Tony Holden

From knowledge theory to management practice: towards an integrated approach

This paper critically contrasts the three main schools of thought on knowledge – namely, those that respectively conceptualize knowledge as situated in mind, process, and object – and assesses the resulting implications for knowledge management (KM). Against the background of the existing diversity of definitions of KM an integrated and holistic view of the KM value chain is put forward. Within this theoretical framework five main research streams (culture, knowledge location, awareness, evaluation, and absorption) are identified with a view to devising a practical concept of KM applicable in a business context. With a focus on knowledge flow and detailed approaches to potential solutions, conflicts and compatibilities between existing business strategies and KM are examined. A conceptual model is devised to offer a holistic integration of the theoretical and practical themes in order to serve as a framework for developing a future research agenda for the development of theoretically grounded, yet practical, KM business tools and applications.

Where does knowledge management add value

This survey of senior managers at 25 international organizations tackles the key question: “Where does knowledge management add value?” The findings indicate that only a very limited number of organizations have a mechanism to track the return on investment in knowledge‐based competencies or related intangible assets. The majority were not able to determine the business value of their investment in this area. Most respondents agreed though that they had lost business opportunities as a result of poor knowledge practice. The results of this survey have led to the requirements of a conceptual model for the assessment of the return on investment in core knowledge‐based competencies.

Improved decision making through better integration of human resource and business process factors in a hospital situation

Business process models are designed in isolation but must be applied in real organizational and business situations. A key management concern is how to identify the nonprocess factors that allow a business process to achieve maximum performance. In this paper, we demonstrate the application of the KNOVA (KNOwledge Value-Added) technique to the problem of making visible the hitherto intangible people, culture, and knowledge factors that can easily influence the success or failure of a business process. We illustrate its application to the processes of a diagnostic team within a department of a large hospital. Two benefits ensue: (1) the articulation of a common understanding of the factors that affect team performance and, (2) the pinpointing of resource investment to maintain performance and reduce risk or cost.

A knowledge based technique for the process modelling of information systems: the Object Life Cycle Diagram

This paper presents a new technique for IS process/behavioural modelling. Object Life Cycle is proposed as an extension of the conventional entity life history diagram with a Petri-Net based formalism and an Event-Precondition-Action process representation. A normalization approach for IS process modelling is suggested and several OLC norms discussed. Generalization and aggregation of OLCs are explored along with the concepts of a substate and a component event. Coordination of the objects via event raising is visualized by the Inter-Object Communication Model. Finally, we discuss how OLCs relate with RUBRIC rules and data flow diagrams.

A hybrid artificial intelligence approach for improving yield in precious stone manufacturing

Reducing wastage from the unnecessary cutting of raw material is a key issue in the manufacture of diamonds and gemstones. The accuracy with which stones are graded prior to their being processed through the various manufacturing stages of cutting and finishing is a key determinant of yield and so profit. This presently manual activity requires a skilled craftsman to assess the grade and spot opportunities for upgrading through the judicious cutting away of imperfections in the raw material. There is however a balance to be struck between raising quality and lowering wastage. This paper describes iGem, an artificial intelligence tool that integrates rule-based knowledge representation, fuzzy logic and genetic algorithms to produce a system for automating, and introducing consistency into, the grading of diamonds and gemstones. In this paper we show how iGem derives its knowledge from repeated examples of previously correctly graded stones and can improve its performance by learning from experience. The industrial benefit of iGem extends beyond simply improving grading but also to the introduction of consistency and so greater control into the overall manufacturing process. We believe the approach described has application in other situations where overall yield and manufacturing efficiency depends on trade-off decisions between removal of imperfections and loss of material as well as consistency in quality assessment. A further noteworthy aspect of the iGem project is its development of an objective quality assessment technique out of a hitherto substantially subjective one.

An Object Oriented Database Approach for Supporting Hypertext

Almost all hypertext systems do not use DBMS as their information base. This paper describes a prototype, called InterSect, which is a hypertext system integrated with an object oriented database. The data model of InterSect is an object oriented hypertext data model. This model will be described by using Z specification language. There are three main features of the InterSect approach. First InterSect is designed in a fully object oriented way. Second, some important mechanisms such as versioning and composition of the next generation hypertext systems are supported by InterSect. Third, InterSect supports a conventional database view together with a hypertext view of the database contents. We will use as an example the software documentation environment in order to illustrate these characteristics of InterSect.

Complex Objects In Knowledge-based Requirement Engineering

An Object Relationship Model is proposed as part of a project to develop a knowledge-based requirement engineering assistant. This paper describes the basic data model of the ORM and then concentrates on the use of complex objects as a knowledge representation platform for requirement engineering. Different kinds of dependency and exclusiveness in a complex object are discussed. Three special type of roles: emergent, derived, and inherited roles are also investigated. A number of ways to provide knowledge-based support for the modelling of complex objects are then discussed: consistency and completeness checking, design history recording, and partial reuse of design.

KNOVA: modelling the knowledge value-added factors that influence business process performance in organisations

Business process models are designed in isolation but must be applied in real organisational and business situations. A key management concern is how to identify those levers of control that influence the factors that allow a business process to achieve maximum performance. We demonstrate the application of the KNOVA (KNOwledge Value-Added) technique to the problem of making visible the hitherto intangible people, culture and knowledge factors that can easily influence the success or failure of a business process. We illustrate its application to the processes of a diagnostic team within a department of a large hospital. Two benefits ensue: the articulation of a common understanding of the factors that affect team performance; and the pin-pointing of resource investment to maintain performance and reduce risk or cost.<<ETX>>

Survey of artificial intelligence impacts on information systems engineering

Abstract The field of information systems engineering (ISE) has developed rapidly over the past two decades, and the latest research in the field is largely along the direction of artificial intelligence (AI)-based support. Therefore, recent developments in AI technology (in particular, knowledge representation and knowledge-based systems) have significant impacts on ISE research. The paper surveys these impacts and discusses the major interactions between AI and ISE.

Understanding the dimensions of knowledge sharing: designing an intranet to improve operational performance in a multinational corporation

This paper describes how a large multinational company, BP, explored some important issues predating the delivery of a global companywide intranet for improving operational performance through improved sharing of best practice knowledge. Included are descriptions of the overall business motivations, the exploratory projects, a synthesis of the resulting conclusions and an explanation of the latterly implemented intranet itself. One key to success for this tool was the way cross-business-unit networks were deliberately directed in order to identify potential marriages between high performers in specific business-critical practices and units seeking a corresponding improvement. This paper will be of value to industrial readers, in that it provides an understanding of how electronic business technology was applied to leverage knowledge in a global and multi-cultural organisation following major changes. For academic readers, this paper provides empirical evidence and, to some degree, a longitudinal study of the success drivers for a knowledge-sharing project in a major organisation.