Dick Stenmark

Leveraging Tacit Organizational Knowledge

Although tacit knowledge constitutes the major part of what we know, it is difficult for organizations to fully benefit from this valuable asset. This is because tacit knowledge is inherently elusive, and in order to capture, store, and disseminate it, it is argued that it first has to be made explicit. However, such a process is difficult, and often fails due to three reasons: (1) we are not necessarily aware of our tacit knowledge, (2) on a personal level, we do not need to make it explicit in order to use it, and (3) we may not want to give up a valuable competitive advantage. During an empirical study of recommender system usage, it was noticed how such technology could be used to circumvent these problems, and make tacit knowledge, in the form of our professional interests, available to the organization as a whole. Using Polanyis theories, it will be shown how intranet documents can be used to make tacit knowledge tangible without becoming explicit, suggesting that tacitly expressed entities are not necessarily beyond the reach of information technology.

Information vs. knowledge: the role of intranets in knowledge management

Knowledge has widely been acknowledged as one of the most important factors for corporate competitiveness, and we have witnessed an explosion of IS/IT solutions claiming to provide support for knowledge management (KM). A relevant question to ask, though, is how systems and technology intended for information such as the intranet can be able to assist in the managing of knowledge. To understand this, we must examine the relationship between information and knowledge. Building on Polanyis theories, the author argues that all knowledge is tacit, and what can be articulated and made tangible outside the human mind is merely information. However, information and knowledge affect one another. By adopting a multi perspective of the intranet where information, awareness, and communication are all considered, this interaction can best be supported and the intranet can become a useful and people-inclusive KM environment.

Rethinking competence systems for knowledge-based organizations

Existing competence systems are based on a rationalistic view of competence. While these competence systems might work in job-based organizations, we argue that in more dynamic settings, such as in knowledge-based organizations, the interest-informed actions that capture the emergent competencies of tomorrow require different types of information technology support. The main objective of this paper is to elaborate on the possibilities and implications of using interest-activated technology as a design rationale for competence systems. This paper is based on an action case study of an implemented interest-activated Intranet recommender system prototype at Volvo Information Technology AB in Gothenburg, Sweden. On the basis of how organizational members used this prototype to find information they were interested in, our research team was able to inquire into how personal interest, embodied in information-seeking activities, could be a means for identifying competence. Building on the relation between personal interest and competence, we discuss competence systems design and spell out explicit implications for managerial practice in knowledge-based organizations.

Turning tacit knowledge tangible

People are able to determine whether a given document is interesting just by glancing through it. However, when asked to make explicit the rules upon which such a decision is based, they are unable to do so. This, I argue, is because tacit knowledge is involved in this process. Tacit knowledge constitutes the major part of the body of knowledge and it is therefore important for organisations to sustain and exploit this asset. While studying how an intranet recommender system prototype was used, I discovered how tacit knowledge in the form of professional interests could be shared among the organisational members in an unobtrusive way. Based on these empirical findings, and informed by Polanyis theory of tacit knowledge, I claim that agent-based retrieval systems can be used to capture and visualise our professional interests, thus making otherwise elusive tacit knowledge tangible so that it can benefit others.

Integrating knowledge management systems with everyday work: design principles leveraging user practice

Much research argues that information technology can have a positive influence on knowledge application. However, practical results from research on knowledge management systems indicate that such systems often fail when implemented in contemporary organizations. Whilst maintenance of knowledge management systems has been recognized as an important research area, imbalance between additional workload and accurate content still appears to be a critical factor, resulting in systems of little use for organisations in their knowledge application processes. The objective of this paper is to demonstrate how knowledge management systems can be designed to better support knowledge application in organizational knowledge work processes. Building on lessons learned from three knowledge management systems, this paper contributes general design principles describing how knowledge management systems can be integrated with everyday work to leverage user practices.

The role of intrinsic motivation when managing creative work

While implementing and evaluating computer support for corporate creativity, it was noticed that the sheer presence of technology does not guarantee usage. Factors such as organisational culture and management attitudes seem to have an equally important role, and this observation called for a more focused analysis of the motivational aspects of creativity management. Based on literature and empirical data, four managerial advice to promote corporate creativity are presented: abandon reward systems; officially recognise creative initiatives; encourage self-initiated activities; and allow redundancy.

Group cohesiveness and extrinsic motivation in virtual groups: lessons from an action case study of electronic brainstorming

One form of group support system that has received much attention from cross-disciplinary research is electronic brainstorming (EBS). While it is generally held that group cohesiveness is lower in virtual settings that in face-to face interactions, it has also been argued that this does not matter in cognitive work such as idea generation. However, most work on EBS has been carried out in academic settings, and though such environments provide more control, they may be insufficient to capture all nuances of on-going office work. Hence, I describe an action case study of a failing attempt to introduce an EBS prototype in an organisational setting. The analysis suggests that virtual groups, counter to what is previously thought, need to establish and maintain a group identity. One circumstance under which this seems to be the case is in the existence of extrinsic rewards mechanisms.

Query Expansion on a Corporate Intranet: Using LSI to Increase Precision in Explorative Search

Previous research has taught us that the typical non-professional information seeker on the World Wide Web submits very short queries resulting in low-precision results. We show that this behaviour is repeated also by intranet users and therefore apply query expansion (QE) techniques to improve their search results. Arguing that casual searchers are likely to be unwilling to engage in the dialogue required for interactive QE, we provide an automatic QE system based on Latent Semantic Indexing (LSI). Having received mixed results, our analysis suggests that automatic QE based on a collection dependent knowledge structure may work for explorative, i.e. broader, queries whilst targeted and more focused queries suffer from query drift.

System Support for Knowledge Work: Bridging the Knowing-Doing Group

Many researchers argue that information systems (IS) can play an important role in supporting organizational knowledge application. However, recent IS research indicates that knowledge management systems (KMS) often fail when implemented in the knowledge work practice of contemporary organizations. While KMS maintenance has been recognized as an important IS research area, imbalance between the desire for accurate content and the workload required to achieve this still appears to be a critical issue, resulting in systems of little use for organizations in their knowledge application processes. Driven by the ambition to contribute recommendations for how to integrate KMS with everyday knowledge work, we use general lessons learned from development of groupware applications as a theoretical lens to analyze empirical experiences from three implemented and evaluated KMS. Targeting the KMS maintenance challenge, our recommendations extend earlier IS research on the implementation and use of knowledge work support systems. On a practical level, our recommendations assist KMS developers in attempts to bridge the knowing-doing gap in organizations where individual members do not know or know of each other and the organization as a whole does not know what it knows.

Intranet Users’ Information-Seeking Behaviour: An Analysis of Longitudinal Search Log Data

Today’s knowledge workers rely increasingly on information to get their job done, and the availability of search engines to locate relevant information is thus essential. Understanding how users interact with search engines is a prerequisite for the successful design of useful systems and a body of knowledge has in recent years begun to compile. However, all previous studies have focused on the public web, not acknowledging the fact that much business-related information seeking occur on corporate internal networks. In this exploratory study, we have collected and analysed intranet search engine log files from three different years – 2000, 2002, and 2004 – enabling us to detect shifting trends in intranet search behaviour. Comparing our data to what has been reported from the public web we conclude that intranet searchers are both similar to and different from searchers on the public web. In sum, it appears that intranet users are more extreme in their behaviour and that qualitative studies are needed to understand the motives and rationales governing their actions.