Tag Archives: knowledge diffusion

Knowledge Management via a Novel Information Technology – The Case of Corporate Weblogs

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In recent years, both practitioners and scholars alike have emphasized the importance of organizational knowledge and learning as a source of competitive advantage. In this connexion, the integration of information technologies to foster these organizational sources has gained considerable attention. However, especially due to the innate characteristics of tacit knowledge, its handling is deemed to be extraordinarily difficult. This results primarily from the fact that tacit knowledge can only be disseminated via intricate interpersonal processes. Socialization is viewed as an appropriate approach but to date this is regarded as incommensurate with most existing information technologies. In this paper we argue that corporate weblogs – i.e. personalized and informal Internet publications referring to corporate concerns – constitute a viable option to deal with this dilemma while incorporating the possibility to codify as well as personalize tacit knowledge. By illuminating how to transcend the traditional impasse, we intend to contribute to knowledge management research and practitioners alike.

Approaches to an Instruction Oriented Knowledge Management in the Context of Technical Professional Communication

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Information management and IT are often called the backbone of an organisation. Yet in practice, IT does not play the most important role in managing information: That much can be learned from experience with ‚dead‘ (hardly ever used) knowledge bases. While there are many technical solutions to so called repositories or FAQ collections hardly any attention is paid to the problem of transfer: how stored, „sedimented“ know how from the knowledge bases can be transformed into professional knowledge empowering people to act competently. Neither practice nor knowledge management research is really concerned with this issue. Referring to discussions about organisational learning and organisational memory concepts, our case study deals with informal learning processes in specialised professional communication. The SEM®THEK case study will show a possible solution to the transfer problem: knowledge, collected and stored in knowledge bases, is processed to fit the needs of users by applying models of instruction which were originally developed in media didactics, technical documentation and transfer research.