Internalised Values and Fairness Perception: Ethics in Knowledge Management

This chapter argues for ethical consideration in knowledge management (KM). It explores the effect that internalised values and fairness perception have on individuals’ participation in KM practices. Knowledge is power, and organisations seek to manage knowledge through KM practices. For knowledge to be processed, individual employees—the source of all knowledge—need to be willing to participate in KM practices. As knowledge is power and a key constituent part of knowledge is ethics, individuals’ internalised values and fairness perception affect knowledge-processing. Where an organisation claims ownership over knowledge, an individual may perceive being treated unfairly, which may obstruct knowledge-processing. Through adopting ethical KM practices, individual needs are respected, enabling knowledge-processing. Implications point towards an ethical agenda in KM theory and practice

Digital technology integration in business model innovation for carbon neutrality: An evolutionary process model for SMEs.

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Elsevier via the DOI in this record This study delves into the strategies employed by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to embed digital technology into their business models, aiming to reach carbon neutrality. We offer a comprehensive analysis of five high technology SMEs, unveiling an evolutionary process model that highlights their journey toward integrating technology. The integration process is delineated into three progressive stages. Initially, digital technology is seen as an 'enabler' that promotes the birth of an innovative business model, essentially transforming the mechanisms of value creation, delivery, and capture. As SMEs evolve to an intermediate stage, digital technology becomes a 'disruptor', reshaping and reinventing the business model in terms of how value is created, delivered, and captured. Entering the maturity stage, digital technology is elevated to the role of 'expertise', leading to a sophisticated business model that refines and optimizes these aspects of value. The influence of these business model innovations on carbon neutrality is complex and varies distinctly with each stage, reflecting the dynamic interplay between digital technology and business model evolution

Who needs memory? The case for the Markovian organisation

This paper examines the contradiction of organisational memory: that an organisation requires a memory to operate effectively, but that that same memory inhibits and constrains its ability to operate effectively. We briefly review the field of organisational memory and note its close connection with organisational learning.We introduce a conceptual framework pioneered by Schultze and Stabell for examining contradictions in the area of knowledge management. We use this framework to distinguish between the conventional view of organisational memory, which implicitly or explicitly regards knowledge as a commodity, and a constructivist view, from which emerges a picture of the Markovian organisation: an organisation the future behaviour of which is determined not by memories of the past but by its current state, characterised by an organisational consciousness informed by the activities in which it is engaged. While the emphasis of this paper is theoretical, we suggest that adopting this Markovian view of the organisation might be particularly appropriate to practitioners in organisations that are immersed in turbulent environments.<br/

The role of ICT-based information systems in knowledge transfer within multinational companies

This paper focuses on the internal network of multinational companies (MNC) and aims to investigate the role of information systems (IS) based on modern information and communication technologies (ICT) in transferring knowledge between different plants of the MNC, a subject still debated in the literature. To shed more light on this relationship, we propose that in the context of the MNC, the plant’s role in the knowledge network has to be taken into consideration. The analysis is based on a case study approach with interviews conducted at thirteen manufacturing plants. Data analysis shows that plants can have two basic roles in the knowledge network: knowledge senders or knowledge receivers. Knowledge sending plants see IS less supportive in transferring knowledge, while most knowledge receivers rely heavily on some form of IS. Furthermore, IS proved unhelpful if the quality of data entered in the system was low, or when strategic support to allocate resources to use IS was missing