David A. Bray

Exploration, Exploitation, and Knowledge Management Strategies in Multi-Tier Hierarchical Organizations Experiencing Environmental Turbulence

James G. March conceived organizational learning as a balance between the exploration of new alternatives and the exploitation of existing competencies in an organization. This study extends Marchs model to consider exploration and exploitation in a hierarchical organization. First, the effect of additional tiers in a hierarchical organization is analyzed and related to Marchs original constructs of exploration, exploitation, personnel turnover, and environmental turbulence. Second, the study evaluates additional effects of a knowledge management system that collects and shares knowledge from expert individuals in an organization. This study finds that in the absence of personnel turnover, a knowledge strategy of high exploitation and low exploration for a multi-tiered hierarchical organization reduces the veracity of average individual knowledge levels when compared to alternative strategies. The magnitude of this reduction in veracity increases as the number of tiers in a hierarchical organization increase; flat organizations will see less of a reduction compared to multi-tiered organizations. A weighted least-squares regression performed on a second set of data corroborates this central observation. Cumulative findings have strategic relevance for both organizational theory and the application of knowledge management systems.

Re-Appropriating Social Dilemmas Research to Inform Service Science

This theoretical paper discusses re-appropriating social dilemmas research to inform service science research. Service science researchers wishing to encourage collaborative, inter-individual exchanges may want individuals to behave such that individuals are not motivated solely by their own economic self-interests, but ultimately pursue actions that benefit the overarching good of multiple groups.

Literature Review - Enterprise Value of Information Systems

In this paper, I suggest and review four perspectives within the information systems (IS) literature exploring the enterprise value of information systems from the perspective of traditional and transactional cost economics (TCE), agency theory and concerns surrounding a productivity paradox, the resource-based view (RBV) of the firm, and a general category of IS-influenced organizational enablers.

Designing a Knowledge Ecosystem: A Solution for Organizations Confronting Hyperturbulent Environments

Presently, certain U.S. government agencies face hyperturbulent environments, where organic, information-intensive changes occur rapidly with little warning. No one individual harbors sufficient knowledge to either mitigate negative outcomes or capitalize on positive opportunities. Knowledge exchanges in these government agencies must transcend physical group proximity, social networks, and the institutions themselves. I submit that these organizations represent the future of business, as they comprise globally distributed individuals who must exchange time-sensitive knowledge to increase organizational adaptedness and survivability. For these environments, top-down knowledge management is indeterminate. Instead, researchers and practitioners alike should think like a crime scene investigator and uncover: (1) who had opportunity to exchange knowledge, (2) who had motive, and (3) how was it done regarding method? I detail three research efforts, one completed and two in-progress, designed to test these conjectures. I hypothesize that altering organizational structure or technology should alter human perceptions of incentives, values, and trust - even when the same choices and rewards for exchanging knowledge are presented to individuals. The challenge for organizations is to cultivate indirectly a knowledge ecosystem that both fosters knowledge exchange opportunities among employees and allows dynamic knowledge exchange activities to evolve as environmental circumstances require.