Managing the Complementarity of Knowledge Integration and Process Formalization for Systems Development Performance

Systems development processes have received significant negative publicity due to failed projects, often at large costs, and performance issues that continue to plague IS managers. This study complements existing systems development research by proposing a knowledge management perspective for managing tacit and explicit knowledge in the systems development process. Specifically, it proposes that collaborative exchange and integration of explicit knowledge across phases of the development process positively influence the performance of systems development. It also suggests that process formalization not only directly impacts development performance but also moderates the performance effects of the knowledge integration factors. Data for the empirical study were collected from 60 organizations that are part of a user group for one of the world\u27s largest software development tool vendors. Empirical results provide strong evidence of the importance of supporting tacit and explicit knowledge processes in systems development as well as process formalization. The findings suggest that: (i) collaborative exchange among IS employees that integrates their tacit knowledge positively impacts development performance, (ii) explicit knowledge integration in development artifacts across different phases of the systems development process positively impacts development performance, (iii) formalization of processes that establishes routines and discipline yields performance gains, and (iv) the performance effects of both collaborative exchange and explicit knowledge integration are moderated by the formalization of the process. These results have implications for how both tacit and explicit knowledge integration can be managed during systems development, and how formalization of processes complements their relationship with development performance

A model for analyzing changes in systems development practices

This paper introduces an empirically grounded model for analyzing intended and unintended changes in the prevalence of information systems development practices. In the model, any development practice observable in a development organization can be analyzed according to two dimensions: the intended scope of defined practices versus the actual scope of enacted practices. Furthermore, the model identifies eight types of change paths in systems development practices based on the two dimensions: emergence, entropy, initiation, abandonment, formalization, informalization, implementation, and recalcitrance. The eight types of change paths provide an integrated theoretical model for understanding how systems development practices can change in organizations and projects and among individual developers in a given context. The paper concludes by discussing how the model complements and integrates concepts of the contemporary research on systems development practices and outlines its potential uses for future research

Intra-organizational knowledge transfer process in Vietnam's information technology companies

Intra-organizational knowledge transfer has attracted much attention of researchers and practitioners in recent years since knowledge transfer has been considered as a critical determinant of an organization’s capacity to confer sustainable competitive advantage. Despite extensive research on knowledge transfer issues, the effect of knowledge transfer on organizational performance still has not been fully examined or attracted adequate empirical testing. Therefore, the objective of this study is to investigate organizational factors influencing intra-organizational knowledge transfer, and examine the relationship between knowledge transfer process, its antecedents and organizational performance. Drawing on several theoretical streams, an integrated theoretical model of intra organizational knowledge transfer together with 13 hypotheses were developed and tested in the context of IT companies in Vietnam. To achieve the objectives, a triangulation of quantitative and qualitative studies was applied. A quantitative survey was employed to test hypotheses in the conceptual model derived from relevant literature. Data were collected from a survey of 218 managers and technical staff working in 36 IT companies located in Hanoi and HoChiMinh City. Multiple regression techniques were used to analyze the data. A case study research was conducted with the aim of illustrating the intra organizational knowledge transfer process within a company operating in a transition economy like Vietnam. Data for case study were mainly collected by interviewing managers and technical staff during a one-month field study in the FPT Software Solutions Company. The main findings showed that intra-organizational knowledge transfer is most affected by organizational culture, incentive system and organizational structure. Adaptability and solidarity are two culture values enabling the transfer process. A transparent and flexible incentive system motivates individuals to exchange and apply knowledge in their daily work. High level of centralization creates difficulties for social interaction and reduces autonomy and active involvement of employees, vi which are essential for successful knowledge transfer. High formalization facilitates the knowledge transfer process by providing a clear direction for employees and enhancing communication flow through an extensive monitoring and reporting requirement. The frequency of using IT tools did not significantly influence the intra organizational knowledge transfer process after other independent variables were added in the regression model. This suggests either that IT tools may not directly itself is not enough to ensure successful knowledge transfer. Therefore, to facilitate knowledge transfer process, it is important to foster knowledge-sharing attitude through providing greater opportunities for deeper involvement of users in the system. Although the knowledge transfer process was found not to mediate the relationship between its antecedents and organizational performance, the process itself moderately predicts organizational performance. This suggests that intra organizational knowledge transfer process should be considered as one of the factors contributing to company performance. The research has filled gaps in existing literature in several ways. Firstly, it extends our understanding of the important facilitators of intra-organizational knowledge transfer process. Secondly, it attempts to integrate both soft and hard organizational factors to create a comprehensive model of intra-organizational knowledge transfer. Thirdly, it clarifies the role of the intra-organizational knowledge transfer process in improving the company’s performance in a transition economy. Overall, the results of the study contribute to the advancement of research in the area of intra-organizational knowledge transfer and provide practical implications for managers of IT companies in Vietnam by shedding light on determinant factors of knowledge transfer process and examining the link between knowledge transfer process and firm performance

Framework for collaborative knowledge management in organizations

Nowadays organizations have been pushed to speed up the rate of industrial transformation to high value products and services. The capability to agilely respond to new market demands became a strategic pillar for innovation, and knowledge management could support organizations to achieve that goal. However, current knowledge management approaches tend to be over complex or too academic, with interfaces difficult to manage, even more if cooperative handling is required. Nevertheless, in an ideal framework, both tacit and explicit knowledge management should be addressed to achieve knowledge handling with precise and semantically meaningful definitions. Moreover, with the increase of Internet usage, the amount of available information explodes. It leads to the observed progress in the creation of mechanisms to retrieve useful knowledge from the huge existent amount of information sources. However, a same knowledge representation of a thing could mean differently to different people and applications. Contributing towards this direction, this thesis proposes a framework capable of gathering the knowledge held by domain experts and domain sources through a knowledge management system and transform it into explicit ontologies. This enables to build tools with advanced reasoning capacities with the aim to support enterprises decision-making processes. The author also intends to address the problem of knowledge transference within an among organizations. This will be done through a module (part of the proposed framework) for domain’s lexicon establishment which purpose is to represent and unify the understanding of the domain’s used semantic