributors. To address the second research question, a causal knowledge sharing model was developed and seven hypotheses proposed. A survey consisting of 41 questions was distributed to 1,368 full-time analysts from a variety of industries, and 314 useful responses were analyzed using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling. The results confirmed that role conflict, role ambiguity, and locus of control predicted knowledge seeking and knowledge contributing behaviors via ICTs. Moreover, type of ICTs used was found to moderate the strength of these predictors.

Quand le E-learning a émergé il ya 20 ans, cela consistait simplement en un texte affiché sur un écran d'ordinateur, comme un livre. Avec les changements et les progrès dans la technologie, le E-learning a parcouru un long chemin, maintenant offrant un matériel éducatif personnalisé, interactif et riche en contenu. Aujourd'hui, le E-learning se transforme de nouveau. En effet, avec la prolifération des systèmes d'apprentissage électronique et des outils d'édition de contenu éducatif, ainsi que les normes établies, c’est devenu plus facile de partager et de réutiliser le contenu d'apprentissage. En outre, avec le passage à des méthodes d'enseignement centrées sur l'apprenant, en plus de l'effet des techniques et technologies Web2.0, les apprenants ne sont plus seulement les récipiendaires du contenu d'apprentissage, mais peuvent jouer un rôle plus actif dans l'enrichissement de ce contenu. Par ailleurs, avec la quantité d'informations que les systèmes E-learning peuvent accumuler sur les apprenants, et l'impact que cela peut avoir sur leur vie privée, des préoccupations sont soulevées afin de protéger la vie privée des apprenants. Au meilleur de nos connaissances, il n'existe pas de solutions existantes qui prennent en charge les différents problèmes soulevés par ces changements. Dans ce travail, nous abordons ces questions en présentant Cadmus, SHAREK, et le E-learning préservant la vie privée. Plus précisément, Cadmus est une plateforme web, conforme au standard IMS QTI, offrant un cadre et des outils adéquats pour permettre à des tuteurs de créer et partager des questions de tests et des examens. Plus précisément, Cadmus fournit des modules telles que EQRS (Exam Question Recommender System) pour aider les tuteurs à localiser des questions appropriées pour leur examens, ICE (Identification of Conflits in Exams) pour aider à résoudre les conflits entre les questions contenu dans un même examen, et le Topic Tree, conçu pour aider les tuteurs à mieux organiser leurs questions d'examen et à assurer facilement la couverture des différent sujets contenus dans les examens. D'autre part, SHAREK (Sharing REsources and Knowledge) fournit un cadre pour pouvoir profiter du meilleur des deux mondes : la solidité des systèmes E-learning et la flexibilité de PLE (Personal Learning Environment) tout en permettant aux apprenants d'enrichir le contenu d'apprentissage, et les aider à localiser nouvelles ressources d'apprentissage. Plus précisément, SHAREK combine un système recommandation multicritères, ainsi que des techniques et des technologies Web2.0, tels que le RSS et le web social, pour promouvoir de nouvelles ressources d'apprentissage et aider les apprenants à localiser du contenu adapté. Finalement, afin de répondre aux divers besoins de la vie privée dans le E-learning, nous proposons un cadre avec quatre niveaux de vie privée, ainsi que quatre niveaux de traçabilité. De plus, nous présentons ACES (Anonymous Credentials for E-learning Systems), un ensemble de protocoles, basés sur des techniques cryptographiques bien établies, afin d'aider les apprenants à atteindre leur niveau de vie privée désiré. / E-learning emerged over 20 years ago, and was merely book like text displayed on a computer screen. With the changes and advances in technology, E-learning has come a long way, providing personal and interactive rich content. Today, E-learning is again going through major changes. Indeed, with the proliferation of E-learning systems and content authoring tools, as well as established standards, it has become easier to share and reuse learning content. Moreover, with the shift to learner centered education and the effect of Web2.0 techniques and technologies, learners are no longer just recipients of the learning content, but can play an active role into enriching such content. Additionally, with the amount of information E-learning systems can gather about learners, and the impact this has on their privacy, concerns are being raised in order to protect learners’ privacy. Nonetheless, to the best of our knowledge, there is no existing work that supports the various challenges raised by these changes. In this work, we address these issues by presenting Cadmus, SHAREK, and privacy preserving E-learning. Specifically, Cadmus is an IMS QTI compliant web based assessment authoring tool, offering the proper framework and tools to enable tutors author and share questions and exams. In detail, Cadmus provides functionalities such as the EQRS (Exam Questions Recommender System) to help tutors locate suitable questions, ICE (Identification of Conflicts in Exams) to help resolve conflicts between questions within the same exam, and the topic tree, designed to help tutors better organize their exam questions and easily ensure the content coverage of their exams. On the other hand, SHAREK (Sharing REsources and Knowledge) provides the framework to take advantage of both the rigidity of E-learning systems and the flexibility of PLEs (Personal Learning Environment) while enabling learners to enrich the learning content, and helping them locate new learning resources. Specifically, SHAREK utilizes a multi-criteria content based recommender system, and combines Web2.0 technologies and techniques such as RSS and social web to promote new learning resources and help learners locate suitable content. Lastly, in order to address the various needs for privacy in E-learning, we propose a framework with four levels of privacy, and four levels of tracking, and we detail ACES (Anonymous Credentials for E-learning Systems), a set of protocols, based on well established cryptographic techniques, to help learners achieve their desired level of privacy.

Individer har en systematisk tendens att favorisera medlemmar i ens egen grupp och diskriminera de som tillhör en annan grupp, trots minimala grunder för gruppindelning. Denna studie syftar till att undersöka om social interaktion mellan individer i grupper påverkar denna särbehandlingstendens. I sådana fall, kan detta komma att yttra sig genom bland annat skillnader i kunskapsutbyte och spridning av information mellan de anställda på en arbetsplats. Grupper delades in slumpmässigt och särbehandlingen mättes via poängfördelning. Datainsamlingen skedde via både experiment (n = 41) och enkät (n = 135) samt med tre olika nivåer av social interaktion. Undersökningsdeltagarna fördelade mer poäng till sin egen grupp, än till den andra gruppen. Däremot påverkade varken grad av social interaktion eller typ av metod poängfördelningen. Vid samtliga tillfällen var det mellan en tredjedel till strax över hälften av undersökningsdeltagarna som särbehandlade. Slutsatsen är att även vid en slumpmässig gruppindelning så kommer en särbehandlingstendens att ske.

Over the last few years the ASA determined KM as a priority to assist with reducing knowledge loss, realising information assets and reducing work duplication by attempting to implement IKM tools and strategies. This research employed a pragmatic viewpoint, using a mix of both quantitative and qualitative methods to check reliability, to ensure validity while undertaking the task of implementing the IKM tools. Using a case study strategy and action research was justified, as to be pragmatic the researcher needed to understand the extent of the problem within a specified context. The research discussed in this thesis, provides a new framework for implementing KM tools; focusing on the NSO category, which the case study organisation falls into. The literature agrees enlisting influential members onto the project is vital for success; however, the findings suggested that success was not only tied to this buy-in alone, but also to the organisation s ability to retain these members for the duration of the project. The research proposed the use of a newly developed tool within the new framework, as an approach to reduce the time it takes to undertake traditional social network analysis of the organisation, as it became clear that there was a need for a method of producing updated results of the SNA, which would span the length of long projects within organisations with significantly high staff turn-over rates. Privacy was given as a factor to consider the in literature; however, the findings from this study indicated that a majority of the participants were comfortable with the system. Email knowledge extraction, and email social network systems are not new concepts, however this research presents EKESNA; a novel tool that combines both concepts in a way that allows for the continuous discovery, visualisation, and analysis of knowledge networks around specified topics of interest within an organisation; linking conversations to specific expert knowledge. EKESNA s continuous discovery of the organisation s knowledge network affords members up-to-date data to inform business process reengineering. This is a potentially ground breaking new tool that has the possibility of transforming the KM landscape in NSOs as well as a whole range of other kinds of enterprises.