Communication Education for Managers Managing Knowledge

Communication education for managers remains undervalued, including in the area of-knowledge management (KM). As a ·consequence, many KM professionals design KM initiatives without understanding how knowledge creation and sharing is enabled by organisational communication (OC). This paper reports research across two somewhat distinct scholarly fields-KM and OC-emphasising communication climate's role in facilitating knowledge sharing. It proposes that communication audits provide a measure of willingness to share knowledge and information by providing data on perceptions of other organisational members' communication openness. The research results highlight that: 1. KM initiatives are only as good as the knowledge staff have about how KM facilities can be incorporated into their work activities; 2. higher levels of willingness to share knowledge are associated with communication in interpersonal contexts, except when that communication is with top management; and 3. lower levels of willingness are associated with communication experiences in organisational contexts. These findings demonstrate that education in organisational communication is a necessity for managers of organisational knowledge processes

Communication Climate and Organisational Knowledge Sharing

This paper reports research on the role of communication in knowledge management, examined through the lens of communication climate. The research is being undertaken in a major public sector organisation. The organisation wishes to shift its culture to one characterised by internal information sharing and, to this end, it has undertaken a 3-year knowledge management initiative that comprises an integrated suite of formal and informal knowledge sharing activities. The research is being conducted on a longitudinal basis between 2003 and 2005, and results of the first survey of the organisation's communication climate are reported in this paper. It is proposed that communication audits can be used to gauge whether knowledge and information sharing are likely to occur by providing data on two antecedents to such sharing: perceptions of other organisational members' openness to the receiving as well as the sending aspects of sharing.Organisational communication, organisational climate, knowledge communities, communities of practice

Communication climate and organisational knowledge sharing

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Painting with and without numbers: The use of qualitative and quantitative methods to study social learning

The Enterprise Social Learning Architecture (ESLA) team of the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO), conducted a four-year research study investigating social learning within the Australian Defence Organisation (ADO). The immediate aim of this research was to understand the issues inherent in building learning, adaptive and sustainable systems. The long-term objective was to develop architectures that would support the development of information systems to guide and enhance organisational learning and facilitate knowledge management. In this paper we will discuss the methodologies used by the ESLA team to gain understanding into effective social learning and the organisational and cultural factors that support such learning. Also, the paper will discuss the lessons learned from methodological approaches to this study as well as support tools used to analyse large volumes of qualitative data. There has been an increasing emphasis in the past decade on investigating the social and organisational factors that may underpin successful information system development and usage (Butterfield and Pendegraft, 1996; Davenport and Prusak, 1992; DeLone and McLean, 1992). Investigation of these issues necessitates a sound understanding of organisational culture, human social interactions, communication and relationships, and reflects an increasing awareness of the importance of the social aspects of socio-technical systems that people work and operate in. This paper describes the process by which the qualitative methods in this study of knowledge processes were expanded to include quantitative methods. It focuses on how this combination of data collection methods evolved, and the ways in which it was capitalised on to provide a much more enriched set of findings than would have been the case if qualitative or quantitative methods had been used alone. The paper also focuses on pitfalls that arose in the use of the various methods, including those associated with the use of software for qualitative data, and the means by which a successful methodological blend can be achieved with research relating to knowledge and its management

Social Learning and Knowledge Management – A journey through the Australian Defence Organisation: The Final Report

The research methods, research findings and outcomes of the Enterprise Social Learning Architectures (ESLA) task (JWF 98/004) are reported on in this document. Social learning is defined as learning occurring within or by a group, an organisation, or any cultural cluster and includes the procedures by which knowledge and practice are transmitted across posting cycles, across different work situations and across time. The term ‘social ’ learning reflects that organisations, organisational units, and work groups are social clusters and that learning occurs in a social context. Knowledge management is tightly coupled to social learning. Study results from three ADO settings are discussed: 82Wing Headquarters at the Strike Reconnaissance Group (SRG) at Amberley Air Base in Queensland; the then C4ISREW Division at ADHQ; and finally, Navy Headquarters (NHQ) in Canberra. Organisational and cultural factors that positively contribute to social learning and to the retention of corporate knowledge within the organisations studied are identified with a focus on the elements of workplace culture that foster human interactions conducive to generative learning. The research findings discussed lead to the development of social learning architectures. Architectural depictions o

Informing Science InSITE- “Where Parallels Intersect ” June 2002 Yet Another Role for Job Satisfaction and Work Motivation- Enabler of Knowledge Creation and Knowledge Sharing

This paper describes a continuing study which uses a mixture of qualitative and quantitative research methods to identify factors which facilitate organizational and other types of collaborative learning. In this study, such learning is termed ‘social learning’, and refers to those factors which enable the sharing of knowledge and practice, and which foster generative learning. This paper’s specific focus is on the roles played by job satisfaction and morale in collaborative learning. The study to date has undertaken research in three settings: a tactical headquarters, a single service strategic headquarters; and a joint services strategic headquarters. The study’s long term aim is to develop architectures to support the development of organizational and information systems that enhance organizational learning and facilitate knowledge management