Preview

Ikmm

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
5566 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Ikmm
An Analysis of Collaborative Group Structure Technological
Facilitation from a Knowledge Management Perspective
Kevin J. O’Sullivan and Syed W. Azeem
School of Management, New York Institute of Technology, USA kosulliv@nyit.edu sazeem@nyit.edu
Abstract: A range of collaborative group structures are analysed from the perspective of knowledge management enabling technologies. A framework is developed demonstrating the application and role of specific technologies in supporting collaborative group structures including Communities of Practice, Centres of Practice, Special Interest
Groups, Centres of Competence and Communities of Competence. In evaluating the utilisation of such technologies, the nature, purpose and capabilities of such group structures are analysed.
Keywords: communities of practice, knowledge management, communities of competence, knowledge management technologies years, organisations have strived to create more effective ways to get work done and fully utilise the maximum potential of their employees. This paper is focused on establishing a guideline for the use of collaborative structures in terms of increased productivity and the optimisation of innovation. 1. Introduction
It is widely claimed by contemporary organisations that their most valuable asset are their employees, or more precisely the human capital these individuals possess. Human capital (HC) is defined as the “combined capabilities of knowledge, skill, innovativeness and the ability of individuals to meet the task at hand” and intellectual capital (IC), being the value creation aspect, consists largely of human capital as well as intellectual property (O’Sullivan and Stankosky
2004). In the current knowledge based economy, filled with intense competition, globalisation and rapid technological change, IC is the future basis of sustained competitive advantage (Perez and de
Pablos 2003). Ulrich (1998) defines IC, in mathematical terms, as the



References: Burr, R. and Girardi, A. (2002) ‘Intellectual capital: more than the interaction of competence x commitment’, Australian Journal of Management, vol Koh, J. and Kim, Y. G. (2004): Knowledge Sharing in Virtual Communities: an E-Business Perspective. Expert Systems with Applications vol 26 no 1, pp Lave, J. and Wenger, E. (1991) Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation, Cambridge, MA: Cambridge University Press. Lesser, E. and Storck, J. (2001) ‘Communities of Practice and Organisational Performance’, IBM Systems Journal, vol. 40, no. 4, pp. Lewis, J., Wright, P. and Geroy, G. (2004) ‘Managing human capital: The study of a self-managed group venturing into the digital economy’, Management Decision, vol Liedtka, J. (1998) ‘Linking Competitive Advantage With Communities of Practice’, Journal of Management Inquiry, vol. 8, no. 1, pp Mohamed, M., Stankosky, M. and Murray, A. (2004), ‘Applying knowledge management principles to cross-functional team performance’, Journal of Knowledge Management, vol O’Sullivan, K. and Stankosky, M. (2004) ‘The impact of knowledge management technology on intellectual capital’, Journal of Information and Knowledge Management, vol O 'Sullivan, K. (2005) ‘Creating Competitive Advantage from Human Resource and Human Capital Management through Knowledge Engineering’, WSEAS Transactions on Business and Economics, vol Perez, J. and de Pablos, P. (2003) ‘Knowledge management and organisational competitiveness: a framework for human capital analysis’, Journal of Knowledge Management, vol Sharkie, R. (2003) ‘Knowledge creation and its place in the development of sustainable competitive advantage’, Journal of Knowledge Management, vol Smith, E. (2001) ‘The role of tacit and explicit knowledge in the workplace’, Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 5, no. 4, pp. Smith, E. (2005) ‘Communities of Competence: new resources in the workplace’, Journal of Workplace Learning, vol. 17, no. 1/2, pp Ulrich, D. (1998) ‘Intellectual Capital = Competence x Commitment’, Sloan Management Review, vol. 39, no. 2, pp. 15-25. van Marrewijk, M. and Timmers, J. (2003) ‘Human Capital Management: New Possibilities in People Management’, Journal of Business Ethics, vol Wenger, E., McDermott, R. and Snyder, W. (2002) Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge, Boston: Harvard Business. Zarraga, C. and Garcia-Falcon, J. (2003) ‘Factors favoring knowledge management in work teams, Journal of Knowledge Management, vol

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Best Essays

    References: Kleinman, L.S, 2007, ‘Human resource Management: A Managerial tool for competitive Advantage, New York, South –Western College Publishing…

    • 2624 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    530 Assignment 1

    • 807 Words
    • 3 Pages

    References: Bierly, P, & Daly, P. (2002). Aligning human resource management practices and knowledge strategies. The strategic management of intellectual capital and organizational knowledge, 277-95.…

    • 807 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    How should Red Bull market its brand in the future? I think, although Red Bull has been extremely successful in the past, times have changed and the company and products should change with it, otherwise we probably lose market share to the tremendous increased number of competitors in no time.At the height of early mornings and late nights, Red Bull energy drink became the fuel of choice for people from all walks of life. So how is Red Bull marketing its brand to meet the changing needs and budgets of its customers? How will the privately owned Austrian company expand its product line beyond the silver-bullet beverage that "gives you wings"? My conclusion is that we should focus on direct marketing and use this to bring in a more diverse population of users.…

    • 1379 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" is a short story that leaves many unanswered questions, tells the tale of a woman who is not upset about her husband's passing and describes a struggle for identity.…

    • 387 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Best Fit vs Best Practice

    • 1802 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Bibliography: 1. Armstrong, M. (2006). A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. London: Kogan Page Publishers. 1. Boxall P. and Purcell, J (2003) Strategy and Human Resource Management London: Palgrave, Chapters 2&3. 1. MacDuffie, J. P. (1995). “Human Resource Bundles and Manufacturing Performance: Organizational Logic and Flexible Production Systems in the World Auto Industry.” Industrial and Labor Relations Review, 48, 197-221. 1. Marchington, M. & Grugulis, I. (2000). “Best Practice Human Resource Management: Perfect Opportunity or Dangerous Illusion?” International Journal of Human Resource Management, 11, 905-25. . 2. Pfeffer, J. (1994). Competitive Advantage Through People: Unleashing the Power of the Workforce. Boston: Harvard University Press. 1. Pfeffer, J. (1995). “Producing Sustainable Competitive Advantage Through the Effective Management of People.” Academy of Management Executive, Vol. 9 No.1. 1. Porter, M.E. (1985). Competitive Advantage. New York: The Free Press, 11-15. 1. Purcell, J. (1999). “Best Practice or Best Fit: Chimera or Cul-de-sac?” Human Resource Management Journal, 9(3). 1. Schein, E. (1978). “Increasing Organizational Effectiveness Through Better Human Resource Planning and Development.” Sloan Management Review, 19(1): 1-20. 1. Schuler, R. S. & Jackson, S. E. (1987). “Linking Competitive Strategies With HRM Management Strategies.” Academy of Management Executive, 1, 207–19.…

    • 1802 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Sometimes couples who cannot conceive a baby by themselves choose to use a surrogate mother, where another woman carries their child. One way of surrogacy is when a woman who 's unable to carry a baby to term, but is otherwise fertile, has her embryos transplanted to the surrogate mother. The eggs might be fertilized by the biological father or by artificial insemination if the male has fertility issues. In other cases, a surrogate mother is in fact the biological mother of the child as her very own eggs are used to create the embryo.…

    • 891 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Today, human resources are seen as "the available talents and energies of people who are available to an organization as potential contributors to the creation and realization of the organization's mission, vision, strategy and goals" (Jackson and Schuler, 2000, p. 37).There exist two models that seek to describe what strategy is and how an organization should develop such strategy. The first model known as the Industrial Organization (I/O) model is based on the assumption that firms competing in the same industries are homogenous and emphasizes the external environment as the basis for organizational decision making. The second model, called the Resource Based View contrasts the I/O model by assuming that individual firms are unique and composed of distinct bundle of resources. According to the resource based perspective, firms attempt to develop and exploit distinctive competencies based on the physical, organizational and human capital resources under their control. Eventually, these distinctive competencies may lead to sustainable competitive advantages and superior performance. The emphasis on human capital resources leads to understanding the role of strategic human resource management in gaining competitive advantage.…

    • 1538 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Knowledge has become the key factor of productivity and competitive advantage for organizations in today’s economy. Since knowledge can only be created, utilized and transferred by human beings, it is clear that human resource is the most important asset of a modern…

    • 1138 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    L&D at work. Evidence about the practice of L&D at work depending on line manager involvement…

    • 5762 Words
    • 24 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    kjkljk ijlkj

    • 15500 Words
    • 65 Pages

    Brown, J.S., Duguid, P., 1991. Organisational learning and communities-of-practice: toward a unified view of working, learning, and innovation.…

    • 15500 Words
    • 65 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    * Narsimha, S. (2000) Organizational Knowledge, Human Resource Management and Sustained Competitive Advantage Towards A Frameworks Review 10(1), pp.123-136.…

    • 2688 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Karl Sveiby was an early proponent of the intellectual capital evolution and has advanced the notion of intellectual capital as it applies to organisational knowledge management. As a researcher and manager of numerous ‘knowledge intensive’ organisations Karl Sveiby, along with other prominent gurus in knowledge management, viewed knowledge as comprising of tacit (ie., verbalised, non-codifable knowledge, such as culture, symbols, artefacts) and explicit (ie., codified information such as systems, procedures, libraries, databases) elements.…

    • 377 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Introduction Knowledge management (KM) is about developing, sharing and applying knowledge within the organization to gain and sustain a competitive advantage (Petersen and Poulfelt 2002). How, then, is human resource management (HRM) related to knowledge management? Scholars have argued recently that knowledge is dependent on people and that HRM issues, such as recruitment and selection, education and development, performance management, pay and reward, as well as the creation of a learning culture are vital for managing knowledge within firms (Evans 2003; Carter and Scarbrough 2001; Currie and Kerrin 2003; Hunter et al 2002; Robertson and Hammersley 2000). Stephen Little, Paul Quintas and Tim Ray go as far as to trace the origin of KM to changes in HRM practices: One of the key factors in the growth of interest in knowledge management in the 1990s was the rediscovery that employees have skills and knowledge that are not available to (or ´captured´ by) the organization. It is perhaps no coincidence that this rediscovery of the central importance of people as possessors of knowledge vital to the organization followed an intense period of corporate downsizing, outsourcing and staff redundancies in the West in the 1980s (2002: 299). The aim of this paper is, first, to analyse which impact HRM practices, such as strategy, selection and hiring, training, performance management, and remuneration have on the creation and distribution of knowledge within firms. Second, the paper attempts to assess whe ther or not knowledge management requires a particular human resource strategy. This paper is a work in progress based on a literature review. However, at the end of the paper a synthesis of previous debate is presented to enrich the…

    • 8424 Words
    • 34 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    E-Learning

    • 3644 Words
    • 15 Pages

    E-learning is changing the way companies (Cisco systems, BAE Systems) gain competitive advantage through efficient use of funds and time with employees. SBUs enterprises have to face the problem that e-learning technologies, methods and strategies have mostly been developed for the needs of large enterprises and cannot be exactly transferred to their needs. There are many companies who provide e-learning courses some of them are: 3P Learning, Omniplex, Learnframe, Bright Wave and 2Epic group plc which is the UK’s largest e-learning provider. E-learning companies (e.g. Saba, DigitalThink, SmartForce) continue to sell on very strong revenue multiples. These high multiples, up to 25 times the current yearly revenue, are still holding firm, despite the downfall of dot.com companies in general (Alexander 2000).…

    • 3644 Words
    • 15 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In any organisation gaining and sustaining a competitive advantage is of critical importance in how successful and profitable the organisation is or can be. A competitive advantage according to Michael Porter (1985) “is the extent to which an organization is able to create a defensible position over its competitors” In that regard, in order for organisations to facilitate the gaining and sustaining of a competitive advantage, they must ensure that all of their resources are effectively and efficiently managed. However with the constant changes in the environment of business, organisations can no longer depend on just having the best equipment or the closet proximity to customers, but this is where having competent human resources becomes essential. According to the Oxford University Press dictionary of Human Resource Management (2001) human resource management “is a means through which an organisation can gain a competitive advantage. The employees are one of the key factors in an organisation, and through carefully developing and managing them; they will ultimately be the critical factors that distinguish successful orgainsation from unsuccessful organisation.”…

    • 1562 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Powerful Essays

Related Topics