Sue R. Faerman

The Effect of Organizational/Technological Factors and the Nature of Knowledge on Knowledge Sharing

This study investigates the dynamics of a knowledge sharing effort in New York State government that involved multiple organizations, divisions, and geographically separated offices in the development of the Multi-Purpose Access for Customer Relations & Operational Support System. Using a case study approach, we address the question of how multiple organizational and technological factors — distributed leadership, alignment of issues and incentives, coordination of a number and variety of groups, trust, technology, and implementation strategy — interact with the nature of knowledge to influence the knowledge sharing process. A major contribution of this study is that it uses a multi-dimensional view of knowledge, examining the interactive impact of the nature of knowledge with multiple organizational and technological factors in public sector knowledge management research.

Distributed leadership in the development of a knowledge sharing system

This paper studies leadership dynamics in the development of a knowledge sharing system. We apply the concept of distributed leadership, examining how leadership roles are distributed across different individuals in the organisation during developing and implementing a knowledge sharing system. The results of a case study demonstrate that the leadership was fulfilled by the interdependent and emergent roles played by several individuals: the spearheading and coordinating roles of a knowledgeable and persistent project leader, the supporting and steering roles carried by a group of perceptive and collaboration-inclined executives, and the knowledge sharing and momentum driving roles performed by knowledge champions. Each of these leadership influences was indispensable. None of the leaders could have accomplished this task individually, without the active involvement of the other types of leaders. This research makes its contribution to the understanding of the emergence and dynamics of distributed leadership in the information system environment, and demonstrates the importance of a full awareness of distributed leadership as tasks are carried out in developing a knowledge sharing system.

Government Employees’ Organizational Citizenship Behavior: The Impacts of Public Service Motivation, Organizational Identification, and Subjective OCB Norms

ABSTRACT This study attempts to provide an increased understanding of the antecedents of public employees’ organizational citizenship behavior (OCB). Using a field survey involving public employees working for Korean local government organizations, the data analyses reveal that public service motivation (PSM), organizational identification, subjective OCB norms, task interdependence, and procedural justice are important antecedents of government employees’ OCB, even after partialling out the common method variance, whereas job satisfaction and distributive justice are not.

What Difference Do Ethical Leaders Make? Exploring the Mediating Role of Interpersonal Justice and the Moderating Role of Public Service Motivation

ABSTRACT Public management scholars have lamented the lack of research examining the influence of ethical leadership on employee behaviors in the public sector. Using a multi-source dataset of 196 public employees in 44 work units, we sought to address this gap by examining how and when ethical leadership influences employee job performance (i.e., task performance and citizenship behaviors). Drawing on social exchange theory, we propose that ethical leadership behavior exhibited by supervisors will influence perceptions of interpersonal justice, which, in turn, will positively impact employee job performance. In addition, we hypothesize that the effect of interpersonal justice perceptions will be moderated by public service motivation. Our findings reveal that the influence of ethical leadership was fully mediated by perceptions of interpersonal justice. This influence, in turn, was moderated by public service motivation, such that those with lower public service motivation were most strongly affected by interpersonal justice perceptions. The findings provide support for our proposed moderated mediation model. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.

The nature of knowledge and its influence on knowledge sharing practice: experiences from building the MACROS system

This study investigates how the interactive influences of the nature of knowledge and multiple organizational and technological factors - trust, leadership, incentives and issues, group size and variety, implementation strategy, and technology - facilitated and/or impeded the knowledge sharing processes. Using a case study approach, the research focuses on the modifying effects of four characteristics of knowledge- codifiability, context-embeddedness, practice-embeddedness, and dynamics- on the processes and outcomes of knowledge sharing in a case of building the multi-purpose access for customer relations & operational support (MACROS) system involving multiple organizations, divisions, and geographically separated offices. The case results suggest that modifying effects occurred along at least three dimensions- codifiability, context-embeddedness, and practice-embeddedness. The levels of codifiability appeared to dictate the implementation strategy; reduced context-embeddedness allowed for more effective group coordination; reduced context-embeddedness also enhanced trust; codified knowledge is more effective than uncodified knowledge in demonstrating concrete incentives; and technology interacts with context-embeddedness and practice-embeddedness. The results of this study have theoretical and practical implications for a larger set of problems encountered in sizable organizations. More specifically, even though the relevance of the nature of knowledge has been widely acknowledged by I. Nonaka, et. al. (2001), it is not always clear how it comes into play. This study conceptualized the nature of knowledge as a modifying variable, and the results provide a new and more comprehensive framework for investigating the relevance of the nature of knowledge in knowledge management research.

Employing the intellectual bandwidth model to measure value creation in collaborative environments

Nunamaker et at. (2001) introduced the intellectual bandwidth (IB) model as a research tool to help decision makers to better understand value creation. Bach et al. (2003) used the IB model to map value creation attributes of an information system in a conceptual real-world business case involving the diagnosis and treatment of HIV patients. This paper describes a methodological approach that enables practitioners to use the IB model to identify potential areas of value creation. It presents a pragmatic way of employing the IB model for the HIV information system and discusses possible ways to conceptualize, operationalize, and ultimately measure value creation in collaborative environments, such as those encountered in worldwide networked research environments. Technical and human aspects are inseparable factors for value creation in organizations. The technological aspects include the application of technology as well as organization concepts such as strategy. Human aspects include collaboration and the collaborative interplay between humans employing technology. With the IB model it is possible to emphasize the importance of both dimensions. This model makes pragmatic data analysis possible without requiring practitioners to deal with complicated statistical analyses. In this way research that is useful for theory and practice is possible.

Shared Regulation in the United States Securities Industry

The processes determining regulatory impacts are increasingly centered within firms and industries themselves, and in the working relationships among private and public actors. This article examines two aspects of this issue: (a) the effects of economic interdependence on the social control of industry and (b) the emergence and behavior of regulatory professions within the private sector and their collaboration with public regulatory counterparts. We consider how these forces have influenced private regulation in the United States securities industry.

Divergent approaches and converging views: drawing sensible linkages between knowledge management and organizational learning

Knowledge management (KM) and organizational learning (OL) have developed in both divergent and convergent ways. In particular, these fields have relatively distinct intellectual traditions and conditions that gave rise to disciplines, as well as a certain level of disparity in research focus and view of knowledge. For example, KM focuses more on the content of knowledge and products of managing the knowledge, while OL emphasizes the process of meaning creation, decision making, and growth of learning capability. The two literatures also reveal, however, convergences with regard to the nature of knowledge and knowledge sharing in the organizational context. Thus the two fields have started to establish a consolidated view of knowledge, in which knowledge is related to practice and situated in the historical, social, and cultural context where it is created and acquired. In addition, both fields recognize the multi-level nature of knowledge and learning and are striving to bridge the gap between individual knowledge and collective memories.

Becoming a Manager: Learning the Importance of Emotional and Social Competence in Managerial Transitions:

This article explores how newly promoted managers develop emotional and social competencies to understand their and others’ emotions and then use this understanding for personal growth and in their interactions with others. This study draws on five waves of semistructured interview data collected from 16 newly promoted managers in a large northeastern state agency. The findings suggest that new managers undergo a developmental process—role exit, movement, and role entry—as they make the transition from individual contributors to managers. At each stage of the process, their emotional and social competence (ESC) facilitates learning and moving to the next stage. In addition, throughout the process, new managers develop their ESC and utilize the benefits in their daily decision-making and management behaviors. The findings also suggest that organizational context is an important factor that defines the contents of ESC in the organization. Based on these findings, this study argues that organizations should help new managers understand the emotional aspects of managerial transitions in developing their selection and training practices.