Leading Issues In Knowledge Management Research

The knowledge management concept has emerged to serve as one of the critical inputs to the strategic management process, and a common factor underpinning competitive advantage. Over the concept's development, knowledge management research has focused on the processes that enable a firm to recognize sources of data, to transform data into useful information, to disseminate the information, and to develop strategies based on its insights. More recently, the development of the concept has begun to focus on the critical antecedents that enable these knowledge management processes to be implemented more effectively and efficiently. This research book serves to highlight some of the antecedents of effective knowledge management through empirical research done by researchers all around the globe.

Knowledge management is one of the most enduring concepts aimed at how to improve management efficiency, effectiveness and competitive advantage. It was originally thought to be a fad, but instead of being of interest for 5 to 10 years like other fads it has been at least 20 years since it became an issue in modern times. Many researchers now believe that it is an important academic field of study which is essential to address from both a research point of view and a teaching perspective. For that reason we have compiled 10 leading edge research papers which address some of the most important issues in that filed. This book represents a marker of our current state of knowledge in the knowledge management field.

Knowledge Management is here to stay. This book is a compilation of a number of important papers on this subject selected by two leaders in this field of study. A wide range of topic have been chosen which leads the reader through some of the most important considerations in the field today. The book argues that this thing called Knowledge Management has been around for at least 25 years. Yet despite being accused, at several times in that period, of being nothing more than a passing management fad or fashion, it has retained or rather sustained interest by both academics and practitioners. Publication levels in a variety of related journals remains high and organisations continue to implement strategies, processes and systems to create and share knowledge assets of importance to their business. One reason for this situation is the reality that Knowledge Management is, to a large degree, an amalgam of a number of different academic areas. A variety of academic disciplines (strategy, sociology, psychology, IT, library sciences and accounting, to mention only a few) have all made contributions. Practitioners recognize the key terms and have a loose understanding of the general subject matter, however formal education in the field is still limited and focused in a few areas. Indeed only a few KM departments exist across the world and most KM education seems to occur in the library science and IT faculties, and not in the business studies departments, where it truly belongs. This book is an important text for academics, researchers, students and practitioners.

No matter the industry, the development of information technologies has transformed how information is distributed and used to predict trends. Collecting and identifying the most vital information, however, requires constant management and manipulation. Current Issues and Trends in Knowledge Management, Discovery, and Transfer is an essential reference source that discusses crucial practices for collaborating and distributing work as well as validating accrued knowledge from real-time data. Featuring research on topics such as dynamic knowledge, management systems, and sharing behavior, this book is ideally designed for academics, researchers, librarians, managing professionals, and students seeking coverage on knowledge acquisition and implementation across systems.

Knowledge management (KM) has become an evolving discipline since the early 1990s, when organizations started perceiving knowledge as a valuable resource. This field of research has its origin in many disciplines, such as: information and IT management, computer science, enterprise management, organization science, human resource management and even philosophy, offering many potential research perspectives and approaches. For more than three decades, organizations of various types have been undertaking efforts to apply knowledge management, in order to benefit from a competitive advantage. Researchers and practitioners from diversified industries, and with different backgrounds, have tried to answer the question how to successfully manage knowledge, knowledge work and knowledge workers, still leaving much space for further research avenues Now, after all those years of research, some old questions have still not been answered and some new ones have arisen. During the pre-conference workshop on “The future of KM: short-time goals and long-term vision”, organized in Barcelona before the European Conference on Knowledge Management 2017 and conducted by myself and my colleague, Dr Sandra Moffett from Ulster University (UK), we asked the participants what their idea of the future of KM was. We could observe many different voices and approaches: some very pessimistic that KM is probably coming to an end, but mostly very promising that there are still many unexplored aspects of KM we should focus on and there is still a plethora of issues related to knowledge management that should be examined. Similar voices can be detected in the flagship article written by Meliha Handzic, who claims that KM definitely has a future, although it may not be without some challenges and obstacles to overcome. This paper links the past (three evolutionary stages of KM called fragmentation, integration and fusion) with the future of KM (three new trends named extension, specialization and reconceptualization). The author also suggests that KM should embrace different approaches under the “KM Conceptual Umbrella”, highlighting the possibility of addressing many themes, ideas or tools linked with knowledge. All the past and future evolutionary stages of KM are described in detail, together with the challenges that the KM field might face in the future. In the second paper, by Philip Sisson and Julie J. C. H. Ryan, the authors present a mental model of knowledge as a concept map being an input to KM research. The authors used qualitative methods, together with system engineering and object analysis methods, to collect various concepts and relate them. The issue of knowledge is elementary in knowledge management and showing the links between particular knowledge terms is of very high value to all KM researchers. Although the length of this article may constitute a challenge, it is definitely worth the effort as it illustrates many multifaceted, multilayered and multidimensional aspects of knowledge. The third paper by Karl Joachim Breunig and Hanno Roberts discusses another valid issue of value creation in the context of knowledge flow. The authors try to answer the question: How can we express knowledge in such a way that it can be monetized and made accessible to specific managerial interventions? Building on the previous extant studies and authors’ ideas, the paper points out that boundary spanners play a focal role in the monetization efforts of knowledge. In the fourth paper by Regina Lenart-Gansiniec one can read about crowdsourcing and the virtual knowledge sharing taking place in this process. The phenomenon of crowdsourcing is still under-researched and not much is known about the virtual exchange of knowledge in crowdsourcing and its benefits, such as co-creation, participation or gaining new ideas, and potential sources of innovations. Apart from the examination of the potential benefits of virtual knowledge sharing, the author also analyses ways of measuring virtual knowledge sharing in the process of crowdsourcing. The fifth paper by Kaja Prystupa concerns knowledge management processes in small entities and the role played by organizational culture. As the aim of this paper, the author set the examination of organizational culture in small Polish companies with the application of a symbiotic-interpretive perspective. Interesting outcomes of this study are: the confirmed role of organizational culture in KM initiatives, the importance of the founder and the industry, and the threat posed by organizational growth, which should be well-managed from the perspective of organizational culture so as not to hinder organizational performance. The sixth and the final paper, by David Mendes, Jorge Gomes and Mário Romão, deals with ways of creating intangible value through the use of a corporate employee portal. The authors undertake the effort to explain how such a portal fosters the creation of organizational values built on intangible assets. As the research confirms, an employee portal can be considered as a strategic tool for promoting organizational culture and cooperation, through information and communication fluxes and through the teamwork of collaborative functionalities. This issue of JEMI integrates contributions from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the United States, Norway, Poland and Portugal. I would like to express my gratitude to all the authors who contributed to this special issue, proving that knowledge management is still a valid topic, and offering abundant research opportunities. I would also like to express my sincerest thanks to the anonymous reviewers who contributed highly to the selection of the best submissions for this issue and guided the authors to further improvements in their works. Finally, I would like to pay special thanks to Dr Anna Ujwary-Gil, Editor-in-Chief of JEMI, for her kind invitation to prepare this special issue and her continual support at each stage of its preparation. I do hope that the readers of JEMI find the selected papers valuable and that they enrich their knowledge on KM issues. Additionally, I do believe that the collected works will be inspiring and offer some future directions for the examination of the knowledge management field. Dr. Małgorzata Zięba Guest Editor, JEMI Assistant Professor, Gdansk University of Technology, Poland

"This book combines research on the cultural, technical, organizational, and human issues surrounding the creation, capture, transfer, and use of knowledge in today's organizations. Topics such as organizational memory, knowledge management in enterprises, enablers and inhibitors of knowledge sharing and transfer, and emerging technologies of knowledge management, offering information to practitioners and scholars in a variety of settings"--Provided by publisher.

"This scholarly discussion of managerial challenges details the most recent research on how organizations can better create, share, and exploit knowledge. Spanning the business and public service context, the information provided covers practical issues such as measuring returns, establishing trust, and integrating technology. Also discussed are knowledge management systems, Internet support, and information systems development."

This book serves as a complete introduction to the subject of Knowledge Management (KM), and incorporates technical as well as social aspects, concepts as well as practical examples, and traditional KM approaches as well as emerging topics. Knowledge Management: Systems and Processes enhances the conventional exposition of KM with an in-depth discussion of the technologies used to facilitate the management of knowledge in large and small organizations. This includes a complete description of the theory and applications of the various techniques and technologies currently in use to manage organizational knowledge. The discussion of technology is at a level appropriate for the typical business administration graduate student or corporate manager. Special features:* Includes case studies of actual implementations of KM systems, including details such as system architecture * Contains numerous vignettes describing practical applications of KM initiatives at leading firms and governmental organizations * Provides a balanced view of knowledge management, while incorporating benefits and controversial issues, and both technology and social aspects * Extremely current, making extensive use of latest developments in, and examples from, the field of KM * Written by two proficient and recognized researchers in the field of KM.