298,805 research outputs found

    Leveraging new knowledge with relational capabilities: an investigation of rural school libraries in southern Portugal

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    Purpose: This paper aims to identify and conceptualize a set of relational capabilities that school libraries in the Alentejo region of Portugal develop for acquiring new knowledge that exists externally in the wider community. Design/methodology/approach: A qualitative research design operationalized via case studies was followed for the empirical analysis. Empirical findings are based on the analysis of the 84 narrative reports submitted by school libraries as part of a national performance evaluation exercise that took place between 2010 and 2012. Data analysis followed the techniques of inductive data categorization, within case-analysis, and cross-case analysis. Findings: The exploration of the relational capabilities that school libraries in the Alentejo region of Portugal develop for acquiring new knowledge that exists externally in the community resulted in the identification of relationships that school libraries in the region have established to acquire new knowledge: connecting with and supporting organizations committed to civic engagement; facilitating discussions about challenging issues through strategic partnerships; convening community conversations to identify shared concerns and solutions; and embracing local culture to foster endogenous development. Originality/value: The ability to seek and recognize the value of new and external knowledge, assimilate it and apply it to organizational ends has been traditionally linked to the concept of absorptive capacity. While absorptive capacity literature in business settings is prolific, literature that focuses on school libraries’ ability to identify and explore external knowledge and applying it to improve their performance is scarce. Focusing on the specific context of the Alentejo region of Portugal as an archetypical rural area, this paper identifies how knowledge existing externally in the community is absorbed by rural school libraries through specific relational capabilities that reflect school libraries’ community orientation and engagement in participatory processes that develop social resilience

    NSF COMPLEAT: Year 2 Evaluation

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    The objective of the COMPLEAT project is to improve prospective elementary teacher (PSET) engagement through an innovative, interdisciplinary, and inquiry-based approach that addresses the pressing need for integration of multiple disciplines in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). The project seeks to improve learning experiences for PSETs in acquiring mathematics (math) skills by exploring the rules of math in other STEM disciplines and solidifying knowledge and skills in teaching contexts as sustainable practices. The project aims to meet these objectives through the Applying, Connecting, Experiencing (ACE) instruction model, integrating Community-Based Experiential Learning (CBEL) into PSET courses, and using Integrated Math-Enhanced (IME) STEM inquiry activities. The COMPLEAT project is being implemented at Augusta University (Augusta) in Georgia, Boise State University (Boise State) in Idaho, Kapiolani Community College (KCC) in Hawaii, and University of Texas San Antonio (UTSA) in Texas

    Developing Process Model for Management of Knowledge-Intensive Organization – A Case Study of a Hospital

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    This study explores knowledge management practices in a Malaysian public healthcare organization. Knowledge management has gained much attention not only from business enterprises but also in other fields such as education, urban planning and development, governance as well as healthcare and has allowed for an enterprise-wide structure to be put in place to promote efficient and effective decision-making process. As a result, many organizations are now more serious about managing knowledge and embracing the concepts associated with knowledge management to remain competitive, or even to survive. Healthcare practitioners are a knowledge-based community that depend heavily on knowledge management activities. However, little study has explored the processes used by practitioners in managing knowledge as one of the intellectual assets of the business. Hence, this paper focuses on knowledge management practices among medical staffs particularly on how they build their knowledge schemes, scan for knowledge and use knowledge in their organizations. The paper\u27s primary goal is to examine how medical staffs employ knowledge management processes to the benefit of their clinical routines and ultimately to develop a knowledge management model for disease management. Theoretically, this study aims to provide a model that will add to the existing models on knowledge management processes; extend the initial model used in this study; examine the contribution of different knowledge workers to the model as well as guide practitioners in understanding, acquiring and applying knowledge effectively. By adopting an interpretive case study approach, two distinct roles of medical staffs were selected to reflect how knowledge management process is being practiced in their organization

    Does Self-efficacy Influence the Application of Evidence-Based Practice?

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    Background: Implementation of Evidence-Based Practice (EBP) is complex and consequently, even within organizations that have made efforts to promote EBP use, EBP is often underutilized by individual clinicians. Purpose: The aim of our study was to better understand the relationship between self-efficacy and EBP implementation in clinical environments that have undergone efforts to increase EBP utilization. We suggest that EBP is a set of behaviors that result from individuals acquiring, applying, and sharing new knowledge with others in the organization. We hypothesize, based upon a social cognitive theoretical approach, that these behaviors are influenced by clinician perception of self-efficacy. Methods: We analyzed data provided by a 2011 survey of clinicians working within a national sample of hospitals that were actively participating in the Clinical Practice Model Resource Center (CPMRC), a collaborative consortium of health care organizations working to guide the implementation of EBP into the work worlds of clinicians. Structural equation modeling was used to examine the relationships between the acquisition, application, and sharing of evidence, and self-efficacy. Results: Self-efficacy increased the acquisition of evidence and application of evidence. Self-efficacy did not exert a significant influence on sharing evidence. Acquisition of evidence increased both application of evidence and sharing of evidence. Application of evidence then increased sharing of evidence among sampled clinicians. Conclusions: Efforts to promote self-efficacy in clinicians are powerful in that they directly promote the acquisition and application of evidence, and indirectly encourage communication between clinicians in an effort to justify and reinforce new knowledge. Efforts to boost self-efficacy would benefit from a focus on helping clinicians become more comfortable with actions related to acquiring evidence and generating new knowledge

    Investigation the Relationship Between Main Sources Knowledge Acquisition and Open Innovation at the Second Managerial Levels of the General Directorate of Traffic

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    Purpose: This study aims to examine and investigate the main sources of knowledge acquisition for individuals at the middle management levels and determine the relationship (degree of correlation and influence) between the variables of the study   Theoretical framework: Recent and future studies literature reported the need for, knowledge acquisition takes place, and the best methods are those that come from outside sources such as partners, competitors, suppliers, and customers, as best practices when compared to other institutions.   Design/methodology/approach: this study used the scientific methodology based on knowledge analysis, it used a questionnaire that was created taking into account the scientific requirements, Two main hypotheses have been developed. And it consisted of a sample of individuals who depended on learning new things, most similar to knowledge processes. The second organizational level of the General Traffic Department and (63) other individuals were used to generate this sample and adopted computer statistics (SPSS. V. 24) to analyze and process data and information   Findings: The results concluded and found that the variables of acquiring knowledge and open innovation had a positive correlation and impact, as the variable (partners) obtained the highest correlation value.   Research, Practical & Social implications: Managers can find new visions and indicators for applying the knowledge acquisition system, and identifying their impact on achieving open innovation.   Originality/value: The value of the study is to enhance the understanding of the literature related to The Relationship Between Main Sources of Knowledge Acquisition And Open Innovation by analysis, and provides an applied conception

    Essential Content for Teaching Implementation Practice in Healthcare: A Mixed-Methods Study of Teams Offering Capacity-Building Initiatives

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    Background Applying the knowledge gained through implementation science can support the uptake of research evidence into practice; however, those doing and supporting implementation (implementation practitioners) may face barriers to applying implementation science in their work. One strategy to enhance individuals’ and teams’ ability to apply implementation science in practice is through training and professional development opportunities (capacity-building initiatives). Although there is an increasing demand for and offerings of implementation practice capacity-building initiatives, there is no universal agreement on what content should be included. In this study we aimed to explore what capacity-building developers and deliverers identify as essential training content for teaching implementation practice. Methods We conducted a convergent mixed-methods study with participants who had developed and/or delivered a capacity-building initiative focused on teaching implementation practice. Participants completed an online questionnaire to provide details on their capacity-building initiatives; took part in an interview or focus group to explore their questionnaire responses in depth; and offered course materials for review. We analyzed a subset of data that focused on the capacity-building initiatives’ content and curriculum. We used descriptive statistics for quantitative data and conventional content analysis for qualitative data, with the data sets merged during the analytic phase. We presented frequency counts for each category to highlight commonalities and differences across capacity-building initiatives. Results Thirty-three individuals representing 20 capacity-building initiatives participated. Study participants identified several core content areas included in their capacity-building initiatives: (1) taking a process approach to implementation; (2) identifying and applying implementation theories, models, frameworks, and approaches; (3) learning implementation steps and skills; (4) developing relational skills. In addition, study participants described offering applied and pragmatic content (e.g., tools and resources), and tailoring and evolving the capacity-building initiative content to address emerging trends in implementation science. Study participants highlighted some challenges learners face when acquiring and applying implementation practice knowledge and skills. Conclusions This study synthesized what experienced capacity-building initiative developers and deliverers identify as essential content for teaching implementation practice. These findings can inform the development, refinement, and delivery of capacity-building initiatives, as well as future research directions, to enhance the translation of implementation science into practice

    Acquiring and Applying Knowledge in Transnational Teams: The Roles of Cosmopolitans and Locals

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    This paper examines the roles of cosmopolitans and locals in transnational teams that work on knowledge-intensive projects. I propose that cosmopolitan and local team members can help their teams to acquire and apply knowledge more effectively, by bringing both internal and external knowledge to their teams and enabling them to more successfully transform this knowledge into improved project performance. Findings from a study of 96 project teams at an international development agency reveal that the roles of cosmopolitans and locals were complex and sometimes valuable, but cosmopolitans offered greater benefits than locals and too many of each could hurt. Implications for theory and research on international management, virtual teams, exploration and exploitation, and organizational knowledge are discussed

    Acquiring Word-Meaning Mappings for Natural Language Interfaces

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    This paper focuses on a system, WOLFIE (WOrd Learning From Interpreted Examples), that acquires a semantic lexicon from a corpus of sentences paired with semantic representations. The lexicon learned consists of phrases paired with meaning representations. WOLFIE is part of an integrated system that learns to transform sentences into representations such as logical database queries. Experimental results are presented demonstrating WOLFIE's ability to learn useful lexicons for a database interface in four different natural languages. The usefulness of the lexicons learned by WOLFIE are compared to those acquired by a similar system, with results favorable to WOLFIE. A second set of experiments demonstrates WOLFIE's ability to scale to larger and more difficult, albeit artificially generated, corpora. In natural language acquisition, it is difficult to gather the annotated data needed for supervised learning; however, unannotated data is fairly plentiful. Active learning methods attempt to select for annotation and training only the most informative examples, and therefore are potentially very useful in natural language applications. However, most results to date for active learning have only considered standard classification tasks. To reduce annotation effort while maintaining accuracy, we apply active learning to semantic lexicons. We show that active learning can significantly reduce the number of annotated examples required to achieve a given level of performance
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