Wafi Al-Karaghouli

Research Trends in Knowledge Management: Analyzing the Past and Predicting the Future

Through a meta-data analysis of the literature over a 34-year period, this article aims to provide a review and investigation into the knowledge management field in terms of how the domain is represented along a number of dimensions including unit of analysis, research paradigm employed, and the research topics/issues investigated. Information on a series of variables was extracted after conducting a review of 1,043 articles on KM, published in various peer-reviewed journals between 1974–2008. The findings suggest that a combination of positivist, empirical, conceptual/descriptive, and multi-method approaches have been predominantly used in the area. Organizational as well as systems and environmental context-based KM research were found to be the most widely published topics within the KM domain. Further, the authors identified literature gaps that require more exploration and conceptual refinement in the context of knowledge management research.

Managing knowledge in business requirements identification

This paper reflects on experiences when traditional IT approaches were used to design large IT systems and ended in failure. The main reflections focus on the reasons for system failure and how they relate to the diversity of knowledge, managing knowledge, and the understanding gaps that may exist between the business and the system developers. The study reveals that the understanding gaps mainly result from lack of knowledge of business operations on the developer side, matched by lack of technical appreciation and knowledge on the user side. To help address the knowledge‐gap problem, a practical approach employing soft‐systems, diagramming and set mapping techniques is proposed and described.

The mediating effect of individual readiness for change in the relationship between organisational culture and TQM implementation

Despite the substantial body of existing literature examining the influence of organisational culture (OC) on total quality management (TQM) implementation, the mechanism through which an organisations culture comes to have an impact on TQM implementation has not been adequately addressed. The purpose of this article is to empirically examine the mediating role of individual readiness for change (IRFC) as one possible mechanism through which an organisations culture results in having an impact on TQM implementation. To achieve this, a questionnaire-based survey was developed and self-administered to 350 middle managers in Syrian manufacturing organisations. The analysis of the collected data revealed that the adhocracy and group culture types are the most supportive cultures for TQM implementation. Furthermore, the results of this study show support for the mediating role of IRFC in the relationship between OC and TQM implementation. Therefore, this article makes a novel contribution by providing a refined and deeper comprehension of the relationships between OC types and TQM implementation. The article highlights the managerial implications of the findings and suggests future research directions.

Alignment of large project management process to business strategy: A review and conceptual framework

– The purpose of this paper is to discuss in depth the factors that lead to misalignment between the project management (PM) and the business strategy by investigating four case studies in the telecommunications industry in Saudi Arabia. , – Due to the limited research on the subject of the alignment of PM and business strategy, the methodology used in this research was a case study in depth interview. , – The paper highlights the important factors that affect the process of aligning the PM to the business strategy. The companies that have strong alignment between the business strategy and the PM show successful projects outcome while the companies that have mismatch alignment show less successful projects outcome. , – The paper has investigated four telecommunications companies only. However, more companies will be better to compare the finding. Due to time constrains, the research has studied one project in each company. Each project was supporting one of the companys business strategies. More projects and business strategies will lead to clear picture of the alignment. Access to executives’ managers and CIOs was difficult. Several meetings were cancelled without short notice. , – This paper helps the companies to implement their business strategies with embedding their projects in the overall strategy. Also, helps the PM team to execute the projects in a strategic way. , – This paper contributes to the literature with a clear explanation of the concept of the alignment and provides a framework to ensure the alignment between the large PM process and the business strategy is achieved.

Delivering professional projects

Purpose – Owing to inadequate implementations of project management (PM) procedures and processes, many large information technology systems (ITS) projects failed to deliver its promises. Also, many of the failures in the implementation of large ITS projects around the world have been attributed to inadequate PM action. This criticism encompasses e‐government project initiatives which have attempted ambitious program change, major innovations, large transformations, enterprise wide solutions, collaboration across organisations, governments and private sectors, and the implementation of unprecedented (or ambitious) solutions. The purpose of this paper is to examine these issues.Design/methodology/approach – This paper forms part of an ongoing research of a PhD degree to describe, critically evaluate and examine the underlying barriers and challenges in large e‐government initiatives. Also, this paper examines change in organisations due to the change in the global economy and global information society as ...

An analysis of the influence of organisational culture on TQM implementation in an era of global marketing: the case of Syrian manufacturing organisations

Many recent research studies have examined the influence of organisational culture (OC) on the implementation of total quality management (TQM). However, research investigating the impact of OC on TQM implementation in developing countries has been relatively scarce, specifically in Syria. This study aims to fill this gap in the literature by empirically examining the influence of OC on TQM implementation in Syrian manufacturing organisations (SMOs). To achieve this, a questionnaire-based survey was developed and distributed to 350 middle managers in SMOs. The analysis of the collected data revealed that the adhocracy and group culture types are the most supportive cultures for the implementation of TQM practices. This paper presents new data and empirical insights into the relationship between OC types and TQM implementation in SMOs. The paper concludes with a discussion of the managerial implications of our findings, research shortcomings and suggestions for future research.

Negotiating and Understanding Information Systems Requirements: The Use of Set Diagrams

A major contributor to the failure of information technology-based systems is the problem of understanding user or customer requirements in the initial analysis and requirements identification stage of development. This paper identifies and describes an approach to help overcome some of these problems, particularly the mismatch or understanding gap between the customer and the developer. The approach is intended to be used at the early stages of requirement determination and introduces techniques from operational research into the process. In particular set theory and Venn diagrams are used as a way of graphically representing the relationships and gaps in understanding that may exist. The benefit obtained from the use of the technique is partly in the graphical representations themselves but mainly in the dialogue and negotiation that result from the construction of the diagrams. The technique has been developed in a research study of retail organisations’ use of information technology in the UK and an example case study from the sector is used to illustrate and discuss the technique.

Electronic word of mouth in social media: The common characteristics of retweeted and favourited marketer-generated content posted on Twitter

Marketers desire to utilise electronic word of mouth (eWOM) marketing on social media sites. However, not all online content generated by marketers has the same effect on consumers; some of them are effective while others are not. This paper aims to examine different characteristics of marketer-generated content (MGC) that of which one lead users to eWOM. Twitter was chosen as one of the leading social media sites and a content analysis approach was employed to identify the common characteristics of retweeted and favourited tweets. 2,780 tweets from six companies (Booking, Hostelworld, Hotels, Lastminute, Laterooms and Priceline) operating in the tourism sector are analysed. Results indicate that the posts which contain pictures, hyperlinks, product or service information, direct answers to customers and brand centrality are more likely to be retweeted and favourited by users. The findings present the main eWOM drivers for MGC in social media.

An empirical investigation of the influence of organizational culture on individual readiness for change in Syrian manufacturing organizations

Purpose – While few recent studies have paid attention to the relationship between organizational culture (OC) and individual readiness for change (IRFC), there is still a lack of systematic and empirical studies regarding the influence of all OC types on the IRFC components within the change management literature. This study aims to fill this gap in the literature by empirically examining the influence of all four organizational culture types of the competing values framework (CVF) on the components of IRFC regarding TQM implementation, within the context of manufacturing organizations operating in Syria. Design/methodology/approach – A total of four hypotheses were proposed for testing. A questionnaire was developed and distributed to 350 Syrian manufacturing organizations (SMOs) in order to measure the level of IRFC and to identify the cultural profiles and characteristics of these organizations. Findings – The analysis of the data collected shows that certain types of organizational culture are conduc...

The Effect of Knowledge Management in Enhancing the Procurement Process in the UK Healthcare Supply Chain

This article investigates the gap of diverse knowledge and misunderstanding between different parties in supply chain procurement in two West-London hospitals. The case studies identified communication as an issue in sharing and transferring the different knowledge between the two parties at the requirements stage and throughout the supply chain management. The developed framework facilitates sharing both tacit medical knowledge and tacit technical knowledge to be treated as continuous processes in matching requirements and specifications.