Editorial

This second issue of Knowledge Management Research & Practice (KMRP) continues the international nature of the first issue, with papers from authors based on four different continents. There are five regular papers, plus the first of what is intended to be an occasional series of 'position papers' from respected figures in the knowledge management field, who have specific issues they wish to raise from a personal standpoint. The first two regular papers are both based on case studies. The first is 'Aggressively pursuing knowledge management over two years: a case study a US government organization' by Jay Liebowitz. Liebowitz is well known to both academics and practictioners as an author on knowledge management and knowledge based systems. Government departments in many Western countries must soon face up to the problems that will occur as the 'baby boomer' generation reaches retirement age over the next decade. This paper describes how one particular US government organization has attempted to address this situation (and others) through the introduction of a knowledge management initiative. The second case study paper is 'Knowledge creation through the synthesizing capability of networked strategic communities: case study on new product development in Japan' by Mitsuru Kodama. This paper looks at the importance of strategic communities - communities that have strategic relevance and support - in knowledge management. Here, the case study organization is Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation (NTT), a Japanese telecommunication firm. The third paper is 'Knowledge management and intellectual capital: an empirical examination of current practice in Australia' by Albert Zhou and Dieter Fink. This paper reports the results of a survey carried out in 2001, exploring the practices relating to knowledge management and intellectual capital in Australia and the relationship between them. The remaining two regular papers are conceptual in nature. The fourth is 'The enterprise knowledge dictionary' by Stuart Galup, Ronald Dattero and Richard Hicks. Galup, Dattero and Hicks propose the concept of an enterprise knowledge dictionary and its associated knowledge management system architecture as offering the appropriate form of information technology to support various different types of knowledge sources, while behaving as a single source from the user's viewpoint. The fifth and final regular paper is 'Community of practice and metacapabilities' by Geri Furlong and Leslie Johnson. This paper looks at the role of communities of practice in learning in organizations. Its emphasis is on metacapabilities - the properties required to learn, develop and apply skills. This discussion takes work on learning and core competences to a higher level. Finally, this issue includes a position paper 'Innovation as an objective of knowledge management. Part I: the landscape of management' by Dave Snowden. Snowden has been highly visible in the knowledge management community thanks to his role as the Director of IBM Global Services' Canolfan Cynefin Centre. He has helped many government and private sector organizations to consider their knowledge management problems and strategies. This, the first of two-part paper, is inspired by the notion of complexity. In it, Snowden calls for what he sees as a 20th century emphasis on designed systems for knowledge management to be consigned to history, and replaced by a 21st century emphasis on emergence. Letters to the editor on this, or any other topic related to knowledge management research and practice, are welcome. We trust that you will find the contributions stimulating, and again invite you to contribute your own paper(s) to future issues of KMRP.

People, technology, processes and risk knowledge sharing

The present global economic crisis creates doubts about the good use of accumulated experience and knowledge in managing risk in financial services. Typically, risk management practice does not use knowledge management (KM) to improve and to develop new answers to the threats. A key reason is that it is not clear how to break down the “organizational silos” view of risk management (RM) that is commonly taken. As a result, there has been relatively little work on finding the relationships between RM and KM. We have been doing research for the last couple of years on the identification of relationships between these two disciplines. At ECKM 2007 we presented a general review of the literature(s) and some hypotheses for starting research on KM and its relationship to the perceived value of enterprise risk management. This article presents findings based on our preliminary analyses, concentrating on those factors affecting the perceived quality of risk knowledge sharing. These come from a questionnaire survey of RM employees in organisations in the financial services sector, which yielded 121 responses. We have included five explanatory variables for the perceived quality of risk knowledge sharing. These comprised two variables relating to people (organizational capacity for work coordination and perceived quality of communication among groups), one relating to process (perceived quality of risk control) and two related to technology (web channel functionality and RM information system functionality). Our findings so far are that four of these five variables have a significant positive association with the perceived quality of risk knowledge sharing: contrary to expectations, web channel functionality did not have a significant association. Indeed, in some of our exploratory regression studies its coefficient (although not significant) was negative. In stepwise regression, the variable organizational capacity for work coordination accounted for by far the largest part of the variation in the dependent variable perceived quality of risk knowledge sharing. The “people” variables thus appear to have the greatest influence on the perceived quality of risk knowledge sharing, even in a sector that relies heavily on technology and on quantitative approaches to decision making. We have also found similar results with the dependent variable perceived value of Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) implementation.

Virtual manufacturing:a study of some important issues relating to the transformation of traditional manufacturing organisations

This thesis starts with a literature review, outlining the major issues identified in the literature concerning virtual manufacturing enterprise (VME) transformation. Then it details the research methodology used – a systematic approach for empirical research. next, based on the conceptual framework proposed, this thesis builds three modules to form a reference model, with the purpose of clarifying the important issues relevant to transforming a traditional manufacturing company into a VME. The first module proposes a mechanism of VME transformation – operating along the VME metabolism. The second module builds a management function within a VME to ensure a proper operation of the mechanism. This function helps identify six areas as closely related to VME transformation: lean manufacturing; competency protection; internal operation performance measurement; alliance performance measurement; knowledge management; alliance decision making. The third module continues and proposes an alliance performance measurement system which includes 14 categories of performance indicators. An analysis template for alliance decision making is also proposed and integrated into the first module. To validate these three modules, 7 manufacturing organisations (5 in China and 2 in the UK) were investigated, and these field case studies are analysed in this thesis. The evidence found in these organisations, together with the evidence collected from the literature, including both researcher views and literature case studies, provide support for triangulation evidence. In addition, this thesis identifies the strength and weakness patterns of the manufacturing companies within the theoretical niche of this research, and clarifies the relationships among some major research areas from the perspective of virtual manufacturing. Finally, the research findings are summarised, as well as their theoretical and practical implications. Research limitations and recommendations for future work conclude this thesis.

Knowledge mediation and overlapping in interfirm networks

Purpose – The literature on interfirm networks devotes scant attention to the ways collaborating firms combine and integrate the knowledge they share and to the subsequent learning outcomes. This study aims to investigate how motorsport companies use network ties to share and recombine knowledge and the learning that occurs both at the organizational and dyadic network levels. Design/methodology/approach – The paper adopts a qualitative and inductive approach with the aim of developing theory from an in-depth examination of the dyadic ties between motorsport companies and the way they share and recombine knowledge. Findings – The research shows that motorsport companies having substantial competences at managing knowledge flows do so by getting advantage of bridging ties. While bridging ties allow motorsport companies to reach distant and diverse sources of knowledge, their strengthening and the formation of relational capital facilitate the mediation and overlapping of that knowledge. Research limitations/implications – The analysis rests on a qualitative account in a single industry and does not take into account different types of inter-firm networks (e.g. alliances; constellations; consortia etc.) and governance structures. Cross-industry analyses may provide a more fine-grained picture of the practices used to recombine knowledge and the ideal composition of inter-firm ties. Practical implications – This study provides some interesting implications for scholars and managers concerned with the management of innovation activities at the interfirm level. From a managerial point of view, the recognition of the different roles played by network spanning connections is particularly salient and raises issues concerning the effective design and management of interfirm ties. Originality/value – Although much of the literature emphasizes the role of bridging ties in connecting to diverse pools of knowledge, this paper goes one step further and investigates in more depth how firms gather and combine distant and heterogeneous sources of knowledge through the use of strengthened bridging ties and a micro-context conducive to high quality relationships.

Filling knowledge gaps:knowledge sharing across inter-firm boundaries and occupational communities

This paper explores the micro-level processes of interaction across organisational boundaries and occupational communities. Based on a retrospective processual analysis, this study shows that in filling knowledge gaps, organisations put in place a series of knowledge mechanisms, which lead them to socially interact with their alliance partners. Both the deployment of existing knowledge and the creation of new knowledge are based on processes of interaction, which derive from the interplay between alliance actors. It is suggested that through both social interaction and the use of boundary objects, individuals are able to communicate, engage in problem-solving activities and share their ideas to fill knowledge gaps.

The role of SHRM in turning tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge:a cross-national study of the UK and Malta

We propose that strategic human resource management (SHRM) practices nurture a context of knowledge sharing where tacit knowledge can be turned into explicit knowledge and that this type of knowledge sharing promotes innovative behaviours. We draw on the fields of knowledge management and international human resource management to show why organisations need to turn tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge to gain most from their workforce skills and creativity. Findings from a couple of cross-national case studies show how SHRM promotes employees to interact and share knowledge so that there is a conversion of tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge that informs innovative behaviour. In Case Study 1, the focus is on a UK local authority that implemented a bundle of SHRM practices through a people management programme, which resulted in a flattened management structure. In Case Study 2, the focus is on a geriatric hospital in Malta that introduced a management presence to an interdisciplinary team working to improve patient care. The analysis also highlights the methodological contribution of qualitative research for enabling inductive enquiry that yields emergent themes - an approach not typically seen in SHRM innovation studies. © 2013 Taylor & Francis.

Organisational learning, climate change and the tragedy of the commons in China

This paper ends with a brief discussion of climate change and suggests that a practical solution would be to transfer much of the current air, sea and long-haul trucking of intercontinental freight between China and Europe (and the USA) to maglev systems. First we review the potential of Asian knowledge management and organisational learning and contrast this against Western precepts finding that there seems to be little incentive to 'look after one's fellows' in China (and perhaps across Asia) outside of tight personal guanxi networks. This is likely to be the case in the intense production regions of China where little time is allowed for 'organisational learning' by the staff and there is little incentive to initiate 'knowledge management' by senior managers. Thus the 'tragedy of the commons' will be enacted by individuals, township, and provincial leaders upwards to top ministers - no one will care for the climate or pollution, only for their own group and their wealth creation prospects. Copyright © 2011 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Using HLT for acquiring, retrieving and publishing knowledge in AKT:position paper

AKT is a major research project applying a variety of technologies to knowledge management. Knowledge is a dynamic, ubiquitous resource, which is to be found equally in an expert's head, under terabytes of data, or explicitly stated in manuals. AKT will extend knowledge management technologies to exploit the potential of the semantic web, covering the use of knowledge over its entire lifecycle, from acquisition to maintenance and deletion. In this paper we discuss how HLT will be used in AKT and how the use of HLT will affect different areas of KM, such as knowledge acquisition, retrieval and publishing.

Knowledge maintenance and the frame problem

Knowledge maintenance is a major challenge for both knowledge management and the Semantic Web. Operating over the Semantic Web, there will be a network of collaborating agents, each with their own ontologies or knowledge bases. Change in the knowledge state of one agent may need to be propagated across a number of agents and their associated ontologies. The challenge is to decide how to propagate a change of knowledge state. The effects of a change in knowledge state cannot be known in advance, and so an agent cannot know who should be informed unless it adopts a simple ‘tell everyone – everything’ strategy. This situation is highly reminiscent of the classic Frame Problem in AI. We argue that for agent-based technologies to succeed, far greater attention must be given to creating an appropriate model for knowledge update. In a closed system, simple strategies are possible (e.g. ‘sleeping dog’ or ‘cheap test’ or even complete checking). However, in an open system where cause and effect are unpredictable, a coherent cost-benefit based model of agent interaction is essential. Otherwise, the effectiveness of every act of knowledge update/maintenance is brought into question.

Background and foreground knowledge in dynamic ontology construction

Ontologies have become a key component in the Semantic Web and Knowledge management. One accepted goal is to construct ontologies from a domain specific set of texts. An ontology reflects the background knowledge used in writing and reading a text. However, a text is an act of knowledge maintenance, in that it re-enforces the background assumptions, alters links and associations in the ontology, and adds new concepts. This means that background knowledge is rarely expressed in a machine interpretable manner. When it is, it is usually in the conceptual boundaries of the domain, e.g. in textbooks or when ideas are borrowed into other domains. We argue that a partial solution to this lies in searching external resources such as specialized glossaries and the internet. We show that a random selection of concept pairs from the Gene Ontology do not occur in a relevant corpus of texts from the journal Nature. In contrast, a significant proportion can be found on the internet. Thus, we conclude that sources external to the domain corpus are necessary for the automatic construction of ontologies.

Knowledge representation with ontologies:the present and future

Recently, we have seen an explosion of interest in ontologies as artifacts to represent human knowledge and as critical components in knowledge management, the semantic Web, business-to-business applications, and several other application areas. Various research communities commonly assume that ontologies are the appropriate modeling structure for representing knowledge. However, little discussion has occurred regarding the actual range of knowledge an ontology can successfully represent.

Operations management II

These three volumes build on Volumes One to Three, they consider more specific aspects of Operations Management, including technology, important issues arising from the global business perspective and key concepts relating to innovation, knowledge management and improving the operations system. Papers are included on the following key areas: Volume Four: Technology and Operations Management Volume Five: International Operations, Networks and the Environmental Context Volume Six: Innovation, Knowledge and Operations Improvement

Managing software engineers and their knowledge

This chapter begins by reviewing the history of software engineering as a profession, especially the so-called software crisis and responses to it, to help focus on what it is that software engineers do. This leads into a discussion of the areas in software engineering that are problematic as a basis for considering knowledge management issues. Some of the previous work on knowledge management in software engineering is then examined, much of it not actually going under a knowledge management title, but rather “learning” or “expertise”. The chapter goes on to consider the potential for knowledge management in software engineering and the different types of knowledge management solutions and strategies that might be adopted, and it touches on the crucial importance of cultural issues. It concludes with a list of challenges that knowledge management in software engineering needs to address.