Utilising Intranet technologies in construction sector SMEs:building up knowledge bases for extreme weather event risk management

Intranet technologies accessible through a web based platform are used to share and build knowledge bases in many industries. Previous research suggests that intranets are capable of providing a useful means to share, collaborate and transact information within an organization. To compete and survive successfully, business organisations are required to effectively manage various risks affecting their businesses. In the construction industry too this is increasingly becoming an important element in business planning. The ability of businesses, especially of SMEs which represent a significant portion in most economies, to manage various risks is often hindered by fragmented knowledge across a large number of businesses. As a solution, this paper argues that Intranet technologies can be used as an effective means of building and sharing knowledge and building up effective knowledge bases for risk management in SMEs, by specifically considering the risks of extreme weather events. The paper discusses and evaluates relevant literature in this regard and identifies the potential for further research to explore this concept

Profissionais da informação e o mapeamento do conhecimento nas organizações : o caso da KPMG Brasil

Analysis and description of the information management in the processes of Knowledge Management at KPMG Brazil, with an emphasis on the mapping of tacit and explicit knowledge, as well as making available and sharing the mapped information by means of the Intranet, which is an information technology facilitator for the information professional. It concludes that information professionals have potential to lead and manage processes of knowledge mapping in organizations, mainly due to the expertise inherent to their professional education, related to the location, organization, structure, and availability of data and information that will later be transformed into knowledge. Another positive conclusion refers to the use of information technology, in this specific case, the Intranet, as an ally to the librarian´s work

Knowledge sharing via enterprise intranets

Successful enterprises are those that consistently create new knowledge, disseminate it widely throughout the enterprise and quickly embed it in new technologies and products. These ‘knowledge-creating’ enterprises understand what knowledge is and what they should do to exploit it. In other words, they successfully manage and share their knowledge throughout their enterprise. When launching a knowledge management initiative, it is important to identify which knowledge management processes are most relevant to the enterprise’s environment and systems, and steps should be taken to support these activities and integrate them into daily operations. Broader elements and issues should also be identified and recognised for the influence they have on the knowledge management process. For example that enterprises should encourage individuals to interact, to work together on projects, or to share their ideas on an informal basis and systems are needed to codify the knowledge of individuals so that others can use it. Applying these elements involves: information technology; formal and informal structures; and specific knowledge management tools. Another important factor in the success of a knowledge management project is to ground knowledge management and knowledge sharing within the context of the enterprise’s business strategy seeing that the intranet can assist in the creation of economic value and competitive advantage for the enterprise. The knowledge sharing or knowledge contribution part of the knowledge management process seems to be the most difficult for enterprises. Knowledge sharing often takes place in enterprises via employees’ informal networks. Knowledge management could turn this informal, ad hoc process into a more systematic process. Creating a corporate culture where knowledge is valued and shared effectively is a challenge. Part of the solution could be for an enterprise to be aware of their specific corporate culture and how it influences their behaviour and attitude towards knowledge sharing. Because the employee’s behaviour determines the sharing of knowledge, leadership has an important role to play and they could use various motivational practices to encourage knowledge sharing. Leadership should commit to creating an environment, within which employees are able to share, assess and experiment with new knowledge gained. The corporate intranet could be used as such an environment, but employees need to be trained to use their knowledge management IT tools, making it as easy as possible for employees to contribute to the enterprise knowledge base. Effective intranet usage should be embedded in the enterprise’s general corporate and knowledge sharing culture. The intranet should be seen as an essential part of the enterprise’s knowledge management system and should be designed to suit and enhance the enterprise knowledge sharing activities and culture. It is also important that intranets should be evaluated regularly to determine its current contribution to as well as future potential of the knowledge sharing capability of the enterprise. The importance of evaluating and measuring the enterprise intranet and various measurement tools were discussed in depth, which consequently led to the formulation of an intranet evaluation tool in the form of a questionnaire. The prototype questionnaire was compiled by using measurement tools developed previously. The questionnaire brought together the concepts of knowledge management, knowledge sharing cultures and intranet functionalities. The evaluation tool was then applied to measure the effectiveness of a management consulting business’s intranet in enhancing the enterprise’s knowledge sharing culture. Recommendations were made to enterprises use the questionnaire when using the questionnaire in similar environments. An intranet represents a tool of potentially high value to any enterprise, but in order to realise this value, the intranets should be properly measured and managed and every employee needs to take ownership and buy into the concept of the intranet as a knowledge sharing enabler. This calls for an employee to be motivated to participate in knowledge sharing, so that they can experience the value they could add and receive by using the intranet for knowledge sharing activities.Prof. P.A. van Brakel Mnr. J.A. Ko

From Social Tagging to Social Hierarchies: Sharing Deeper Structural Knowledge in Web 2.0

Social tagging systems, such as del.icio.us, have helped users find and reuse information by sharing individuals’ structural knowledge, i.e., the knowledge of relationships among documents and concepts. Besides being an Internet phenomenon, social tagging can help organizations manage their intranet document repositories. The structural knowledge embedded in tags is flat, shallow, and often ambiguous however. We develop a theoretical model to argue for potential benefits of sharing deeper structural knowledge in an electronic document repository through personal document hierarchies. Based on the theoretical model, we design a “social hierarchies” system. Deployment and exploratory study confirm the benefits of sharing personal hierarchies in a collaborative knowledge work environment and suggest future research directions

Intranet and Knowledge Management: Putting the Cart Before the Horse?

This paper explores the use of intranet-technology to support knowledge intensive decision-making in a technical service delivery process of a major oilfield services company. Our findings show that creating, mobilizing, and exchanging knowledge through an intranet-technology based system delivers forms of benefits to both the organization and its clients, and understanding what organizational knowledge is to be managed and the process of managing it define the role of technology that enables knowledge management

Organizing Knowledge in Implementation of Knowledge Management as Strategy for Competitive Bussiness at PT Telkom

This study is entitled Organizing Knowledge in Implementation of Knowledge Management. The research was conducted in bussines organization. The research objectives are to find out new concept in coverage of knowledge by knowledge management implementation at Telkom organizing explicit knowledge ; to analysis personal characteristic knowledge manager. This research use by qualitative methode with case study approach at Telkom Japati 1st street Bandung. Technique of gathering data uses observation, archived record, interview, documentation dan physical ware. From the results of studies that have been done, so the conclusion can be drawn as follows: Knowledge management which is done by making taxonomy based processes and business operations is called as knowledge centers that are stored on the intranet while competency-based stream called virtual competency center. Organizing knowledge in virtual storage by creating taxonomy of knowledge toward process and operating bussines, tree types of knowledge are:Structure knowledge: unstructure knowledge and less structure knowledge. For other media are managed by a special unit that is the library. The technology media support information and communications intended to improve information transfer and sharing of knowledge organization as a whole through cooperation and communication between individuals. Recomendation: It is better to make guidelines of writing articles on KM Tool, in order to avoid a flood of information that is not need. For example the text have been made by others. .It is better also to make the theme of writing, so that the contributors will more focus in creating the knowledge. Therefore, it will give deep exploration a theme. Form of virtual communication in KM should also explore the tacit knowledge. It is appropriate if the contributors are also allowed to create works that are audio-visual format. For example how to use technology in the 3.5 G DAT file format, or how to assemble the satellite Telkom2. Keyword: Business communication; Knowledge management; Organizational Communication; Organizing knowledge; Knowledge strorag

Collaborative knowledge management - A construction case study

Due to the new threats and challenges faced by the construction industry today, construction companies must seek new solutions in order to remain ahead of the competition. Knowledge has been identified to be a significant organisational resource, which if used effectively can provide competitive advantage. A lot of emphasis is being put on how to identify, capture and share knowledge in today's organisations. It has been argued over the years that due to the fragmented nature of the construction industry and ad-hoc nature of the construction projects, capture and reuse of valuable knowledge gathered during a construction project pose a challenge. As a result critical mistakes are repeated on projects and construction professionals have to kee

Developing information architecture through records management classification techniques

Purpose – This work aims to draw attention to information retrieval philosophies and techniques allied to the records management profession, advocating a wider professional consideration of a functional approach to information management, in this instance in the development of information architecture. Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws from a hypothesis originally presented by the author that advocated a viewpoint whereby the application of records management techniques, traditionally applied to develop business classification schemes, was offered as an additional solution to organising information resources and services (within a university intranet), where earlier approaches, notably subject- and administrative-based arrangements, were found to be lacking. The hypothesis was tested via work-based action learning and is presented here as an extended case study. The paper also draws on evidence submitted to the Joint Information Systems Committee in support of the Abertay University's application for consideration for the JISC award for innovation in records and information management. Findings – The original hypothesis has been tested in the workplace. Information retrieval techniques, allied to records management (functional classification), were the main influence in the development of pre- and post-coordinate information retrieval systems to support a wider information architecture, where the subject approach was found to be lacking. Their use within the workplace has since been extended. Originality/value – The paper advocates that the development of information retrieval as a discipline should include a wider consideration of functional classification, as this alternative to the subject approach is largely ignored in mainstream IR works

Competency-driven benefits realization model for minimization of post-contract transaction costs in design-build (d&b) delivery systems

The construction industry has been struggling with the issue of inconsistent performance with respect to cost of projects, completion time and the delivery of a quality product. In an attempt to address this issue the Design-Build (D&B) project delivery system was initiated primarily to overcome the shortcomings of the traditional procurement strategies. Although, traditionally D&B delivery system was aimed to greatly enhance client‘s benefits, this has not significantly been achieved. It lacks clear benefits realization management process to deliver the planned client‘s benefits. In particular, the Transaction Costs (TCs) incurred at the post-contract phase (PTCs) through D&B system has been the subject of criticism, wherein it has been unable to achieve the expected resounding success of a total shift away from the issues attributed to the traditional systems. This research aims to establish the importance of leveraging on D&B project team-competency and commitment structured within a strategic Benefits Realization Management framework to optimize client‘s benefits in terms of minimizing PTCs. The focus is on the aspect of competencies of key project participants and their project team commitment with respect to minimizing TCs that is structured within a Benefits Realization Management (BRM) practice. Questionnaire survey data was obtained from 231 respondents out of 357 administered questionnaires to G7 contractors registered under CIDB Malaysia that was based on a systematic sampling of the existing CIDB contractor database. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) technique was used to test the relationships being hypothesized and to validate and confirm the developed Competency Driven Benefits Realization Model (CD-BREM). Exploratory preliminary research findings reveal that post-contract TCs for D&B projects range from 3.5% to 13.5% of the project value. The primary research findings reveal that D&B team commitment has partial mediating effect between team competency and post-contract TCs. Whilst, BRM was found to have a partial mediating effect between team competency and post-contract TCs and no moderating effect as initially hypothesized. In general the research findings indicate that team competency, commitment and BRM have significant positive influences on post-contract TCs. This research provides a multi-dimensional perspective of the D&B project benefits realization concept and has the potential to address the issue of minimizing PTCs, which is seen as a social waste of wealth. Using CD-BREM it is possible to identify key human factors that can contribute to high project performance that also serves as an enabling mechanism for realizing the full potential of the D&B method for delivering successful projects. This research is timely to help reverse the trend of poor performance within the construction industry as a whole. Further work on the implementation of this CD-BREM model on construction projects and the consideration of including additional independent variables in the research theoretical framework can be explored to strengthen the credibility of the outcome of this research which is aimed at minimizing PTCs

Knowledge Management Practice at a Bulgarian Bank: A Case Study

This paper reports on knowledge management (KM) practices in the customer service and lending departments of one of Bulgaria's top retail banks and investigates how KM processes can be further improved. The Bank's KM activities have been studied using observations, interviews and informal discussions for data collection. Findings were compared and contrasted with existing literature in similar contexts. Although rudiments of knowledge sharing are evident from the KM activities in different departments of the bank, the limitations such as resistance to change of the implemented KM systems are impeding the effectiveness of the knowledge management process. More training and incentives are needed to increase knowledge creation and sharing. Moreover, a clearly articulated KM strategy along with success criteria and commitment and support from senior management is needed. There is a severe lack of knowledge management studies in Bulgarian context in general and Bulgarian banking sector in particular. The authors' findings will potentially help in improving knowledge sharing practice as well as provide a valuable insight into knowledge management related issues in the Bulgarian context. The findings from this research can be useful to companies from Eastern Europe and other regions in improving their knowledge sharing practice