Vilma Vuori

Knowledge sharing motivational factors of using an intra‐organizational social media platform

Purpose – This paper aims to discuss the motivational factors affecting the knowledge sharing through an intra‐organizational social media platform and to answer the following research questions: “What motivates employees to share their knowledge through an intra‐organizational social media platform?”; “What impedes them sharing knowledge this way?”; and “Do these factors differ from those motivational factors regarding knowledge sharing in general?”.Design/methodology/approach – The paper approaches the issue from both theoretical and empirical viewpoints. The motivational factors regarding knowledge sharing in general are summed up from literature. The social media platform perspective to the issue is studied by conducting a survey in two companies.Findings – The results reveal that the motivation to share knowledge through an intra‐organizational social media platform is the desire to help the organization reach its goals and helping colleagues, while financial rewards and advancing ones career were s...

Refining information and knowledge by social media applications

Purpose – The paper seeks to discuss how traditional knowledge refining processes differ from those enabled by using social media applications. By addressing the topic with practical examples the paper aims to outline how collaborative work setting and social media tools are used in refining unstructured and unmanaged knowledge for value adding purposes.Design/methodology/approach – The paper is a conceptual analysis with reflections on current practices.Findings – The paper proposes that the collaborative setting provided by social media applications enables sharing of different insights: combining mutual insights as well as discussing conflicting insights helps to form a more multifaceted and truthful understanding on issues. Utilizing social media applications as collaborative tools also enriches information as it can also contain elements that are not predestined as in common business information systems. Social media applications empower employees to collaborate and contribute to intra‐organizational...

Risks and benefits of knowledge sharing in co-opetitive knowledge networks

The purpose of this paper is to examine the benefits and risks of knowledge sharing in co-opetitive networks. Whilst some studies address the risks of co-opetition, this work examines how the risk or protection perspective is linked specifically to knowledge sharing in co-opetition. Knowledge is a valuable asset for companies, and sharing knowledge with competitors may provide major benefits yet also create major risks. The approach taken is to examine previous research from the angle of co-opetitive knowledge networks and knowledge sharing. Through the methodology of a literature review, the piece offers solid evidence that knowledge sharing and co-opetition in knowledge networks is an area that has not been widely studied. It thus shows that there is room for further studies in this field, which should address how a good balance between sharing and protection of knowledge within co-opetition can be found.

Application for pre-processing and visualization of electrodermal activity wearable data

Using sensors to gather physiological data about users can provide valuable insights that are not available merely using traditional measures. Electrodermal activity (EDA) can act as an indicator for both physiological and psychological arousal. Measuring arousal has several application areas. For instance, prolonged and often recurring high arousal levels can indicate that a person is suffering from chronic stress. At the other extreme, for example, in elderly care constant low arousal levels can signal that the senior citizens are not getting enough activity and attention from the care personnel. In the context of events, measurement of arousal can indicate when the persons get excited and when they are more calm. This study presents a pilot study of EDA measurements conducted during a trade fair. Providing timely and meaningful information for a group of people being measured, however, requires pre-processing the data and creating visualizations that enable both individual and collective level sense-making of the results. The aim of this study was to develop a process and an open source application that can automatically pre-process large amounts of data from wearable sources, and create visualizations, to be used in events for immediate sense-making.

The role of an intermediator organisation in collaboration: how can an intermediator enhance value co-creation?

Collaboration brings synergy to organisations and leads towards superior value co-creation. However, successful collaboration and value co-creation face several challenges. We state that these challenges can be addressed with the help of an intermediator organisation (IO), and that it subsequently has a positive effect on value co-creation. This paper analyses the IO’s part in value co-creation in a collaboration network. Based on theoretical and empirical research the activities and consequent value creating benefits an IO brings to collaboration depend on the role or roles it plays in the network. According to our findings an IO can act as a creator, coordinator, facilitator, node and a resource. An IO facilitates the creation, development and maintaining of network relationships during collaboration. The value an IO creates is mainly indirect and intangible by nature and thus difficult to measure.

The relation between knowledge transfer and productivity in knowledge work

Abstract Within the modern ICT-enabled knowledge work context, questions related to access to information and knowledge-sharing practices have received growing research attention. However, there is still surprisingly little empirical research exploring the actual impact of effective knowledge transfer to work productivity. The purpose of this paper is to fulfil this research gap and empirically study whether there are any differences in subjective work productivity based on how the knowledge worker perceives the level of information flow and knowledge transfer within the organisation. Furthermore, the aim is to determine whether there are differences between the extent to which the positively experienced information flow and knowledge transfer impact experienced work productivity. Through the survey method, data were collected from 998 knowledge workers from Finland in various sizes of organisations. The quantitative data were analysed using SPSS software descriptive statistics, correlations and U-tests. The practical value of the study is in the analysis results. The paper presents the value of information flows and knowledge transfer to knowledge work productivity. This increased understanding will help managers to evaluate the effects of investing in supporting information flows and knowledge transfer within their organisations.

Digitalization in knowledge work: the dream of enhanced performance

The landscape and nature of knowledge work is changing due to digitalization. There are many expectations set for the digitalization and its impact on knowledge work performance. In this paper, the purpose is to critically examine the effects of digitalization on knowledge work performance through an empirical study consisted of multiple datasets representing knowledge workers in four different professions and three vocation sectors. The study is able to show that even though knowledge workers gain several benefits from digitalization, the effects of opposite, value destroying factors, are still stronger. This study contributes to the timely discussion on modern work by identifying the potential restraints and showing their relation to performance. Moreover, based on the results of the study, the critical areas that need managerial attention in digitalizing knowledge work are highlighted.

Enablers and restraints of knowledge work – Implications by certain professions?

Abstract Knowledge work (KW) has risen to a significant role in modern societies, leading to an increasing number of the knowledge workers. Digitalization changes the work life, challenging individuals representing different professions as well as organizations. KW and the traditional professions are changing in many ways, opening up new vistas. The purpose of this article is to analyse and compare the enablers and restraints of KW in different professions: the medical practice, the clergy, the legal profession and the teachers. The article seeks the KW enablers and restraints similar or different between these selected professions, and further, discusses the impact of the identified enablers and restraints to work performance. The empirical data was gathered with unstructured interviews using a narrative interview method. Questions were open so that the situations were similar to a discussion. The interviewer posed further questions to deeper the interviewee’s answers and to build the continuity of the interview upon them. This methodology puts in evidence on similarity of working habits, socio-technical systems and work-flows of within and between professions. The article also builds profession related taxonomy of key findings and discusses those from the performance and managerial perspective.