This research considers one of the most important of resources - knowledge. There is a widespread view that knowledge is important to organizations and this has led to the study of knowledge management. There are a plethora of definitions of knowledge and knowledge management, but knowledge sharing is recognised as being of fundamental importance. The literature shows the success of knowledge sharing is not only affected by factors including culture, management, technology, processes and structure but, more importantly, it is affected by how these factors interact and fit together. However there is little literature on alignment or strategic fit in knowledge sharing. This research adds to the literature by investigating the enablers and constraints of knowledge sharing and the possible effects of alignment. An interpretive approach using case studies triangulated with a survey is adopted, involving semi-structured interviews with 23 people across five organizations. The findings suggest that significant top management support and a strategy for knowledge sharing are necessary precursors of effective knowledge sharing. In the organizations which lacked this, there is little to encourage people to share and almost none of these organizations measured well on any aspect of knowledge sharing. There are widely varying uses of technology, but many are aimed at sharing data or information. Fewer uses of technology are geared to enabling or encouraging the communication necessary for knowledge sharing. The lack of senior management support may prevent any significant internal or external alignment so a possible approach to strategic fit for knowledge sharing is that strategy has to come first (and the management support that goes with it) and that this should lead to the embedding of the necessary behaviours for knowledge sharing. Only after this are processes and technology able to support knowledge sharing.

Sustainable development (SD) is a pressing global issue that is becoming increasingly prominent on clients and governing bodies agendas. In order to survive, organisations are seeking ways to negate their detrimental environmental impacts. This is no easy feat: SD is both complex and dynamic. To be successful, organisations need to leverage and expand their most valuable asset – knowledge. Civil engineering plays a significant role in SD – it shapes our environment and governs our interaction with it. However, extant research asserts that civil engineering related disciplines have been slow to adopt SD oriented practices; a possible result of their complex and fragmented organisational environments. The literature suggests that effective knowledge sharing (KS) can overcome these barriers, thus driving enhanced SD performance. Consequently, this research aims to investigate how the civil engineering sector can improve its intra-organisational sharing of SD knowledge, using an international civil engineering consultancy as an exemplar. Whilst there has been much research surrounding KS and SD there has been limited research that has investigated KS for SD, thus this thesis contributes to this limited body of knowledge. Mixed-method research was used to address the abovementioned aim. An increasingly popular approach, it is widely believed to generate greater value through complementary integration of quantitative and qualitative research paradigms. This approach lends itself also to the ethnographic inclinations of the reported research: the author was embedded within the case organisation, and sought a rich and reliable understanding of the study phenomena. An initial set of semi-structured interviews suggested that the case organisation’s members exhibit positive attitudes towards KS and SD, yet are often constrained by a number of common KS barriers, namely: a lack of organisation slack (i.e. time); a silo mentality; and poor SD ICT systems. These socio-cultural and technical barriers were subsequently investigated and contested using social network analysis techniques and an intranet acceptance model. A number of observations are made on the relationships between the findings from the research activities. It is believed the organisation often exhibits a reactive approach to KS for SD, which is deemed undesirable. This signals the need for greater senior management support to cultivate a culture where KS for SD is the norm and is integrated with work practices. A series of recommendations are provided to help the case organisation understand how such change could be cultivated. Several implications follow from this work. The mixed-method approach revealed a number of contradictions between the findings of each research activity. It is therefore postulated that mixed-method designs can provide a richer understanding, thus reducing misconceptions of KS phenomena. Following from this, the research contends that it may be too easy for researchers to identify with ubiquitous KS barriers as the reported research suggests that these may be perceived rather than actual. The research also reinforces the need for senior management support. These individuals govern the systems in which organisational members operate and thus have the ability to enhance KS for SD. Finally, the research demonstrates that SD ICT systems have little impact unless they are embedded in receptive contexts. Thus, an action research approach to KS system development is advocated to ensure systems are shaped to meet user expectations and drive desired KS behaviours. This research is presented in five peer-reviewed articles.

<p>The change in the present global world puts pressure on companies to develop new strategies for gaining competitive advantage. The new fast technology leads companies to try to outshine one another to reach further into the world of innovation. Sharing knowledge online demands brave and huge changes from managers and employees. The use of new tools for faster more open communication requires a change of mindset from the involved parties. Our aim was to determine if the internal open communication was the solution to a more open knowledge sharing work climate. The Purpose of our study is to investigate if knowledge sharing indirectly foster a more learning and innovative organization. Which leads us to one of our main questions: can a wikis- tool for internal communication be an enabler for a more open and knowledge sharing working climate? In this thesis we are focusing on the new communication tool for a better internal collaboration which has the ability to facilitate the work for employees if it is implemented in a positive manner. All our research was performed in Ramböll a global company that gave us useful access and information for our thesis. We performed our study by using qualitative research such as interviews, dialogue and observations<em>.</em> The result from our study showed us how the open communication and knowledge sharing can strengthen the core communication to foster a more learning and innovative company. Open communication as enabler of the power of innovation in global companies.</p>

The change in the present global world puts pressure on companies to develop new strategies for gaining competitive advantage. The new fast technology leads companies to try to outshine one another to reach further into the world of innovation. Sharing knowledge online demands brave and huge changes from managers and employees. The use of new tools for faster more open communication requires a change of mindset from the involved parties. Our aim was to determine if the internal open communication was the solution to a more open knowledge sharing work climate. The Purpose of our study is to investigate if knowledge sharing indirectly foster a more learning and innovative organization. Which leads us to one of our main questions: can a wikis- tool for internal communication be an enabler for a more open and knowledge sharing working climate? In this thesis we are focusing on the new communication tool for a better internal collaboration which has the ability to facilitate the work for employees if it is implemented in a positive manner. All our research was performed in Ramböll a global company that gave us useful access and information for our thesis. We performed our study by using qualitative research such as interviews, dialogue and observations. The result from our study showed us how the open communication and knowledge sharing can strengthen the core communication to foster a more learning and innovative company. Open communication as enabler of the power of innovation in global companies.

Knowledge is often tacit and "sticky", i.e. highly context-specific and therefore costly to transfer to a different setting. This paper examines the methods used by firms to facilitate cross-site knowledge sharing by "thinning" knowledge, that is, by stripping knowledge of its contextual richness. An interview-based study of cross-site knowledge sharing in three industries (consulting, industrial materials, and high-tech products) indicated that highly developed knowledge-sharing systems do not necessarily involve extensive codification and recombination of personalized knowledge. Many multinational firms evidently conceive their knowledge-sharing systems with more modest objectives in mind than any large-scale "learning spirals" featuring iterative conversion of personalized knowledge into codified knowledge and vice-versa. A typology of knowledge-thinning systems was derived by interpreting the field study results from the perspective of knowledge-thinning methods used in earlier eras of history. The typology encompasses topographical, statistical and diagrammatic knowledge-thinning systems. (authors' abstract)

The globalisation of commerce, alongside growing information on the Internet, has increased the demand of E-Learning (EL). Furthermore, knowledge management (KM) is capable of generating significant organisational/institutional competitive advantages. KM and EL systems contribution to the requirements of education has resulted in their increased demand of their integration across business/academic world. Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives is one of the most widely used framework of organising levels of expertise. Bloom’s different cognitive domains are based on a hierarchy of learning which progresses from simple to complex and from concrete to abstract. This study considers ways to improve higher education in Saudi Arabia, based on the significant factors (of KM/EL systems) contributing to learner performance and the way in which New Bloom’s Taxonomy could potentially affect/benefit these individual systems; previous academic works will be considered, in an attempt to achieve higher standards of education using this theory/framework. This research presents the value of learning process/tactical approaches, to encourage staff and students to accept the idea of integrating EL and KM factors under New Bloom’s Taxonomy; examples will be given to demonstrate instances where systems have been adopted successfully. To investigate the effectiveness of New Bloom’s Taxonomy on the integration of EL and KM factors in Saudi higher education, a questionnaire methodology was chosen to collect data from experts of both systems; furthermore, the public sector was chosen as it has adopted both systems. Therefore, an integrated framework is proposed.

Knowledge sharing and information security have become well-established concepts in academia and within organisations. Knowledge sharing aims to encourage individuals to share tacit and explicit knowledge with colleagues and stakeholders, yet on the other hand, information security initiatives aim to apply controls and restrictions to the knowledge that can be shared and how it can be shared, where the primary focus is usually on protecting explicit knowledge or information. This thesis draws attention to the largely unexplored and under-developed area of knowledge protection ; it investigates the paradoxical and concurrent nature of knowledge sharing and information security practices by exploring their relationship and understanding how this can affect an organisation and subsequently identifies ways of achieving a balance between the two practices. The empirical work was carried out through an interpretivist case study approach in the Energy Technologies Institute (ETI) an organisation that combines knowledge and expertise from partnerships with academia, industry and the UK government, in order to deliver innovative low carbon solutions. A novel team-based action learning approach was developed to generate individual, team and organisational learning and to help initiate change; the data was collected from three project teams about their knowledge and experiences of knowledge sharing and information security practices, which was then analysed and further supplemented with the ETI s organisational perspective and the researcher s own experience of collaborating with the ETI to contextualise the findings. Eight predominant overarching themes were identified that play an important role in and influence the organisation s knowledge sharing and information security practices. When looking at the practices of knowledge sharing and information security independently at the ETI, proactive and conscious efforts towards achieving the goals of each practice are evident. Knowledge is recognised as the ETI s core product and its effective dissemination is key for the organisation s success, which is why there is a keen attitude towards improving knowledge sharing internally and externally. On the other hand, a great deal of importance is given to protecting valuable knowledge and meeting stakeholders confidentiality requirements, thus, there are good systems, access controls, and information restrictions in place. In addition, strict legal and approval processes to protect information value and accuracy are implemented. However, when both knowledge sharing and information security - practices are compared from a broader perspective, evidence of issues arising from their conflicting nature is evident. Moreover, operating in a complex governance structure with various expectations and contractual agreements with stakeholders regarding confidentiality, has created a protective culture in the organisation surrounding its knowledge, which causes a hindrance to formal and informal knowledge sharing (including both, tacit and explicit forms) and makes identifying opportunities for fully exploiting knowledge and Intellectual Property an ongoing operational challenge. The research process facilitated the achievement of effective learning at individual, team and organisational level for the ETI about its practices, identification of challenges and areas of improvement, incorporation of learning and recommendations into its knowledge management strategy alongside existing activities to improve knowledge sharing. The contents of this thesis particularly the eight themes that have emerged from the research findings - are also contributing significantly to a project the organisation is carrying out to reflect on and review what has been learned from operating the ETI for the last 10 years. The thesis contributes to the existing body of knowledge, theoretically and practically, in the disciplines of knowledge management and information security; what was predominantly overlooked by previous literature, the empirical research findings surface evidence of the relationship between knowledge sharing and information security practices, showing their interconnectedness, and, the negative consequences of the two practices being treated and managed separately. For the action learning arena, a novel methodological approach underpinned by the action learning philosophy has been introduced that demonstrates how team action learning (i.e. using intact teams as opposed to conventional action learning teams) can be used to engage employees to share and combine their knowledge on real organisational issues, generate new learning and develop actions to initiate improvements in the organisation.

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES / Cooperation is a strategy used by the companies to develop and stay in the market, and one of their results is that partners can develop a common knowledge base, based on the experience and expertise of both partners. An important advantage of the cooperation is the sharing of knowledge. Provan, Fish and Sydow (2007), analyzed different forms of interactions between individuals in networks. Based on these interactions, it was proposed that knowledge is shared within networks through an actor over another actor, a network over individual actors, individual actors over a network and in all the network or level of network interactions. This new knowledge can be combined with partners' experiences to create new routines as well as resources that provide the basis for sustainable competitive advantage. Routines are considered in the research as repetitive standards of organizational behavior, that are applied at the operational and strategic levels of the organizations. A few studies have been both from the theoretical and empirical point of view that refer to the analysis of this thematic in cooperative processes. This work aims to identify new organizational routines applied by companies that participate in horizontal interorganizational networks, resulting from the knowledge acquired through cooperation. It is believed that this work allows a greater understanding of the results of the cooperative process, showing what really happens in the day to day of these companies after the entry into the network and how they take advantage and change the possibilities and available information and often required by the network and partners to improve the business. To achieve this goal, a qualitative approach was adopted as research method with an exploratory nature by means of the study of multi cases. The units of analysis are ten companies from the central and northwestern regions of the Rio Grande do Sul state, inserted in two Cooperative Networks of the Supermarkets branch. For the data collection, in-depth interviews with the managers of these companies were used and some secondary data were obtained in the websites of the networks. The data were analyzed using the technique of content analysis. The results shown that the companies found through the different cooperation mechanisms to share the knowledge, prevailing the face-to-face meetings of the network and the exchange of e-mail between the members of the network. Among the ways to share knowledge, an actor over another actor, a network over individual actors and the entire network or level of network interactions can be highlighted. However, one of the proposed forms, individual actors on a network, did not generate major impacts for the companies and for the network. These exchanges have to lead to the formation of new organizational routines, which are from the changes between the internal offers and those of the Network, up to the framing of rules imposed by the network, as well as attention to regulatory agencies or the use of software to reduce expenses and to control the internal processes. It should be noted that the new routines were positive for the organizations and according to the managers helped in the growth and development of the companies as well as in the maintenance and permanence in the market. This research brings empirical and theoretical contributions allowing the understanding how the knowledge shared in a network can transform and develop many companies, allowing that small details and simple information can contribute to the growth and to the permanence of these companies in the market. / A cooperação é uma estratégia encontrada pelas empresas para se manter e se desenvolver no mercado, e um dos seus resultados é que os parceiros podem desenvolver uma base comum de conhecimento, baseados na experiência e especialização de ambos os parceiros. Uma importante vantagem da cooperação é o compartilhamento de conhecimento. Provan, Fish e Sydow (2007), analisaram diferentes formas de interações entre os indivíduos em redes. Baseado nessas interações, propôs-se que o conhecimento é compartilhado dentro das redes através de um ator sobre outro ator, de uma rede sobre atores individuais, de atores individuais sobre uma rede e em toda a rede ou nível de interações da rede. Esse novo conhecimento pode então ser combinado com as experiências dos parceiros para criar novas rotinas, além de recursos que forneçam a base para obter vantagem competitiva sustentável. Rotinas são consideradas nessa pesquisa como padrões repetitivos de comportamento organizacional, que são aplicadas a níveis operacionais e estratégicos das organizações. Poucos têm sidos os estudos, tanto do ponto de vista teórico quanto empírico, que se referem à análise dessa temática em processos cooperativos. O presente trabalho tem como objetivo identificar novas rotinas organizacionais, praticadas pelas empresas que participam de redes interorganizacionais horizontais, resultantes do conhecimento adquirido por meio da cooperação. Acredita-se que esse trabalho possibilite um maior entendimento dos resultados do processo cooperativo, mostrando o que realmente acontece no dia a dia dessas empresas após a entrada na rede e como elas aproveitam e transformam as possibilidades e informações disponibilizadas e, muitas vezes, exigidas pela rede e pelos parceiros para alavancar o negócio. Para atingi-lo, adotou-se como método de pesquisa a abordagem qualitativa com natureza eminentemente exploratória, através do estudo de multicasos. As unidades de análise são dez empresas das regiões central e noroeste do estado do Rio Grande do Sul, inseridas em duas Redes de Cooperação do ramo de Supermercados. Para a coleta de dados, utilizou-se de entrevistas em profundidade junto aos gestores das empresas e de alguns dados secundários obtidos nos sites das redes. Os dados foram analisados através da técnica de análise de conteúdo. Os resultados mostram que as empresas encontraram através da cooperação diferentes mecanismos para compartilhar conhecimento, predominando as reuniões presenciais da rede e as trocas de e-mail entre os associados e a rede. Entre as formas de compartilhar conhecimento, encontra-se a de um ator sobre outro ator, de uma rede sobre atores individuais e em toda a rede ou nível de interações da rede. Contudo, uma das formas propostas, atores individuais sobre uma rede, não gerou maiores impactos para as empresas e para a rede. Essas trocas ocasionaram a formação de novas rotinas organizacionais, que são desde a diferenciação entre as ofertas internas e as da Rede até o enquadramento em normas impostas pela rede, assim como a atenção a órgãos de fiscalização ou a utilização de software para redução de gastos e controle dos processos internos. Salienta-se que as novas rotinas foram positivas para as organizações e, segundo os gestores, auxiliaram no crescimento e desenvolvimento das empresas, assim como na manutenção e permanência no mercado. Esta pesquisa traz contribuições empíricas e teóricas, permitindo o entendimento de como o conhecimento compartilhado em uma rede pode transformar e desenvolver muitas empresas, permitindo que pequenos detalhes e simples informações contribuam para o crescimento e até a permanência dessas empresas no mercado.

Social networking services are relatively new phenomena and they have attracted so much attention around themselves. These services have been seen by many organizations as a po-tential tool to facilitate knowledge sharing. However, very few have successfully adopted such services. Many problems which lead to failures arise when it comes to developing and implementing social networking services with the goal to facilitate knowledge sharing.The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the failure of one social networking service to satisfy the knowledge sharing needs of the organization that has developed and implement-ed it in-house.Interviews with three employees of the company were arranged. The interviews were done with time intervals in between. This gave us the opportunity to rearrange the questions that were going to be asked to the next interviewee. The interviews were really helpful and gave us a good insight of the problem with the development and implementation of the social networking service that the organization was facing. After the interviews were conducted, a questionnaire was elaborated and sent out to the employees in the organization.The results we came up with were really interesting. A table with failure factors for the so-cial networking service used in the organization was made and a model suggesting the steps an organization should follow for the successful development and implementation of a so-cial networking service that facilitates knowledge sharing internally was developed.We found out that the failure was not in the social networking service itself but in the way it was presented, positioned and communicated to the employees of the company. They never took the service seriously for its intended purpose which was knowledge sharing within the organization and that led to the cancelation of the project.

The globalisation of commerce, alongside growing information on the Internet, has increased the demand of E-Learning (EL). Furthermore, knowledge management (KM) is capable of generating significant organisational/institutional competitive advantages. KM and EL systems contribution to the requirements of education has resulted in their increased demand of their integration across business/academic world. Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives is one of the most widely used framework of organising levels of expertise. Bloom’s different cognitive domains are based on a hierarchy of learning which progresses from simple to complex and from concrete to abstract. This study considers ways to improve higher education in Saudi Arabia, based on the significant factors (of KM/EL systems) contributing to learner performance and the way in which New Bloom’s Taxonomy could potentially affect/benefit these individual systems; previous academic works will be considered, in an attempt to achieve higher standards of education using this theory/framework. This research presents the value of learning process/tactical approaches, to encourage staff and students to accept the idea of integrating EL and KM factors under New Bloom’s Taxonomy; examples will be given to demonstrate instances where systems have been adopted successfully. To investigate the effectiveness of New Bloom’s Taxonomy on the integration of EL and KM factors in Saudi higher education, a questionnaire methodology was chosen to collect data from experts of both systems; furthermore, the public sector was chosen as it has adopted both systems. Therefore, an integrated framework is proposed.