The Impact of Information Technology Facility and Knowledge Management Policy on Product Improvement for Dire Dawa National and Ture Cement Factories in Ethiopia 2015; Cross-sectional Survey Method

Information Technology has a crucial role to play in the creation and dissemination of knowledge in a variety of organizations and information technology allows an organization to create, share, store, and use knowledge. This study identified the impact of information technology facility, policy and culture that is available in cement factories. The study also examines the relationship between information technology facility, knowledge management policy and organizational productivity that exercise in Dire Dawa national   and Ture cement factories. Qualitative and quantitative approach was used to investigate the existing gaps that may likely be initiated by different contextual attributes. To carry out this investigation a descriptive research method was used.  Purposive and simple random sampling was used for selected 143 office employees.  Questionnaire,  interviews  and observation  check  list  were  used  to  gather  data.  The result of present study showed that the selected cement factories have organizational and knowledge management culture with existing policy. ICT facility give strength for organizational productivity and also ICT facility with knowledge management policy available in the factories have grate contributions on organizational productivity.  The limited functionality of ICT facility,   the non availability of knowledge management policy and limited capacity knowledge expert are problems that hinder organizational productivity   in the factories. Keywords: ICT facility, Organizational Productivity, Available Knowledge Management policy DOI: 10.7176/IKM/10-7-04 Publication date:October 31st 202

The impact of organisational climate on information communication technology support for knowledge management

Knowledge management (KM) has emerged as a vital concept for improving organizational performance through better use of knowledge and for minimizing the loss of valuable knowledge when employees leave. Information communication technology (ICT) is often seen as a key enabler of KM. However, ICT alone cannot make organizations more 'knowledgeable'; nor can it create the necessary trust and interpersonal environment necessary to achieve an optimally effective network. Thus, KM 'solutions' may fail to meet their expectations. Much of the literature in this field addresses the question of why the relationship between ICT and KM is so problematic. Many authors identify 'culture' as the most significant barrier to effective KM implementation. Only a few authors identify the right organizational 'climate' as the key to persuade people to create, reveal, share and use knowledge. However, too little attention has been paid to the impact of climate on technological support for KM; hence, the objective of this study is to explore the relationships between organizational climate, ICT support and KM. This study utilizes a mixed method that would capture an 'overall picture' of knowledge management in the case of one Saudi Arabian organization. While chiefly a qualitative study, quantitative data were used to assist in answering the research question that concerned the diagnosis of organizational climate. Because our understanding of the development of knowledge management is incomplete, particularly in the context of Saudi Arabia, the research reported here is exploratory in nature. At the heart of this thesis is a detailed analysis of the overarching aim of this study: to examine the impact of the organizational climate on information communication technology support for knowledge management. This issue is of considerable importance for the contemporary business environment and practice. The empirical investigation focuses upon the extent and utility of knowledge management activities and information communication technologies in an R&D centre located in Saudi Arabia. This investigation was supported by a survey that asks respondents to reflect on their current work climate, and to elaborate on their perceptions of the climate regarding knowledge management activities. Of 150 people who were invited to take part, 77 participants completed the questionnaire in 2007. Alongside this, 34 interviewees took part in the qualitative semi-structured investigation; the interviews were carried out to explore the research question above in more depth. In 2008, an additional 17 semi-structured qualitative interviews were undertaken with the aim of understanding in further depth the impact of organizational climate on information communication technology support for knowledge management. This brought the total number of interview participants to 51. The empirical findings of this study indicate that organizational climate plays an important role in affecting the dynamics and ease of access of knowledge management initiatives through the use of ICT support. This can be done by shaping employees' attitudes, behaviour and feelings, which characterize life in the organization. Results also identify the methods through which ICT supports knowledge management. Based on the findings, the results of this study further suggest some improvements for knowledge management practices. This study provides a better understanding of the relationship between organizational climate, information communication technology and knowledge management practices

Investigating knowledge management factors affecting Chinese ICT firms performance: An integrated KM framework

This is an Author's Accepted Manuscript of an article published in the Journal of Information Systems Management, 28(1), 19 - 29, 2011, copyright Taylor & Francis, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/10580530.2011.536107.This article sets out to investigate the critical factors of Knowledge Management (KM) which are considered to have an impact on the performance of Chinese information and communication technology (ICT) firms. This study confirms that the cultural environment of an enterprise is central to its success in the context of China. It shows that a collaborated, trusted, and learning environment within ICT firms will have a positive impact on their KM performance

The antecedents of e-learning adoption within Italian corporate universities: A comparative case study

The implementation of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) in business education appears to be influenced by a number of organizational issues, such as culture and technological sophistication. However, extant research has had very little to say about the antecedents that shape the adoption and diffusion of ICT across companies. In order to shed light on the phenomenon under investigation, this paper presents a comparative case study between five Italian companies that have instituted a corporate university. By distinguishing companies in typical cases and deviant cases with regard to the extensive use of e-learning technologies, our findings provide some useful insights about the antecedents that make companies more or less prone to employ the new frontiers of technology in their CUs

Cultural diversity and information and communication technology impacts on global virtual teams: An exploratory study.

Modern organizations face many significant challenges because of turbulent environments and a competitive global economy. Among these challenges are the use of information and communication technology (ICT), a multicultural workforce, and organizational designs that involve global virtual teams. Ad hoc teams create both opportunities and challenges for organizations and many organizations are trying to understand how the virtual environment affects team effectiveness. Our exploratory study focused on the effects of cultural diversity and ICT on team effectiveness. Interviews with 41 team members from nine countries employed by a Fortune 500 corporation were analyzed. Results suggested that cultural diversity had a positive influence on decision‐making and a negative influence on communication. ICT mitigated the negative impact on intercultural communication and supported the positive impact on decision making. Effective technologies for intercultural communication included e‐mail, teleconferencing combined with e‐Meetings, and team rooms. Cultural diversity influenced selection of the communication media

Knowledge management : Emerging roles and challenges of library and information professionals

With globalization the credibility of the workforce is determined by how best they can accommodate themselves in the growing challenges of k-economy. Knowledge Management (KM) has been in operation for quite some time. Its close affinity to library and information management is undeniable. Library has not relinquished its role and interest as information and knowledge providers. It is fitting then to recognize that a well planned strategy, involving the library and the management of the institution could provide significant influence to achieve the KM objectives. Librarians and information professionals (IPs) should be dedicated to fulfilling the varied information needs of the users, amidst the k-economy by providing accurate and relevant bibliographic and physical access and offer referral to the multidimensional range of information within the library premise and outside. KM is a challenge to the information professionals and for the fields of librarianship and information science and needs to be taken seriously to leverage the intellectual assets and to facilitate knowledge utilization and creation

ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks: a literature review

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation is a complex and vibrant process, one that involves a combination of technological and organizational interactions. Often an ERP implementation project is the single largest IT project that an organization has ever launched and requires a mutual fit of system and organization. Also the concept of an ERP implementation supporting business processes across many different departments is not a generic, rigid and uniform concept and depends on variety of factors. As a result, the issues addressing the ERP implementation process have been one of the major concerns in industry. Therefore ERP implementation receives attention from practitioners and scholars and both, business as well as academic literature is abundant and not always very conclusive or coherent. However, research on ERP systems so far has been mainly focused on diffusion, use and impact issues. Less attention has been given to the methods used during the configuration and the implementation of ERP systems, even though they are commonly used in practice, they still remain largely unexplored and undocumented in Information Systems research. So, the academic relevance of this research is the contribution to the existing body of scientific knowledge. An annotated brief literature review is done in order to evaluate the current state of the existing academic literature. The purpose is to present a systematic overview of relevant ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks as a desire for achieving a better taxonomy of ERP implementation methodologies. This paper is useful to researchers who are interested in ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Results will serve as an input for a classification of the existing ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks. Also, this paper aims also at the professional ERP community involved in the process of ERP implementation by promoting a better understanding of ERP implementation methodologies and frameworks, its variety and history

The use of learning management platforms in school context - a national study

This report results from a national study carried out under the Project “Educational application of learning management platforms”, supported and funded by the Computers, Networks, and Internet in Schools department of the Portuguese Ministry of Education- General Directorate for Innovation and Educational Development. This report has been developed by the ICT Competence Centre of the Faculty of Sciences- University of Lisbon, during the school year 2007/2008

The role of organisational culture during the implementation of internal succession planning within Malaysian research universities

Succession planning is not new to academia and many institutions have supported these programs for years. Few, however, have adopted formal succession planning strategies that are both strategic and deliberate and encompass the full spectrum of succession planning activities. However, less is understood about the role of culture on succession planning within public universities in Malaysia. Nevertheless; there is an absence of a comprehensive conceptual model of the culture-succession relationship in the literature that includes the impact of moderators such as national culture. A mixed mode design was adopted by the study where qualitative data was first collected, analyzed and then used to develop a survey instrument for the quantitative phase of the study. The study surveyed 375 academic staff of the five research universities in Malaysia, and the results were analyzed using the IBM SPSS for Windows and PLS-SEM. A structural model was built to identify the relationship between the organisational culture and succession planning and the moderating effect of the national culture in public research universities. The study's findings showed that succession planning is still new to public universities in Malaysia and training and development are still unstructured. Although there was a positive and significant relationship between organisational culture and succession planning, whereas, findings suggested national culture showed a moderating effect on the relationship of organisational culture and succession planning. The model can help to analyze organisational culture in order to change the Malaysian public universities’ strategy to implement succession planning