Knowledge Sharing Mechanisms in Project-Based Knowledge Work: Codification Versus Personalization

The rise of networked computers has made it possible to codify, store, and share certain kinds of knowledge more easily and for less cost than ever before. With computer-based information technologies playing an increasingly important role in how organizations store knowledge, electronic databases for people to share knowledge and information have become even more widely available. Despite the benefits of codification as a knowledge-sharing mechanism, it can be costly and difficult to develop, adopt, and maintain a database of such codified knowledge. Given such costs and difficulties, it becomes critical to identify when it is effective to use codification as a knowledge-sharing mechanism. There has been a lack of focus in prior research on examining the portfolio of both formal and informal knowledge-sharing mechanisms available for organi- zations, and on examining whether there are circumstances in which knowledge-sharing mechanisms other than codification may have been more effective in the first place, considering the cost of codification. This study thus examines codification and personalization (sharing of knowledge through direct person-to-person contacts) as two types of knowledge-sharing mechanism. Focusing on the codification versus personalization dimension of knowledge-sharing mechanisms, we examine the conditions that affect when it is more effective to use a codification approach versus a personalization approach for knowledge sharing in project-based knowledge work. We hypothesize that knowledge equivocality, task frequency, knowledge-seeker’s social network, and knowledge stickiness will affect the effectiveness of these two types of knowledge-sharing mechanism. The hypotheses are empirically tested in a professional service firm that builds up its knowledge and capabilities through conducting project work

The Dramatist And Crime Management For National Stability: An Analysis of Tracie Utoh’s The Night of a Thousand Truths

Dramatists have used their dramatic ingenuity to comment on political, social, economic and security challenges in their societies over the years. The dramatists do this in order to chart the way forward for a stable political, economic and social system. It is in this wise that, Tracie Utoh-Ezeajuh has used her knowledge of drama to comment on serious issues bedevilling the progress and stability of the nation. The security challenges bedevilling the nation are linked to the fragile family system and what happened as regards the children’s upbringing by their respective families. This paper analyses one of Utoh’s plays, The Night of a Thousand Truths with a view to educating Nigerian families on what is expected of them as far as the issue of national security and social stability is concerned. This is done with the realisation that the family is the first unit of socialisation. The proper socialisation of children by their parent is therefore a stepping stone for national security and social stability

A study of the Ghana National Association of Teachers' programmes and its implications for membership commitment

This study seeks to understand the implications of the Ghana National Association of Teachers’ (GNAT) programmes on members, and to investigate the perception of members regarding their commitment to the union. The period, 1995 to 2014 was chosen because it marked the era of fragmentation of GNAT, and the formation of other teacher-unions which broke the monopoly of GNAT as the sole teachers’ union in Ghana. The main objective of the study is to examine the implications of member commitment on GNAT programmes. Specifically, the study intends to investigate the perceptions of satisfaction, participation and loyalty of union members. It also attempts to examine the responses of the union to challenges within the organization. The study was based on interviews of key informants and a survey of members and former members of GNAT. Structured questionnaires were used as instruments. Data Analysis was by the application of Excel and SPSS (Statistical Package for Social Sciences). Presentations are displayed by graphs, frequency tables and pictorials. In order to understand commitment of respondents, the survey measures members’ satisfaction, participation and loyalty to GNAT. These variables are related to programmes, hence questions on variables were asked in relation to programmes. This study has found out that GNAT membership decline can be partially explained by decline in levels of member participation and satisfaction with programmes. The study, has however noted that despite members’ dissatisfaction with GNAT programmes, the majority of them are still committed to the union. One possible reason for the high loyalty of members could be the value that they attach to the union. The study therefore concludes that the members' perception is not, by itself, a sufficient variable for understanding the union’s decline. The study recommends that the communication system of GNAT be improved. It also recommends that due to changing composition of membership with respect to age and qualifications, there is need to broaden the professional development of members especially those in leadership positions by fashioning programmes to meet their needs. There is also need to engage members in establishing the training needs in the Ghana National Association of Teachers that would be included in the training programmes in order to make them more attractive

Legal Autopoiesis and the Capital/Revenue Distinction

This paper attempts to use the theory of legal autopoiesis to understand the struggle the courts have experienced when asked to decide tax cases involving the capital/revenue distinction, which is a distinction that could not be determined by any criteria. The theory of legal autopoiesis, as propounded by Niklas Luhmann, posits that the legal system, as an autopoietic system within society, produces and reproduces its own elements self-referentially and recursively. The legal system operates according to its code, which comprises the values 'legal/illegal'. The code is complemented and filled by programmes, which must be suitable and help to allocate the values in particular situations. However, if there are no programmes, how does the legal system allocate the values? The lack of a definite set of rules that can be used in tax cases to determine whether an item is capital or revenue in nature means that there is no programme according to which the legal system can allocate the values. This lack exposes a critical weakness in Luhmann's theory of legal autopoiesis

Die Jacd

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-ps/3600/thumbnail.jp

INDUSTRY STANDARDS USE AND ADAPTIVE KNOWLEDGE CREATION: A STUDY BASED ON INDUSTRY CONSORTIUM PERSPECTIVE

In order to facilitate the rapid development of B2B e-business and supply chain, many industry consortia develop industry-specific standards. This paper differentiates between two distinct dimensions characterizing organizations’ standards use: breadth and depth. We examine how industry consortia’ promotion strategies influence the breadth and depth of standards use, and how standards use influences adaptive knowledge creation. We also examine how firm size moderates the relationship between promotion strategies and standards use. The hypotheses are tested using survey data collected from organizations in China who have implemented RosettaNet standards. The empirical results show that relationship, policies, and technology strategies significantly affect standards use, and firm size moderates the influence. Further, only the depth of standards use influence adaptive knowledge creation

Cues or Content? Examining the Moderating Role of Crowdfunder Experience

Crowdfunders face information asymmetry problems when making funding decisions. How crowdfunders overcome this problem has become a centerpiece of crowdfunding research. We examine how crowdfunder experience might affect crowdfunder reliance on various types of information provided on the crowdfunding page. Drawing on the Elaboration Likelihood Model, we find that experienced crowdfunders are more likely to pay attention to the content of the information, whereas less experienced crowdfunders are more likely to pay attention to simple cues. Our study highlights the important role of crowdfunder experience in crowdfunding research. We also discuss the implications of this study for various participants of the crowdfunding platform

Managing Expertise in a Distributed Environment

Expertise is the primary resource and product of professional service and technical firms. These firms often organize around project teams that advise and work under contract for clients. A key problem for management is to deploy expertise in project teams so as to meet the expertise requirements of projects and clients. Because expertise may be geographically distributed across multiple sites, many of these firms create virtual or distributed teams. Doing so gives these firms access to a larger pool of knowledge resources than would be available at one site and helps leverage expertise across the organization. However, geographically distributed collaboration in teams incurs coordination and other costs that local work does not. Is a distributed team worth these costs? We studied a professional service firm with distributed and collocated project teams. In this firm, domain expertise tended to be concentrated within geographic sites, whereas methodological expertise was distributed across the firm. We examined whether a better match of domain and methodological expertise to the needs of projects resulted in more profitable projects, and whether distributed teams matched these two types of expertise to the requirements of projects as well as or better than did collocated teams. We found that most projects were collocated, with members drawn from one site who had domain expertise that matched project requirements as well as when members were drawn from other sites. The profits of projects were unrelated to the match of domain expertise with project requirements. However, project profits were significantly and positively related to a match of methodological expertise with project requirements. Furthermore, distributed projects showed a stronger match of methodological expertise with project requirements than did collocated projects, and predicted disproportionately more profits. We conclude that an appropriate utilization of organizationally distributed expertise has a positive impact on project performance

IMRT QA using machine learning: A multi-institutional validation.

PurposeTo validate a machine learning approach to Virtual intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) quality assurance (QA) for accurately predicting gamma passing rates using different measurement approaches at different institutions.MethodsA Virtual IMRT QA framework was previously developed using a machine learning algorithm based on 498 IMRT plans, in which QA measurements were performed using diode-array detectors and a 3%local/3 mm with 10% threshold at Institution 1. An independent set of 139 IMRT measurements from a different institution, Institution 2, with QA data based on portal dosimetry using the same gamma index, was used to test the mathematical framework. Only pixels with ≥10% of the maximum calibrated units (CU) or dose were included in the comparison. Plans were characterized by 90 different complexity metrics. A weighted poison regression with Lasso regularization was trained to predict passing rates using the complexity metrics as input.ResultsThe methodology predicted passing rates within 3% accuracy for all composite plans measured using diode-array detectors at Institution 1, and within 3.5% for 120 of 139 plans using portal dosimetry measurements performed on a per-beam basis at Institution 2. The remaining measurements (19) had large areas of low CU, where portal dosimetry has a larger disagreement with the calculated dose and as such, the failure was expected. These beams need further modeling in the treatment planning system to correct the under-response in low-dose regions. Important features selected by Lasso to predict gamma passing rates were as follows: complete irradiated area outline (CIAO), jaw position, fraction of MLC leafs with gaps smaller than 20 or 5 mm, fraction of area receiving less than 50% of the total CU, fraction of the area receiving dose from penumbra, weighted average irregularity factor, and duty cycle.ConclusionsWe have demonstrated that Virtual IMRT QA can predict passing rates using different measurement techniques and across multiple institutions. Prediction of QA passing rates can have profound implications on the current IMRT process

Organizational Climate and Perceived Manager Effectiveness: Influencing Perceived Usefulness of Knowledge Sharing Mechanisms

In this study, we examine how perceptions of organizational climate and manager effectiveness influence individuals’ perceived usefulness of three types of knowledge sharing mechanisms (KSMs): (1) informal personalization KSMs, (2) formal codification KSMs, and (3) formal personalization KSMs. We collected survey data from 1036 employees from five different subsidiaries of an organization to test our hypotheses. We found that having a warm and cooperative climate has a positive influence on individuals’ perceptions of all KSMs. A competitive climate, on the other hand, increases individuals’ preference for using formal codification and personalization mechanisms relative to informal personalization mechanisms. Finally, individuals who perceive their managers to be more effective tend to be more supportive of top-down initiatives provided by senior management; thus, these individuals have a significantly more positive opinion of formal mechanisms compared to informal mechanisms. This study provides an extended and more nuanced perspective of how knowledge sharing can be enabled in different social contexts. The results will help managers to customize a portfolio of knowledge management mechanisms based on the climate of their organizational unit