Information Behavior of the Malaysian Managers and Their Perceived Needs of Information and Knowledge Managers

This study explored the information behaviour of business executives particularly those in the managerial positions in the services and banking industries in Malaysia. Among the components of information behaviour investigated involved their information use – types, sources, and criteria. The investigation was also extended to understand about effective information management and the need for information and knowledge managers from the managers’ collective perspectives. Using survey questionnaires with open and close-ended questions on one hundred and forty five respondents, the findings provided rich and meaningful information about information requirements of managers and their perceived needs for competent information and knowledge managers in terms of their desired roles and competencies. The findings may assist in the effective provision of services by information or knowledge managers within the organizations and the development of more effective information system for resource sharing and inter/intra organizational collaboration or in other word a knowledge management system (KMS)

Mobile phone adoption and appropriation among the Malaysian teenagers: the influence of intrinsic and extrinsic motivation

Given the significant impact the wireless technologies provided to date, not many research can be found conducted in understanding the pattern of wireless use and adoption among various cohorts of the Malaysian population particularly those of teenagers. This research conducted in order to find out about the pattern of wireless technologies? adoption and use among the Malaysian teenagers. Subsequently, this study expects to establish an understanding of the usage pattern based on the intrinsic and extrinsic motivations theory and the adoption?appropriation of technology perspective. This study should provide a very important contribution to the understanding of teenagers and their mobile phone use behavior. At the same time, this study can also assist in policy development of wireless phone application among high school students and allows for respective authority to re-think of how to exploit the technology to benefit the teenagers for the purpose of learning and motivation. In addition, the findings may also contribute to the modeling of mobile phone use as a strategy to match mobile phone design to user?s technological needs and expectations

Gender difference effects on contributing factors of intention to be involved in knowledge creation and sharing

The paper analyses the moderating effects of demographics factors of organizational members on the contributing factors of intention to be involved in Knowledge Management (KM) process; knowledge creation and knowledge sharing. The KM processes were operationalized through knowledge creation theory (SECI process). Data were collected from 313 executives in the Sri Lankan Telecommunication Industry using self-administered questionnaires. Two KM enablers; ‘trust & collaboration’ and ‘ICT use and support for search and sharing’, and two individual acceptance factors; ‘performance expectancy of KM’, and ‘effort expectancy of KM’ were considered as contributing factors of intention to be involved in KM process. The study found that gender moderates the relationship between ‘ICT use and support for search and sharing’, ‘performance expectancy of KM’ and intention to be involved in KM process. The findings suggest that if the policy makers in the industry are planning to implement KM initiatives, they should consider gender differences of the executives and the strategies should be formulated accordingl

Organizational factors, perceived acceptance and behavioral intention as dimensions of knowledge management readiness

The concept of organizational readiness for knowledge management (KM) has been studied extensively from different perspectives in the recent past. KM supportive organizational factors such as KM oriented organizational culture, organizational structure and information technology infrastructures, and factors of individual acceptances are believed to be the predictors of KM readiness. However, the nature of those factors arguably suggests that they may not merely the predictors; rather they can be the dimensions of KM readiness. This work tries to verify this hypothesis. For this purpose, a questionnaire was formulated based on established measures, and administered using survey research methodology approach on 313 executives working in the selected organizations in the Sri Lankan telecommunication industry. The first order measurement model using AMOS version 16 was used to validate the measurement employed. Subsequently, a second order analysis was performed to test the hypothesis. Findings shows that all model fit indices are good and all the structural coefficients are significant, thus, the model fit to the data. Therefore, the current work proposes that the KM oriented organizational factors, individual acceptance and behavioral intentions should be considered as the dimensions of KM readiness

An instrument to assess organizational readiness to implement knowledge management process

The Concept of knowledge management (KM) is highly being studied nowadays as it plays a major role in the competitive business world. Though different aspects of KM are being exposed in the literature, very limited information is available on organizational readiness for KM process implementation. Hence, the present authors propose a research model by integrating knowledge creation theory, KM enablers, and individual acceptance models.In addition, an instrument that can be used to measure the organizational readiness for KM process implementation also presented. The reliability of the proposed instrument is proved after testing it among academic staffs of a Malaysian university

A holistic approach to measure organizational readiness for knowledge management

Management of organizational Knowledge is considered crucial in the present knowledge era. As a result, organizational readiness for knowledge management (KM) has been studied comprehensively from diverse viewpoints lately. KM enablers such as organizational culture, organizational structure and information technology infrastructures, and organizational members’ perception towards KM are assumed to be the predictors of KM readiness. Nevertheless, those dimensions could be part of KM readiness rather than just merely being its predictors considering the inevitable nature of those variables for KM implementation. Accordingly, the current study hypothesis that these factors with behavioral intention of organizational members form a holistic dimension of organizational readiness for KM. To verify this claim a questionnaire based survey was conducted among 313 executives in the Sri Lankan telecommunication industry. To validate the research instruments used a first order measurement model was formulated using AMOS version 16. Then, to test hypotheses a second order analysis was performed. The indices for model fit are good and the structural coefficients are significant showing the data fit to the model. Hence, the present work recommends that the KM enablers, organizational members’ perception and their behavioral intentions can be the dimensions of organizational readiness for KM

Discretionary behaviors of information and communication technology (ICT) supported ad hoc task groups

This study seeks to describe the discretionary behavior of information and communication technology (ICT) supported ad hoc task groups. Two types of discretionary behaviors were investigated. These were communication media choice (MC) and discretionary collaborative behavior (DCB). Drawing upon frameworks from social information processing approach to media choice and organizational behavioral theories related to organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) and contextual performance, this research investigated: (1) groups\u27 performance of communication MC and DCB over time; (2) the relationships between communication MC and DCB with outcomes and antecedents; and (3) the extent to which communication MC and DCB are related in the study\u27s context. The conduct of this study followed a case study and multi-paradigm design approach. Data were gathered using both qualitative and quantitative approach from 23 student work groups (four-five students each) performing five business-oriented case study analyses throughout a semester course. The study found that groups\u27 choice making process of communication media use is subjective and complicated in nature. This process evolved over a period of time when the use of face-to-face (FTF) communication media for substantive group work purposes was substituted with the increasing use of ICT. A pattern of group communication emerged when each group was categorized into one of the three communication orientation categories: FTF, Mixed, and Virtual groups. Findings in this study further demonstrated that group communication MC was significantly related to several outcomes variables, cognitive factors and antecedent variables. The study also provides insights into our understanding of DCB. Two dimensions of DCB emerged from the quantitative analyses. These were helping/civic virtue behavior and sportsmanship. The qualitative data also provide several other behavioral factors related to DCB. Some of these behaviors were related with communication MC. This research extends our understanding of communication MC and DCB in a context not commonly investigated in the past. They expand theories of communication MC, ICT use in both organization and educational institutions, and behaviors similar to OCB. This study can be considered as a starting point that may initiate several future studies to focus on the specific areas of interest suggested in the findings