Special Issue: Knowledge Management - Current Trends and Challenges

Special Issue: Knowledge Management - Current Trends and Challenges
Author: Małgorzata Zięba
Publisher: Cognitione Foundation for the Dissemination of Knowledge and Science
Total Pages: 175
Release: 2017-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 8394914454

Knowledge management (KM) has become an evolving discipline since the early 1990s, when organizations started perceiving knowledge as a valuable resource. This field of research has its origin in many disciplines, such as: information and IT management, computer science, enterprise management, organization science, human resource management and even philosophy, offering many potential research perspectives and approaches. For more than three decades, organizations of various types have been undertaking efforts to apply knowledge management, in order to benefit from a competitive advantage. Researchers and practitioners from diversified industries, and with different backgrounds, have tried to answer the question how to successfully manage knowledge, knowledge work and knowledge workers, still leaving much space for further research avenues Now, after all those years of research, some old questions have still not been answered and some new ones have arisen. During the pre-conference workshop on “The future of KM: short-time goals and long-term vision”, organized in Barcelona before the European Conference on Knowledge Management 2017 and conducted by myself and my colleague, Dr Sandra Moffett from Ulster University (UK), we asked the participants what their idea of the future of KM was. We could observe many different voices and approaches: some very pessimistic that KM is probably coming to an end, but mostly very promising that there are still many unexplored aspects of KM we should focus on and there is still a plethora of issues related to knowledge management that should be examined. Similar voices can be detected in the flagship article written by Meliha Handzic, who claims that KM definitely has a future, although it may not be without some challenges and obstacles to overcome. This paper links the past (three evolutionary stages of KM called fragmentation, integration and fusion) with the future of KM (three new trends named extension, specialization and reconceptualization). The author also suggests that KM should embrace different approaches under the “KM Conceptual Umbrella”, highlighting the possibility of addressing many themes, ideas or tools linked with knowledge. All the past and future evolutionary stages of KM are described in detail, together with the challenges that the KM field might face in the future. In the second paper, by Philip Sisson and Julie J. C. H. Ryan, the authors present a mental model of knowledge as a concept map being an input to KM research. The authors used qualitative methods, together with system engineering and object analysis methods, to collect various concepts and relate them. The issue of knowledge is elementary in knowledge management and showing the links between particular knowledge terms is of very high value to all KM researchers. Although the length of this article may constitute a challenge, it is definitely worth the effort as it illustrates many multifaceted, multilayered and multidimensional aspects of knowledge. The third paper by Karl Joachim Breunig and Hanno Roberts discusses another valid issue of value creation in the context of knowledge flow. The authors try to answer the question: How can we express knowledge in such a way that it can be monetized and made accessible to specific managerial interventions? Building on the previous extant studies and authors’ ideas, the paper points out that boundary spanners play a focal role in the monetization efforts of knowledge. In the fourth paper by Regina Lenart-Gansiniec one can read about crowdsourcing and the virtual knowledge sharing taking place in this process. The phenomenon of crowdsourcing is still under-researched and not much is known about the virtual exchange of knowledge in crowdsourcing and its benefits, such as co-creation, participation or gaining new ideas, and potential sources of innovations. Apart from the examination of the potential benefits of virtual knowledge sharing, the author also analyses ways of measuring virtual knowledge sharing in the process of crowdsourcing. The fifth paper by Kaja Prystupa concerns knowledge management processes in small entities and the role played by organizational culture. As the aim of this paper, the author set the examination of organizational culture in small Polish companies with the application of a symbiotic-interpretive perspective. Interesting outcomes of this study are: the confirmed role of organizational culture in KM initiatives, the importance of the founder and the industry, and the threat posed by organizational growth, which should be well-managed from the perspective of organizational culture so as not to hinder organizational performance. The sixth and the final paper, by David Mendes, Jorge Gomes and Mário Romão, deals with ways of creating intangible value through the use of a corporate employee portal. The authors undertake the effort to explain how such a portal fosters the creation of organizational values built on intangible assets. As the research confirms, an employee portal can be considered as a strategic tool for promoting organizational culture and cooperation, through information and communication fluxes and through the teamwork of collaborative functionalities. This issue of JEMI integrates contributions from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the United States, Norway, Poland and Portugal. I would like to express my gratitude to all the authors who contributed to this special issue, proving that knowledge management is still a valid topic, and offering abundant research opportunities. I would also like to express my sincerest thanks to the anonymous reviewers who contributed highly to the selection of the best submissions for this issue and guided the authors to further improvements in their works. Finally, I would like to pay special thanks to Dr Anna Ujwary-Gil, Editor-in-Chief of JEMI, for her kind invitation to prepare this special issue and her continual support at each stage of its preparation. I do hope that the readers of JEMI find the selected papers valuable and that they enrich their knowledge on KM issues. Additionally, I do believe that the collected works will be inspiring and offer some future directions for the examination of the knowledge management field. Dr. Małgorzata Zięba Guest Editor, JEMI Assistant Professor, Gdansk University of Technology, Poland

Current Issues and Trends in Knowledge Management, Discovery, and Transfer

Current Issues and Trends in Knowledge Management, Discovery, and Transfer
Author: Jennex, Murray Eugene
Publisher: IGI Global
Total Pages: 450
Release: 2019-12-27
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1799821919

No matter the industry, the development of information technologies has transformed how information is distributed and used to predict trends. Collecting and identifying the most vital information, however, requires constant management and manipulation. Current Issues and Trends in Knowledge Management, Discovery, and Transfer is an essential reference source that discusses crucial practices for collaborating and distributing work as well as validating accrued knowledge from real-time data. Featuring research on topics such as dynamic knowledge, management systems, and sharing behavior, this book is ideally designed for academics, researchers, librarians, managing professionals, and students seeking coverage on knowledge acquisition and implementation across systems.

Knowledge Management

Knowledge Management
Author: Travis Graham
Publisher:
Total Pages: 125
Release: 2019-08-08
Genre: Knowledge management
ISBN: 9781536160185

The book first aims to contribute to the current literature on knowledge sharing through understanding how open workspace layouts (from a social and spatial proximity perspective) promote faster decision making, operational efficiency and innovativeness, and how the alignment of employee and firm expectations shape this process. Knowledge management has strategic importance for any manufacturing enterprise. Systematically gathered, analyzed, and interpreted professional experiences can prevent technical problems, unnecessary costs, and unnecessary engineering changes. As such, the model for recording of knowledge and its integration into the engineering change and adaptive design process is the main contribution of the second chapter. The landscape of pricing innovations is created by compiling and sorting the varieties of novel pricing practices. This piecemeal approach to capturing the entire scope of pricing innovations is not capable of supporting attempts to discover interdependencies between several innovations, let alone to design future innovations. To overcome these deficiencies, a knowledge-based approach is proposed in the closing chapter, which covers building blocks of relevant know-what, know-why, and know-how.

Knowledge Management in Construction

Knowledge Management in Construction
Author: Chimay J. Anumba
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
Total Pages: 243
Release: 2008-04-15
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 0470759526

A key problem facing the construction industry is that all work is done by transient project teams, and in the past there has been no structured approach to learning from projects once they are completed. Now, though, the industry is adapting concepts of knowledge management to improve the situation. This book brings together 13 contributors from research and industry to show how managing construction knowledge can bring real benefits to organisations and projects. It covers a wide range of issues, from basic definitions and fundamental concepts, to the role of information technology, and engendering a knowledge sharing culture. Practical examples from construction and other industry sectors are used throughout to illustrate the various dimensions of knowledge management. The challenges of implementing knowledge management are outlined and the ensuing benefits highlighted.

Knowledge Management, Arts, and Humanities

Knowledge Management, Arts, and Humanities
Author: Meliha Handzic
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 259
Release: 2019-03-28
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 3030109224

This book presents a series of studies that demonstrate the value of interactions between knowledge management with the arts and humanities. The carefully compiled chapters show, on the one hand, how traditional methods from the arts and humanities – e.g. theatrical improvisation, clay modelling, theory of aesthetics – can be used to enhance knowledge creation and evolution. On the other, the chapters discuss knowledge management models and practices such as virtual knowledge space (BA) design, social networking and knowledge sharing, data mining and knowledge discovery tools. The book also demonstrates how these practices can yield valuable benefits in terms of organizing and analyzing big arts and humanities data in a digital environment.

Human Systems Management: Integrating Knowledge, Management And Systems

Human Systems Management: Integrating Knowledge, Management And Systems
Author: Milan Zeleny
Publisher: World Scientific
Total Pages: 484
Release: 2005-09-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9814488844

Human Systems Management is an important work that integrates knowledge, management and systems into a unified world of thinking and action in business, decision-making and economics. It presents a modern synthesis of the fields of knowledge management, systems science and human organization. A biological rather than mechanistic perspective pervades the text. New and original ideas and approaches are presented with the simplicity and clarity typical of the well-known author.

Handbook of Research on Retailing

Handbook of Research on Retailing
Author: Katrijn Gielens
Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing
Total Pages: 481
Release: 2018-08-31
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1786430282

The advent of e-commerce and the rise of hard discounters have put severe pressure on traditional retail chains. Boundaries are blurring: traditional brick & mortar players are expanding their online operations and/or setting up their own discount banners, while the power houses of online retail are going physical, and hard discounters get caught up in the Wheel of Retailing. Even successful companies cannot sit back and rest, but need to prepare for the next wave of change. In the face of this complexity, it is all the more important to take stock of current knowledge, based on insights and experience from leading scholars in the field. What do we know from extant studies, and what are the ensuing best practices? What evolutions are ahead, and will current recipes still work in the future? This Handbook sheds light on these issues.