R.J.J.M. Jorna

Rethinking social capital theory: a knowledge management perspective

Purpose – This paper seeks to argue the relevance of knowledge management (KM) to the development of social capital, and to enhancing the capacity to take effective action in human social systems.Design/methodology/approach – The study applies a pluralistic definition of knowledge (including subjective beliefs in minds and objective claims expressed in language) to show that most forms of social capital reduce to knowledge.Findings – First, social capital mostly comprises knowledge (trust, beliefs, rules, and norms). Second, the capacity to individually and collectively learn (in networks) is therefore arguably the most important form of social capital, even if rarely acknowledged as such in the literature. Third, because of the importance of learning and innovation to the production of social capital in society and organizations, KM has an important role to play in related development efforts.Practical implications – The paper introduces social capital constructivism. Practicing it to strengthen social c...

Paradoxes in planning

Abstract The word ‘planner’ has two distinct meanings in literature. The first meaning refers to the profession of a human. Organizational processes must be planned so people know what work they are going to do. An example is a production planner in a factory. The second meaning of planner refers to an actor who must think about his actions before performing them, for example making a shopping list. Both connotations of planner have their own research fields. The profession of the human planner is mainly analyzed in the context of computer support. Examples of research areas are knowledge acquisition, task modeling, decision support, constraint modeling and solving, and operations research. The second meaning of planning is dealt with, for example, by psychology, semiotics, Artificial Intelligence, and robotics. Apparently, both planning worlds have their own research methodologies, languages, ontologies, and models. In this article, we describe the main schools for both fields and the apparent paradoxes that are the result of integration.

Enhancing the innovative capacity of small firms through triple helix interactions: challenges and opportunities

This paper presents the results of a recent exploratory study aiming to enhance the innovative capacity of small firms in the Northern Netherlands, a region lagging behind the rest of the country in terms of economic growth and innovative capacity. The triple helix perspective is adopted to examine the causes of the poor knowledge transfer among small firms, academic and higher vocational training institutions, government and other public agencies. Main causes include insufficient communication between parties, little awareness of government agencies on small firms’ specific problems, poor visibility of government programmes for small firms, high bureaucracy and overlapping of responsibilities between government agencies with an entrepreneurship-support mission, cultural and language differences. A number of policy recommendations are suggested, particularly at the university–industry interface, as the ‘university’ institutional sphere appears to be the least active in the collaboration with small firms and is often outrun by the regional higher vocational training institutions.

Toward a Semiotic Theory of Cognitive Dynamics in Organisations

Although in general we have little or no difficulties in speaking and thinking about organisations, describing the empirical reality of organisations is far from easy. Where should we look for organisations? How should we study them? Organisations are markedly elusive. They cannot be treated as empirical entities. What you perceive, when ‘looking’ at organisations, are artifacts (buildings, machines) and behaviour (linguistic and other forms). But neither artifacts, nor behaviour are ‘organisation-like’ in themselves. What is needed, therefore, is something that relates artifacts and behaviour to create a more or less coherent whole. Such a relation is a representation, shared, at least in part, by a number of interacting actors. It is the representation that gives both artifacts and behaviour their meaning. A representation is a mental activity of an actor. It should be clear that we take representations not as referring to some mental activities act upon (‘symbols’), but as a specific type of mental activity, also referred to as ‘cognition’, possibly only found in humans. To define cognition only in terms of (the manipulation of) ‘symbols’ is begging the question (petitio principii), as the symbol implies precisely that mental activity that has to be explained if we want to understand what cognition is. If anywhere, therefore, an organisation resides in the mental activities of the actors. This does not necessarily imply, however, that all the actors involved must represent an organisation in the same way.

The SEC-system reuse: support for scheduling system development

Recently, in a joint cooperation of Stichting VNA, SAL Apotheken, the Faculty of Management and Organization, and the University Centre for Pharmacy, University of Groningen in the Netherlands, a Ph.D-study started regarding Apot(he)ek, Organization and Management (APOM). The APOM-project deals with the structuring and steering of pharmacy organization. The manageability of the internal pharmacy organization, and the manageability of the direct environment of pharmacy organization is the subject matter. The theoretical background of the APOM-project is described. A literature study was made to find mixes of objectives. Three mixes of objectives in pharmacy organization are postulated; the product mix, the process mix, and the customer mix. The typology will be used as a basic starting point for the empirical study in the next phase of the APOM-project.

From data to knowledge: a method for modeling hospital logistic processes

When modeling or redesigning a process, the knowledge-management perspective is seldomly used. Using the knowledge categorization developed by van Heusden and Jorna, we propose a knowledge-management perspective to provide a strategy for modeling and redesigning a business process. As an illustration of our approach, we use hospital data of multidisciplinary patients. This specific group of patients requires the involvement of different specialisms for their medical treatment that leads to more efforts regarding the coordination of care for these patients. In order to increase the care efficiency, knowledge that supports the reorganization of care for multidisciplinary patients should be provided. We use the above-mentioned knowledge-management perspective for creating new multidisciplinary units, in which different specialisms coordinate the treatment of specific groups of patients.

Signs, Search and Communication: Semiotic Aspects of Artificial Intelligence

A selection of papers presented at the conference Expert Systems, Culture and Semiotics, held in Groningen, the Netherlands, December 1990. The volume is divided into three parts. The first part is about signs and representations, the second about reasoning and search, and the third about communicat

Perceived barriers of heart failure nurses and cardiologists in using clinical decision support systems in the treatment of heart failure patients

BackgroundClinical Decision Support Systems (CDSSs) can support guideline adherence in heart failure (HF) patients. However, the use of CDSSs is limited and barriers in working with CDSSs have been described as a major obstacle. It is unknown if barriers to CDSSs are present and differ between HF nurses and cardiologists. Therefore the aims of this study are; 1. Explore the type and number of perceived barriers of HF nurses and cardiologists to use a CDSS in the treatment of HF patients. 2. Explore possible differences in perceived barriers between two groups. 3. Assess the relevance and influence of knowledge management (KM) on Responsibility/Trust (R&T) and Barriers/Threats (B&T).MethodsA questionnaire was developed including; B&T, R&T, and KM. For analyses, descriptive techniques, 2-tailed Pearson correlation tests, and multiple regression analyses were performed.ResultsThe response- rate of 220 questionnaires was 74%. Barriers were found for cardiologists and HF nurses in all the constructs. Sixty-five percent did not want to be dependent on a CDSS. Nevertheless thirty-six percent of HF nurses and 50% of cardiologists stated that a CDSS can optimize HF medication. No relationship between constructs and age; gender; years of work experience; general computer experience and email/internet were observed. In the group of HF nurses a positive correlation (r .33, P<.01) between years of using the internet and R&T was found. In both groups KM was associated with the constructs B&T (B=.55, P=<.01) and R&T (B=.50, P=<.01).ConclusionsBoth cardiologists and HF-nurses perceived barriers in working with a CDSS in all of the examined constructs. KM has a strong positive correlation with perceived barriers, indicating that increasing knowledge about CDSSs can decrease their barriers.

Knowledge claim evaluation : a fundamental issue for knowledge management

Purpose – This paper aims to present a classification of approaches toward knowledge claim evaluation (KCE), which is the process of evaluating and testing knowledge claims in organizations, and to position KCE as a fundamental research issue for KM.Design/methodology/approach – The paper draws from a range of KM theories in the academic literature and reviews the role of KCE. Concepts and principles from epistemology provide the basis for the analysis and classification of KCE approaches. The papers particular focus is on KCE in innovation. Furthermore, practical examples illustrate the working of KCE.Findings – KCE is a neglected process in KM theories. The conceptual underpinnings of KCE in KM theories are insufficient and empirical studies are lacking. The paper identifies three approaches towards KCE from the literature. The proposed classification shows that KCE can be dealt with in various ways, and that an understanding concerning the practical workings, the contextual factors and effects of KCE ...

Cognition, tasks and planning: supporting the planning of shunting operations at the Netherlands Railways

One of the issues in planning research and planning practice are their apparent incompatibility. Various fields study aspects of planning, but too little is jointly used in practice. Starting from the human planner as a cognitive system, we elaborate the mixed initiative approach, in which we combine three fields: cognitive aspects of the task of the human planner, computer support, and algorithms. In this article, we argue that algorithms should be created for planners’ subtasks rather than for planning problems. We demonstrate this in a prototype that we developed for a shunting planning project we are involved in at the Netherlands Railways [Nederlandse Spoorwegen (NS)]. In this project, a task analysis resulted in a planning support system with bottom up designed scheduling algorithms.