1,720,975 research outputs found
Who needs memory? The case for the Markovian organisation
No full textThis paper examines the contradiction of organisational memory: that an organisation requires a memory to operate effectively, but that that same memory inhibits and constrains its ability to operate effectively. We briefly review the field of organisational memory and note its close connection with organisational learning.We introduce a conceptual framework pioneered by Schultze and Stabell for examining contradictions in the area of knowledge management. We use this framework to distinguish between the conventional view of organisational memory, which implicitly or explicitly regards knowledge as a commodity, and a constructivist view, from which emerges a picture of the Markovian organisation: an organisation the future behaviour of which is determined not by memories of the past but by its current state, characterised by an organisational consciousness informed by the activities in which it is engaged. While the emphasis of this paper is theoretical, we suggest that adopting this Markovian view of the organisation might be particularly appropriate to practitioners in organisations that are immersed in turbulent environments.<br/
"Are you sitting comfortably? Then I'll begin (...to transfer some knowledge?)" Narrative approaches to the transfer and interpretation of organisational knowledge
No full textThe identification and cultivation of appropriate communities of practice in higher education
No full textThis chapter is specifically concerned with Communities of Practice of teachers, rather then students, in Higher Education, and with the teaching role rather than other roles such as research (although many of the arguments presented within the chapter can be generalised to other contexts). Following a short introduction to Communities of Practice, the chapter presents a classification of Communities of Practice utilising the dimensions of community structure and of knowledge activity. Drawing upon the work of Wenger, McDermott and Snyder (2002), the cultivation of Communities of Practice is discussed, and the question of how different types of community may be cultivated is considered. The chapter then addresses how these considerations may apply within Higher Education teaching. It is concluded that a flexible approach, which allows the nature of a Community of Practice to be modified in accordance with needs, is desirable
Leadership evaluation: an impact evaluation of a leadership programme
No full textThe HCIU and the School of Management undertook an empirical investigation into the impact of Leadership Development for NHS middle-management staff. The cohort was a cross-disciplinary mix of clinical and management personnel from 17 NHS organisations in Hampshire and the Isle of Wight. The research focused on evaluating the impact of the development intervention on the individuals and their organisations. The aims were to identify if such an intervention changes the thinking and behaviour of staff and their organisations, without losing sight of evaluating the costs and benefits of a development programme. The framework used for the evaluation was Phillips and Phillips’ modified version of Kirkpatrick’s framework for training evaluation.The results show that the intervention had a substantial impact on the individuals taking part. The participants reported improved self-confidence, more reflective and broader thinking, a heightened sense for other people’s behaviours and actions, and some participants also reported the acquisition of useful management tools to initiate and deal with change and its inherent challenges. However, the research also showed that training and development within the NHS tends to happen haphazardly rather than as an organisation-wide coordinated action. Nearly all research participants (including line-managers of the course participants) confirmed that there are rarely any mechanisms in place to support the application or integration of newly acquired knowledge and skills once back within the working environment. This was amplified by the disintegrated approach of selection and needs analysis on an organisational level before sending individuals on the programme. As the evaluated programme was part of a WDC sponsored pilot project, the cost-benefit analysis did not deliver any significant results. However, it was clear that the lack of appropriate needs analysis contributed to the lack of potential measure to assess the usefulness and benefits of such an intervention. Based on these findings the research report produced a number of recommendations for the strategic, operational, and individual levels within an organisation.<br/
The challenges of navigating a topic to a prospective researcher: the case of knowledge management research
No full textExploring a researchable topic and narrowing it down sufficiently to make it workable is a first task in any scientific research. This is particularly difficult when the researcher is a novice, because s(he) is unlikely to be properly aware of what the essential issues and the research question(s) in the field are. This article addresses the question of how to navigate a research topic for an academic project. The article is potentially of interest to novice researchers and researchers new to a field. Illustrating its argument by means of an example in the area of knowledge management, the article proposes a set of guidelines for narrowing down a research topic to workable size. A number of recommendations are made; by utilizing these recommendations to construct a navigation map, it is hoped that a researcher can use fully formulate research question(s). It can be argued that drawing such a navigation map is an art in which prospective researchers need to be trained
Towards a knowledge management consultation system
No full textKnowledge is a source of competitive advantage but moves towards inter-organizational collaboration mean that firms must give a high priority to knowledge management to ensure that they obtain maximum benefit from both internally generated and acquired knowledge. Knowledge transfer either to collaborators or internally is performed both on a person-to-person basis or more often by machine-to-person interaction. While knowledge management has been researched, there is little work that tries to model the fundamental interactions between repositories of knowledge or expertise and those seeking to acquire it. This paper introduces the concept of a knowledge management consultation system. The paper provides a characterization of the structure and functioning of such a system, in particular considering its necessary components, and distinguishes between knowledge, need and the carriers of these components. A model incorporating these components is proposed and an example is used to illustrate the scope and relationship of the components within the model. Implications of the model and its role in a research agenda for organizationally useful knowledge management systems are presented
Skilled for improvement? Learning communities and the skills needed to improve care: an evaluative service development
No full textThis report tells the story of the Learning Communities Initiative, in which an experienced research team used an action approach (combining action research and action learning) to study four improvement projects across two sites, while working with participants to facilitate the flow of knowledge and learning.The report provides a graphic and illuminating description of the difficulties and barriers which arise in improvement work
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