The Bipartite Influence of Information Overload on User Resistance to Knowledge Management Systems

This research centers on the relationship between information overload as an aspect of information quality on the one side, and, on the other side, user resistance to knowledge management systems as an aspect of an individual’s decision process. While discussing this relationship theoretically we propose a bipartite influence of information overload as on the one hand it fosters acceptance of these system, but on the other hand also causes user resistance. By analyzing information overload in pre- and post-implementation phases of knowledge management systems we argue that information overload has an ambivalent causal effect as it can act both positively and negatively in relation to the point of time overload occurs or is expected. Therefore, based on existing literature we propose a research model and illustrate the relationships through results of a case study

Knowledge Managements Effect on Learning Quality in Bahrains Private Universities

This study examines the impact of knowledge application, management, and sharing on learning outcomes in private Bahraini universities. Through an online survey of 220 professionals from 13 universities, the study found that knowledge management had the strongest correlation with learning outcome quality. The results support the initial hypothesis and demonstrate the importance of knowledge management for improving performance and promoting organizational innovation in higher education institutions. Knowledge Management (KM) was the most correlated with the learning outcome quality at the 0.01 level. However, all the studys variables had some kind of impact on the quality of learning outcomes variable. The researcher’s initial hypothesis was well-supported with a f2 = 0.94, and the other hypotheses were also supported. The findings showed that there is a strong association between knowledge management and learning outcome quality in Bahraini private universities. The study also revealed that KM substantially affects the learning outcome quality in scholarly settings. This study is important not only for advancing knowledge in this area, but it is also significant from a managerial perspective, as it provides higher education institutions (HEIs) with a better understanding of how to promote organizational innovation and, ultimately, improve performance through engagement in KM activities

The Role of News Media Use and Demographic Characteristics in the Prediction of Information Overload

Drawing on the information overload theory, this study investigates how news media use relates to the probability of information overload. Our broad goal is to explore how typical media use outside the working environment impacts information overload. Through a large mail survey conducted in northwest Ohio (N = 661), the study combined resident samples and college student samples and examined several variables regarding demographic characteristics, news media use, and information searching efficiency. Multinomial logistic regression was used to analyze the data. Results confirmed that age, gender, income, traditional news media use, and information searching efficiency can partially predict one’s probability of experiencing information overload. Theoretical explanations for these outcomes are presented, and implications for information overload research are discussed

Enhancing Customer Response Capability through Organizational Knowledge Resources in Service Encounters

Considering that a firm’s service competitiveness comes from customer service representatives (CSRs)’ capability, it is essential to enhance their capability first to create superior customer service. Accordingly, this study provides a way of creating CSRs’ capability by proving how organizational knowledge accumulated in knowledge management systems influences their customer response expertise and speed. Moreover, drawing on studies of organization memory (OM), it is defined by the three dimensions of OM level, OM dispersion, and OM usability. To test the proposed model and hypotheses, this study conducted the structural equation modeling analysis using a total of 373 responses collected on CSRs. The results indicate that both OM level and dispersion greatly increase customer response expertise. Besides, OM level, dispersion, and usability enhance customer response speed. Particularly, OM usability is the most effective in improving customer response speed. Finally, CSRs’ service performance depends on customer response expertise and speed

Leveraging Customer Knowledge in Electronic Knowledge Repositories for Service Expertise

This study examines how three dimensions of electronic knowledge repositories (EKRs), namely customer knowledge level, customer knowledge integration and accessibility of customer knowledge, contribute to increasing customer service representatives (CSRs)’ service expertise and their customer knowledge utilization and acquisition. Furthermore, the study empirically tests the proposition that service quality is influenced by CSRs’ service expertise and their customer knowledge utilization and acquisition. To test the proposed model and hypotheses, data were collected on CSRs working for call centers using EKRs such as knowledge management systems. All the hypothesized relationships were found to be significant except that between customer knowledge acquisition and service quality. Service expertise was strongly affected by customer knowledge level. While customer knowledge utilization was strongly increased by the accessibility of customer knowledge, customer knowledge acquisition was strongly increased by customer knowledge integration. This study offers an insight into how EKRs, which will have been accumulated by firms over time, ultimately influence the performance of CSRs

Knowledge Reuse Through Electronic Knowledge Repositories: An Empirical Study And Ontological Improvement Effort For The Manufacturing Industry

Knowledge management adoption is growing, and will continue to grow in no small part because of its recent inclusion into the ISO 9001 quality standard. As organizations look towards ways in which to manage their knowledge, the codification of explicit knowledge through Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) and Electronic Knowledge Repositories (EKRs) will undoubtedly gain more interest. An EKR is a form of KMS that emphasizes the codification and storage of organizational expertise for the purposes of Knowledge Reuse (KRU). Unfortunately, the factors surrounding KRU are not well understood. While previous studies have viewed EKR usage from a narrow perspective, a broader and interconnected view of KRU via EKRs has yet to emerge. Additionally, while there have been numerous benefits linked to EKRs, there are still issues that limit their utility, particularly in the manufacturing arena where information complexity and geography have made it increasingly difficult to share knowledge. Hence, this research employed a two pronged approach. First, using a multi-theoretical perspective to model KRU via EKRs, a quantitative study was conducted and identified several socio-technical factors that predicted greater KRU. These factors had not been previously modeled within the context of KRU via EKRs, and hence add to both the theoretical and practical implications of the domain. Additionally, the KRU construct was also tied to a back end resulting outcome view that was informed by the Expectation Confirmation Model (ECM). Through this view, the research quantitatively validated that KRU not only predicted greater performance, but also impacted greater knowledge sharing and continuance of use. This ancillary benefit helps to reinforce the importance of EKRs in that additional gains are manifested along with the core component of KRU. Second, the research extended the capability of manufacturing EKRs by developing a holistic design and process based ontology that connects key concepts within these domains to provide an overall interconnected view. Additionally, to ensure the relevance of the ontology, a mature and globally recognized industry standard was used as the basis to develop it. The ontology was then formalized and tested via Semantic Web tools: Protege, RDF, and SPARQL. The results demonstrate an improved approach to knowledge recall by providing rich and accurate query returns. The ability to use standalone and federated queries to effectively cull the complexity of this interconnected domain is an enhancement to keyword based and traditional relational database approaches. Additionally, to assist with greater industry adoption a systematic and constructive approach for developing and operationalizing the ontology is provided. Finally, in the spirit of the program in which this dissertation is presented, rounding out the research effort are broader organizational management recommendations for overall knowledge management. Referencing industry targeted literature and syncing them with findings from these two research efforts, several pragmatic and sequentially logical approaches to knowledge management are offered

A estrutura da memória organizacional : uma nova proposta

Dissertação de mestrado em Engenharia e Gestão de Sistemas de InformaçãoA recuperação de informação crucial para a organização num determinado momento, é um problema que tem preocupado as organizações, em especial devido à enorme quantidade de informação que uma organização lida no seu dia-a-dia. Um outro problema existente nas organizações diz respeito à não partilha de informação e conhecimento entre todos os seus colaboradores. Assim, é importante que as organizações tenham ao seu dispor mecanismos que lhe permitam diariamente armazenar e partilhar a sua informação. Neste sentido, a Memória Organizacional torna-se crucial pois o seu armazenamento permitirá à organização ter sempre disponível e partilhado o seu conhecimento, sendo este utilizado na tomada de decisão do presente, melhorando-se assim o desempenho da organização. A palavra desempenho é cada vez mais o termo em que as organizações centram as suas atenções, na medida em que, com os avanços tecnológicos a evoluírem de uma forma acelerada, nenhuma organização pretende ficar na retaguarda dos seus concorrentes e ser um outsider no mercado em que está inserida. Assim, e de modo a que exista um mecanismo disponível para as organizações e estas consigam melhores desempenhos, esta investigação visa acima de tudo validar e operacionalizar um novo modelo de Memória Organizacional, demonstrando-se ainda as implicações que os Sistemas de Informação podem ter nesta investigação. Deste modo, este trabalho evidencia uma proposta de operacionalização de um novo modelo de Memória Organizacional, que através de um método (definido nesta investigação) poderá ser testado e implementado numa organização. A Memória Organizacional integra a experiência colectiva da organização que foi construída no decurso da realização das actividades necessárias à concretização da missão da organização. Essa experiência encontra-se armazenada nas pessoas, nas rotinas e normas que regem a sua acção e nas representações de conhecimento armazenadas nos sistemas informáticos das organizações. Sendo assim, ela encontra-se intimamente ligada aos processos de armazenamento, transformação e distribuição de informação por toda a organização, estando armazenada em Sistema de Informação Organizacional, que a alimentam e que são por ela alimentados.The recovering of crucial information to the organization in a specific moment is a problem that has worried the organizations especially due to the big amount of information an organization deals with on a daily basis. Another problem of the organizations concerns the no sharing of information and knowledge among all its employees. Therefore, it’s important that arrangements are available for the organizations which allow them to store and share the information every day. In this sense, the Organizational Memory becomes crucial in all this procedure since its storage will allow to the organization to have always available and shared the knowledge, being this one used in the present decision making, improving this way the performance of the organization. The word «performance» is increasingly the word in which the organizations focus their attention, to the extent that, with the technological improvements progressing so overwhelming, no organization intends to stay behind its competitors and become a outsider in the market in which it is inserted. So, so that there is a mechanism available to the organizations and these ones can improve their performances, this investigation intends above all to validate and operate a new Organizational Memory model, proving also the involving that the Information Systems may have in this research. Therefore, this work evidences a proposal of operation of a new Organizational Memory model, that through a method (set out in this investigation) will be able to be tested and implemented in an organization. The Organizational Memory integrates the collective experience of the organization which was built during the performing of the activities needed to the achievement of the organization mission. This experience is stored in the people, in the routines and in the standards which rule their actions and in the representations of knowledge stored in the computer systems of the organizations. So, it is closely connected to the storage processes, transformation and distribution of information by all the organization, being stored in Organizational System of Information, which feed it and (on the other hand) that are fed by it

Closing Information Gaps with Need-driven Knowledge Sharing

Informationslücken schließen durch bedarfsgetriebenen Wissensaustausch Systeme zum asynchronen Wissensaustausch – wie Intranets, Wikis oder Dateiserver – leiden häufig unter mangelnden Nutzerbeiträgen. Ein Hauptgrund dafür ist, dass Informationsanbieter von Informationsuchenden entkoppelt, und deshalb nur wenig über deren Informationsbedarf gewahr sind. Zentrale Fragen des Wissensmanagements sind daher, welches Wissen besonders wertvoll ist und mit welchen Mitteln Wissensträger dazu motiviert werden können, es zu teilen. Diese Arbeit entwirft dazu den Ansatz des bedarfsgetriebenen Wissensaustauschs (NKS), der aus drei Elementen besteht. Zunächst werden dabei Indikatoren für den Informationsbedarf erhoben – insbesondere Suchanfragen – über deren Aggregation eine fortlaufende Prognose des organisationalen Informationsbedarfs (OIN) abgeleitet wird. Durch den Abgleich mit vorhandenen Informationen in persönlichen und geteilten Informationsräumen werden daraus organisationale Informationslücken (OIG) ermittelt, die auf fehlende Informationen hindeuten. Diese Lücken werden mit Hilfe so genannter Mediationsdienste und Mediationsräume transparent gemacht. Diese helfen Aufmerksamkeit für organisationale Informationsbedürfnisse zu schaffen und den Wissensaustausch zu steuern. Die konkrete Umsetzung von NKS wird durch drei unterschiedliche Anwendungen illustriert, die allesamt auf bewährten Wissensmanagementsystemen aufbauen. Bei der Inversen Suche handelt es sich um ein Werkzeug das Wissensträgern vorschlägt Dokumente aus ihrem persönlichen Informationsraum zu teilen, um damit organisationale Informationslücken zu schließen. Woogle erweitert herkömmliche Wiki-Systeme um Steuerungsinstrumente zur Erkennung und Priorisierung fehlender Informationen, so dass die Weiterentwicklung der Wiki-Inhalte nachfrageorientiert gestaltet werden kann. Auf ähnliche Weise steuert Semantic Need, eine Erweiterung für Semantic MediaWiki, die Erfassung von strukturierten, semantischen Daten basierend auf Informationsbedarf der in Form strukturierter Anfragen vorliegt. Die Umsetzung und Evaluation der drei Werkzeuge zeigt, dass bedarfsgetriebener Wissensaustausch technisch realisierbar ist und eine wichtige Ergänzung für das Wissensmanagement sein kann. Darüber hinaus bietet das Konzept der Mediationsdienste und Mediationsräume einen Rahmen für die Analyse und Gestaltung von Werkzeugen gemäß der NKS-Prinzipien. Schließlich liefert der hier vorstellte Ansatz auch Impulse für die Weiterentwicklung von Internetdiensten und -Infrastrukturen wie der Wikipedia oder dem Semantic Web

The role of social media in driving FLE performance and customer relationship: an internal marketing perspective

The Internal Marketing (IM) discourse has long remain fragmented and is at the verge of becoming further outdated. This is due to the lack of relevance of IM work to recent technological advancements and its use in firm interactions internally (with employees) and externally (with customers). This thesis aims to review the current state of IM discourse as well as explore its value in relation to the use of social media in the workplace. Through the theoretical lens of IM this thesis explores how organisations can effectively manage frontline employees’ (FLEs) use of social media in their communications, and attempts to build relationships, with customers. Furthermore, it aims to show how FLEs social media use, both externally with their customers and simultaneously internally with their colleagues, impacts FLEs performance. This thesis addresses these issues using a three-paper approach. Paper 1 delivers a systematic review of the IM discourse, by analysing 349 published articles, concluding that IM has entered a period of ennui due to the limitations of existing theoretical lenses. It also develops an integrated framework of six IM dimensions and advances a research agenda in light of recent theoretical and market developments. Papers 2 and 3 investigate two of these emerging avenues for future research (i.e. the role of technology-mediated communication and leadership in organisations’ IM capabilities). For papers 2 and 3, empirical evidence was collected from 388 paired responses (i.e., employee self-reported and supervisor-rated surveys) through a survey-based approach within financial service firms in a Chinese context. Paper 2 investigates the role of leadership, in the form of supervisors, in employees’ social media communications and their effect on sales performance. FLEs’ adoption of social media is driven their supervisor’s social media capabilities, enhanced by supervisor enabled empowerment and supervisor-FLE relationships. Paper 2 demonstrates whilst social media communication is effective in increasing sales performance it may also have a dark side leading to employee information overload. Paper 2 updates the underpinning mechanism of IM effects through applying Media Synchronicity Theory showing the effects are contingent on the communication modes of social media (synchronous or asynchronous). Paper 3 investigates the consequences of employees’ social media relationship-building efforts with both their customers and their co-workers. Applying Social Capital Theory as the explanatory mechanism, the results show that through both employee-customer and employee-colleague social media interactions, FLEs directly and indirectly acquire customer needs; enhance both organisational identification and customer identification, leading to greater customer service performance. Furthermore, customer, and not organisational, identification encourages FLEs to break organisational rules for the benefit of customers. This thesis makes some important theoretical contributions. First, this thesis updates IM theory by suggesting the investigation of internal marketing through new theoretical lenses (i.e., Media Synchronicity Theory, Social Capital Theory). Second, social media is demonstrated as a technological tool of IM communication and relationship-building both externally with customers and internally with colleagues. Third, this thesis empirically confirms two new theoretical mechanisms through which social media enhances employee sales and customer service performance but also acknowledges limitations such as information overload and customer deviance that can occur. Fourth, it expands Media Synchronicity Theory by showing that its interplay between different social media communication modes, and in-person communication that affect outcomes. Finally, it contributes to Social Capital Theory by demonstrating the distinct effect of internal and external social capital in one theoretical framework presented in Paper 3