Knowledge Management Hybrid Strategy with People, Technology and Process Pillars

The importance of knowledge management (KM) contributes organizational competitiveness, which is widely addressed and became a central topic of management agenda in the last decade. This chapter examines three major KM pillars, including people, process, and technology, for effective KM deployment. Based on a questionnaire‐based survey, the study investigates the perceived importance of three KM pillars that influence organizational inclinations of KM strategies and ultimately affect organizational performance. Quantitative findings are sought from 44 key informants in organizations. The results show a hybrid strategy that balances the importance of people, process, and technology pillars brings desirable impact on organizational performance, comparing with the KM strategy inclined to a particular KM pillar. Recommendations of KM endeavors on three KM pillars are provided to suggest the joint efforts from both management and employees

Knowledge seeking and anonymity in digital work settings

Research SummaryEmployees often need knowledge from colleagues to complete tasks successfully. With distributed and remote work becoming more common, organizations increasingly rely on digital technologies, such as organizational platforms, to support members' knowledge exchange. We study factors that hinder employees from seeking knowledge from others on such platforms. We argue that individuals' seeking decisions depend on expected social-psychological costs and economic considerations and posit that both can be muted by anonymizing seekers. In two experiments, we test our conjectures and find that both types of expected costs reduce knowledge seeking. Social-psychological costs decrease individuals' knowledge seeking, while adding economic costs further reduces seeking. Moreover, in digital settings, female knowledge seekers are more sensitive to their identity being known than males and thus benefit more from anonymity.Managerial SummaryDistributed and remote work arrangements, often subsumed under the label “new work”, often rely on digital technologies to enable the exchange of relevant knowledge among colleagues. For example, in the US, two-thirds of S&P 500 firms already maintain some form of digital platform for knowledge exchange, although with mixed success. Employees may avoid seeking knowledge on these platforms both for social-psychological (a fear of appearing incompetent to their peers) and economic (fear of suffering career consequences) reasons. In a series of (lab and vignette) experiments, we show that both can reduce knowledge seeking and that these implicit costs can be minimized especially in digital contexts through anonymity (to minimize social-psychological consequences) and separating knowledge seeking platforms by hierarchical levels (to minimize potential economic consequences)

Social Media as a Tool of Knowledge Sharing in Academia: An Empirical Study using Valance, Instrumentality and Expectancy (VIE) Approach

YesPurpose – The purpose of this paper is to understand the factors that determine the knowledge exchange intention and behavioural nature of academics by the help of social media tools in the Indian higher education. Design/Methodology/Approach – This study has used Valance – Instrumentality – Expectancy (VIE) theory to determine the knowledge exchange behaviour of academics. The study has considered the effect of Knowledge Contributor (KC) and Knowledge Seeker (KS) as moderators. The model has been validated by using a survey with 320 usable respondents. Findings – The results highlight that if the stakeholders of higher education institutions feel the deficits of knowledge exchange, they realise importance of knowledge sharing and use social media to increase effect of knowledge exchange. Besides, perceived usefulness impacts on the use of social media for knowledge exchange by the concerned stakeholders. Moreover, it is observed that experience of the use of social media impacts the use of this tool for knowledge exchange. Theoretical Implication – The use and application of VIE theory has successfully been able to interpret the factors affecting the use of social media for knowledge exchange in the higher education institutions. The use of VIE theory has also been able to explain the proposed model better as the model could achieve a high explanative power (87%). Practical Implication – This study has provided meaningful insights to the practitioners or policymakers to realise how the stakeholders of the higher education institutions in India can be motivated to feel the need of sharing of knowledge and how they can use the social media with ease for this purpose. Originality/Value – Not much research has been conducted with regards to the usage of social media as a tool for knowledge sharing in higher education sector in India. In that sense, this study is a novel attempt to undertake such research

The Area of Freedom, Security and Justice ten years on: Successes and future challenges under the Stockholm Programme. CEPS Paperbacks. June 2010

This book celebrates the tenth anniversary of the Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (AFSJ) by bringing together the views of key practitioners and policy-makers who have played an outstanding role in thinking about and shaping EU policies on freedom, security and justice. Ten years ago, the member states transferred competences to the EU for law and policy-making in the fields of immigration, asylum and border controls, and began the transfer process for criminal justice and policing. This decade of European cooperation on AFSJ policies has experienced very dynamic convergence, the enactment of a large body of European law and the setting-up of numerous EU agencies working in these domains. Such dynamism in policy-making has not been without challenges and vulnerabilities, however. As this collective volume shows, the main dilemmas that lie ahead relate to an effective (while more plural) institutional framework under the Treaty of Lisbon, stronger judicial scrutiny through a greater role for national courts and the Court of Justice in Luxembourg, better mechanisms for evaluating and monitoring the implementation of EU AFSJ law and a more solid fundamental rights strategy. The contributions in this volume address the progress achieved so far in these policy areas, identify the challenges for future European cooperation in the AFSJ and put forward possible paths for making more progress in the next generation of the EU’s AFSJ

Influences on e-WOM adoption in two female online communities: the cases of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonOnline communities (OCs) are an important source of electronic-word-of-mouth (e-WOM), but few studies have examined such messages in a Middle Eastern context. This research develops a conceptual framework that can be used as an instrument to guide empirical work in the field of e-WOM in female OCs. Researchers in similar areas may find this work useful as exemplifying a novel approach to the study of e-WOM adoption in different OCs. This study, of e-WOM adoption in two female-only Arabic-language online forums in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, is grounded in three models: the Information Adoption Model, the Information Systems Continuance Model and the Knowledge Contribution Model, because no particular theory or set of theories currently dominates OC research. In particular, researchers are strongly recommended to start building their own theories of e-WOM phenomena, because this area is still young and has grown rapidly in recent years. The research design comprises two phases. The first is a content analysis, which was appropriately used to analyse the online textual conversations, since it offers a deep understanding of the phenomenon in its real context. The purpose of this phase was to identify the main determinants of e-WOM adoption in female OCs in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, from which a conceptual model could be developed. It investigated the characteristics of the messages influencing the adoption of e-WOM. It began with a pilot study, where 90 threads were analyzed, followed by the content analysis of the two cases. A total of 765 threads were analysed in the Kuwaiti case, comprising 6200 messages broken down into 17,832 units of analysis. In the Saudi case, 1168 threads were analyzed, containing 17,320 messages and 31731 units of analysis. In both cases there was a prevalence of emotional features in messages, coded as ‘community bonding’. In the second phase, semi-structured interviews were conducted, with the aim of illuminating the similarities and differences in terms of e-WOM determinants between Kuwaiti and Saudi culture by refining the research model codes and sub-codes. This phase was also intended to answer research questions on the current situation in terms of online role behaviours in female-only online beauty forums in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia; on how online behavioural roles influence females to adopt e-WOM; and on the role in e-WOM adoption of the following demographic variables: nationality, age, marital status, employment, education level, hours spent in the community and length of community membership. Fifty women, comprising 25 members of each of the two communities, were interviewed online to gain more knowledge of the factors that impede or facilitate the adoption of e-WOM. The qualitative results show that argument quality, community bonding and information need fulfilment were all significant in affecting participants’ tendency to adopt e-WOM. This study concludes with specific implications for relevant theories and useful findings at the individual, organizational and societal levels

Shila Khan and Máire Stedman in conversation with Inga-Britt Krause

Inga-Britt Krause has challenged thinking and practice around issues of race, ethnicity and culture in systemic psychotherapy and has persistently, passionately supported their development. We were delighted to meet with her to share ideas, experiences and hopes