Designing Wise Communities that Engage in Creative Problem Solving: An Analysis of an Online Design Model

Addressing the conference theme of “design thinking,” this paper discusses an instructional design model, WisCom (Wisdom Communities) that we developed to build a wise learning community online, to solve open-ended, ill-structured problems such as solving a health crisis or an environmental disaster, which requires the exchange of multiple perspectives, inter-disciplinary thinking, creative problem solving, and social construction of knowledge. Based on socio-constructivist, sociocultural theories of learning and mediated cognition (Vygotsky, 1978), distributed cognition (Hutchins, 1995; Pea, 1993), group cognition (Stahl, 2006), research on how people learn (Bransford, Vye, Bateman, Brophy, & Roselli, 2004), and distance education design principles (Moore & Kearsley, 2011), WisCom specifies three components that must be designed to create a wise community online that engages in creative problem solving and transformational learning: (1) a cohesive learning community involved in negotiation of meaning and collaborative learning; (2) knowledge innovation – moving the learning community from data, information, and knowledge to wisdom, providing opportunities for reflection, sharing of perspectives, knowledge construction and preservation within the community, and (3) learner support and e-mentoring to achieve the communities’ learning goals

The impact of organisational culture and knowledge creation process on organisational creativity and performance in knowledge-intensive banks

Knowledge management (KM) has various implications for organisational performance and competitiveness. Proponents argue that knowledge creation (KC) is extremely important for the long-run progress of an organisation. However, previous research has not demonstrated the application of each of the socialisation, externalisation, combination and internalisation (SECI) conversion processes in approaches to the study of KC and performance in specific business situations. In particular, the banking sector, which is a knowledge-intensive industry. In addition, some researchers claimed that the SECI model was based on Japanese standards; so the validity of this model in different cultures is also questionable. Furthermore, there is a significant gap in the literature, in terms of lack of empirical evidence that KM makes a difference to organisational performance. To fill these gaps, this study utilises an integrated model that interconnects and analyses the relationship between organisational culture, knowledge creation processes and firm performance, and specifically the role of the KC process and creativity in this relationship. The emphasis is on knowledge creation process (KCP), such as socialisation, externalisation, combination and internalisation in the context of domestic banks operating in Saudi Arabia.This study adopts a quantitative research method through a case study approach to classify and examine the proposed model. A stratified random sample was drawn from 32 branches of two knowledge-intensive commercial banks in Saudi Arabia. Two hundred and fourteen self-administered questionnaires were collected to analyse the impact of organisational culture and the knowledge creation process on organisational creativity and performance. The survey data were examined by confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and regression analysis. CFA revealed a decent model fit. The results confirmed that the organisational culture, which comprises trust, collaboration and learning factors, is observed to be an influential empowering agent. The results suggest KCP mediates the relationship between organisational culture and creativity, and of creativity mediates the relationship between KCP and firm performance. The internalisation process had the strongest impact on creativity and combination had an insignificant effect. In addition, the findings showed socialisation as a key antecedent for the exchange of tacit knowledge (TK) in the Saudi banks considered and the regression results indicated that the internalisation process helped Saudi banks to internalise explicit knowledge (EK) into TK during KCP. Consequently, this study supports the applicability of the SECI model in a new cross-cultural context and makes an important contribution to the existing literature by empirically investigating the relationship between organisational culture, KCP, creativity and firm performance. The findings not only provide a basis for further research in the field, but also have implications for chiefs at Saudi banks looking for management knowledge

Organizational Innovation

This paper examines the dynamic and multi-level relationship between organization and innovation from three different but interdependent perspectives: a) the relationship between organizational structural forms and innovativeness; b) innovation as a process of organizational learning and knowledge creation; and c) organizational capacity for change and adaptation. It provides a critical review of the literature, focusing especially on the question of whether organizations can change and adapt to major discontinuous technological change and environmental shifts, or whether radical transformation in organizational forms occurs principally at the population level through the process of selection. This is discussed with reference to organizational ecology theories, the punctuated equilibrium model and theories of strategic adaptation and continuous change. The paper argues that organizational innovation may be a necessary pre-condition for technological innovation, and thus it is important to take greater account of the role of endogenous organizational forces such as capacity for learning, values, interests and power in shaping organizational transformation and technological change.organization; innovation; learning and knowledge creation; organizational innovativeness; organizational change

Possibilities of applying some knowledge management techniques within the higher education domain in South Africa : a literature survey

Includes bibliographical references (p. 86-98).This dissertation explores, by way of a literature survey, the concept of Knowledge Management (KM), and in particular, whether it would be a suitable tool in the Higher Education (HE) environment in South Africa (SA). Traditionally KM was used in the business world, for some institutions, with great success. This dissertation, however, argues that KM is only partially applicable to the HE field in general and in particular in SA. The dissertation will be introduced with the background of knowledge and management. Organizational knowledge, organizational learning and organizational memory are explored. KM and bureaucratic organizations are critically discussed. The HE sector in SA is defined in terms of lifelong learning and learning societies

Tacit knowledge sharing in online environments: locating ‘Ba’ within a platform for public sector professionals

Presented in this article are some findings from a study which investigates tacit knowledge sharing and social media use. The results reported here derive from a survey completed by members of an online platform that incorporates social media features, and enables information and knowledge sharing amongst public sector professionals. Two main findings emerge from the study. The first is that online social platforms play a strong role in in the facilitation of tacit knowledge sharing, and this leads to outcomes of learning, expertise sharing, problem solving, and innovating. The second is that the online platform is important to the initiation of discussions among experts, the fostering of collective intelligence, and making tacit and personal knowledge visible and accessible quickly, and with minimal effort. This work makes an important theoretical contribution by renewing consideration of the concept of Ba (Nonaka and Konno, 1998), and through the identification of Dialoguing/interacting Ba and Exercising Ba (in addition to Cyber Ba) in online environments

Communities of practice, knowledge creation, and corporate sustainability : a study of Bahrain service industry

The Kingdom of Bahrain is a service-based economy in which the service industry is a highly competitive market environment. Therefore, organisations require employing strategies to compete and sustain their competitive advantage in order to survive. The knowledge-based view of the firm argues that knowledge is a critical source for sustainable competitive advantage. Communities of Practice (CoPs) provide a suitable environment for knowledge exchange and creation. This study defined CoPs as emergent informal networks of people who are located inside and outside the organisation, through which members of these communities share or are interested in the same practice and knowledge. It is noticed from the literature that there is no empirical study investigating the impact of knowledge created in CoPs on corporate sustainability. Moreover, the influence of social capital on quantity and type of knowledge received from different CoPs members is scarce. This research attempts to address this research gap.The study combined qualitative and quantitative approaches. The information obtained from the literature was used to develop the initial research model. In the first phase, a qualitative field study is carried out to develop a comprehensive research model. A number of hypotheses were then developed. The second phase of the study pilot tested the developed questionnaire. Minor changes were made based on the pilot study participants’ comments and feedback.The third phase of the study is the main quantitative survey. The questionnaire for survey was distributed among senior managers in Bahrain top 100 service organisations both in the public and private sectors. 333 completed questionnaires were returned to the researcher with the response rate of 54%. Partial Least Squares (PLS) was employed to analyse the data collected in the main survey.The findings of the study did not support all the hypotheses developed in this study. It was found that communities of practise exist in Bahrain service industry, where two types of CoPs are noticed: intra (co-located employees and non co-located employees) and inter CoPs (customers, suppliers, and business partners). It was also found that co-located employees’ and customers’ CoPs have the major effect on organisation performance as the knowledge received from them is employed in the knowledge creation process to generate new knowledge in order to improve organisation performance.An interesting finding is the positive effect of CoP characteristics on the knowledge received. Therefore, CoP characteristics do not only identify this type of network but also influence the amount of knowledge received from community members. On the other hand, the knowledge received from CoPs affect the knowledge creation process in its four steps (interaction and communication, develop pool of knowledge, alternative experimentations, and solution to problem). Furthermore, the study empirically tested that knowledge creation process is carried out in four sequential steps. It was also found that the last step of the knowledge creation process "find solution to problem" has the greatest influence on the generation of new knowledge. It was also found that new knowledge positively affects organisational social, environmental, economic, and non economic performances (i.e. corporate sustainability). The study results did not support the hypothesis that social capital aspects (trust, norms, and identification) moderate the amount of knowledge received from CoPs.From the literature review and the study findings, it is recommended that organisations within Bahrain service industry should develop a knowledge management strategy and implement CoPs to sustain their position in the market. Moreover, the strategy should contain appropriate measures of sustainability objectives.Despite the fact that the study was conducted in Bahrain service organisations, it is suggested that it can be applied to different organisations in various countries across the globe because of its generic approach. However, it needs to be customised for local application

LINKING STRATEGIC HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT,

Leaders have lately realized that innovation and competitive edge is easier and cheaper to source within the organization than try to outsource. Knowledge is seen as capital of the organizations and leaders are keen to capitalize it. Many organizations, private as well as public ones has the need to or have tried im-plement knowledge management practices. Many of them have failed. This thesis looks into knowledge management theory and to the theories of organizational culture, strategic human resource management and organizational learning which all support each other. The aim is to connect the theories on theoretical level as well as empirical level to be able to establish the best practices and learn why some of the organi-zations struggle to implement knowledge management. In addition, the empirical part is formed from twelve previously made case studies from around the world which prove the connection in the empirical level. The theoretical framework is based on the theories of knowledge management including the two types of knowledge, tacit and explicit, knowledge transfer and knowledge creation, the theory of organizational learning, learning organization and organizational memory, the theory of strategical human resource management and the activities, and the theory of organizational culture, the types of organizational cul-ture and how type affects on the employees. The research method is literature review with twelve case studies that are done by researchers in the pub-lic and private organizations around the world. The case studies have been sourced from scientific mana-gerial publications trough Tritonia network. The findings were that the previously mentioned methods are in fact connected. Furthermore, the case studies confirm that strategically defined goals and organizational culture are the influential aspects why some organizations succeed and others fail in implementation of knowledge management. Without proper implementation of culture that empowers employees and guarantees openness and motivation by incen-tives create positive environment for free flow of knowledge. Knowledge can be seen as power especially in public organizations that are hierarchical and bureaucratic. In addition, the strategic human resource management functions and free flow of knowledge are the other key components. Implementation of knowledge management is a process that requires active managers and right type of organizational learn-ing actions. The first step is identification of strategical targets and organizational culture, if the culture as it is does not facilitate the desired outcome it needs to be changed first, change is possible but time con-suming. The second step is to support the culture with strategical human resource management activities. Step three is to implement and safe guard knowledge transfer so that it becomes continuous organization-al learning, and then the activities are imprinted to organizational memory and are more easily transferred from old to new employees.fi=Opinnäytetyö kokotekstinä PDF-muodossa.|en=Thesis fulltext in PDF format.|sv=Lärdomsprov tillgängligt som fulltext i PDF-format

Predicting inter -organizational knowledge satisfaction through knowledge conversion and task characteristics in a minority -owned business

Knowledge management has been extensively studied from the single organization (intra-organizational) perspective for many years. Although the literature on intra-organizational knowledge is extensive, there still exist gaps in the literature with regards to knowledge being shared by multiple organizations (inter-organizational knowledge). Inter-organizational knowledge satisfaction is gained when the organizations successfully embody the knowledge gained via the cooperation and crystallizes that knowledge within the organization. The problem addressed in this study is the lack of a model for predicting inter-organizational knowledge satisfaction utilizing task characteristics and the knowledge conversion process. The purpose of the study was to predict inter-organizational knowledge satisfaction for a contract company. The research question addressed how task characteristic and knowledge conversion can predict inter-organizational knowledge satisfaction. The theoretical frameworks include Nonaka\u27s theory on organizational knowledge creation and Becerra-Fernandez and Sabherwal\u27s theory for task characteristics. The study is a correlation research design using multiple linear regression as the data analysis method. An online questionnaire was administered to all executives, first- and mid-level managers, and professionals. The predictor variables task characteristic and knowledge conversion are used to predict inter-organizational knowledge satisfaction (IOKS). Predictor variables accounted for 35.3% of the variance in the IOKS score. This study contributes to social change by helping organizations gain a competitive advantage through developing and implementing both creative and timely knowledge management initiatives to gain inter-organizational knowledge satisfaction

Social media as facilitators of tacit knowledge sharing practices amongst public sector employees

This work is concerned with the exploration of social technologies relevant to the sharing of tacit knowledge within the public sector. The findings derive from analysis of empirical data collected via survey research and twenty qualitative interviews with the members of an online knowledge sharing platform dedicated to those working within public sector bodies, mainly in Scotland.The main contribution of the thesis is that it extends understanding of how social technologies render tacit knowledge visible by 1) providing access to online interactions for geographically dispersed individuals, 2) storing online social interactions, making them reusable, and 3) increasing network growth. The visibility of such tacit knowledge enhances knowledge awareness. This contributes to collective intelligence and learning processes and enables new collaborations.The concept of Ba, a Japanese concept from 1998 that emphasises the influence that contexts can have over the sharing of tacit knowledge is updated with respect to the use of social media tools.These two contributions are significant because previous research in Knowledge Management has not extensively investigated the ways in which social technologies contribute to the sharing of tacit knowledge within the public sector. They also emphasise the added value of social media tools with respect to the visibility of tacit knowledge and add a further valuable dimension to a well-known model that is frequently cited in the Knowledge Management literature