The use of ICT in organizational learning practices: A mixed methods study in a Portuguese organization

Advanced economies, also known as knowledge-based economies, rely their performance on high skilled workers and quick access to information and knowledge, allowing organizations to react to a competitive, rapidly changing and global environment. Innovation is recognized as a crucial factor for survival, driving the development of new or improved products, services, processes or marketing strategies. Innovation seems to be closely related to organizational learning through which new knowledge is developed, distributed and used. Several proposals consider organizational learning capability in a multidimensional perspective. Based on these proposals, five dimensions were identified as main driving influences to innovation: idea generation; market and technology surveillance; problem solving; dialogue and knowledge transfer; training and competence development. Recent developments on information and communication technologies (ICT), especially web 2.0 social tools, allow workers a more participatory attitude and control on their learning, promoting collaboration and cooperation between teams and networks. It is important that organizations understand how the use of ICT and web 2.0 may improve the organizational learning capability. This study aims at understanding how a Portuguese innovative large company uses ICT and web 2.0 tools to enhance learning practices in order to support the discussion of an answer to the driving research question: how are ICT tools being used to promote organizational learning in innovative organizations?. The paper describes relevant theoretical aspects on organizational learning, provides an overview of the use of ICT and web 2.0 tools supporting learning, briefly presents the analysis model and the research methodology using mixed methods, and provides a discussion of preliminary results showing that ICT is proving to promote an effective basis for organizational learning. For each learning practice both organizational and workers perceptions are being studied focusing on: learning activities; supporting ICT tools; understood impact of these practices for the organization and for workers as learners

GROWTH OF COLLECTIVE INTELLIGENCE BY LINKING KNOWLEDGE WORKERS THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA

Collective intelligence can be defined, very broadly, as groups of individuals that do things collectively, and that seem to be intelligent. Collective intelligence has existed for ages. Families, tribes, companies, countries, etc., are all groups of individuals doing things collectively, and that seem to be intelligent. However, over the past two decades, the rise of the Internet has given upturn to new types of collective intelligence. Companies can take advantage from the so-called Web-enabled collective intelligence. Web-enabled collective intelligence is based on linking knowledge workers through social media. That means that companies can hire geographically dispersed knowledge workers and create so-called virtual teams of these knowledge workers (members of the virtual teams are connected only via the Internet and do not meet face to face). By providing an online social network, the companies can achieve significant growth of collective intelligence. But to create and use an online social network within a company in a really efficient way, the managers need to have a deep understanding of how such a system works. Thus the purpose of this paper is to share the knowledge about effective use of social networks in companies. The main objectives of this paper are as follows: to introduce some good practices of the use of social media in companies, to analyze these practices and to generalize recommendations for a successful introduction and use of social media to increase collective intelligence of a company

Knowledge Workers\u27 Use of Electronic Information Sources

Knowledge workers are those who interact knowledgeable with information by creating, reading,analyzing and acting upon it. Being able to find relevant information is thus an important task for anyknowledge worker, but how is this achieved? By interviewing knowledge workers about their information seeking activities, we have produced novel findings. Firstly, we suggest that the knowledge worker moves between and within three different information environments – the local, theorganizational and the global – and are thus forced to switch between tools to satisfy an information need. Therefore we suggest that future tools need to be designed to allow seamless interaction across all environments and tools. Secondly, the knowledge worker does not use the intranet search engine but finds intranet information via URLs received from colleagues. Thirdly, the knowledge worker seems to appreciate the judgment of fellow employees and to trust human filtering more than computer algorithms. Fourthly, surprisingly often the knowledge worker searches manually in the local and organizational environment, despite the existence of search tools. In contrast, when the public web issearched, search engines are often used heavily. We discuss how these findings are useful insights forthe design of future information seeking tools

Empowering End-users to Collaboratively Manage and Analyze Evolving Data Models

In order to empower end-users to make well-founded decisions based on domain-specific knowledge, companies use end-user oriented business intelligence (BI) software like spreadsheets. Moreover, many decisions require the collaboration of multiple and autonomous knowledge workers. However, prevalent BI software does not provide elevated collaboration features as known from traditional Web 2.0 technologies. There is also a lack of research on how to integrate collaboration features into BI systems, and which challenges arise as a consequence. In the paper at hand we address this issue by proposing the Spreadsheet 2.0 approach, which integrates Web 2.0 features with the spreadsheet paradigm as most-common representative of end-user-oriented business intelligence tools. Therefore, we derive requirements for a Web 2.0-based approach to collaborative BI, and present the conceptual design for a Spreadsheet 2.0 solution. Subsequently, we demonstrate a corresponding prototypical implementation, and elaborate on key findings and main challenges identified by its application and evaluation

Understanding information seeking behavior through network traffic analysis

Thesis (M. Eng.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, 2008.Includes bibliographical references (p. 150-151).Many of today's information workers use the Internet as a valuable first-choice source for new knowledge. As such, Internet based information seeking is a key part of how information workers find information. This study develops techniques to quantify the information seeking patterns of information workers by looking at Web Site diversity, page rank, and general statistics of Web Site viewership. Future research by our group will build on these measurement techniques and explore the relationship between information worker productivity and Internet information seeking behavior.by Cyrus-Charles Weaver.M.Eng

Social Media Tools on the Eve of E-Learning 3.0

In the present paper, we2019;ll explore how social media tools provide an opportunity for new developments of the e-Learning in the context of managing personal knowledge. There will be a discussion how social media tools provide a possibility for helping knowledge workers and students to gather, organize and manage their personal information as a part of the e-learning process. At the centre of this social software driven approach to e-learning environments are the challenges of personalization and collaboration. We2019;ll share concepts of how organizations are using social media for e-Learning and believe that integration of these tools into traditional e-Learning is probably not a choice, but inevitability. Students2019; Survey of use of web technologies and social networking tools is presented. Newly developed framework for semantic blogging capable of organizing results relevant to user requirements is implemented at Varna Free University (VFU) to provide more effective navigation and search

Case Studies on the Exploitation of Crowd-Sourcing with Web 2.0 Functionalities

Crowd-sourcing appears more promising with Web 2.0 functionality and businesses have started using it for a wide range of activities, that would be better completed by a crowd rather than any specific pool of knowledge workers. However, relatively little is known about how a business can leverage on collective intelligence and capture the user- generated value for competitive advantage. This empirical study uses the principle of interpretive field research to validate the case findings with a descriptive multiple case study methodology. An extended theoretical framework to identify the important considerations at strategic and functional levels for the effective use of crowd-sourcing is proposed. The analytic framework uses five Business Strategy Components: Vision and Strategy, Human Capital, Infrastructure, Linkage and Trust, and External Environment. It also uses four Web 2.0 Functional Components: Social Networking, Interaction Orientation, Customization & Personalization, and User- added Value. By using these components as analytic lenses, the case research examines how successful e-commerce firms may deploy Web 2.0 functionalities for effective use of crowd-sourcing. Prioritization of these functional considerations might be favorable in some cases for the best fit of situations and limitations. In conclusion, it is important that the alignment between strategy and functional components is maintained

Self-Regulated Learning Strategies and Computer Software Training

User learning is central to the effective use of information technology within organizations, particularly given the changing nature of IT over the past decades. Research indicates that self-training is the most common means by which users learn. In addition, the use of Web-based training within organizations in these self- directed learning situations is increasing. The purpose of this research is to investigate the increasingly popular self-training phenomenon within organizations by examining the self-regulated learning strategies that individuals use in Web-based training situations, and how they influence learning outcomes. To do this, a two phase study was designed. Phase one of this study has been completed, and phase two has been initiated. Phase one took us into the field to explore interviewees’ self-directed learning experiences by understanding the strategies they used and learning difficulties they encountered. It involved 27 interviews with knowledge- workers from a variety of organizations. Phase two (in progress) provides a field test of the research model. Organizations invest a great deal of resources toward training end users, and this research will assist organizations in gaining a return from this sizable investment in training end users, and in managing their most important resource—knowledge

A debate dashboard to enhance on-line knowledge sharing

Purpose – Web 2.0 technologies have radically modified the way in which knowledge is created, managed and shared, improving productivity and accelerating innovation processes for the enterprises. These technologies have allowed enterprises to produce knowledge, leverage collective intelligence and build social capital on a scale that was unimaginable a few years ago. In this paper we focus on a particular kind of web-based collaborative platforms known as argument mapping tools and we discuss the main barriers to the adoption of them. Literature has proved that these argument mapping tools provide large and small and medium enterprise with several advantages, but nevertheless, they have low level adoption. In this paper we explore new technological solutions to support the adoption of argument mapping tools. In particular, we propose the design of a Debate Dashboard to provide visual feedback to support online deliberation. These visual feedback aims at compensating the loss of information due to the mediation of the technology. The Debate Dashboard is composed of a set of suitable visualization tools that have been selected on the basis of a literature review of the visualization tools. Design/methodology/approach - We propose a literature review of existing visualization tools. Building on the literature review we selected thirty visualization tools, which have been classified on the basis of the kind of feedback they are able to provide. We identify three classes of feedback: Community feedback (identikit of users), Interaction feedback (about how users interact) and Absorption feedback (about generated content and its organization). We distilled the Debate Dashboard features by building on results of a literature review on Web 2.0 tools for data visualization. As output of literature review we selected six visualization tools. We consider these selected tools as a sort of starting point. Indeed, our aim is the improvement of them through the addition of further features and functions in order to make them more effective in providing feedback. Originality/value – Our paper enriches the debate about computer mediated conversation and visualization tools. We propose a Dashboard prototype to augment collaborative knowledge mapping tools by providing visual feedback on conversations. The Dashboard will provide at the same time three different kinds of feedback about: details of the participants to the conversation, interaction processes and generated content. This will allow the improvement of the benefits and reduce the costs deriving from the use of mapping tools. Moreover, another important novelty is that visualization tools will be integrated to mapping tools, as until now they have been used only to visualize data contained in forums (as Usenet or Slash.dot), chat or email archives Practical implications – The Dashboard provides feedback about participants, interaction processes and generated contents, thus supporting the adoption of mapping tools as technologies able to foster knowledge sharing among remote workers or/and customers and supplier. The integration of Debate Dashboard with common online argument mapping tools aims at enabling the following advantages: 1. Reduction of misunderstanding; 2. Reduction of cognitive effort required to use argument mapping tools; 3. Improvement of the exploration and the analysis of the maps - the Debate Dashboard feedback improves the usability of the object (the map), thus allowing users to pitch into the conversation in the right place

(Re/dis)assembling learning practices online with fluid objects and spaces

Actor Network Theory (ANT) is used to explore how work-learning is enacted in informal online communities and illustrates how researchers might use sociomaterial approaches to uncover complexities, uncertainties, and specificities of work-learning practices. Participants in this study were self-employed workers. The relational and material aspects of work-learning, along with notions of the workspace of the self-employed as hybrid, distributed, and shifting, are considered. This study then examines the work that web-technologies, such as postings, do as they are entangled in an array of networks. Far from being singular objects unified in function, form, or effect, the posting provides multiple entry points for exploring online work-learning practices. The informal learning enacted in this study was the effect of multiple networks and attempts to stabilize fluidity. Different associations with knowledge and novel ways of knowing were also enacted, although there are contradictions between Web2.0 rhetoric and the practices of these self-employed workers. Findings suggest that practitioners and researchers should not be too quick to paint work-learning practices in online communities, or even the notion of online community, with a broad brush