Wing Lam

Why KM projects fail: a multi‐case analysis

Purpose – This paper attempts to understand the reasons for knowledge management (KM) project failure.Design/methodology/approach – Five well‐documented cases of KM project failure in the current literature are reviewed. For each case, the authors examine the circumstantial elements of the failure, including the rationale and intended objectives of the KM project, the outcomes of the project and the reasons that led to project failure.Findings – From the review, two observations are made. First, KM failure factors fall into four distinct categories, namely, technology, culture, content, and project management. Second, KM projects can be traced along a three‐stage lifecycle, comprising initiation, implementation, and integration.Research limitations/implications – The findings are discussed and finally synthesized into a model of KM project failure. The model serves as a starting‐point for future research in KM project implementation.Practical implications – Practitioners may use the model as a risk identi...

Quality assurance in online education: The Universitas 21 Global approach

Despite the proliferation of online education, concerns remain about the quality of online programmes. Quality assurance (QA) has become a prominent issue, not only for educational institutions and accreditors, but also for students and employers alike. This paper describes some of the rather unique QA processes used at Universitas 21 Global (U21G), one of the new breed of online academic institutions, and its relation to U21pedagogica, the independent agency that approves U21G’s programmes. These distinctive QA processes relate to five main areas, namely, content authoring, courseware development, adjunct faculty recruitment, pedagogy and delivery. The authors believe that these QA processes have contributed significantly to student satisfaction and student retention at U21G. Furthermore, these QA processes can also be adapted to suit more traditional ‘brick-and-mortar’ universities offering online programmes.

The mismanagement of knowledge management

Purpose – To examine the causes of knowledge management (KM) failure.Design/methodology/approach – A multi‐case analysis approach was used to review five documented cases of KM failure in the literature. Categories of risk were identified through an iterative analysis of each case.Findings – There are four main categories of risk associated with KM failure, namely technology risk, culture risk, content risk and project management risk. The nature of these risks differs dependent upon the stage of a KM project.Research limitations/implications – A limited number of cases were reviewed.Practical implications – Practitioners need to proactively manage risk to avoid failure in KM projects.Originality/value – Proposes a taxonomy of KM risk.

Knowledge outsourcing: an alternative strategy for knowledge management

Purpose – In knowledge outsourcing, external knowledge providers, rather than in‐house experts, are contracted to provide services which result in the production of knowledge‐intensive assets for the organisation. The purpose of this paper is to present the notion of knowledge outsourcing as an alternative strategy for knowledge management.Design/methodology/approach – A case study research method is adopted to examine the knowledge outsourcing processes and activities at a for‐profit higher education enterprise that has been successful in using a knowledge outsourcing approach in the development of its online courseware.Findings – A general process model of knowledge outsourcing is developed from the case data. The paper also draws attention to three conditions under which knowledge outsourcing may be a suitable strategy for knowledge management. Additionally, two main areas of knowledge outsourcing risk, which are related to the quality of knowledge services and the effort required to manage the outsour...

Knowledge reuse in action: the case of CALL

This paper reviews how the Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL), an intelligence unit within the US Army, has entrenched a unique knowledge reuse process into its modus operandi. It highlights several issues related to knowledge reuse, including the collection, distillation and dissemination of knowledge, the role of subject experts in the knowledge reuse process and how technology facilitates knowledge reuse. For practitioners, this paper offers an inspiring exemplar of knowledge reuse success. For researchers, existing theoretical grounds for knowledge reuse have been opened for further debate.

An analysis of knowledge outsourcing at Eduware

Purpose – This paper introduces the notion of knowledge outsourcing (KO) where external knowledge providers (KP), rather than internal experts, are contracted to provide knowledge services. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of KO in knowledge management (KM) and the circumstances under which KO is most likely to be successful.Design/methodology/approach – Using the case study approach, the fieldwork is done at Eduware, an organization that develops and markets e‐learning courseware. Apart from conducting semi‐structured interviews with diverse stakeholders in the organization, archival data from Eduware are collected for triangulation purposes.Findings – On the basis of the case data, two distinct types of KO relationships have been identified in Eduware. Furthermore, the risks of KO included both product‐related and process‐related ones. Three conditions under which KO are most likely to be successful were: first, a lack of in‐house expertise; second, the availability of suitable external ...

Real Problems with Virtual Teams: An Analysis of the Factors Leading to Dysfunctional Online Collaboration

In online education, virtual teams play an important role in collaborative and peer learning. Unlike traditional face-to-face teams, the students in a virtual team may be geographically distributed, work in different time zones, and may never physically meet face-to-face. Universitas 21 Global, one of the new breed of online universities, has incorporated the use of virtual teams in its pedagogy since the inception of its MBA programme in August 2003. In their capacity as lead instructors, whose role it is to oversee the smooth running of individual class sections, the researchers report on some of the problems that have been observed with virtual teams.

Center for Army Lessons Learned: Knowledge Application Process in the Military

This paper is an instructional case that describes how the Center for Army Lessons Learned (CALL) has developed a unique, institutionalised knowledge application process. The paper highlights several issues related to knowledge application, including the collection, distillation, and dissemination of knowledge, the role of subject experts in the knowledge application process, and how technology facilitates knowledge application. Interested readers can contact the lead author for a list of questions and suggested answers intended for teaching the process of knowledge application to graduate students.