The advancements in social media are producing important effects on the way organizations manage knowledge internally, because they facilitate active participation of all employees and free knowledge sharing. This can improve the capability of companies to effectively manage tacit knowledge, which has always been considered a crucial issue in the knowledge management (KM) literature. However, the impacts of social media on KM activities have only been partially analyzed. In particular, although the benefits and advantages of social media have often been emphasized, less attention has been devoted to their limitations and problems. The paper contributes to filling this gap by examining an unintended consequence of the use of social media, namely, the “cognitive overload” effect. The experience of a big consulting company that uses social media to support knowledge creation and transfer within its global communities of professionals has been analyzed. The findings of the study provide inspiration for future research and lessons for companies seeking to use social media to support innovative approaches to KM.
It is increasingly considered important to understand how companies plan their Knowledge Management (KM) strategy. The literature provides evidence that there may be different possible approaches to KM strategy. A significant distinction has been made between “codification” and “personalization”. Sometimes, these two approaches have been seen to be alternative to one another. In other cases scholars argued that a company can follow a strategy that mixes the two approaches depending on diverse intertwined factors. Still, on this topic, the literature provides various and sometimes contrasting results that need clarification and confirmation. Especially, there is the need to understand if changes in internal and external conditions may induce modifications in a firm’s KM strategy.The goal of the study is to analyse how the mix of codification and personalisation can vary over time in the same company, due to changing organizational and environmental conditions. With this purpose, the evolution of KM initiatives of a multinational company was investigated. The findings of the study confirm that the strategic mix can change over the years due to modifications in the factors of the company’s internal and external context. Furthermore, the case shows that the different factors have different weight and play a different role in influencing such changes. Specifically, in the investigated case, the factors related to the competitive context affected the evolution of the KM strategy more significantly than internal factors (which were just enablers or constraints of the evolutionary path). In addition, the study shows that this classic distinction between codification and personalization may not be easy to use in practical terms, due to the complexity of KM activities and needs in a company: this point can represent a fresh start of a future research agenda.
The process of knowledge objectification entails several advantages in terms of capitalising the owned knowledge, facilitating its localisation, retrieval and reuse, establishing a common cognitive base and so on. However, the management of knowledge objects is all but simple, especially in the case of llarge organisations with an extensive and dispersed production of knowledge objects. In principle, this issue seems to have a simple solution, that is, merging the various cognitive bases in a single one. In practice this raises several questions, both on the technical-cognitive and the organisational side. The paper deals with this topic, by discussing the case of Ernst & Young that 3 years ago started a project aimed at developing a common knowledge platform. In particular, it intends to identify and discuss the main problems (and possible solutions) raised by the management of large amount of knowledge objects scattered in different parts of the organisation. In addition, it aims to show how a codification, technology-based approach to knowledge management cannot be successfully pursued without taking into account the relevant social and organisational aspect
Most companies that are deeply investing in Knowledge Management (KM) initiatives encounter substantial difficulties in assessing the effectiveness of these programmes. Actually, measuring the impact of KM projects is still a puzzling problem both at the conceptual and operative level. However, measuring their performance is necessary for monitoring their progress and for successfully managing and allocating resources, as well as to maintain the support and commitment by the top management. Although several KM performance evaluation approaches have been proposed in literature, they are still far from becoming an established practice. The chapter aims at discussing this issue by placing it in a business context. First, the literature on KM performance evaluation is briefly reviewed, and the main methods currently used are classified. Then, the practical experience of a multinational company is discussed, with the purpose to describe the problems that practitioners face in their daily experience, and provide insights into the possible improvements of KM performance measurement.
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