E-visibility to enhance knowledge sharing
- Authors: Adriaanse, L.S. , Rensleigh, C.
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: E-visibility , Knowledge sharing , Online presence
- Language: English
- Type: Conference proceedings
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/260104 , uj:27380 , Citation: Adriaanse, L.S. & Rensleigh, C. 2017. E-visibility to enhance knowledge sharing.
- Description: Abstract: This paper reports on a survey, as part of an e-visibility longitudinal comparative study looking at the usage of social networking tools to enhance e-visibility between 2014-2017, conducted on the participating School of Environmental Science (SES) researchers at Unisa. The results indicate the majority used free search engines and websites to ascertain their online presence. LinkedIn was the preferred tool used to create research e-profiles for discoverability. Regarding accessibility, the majority of the respondents did not link their research output onto repositories and 38.4% opted not to archive their research publications. The results found Academia.edu and ResearchGate to be the preferred social networking tools for determining alternative research impact using altmetrics and Mendeley as the most preferred social networking tool for reference management. Knowledge sharing is enhanced by the increased e-visibility of SES researchers. E-visibility benefits from increased online presence, increased discoverability and accessibility of researchers via research e– profiles.
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What happens when organisations embrace social networking? Knowledge sharing at a multinational business solutions corporation
- Authors: Stafford, C. , Mearns, M.A.
- Date: 2009-12-07
- Subjects: Online social networking , Knowledge sharing , IBM Global Business Services , Competitive advantage , Innovation
- Type: Article
- Identifier: http://ujcontent.uj.ac.za8080/10210/382539 , uj:5707 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/3401
- Description: Amid widespread resistance to online social networking tools, their effectiveness in promoting knowledge sharing in a knowledge driven organisation was demonstrated in the study. Usage patterns, user attitudes and perceptions regarding online social networking technologies as a professional application for knowledge sharing within the workplace were investigated. Selfadministered questionnaires were administered to a sample of IBM Global Business Services employees in South Africa. Upon completion of the questionnaire analysis an interview was conducted with the knowledge manager for verification and clarification purposes. The results revealed the respondents' positive attitudes regarding the use of social networking tools for knowledge sharing. The culture of knowledge sharing at IBM and the contribution that social networking tools makes within the company were uncovered. Findings disclosed that the online social networking tools were effective and that management at IBM encourages employees to make more and more use of the tools for knowledge sharing and knowledge creation. The results of this study demonstrate the effectiveness of online social networking tools and serve as encouragement to hesitant organisations to adopt social networking in their business practices.
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Teaching to learn and learning to share : assessing a culture of sharing amongst information and knowledge management students in a virtual environment.
- Authors: Mearns, Martie , Jacobs, Lizelle
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Knowledge management , Knowledge sharing , Information sharing , Virtual environment
- Type: Article
- Identifier: uj:6201 , ISBN 978-1-906638-46-7 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/5281
- Description: Knowledge and information sharing has become synonymous with the concept of creating value and power for organisations. Knowledge is being recognised as a valuable asset and the promotion and dissemination of information and knowledge in its internal workings has the aim of creating learning organisations. The sharing of information and knowledge creates a community where participants can collaborate with each other in achieving their goals. In a knowledge management course in the Department of Information and Knowledge Management, at the University of Johannesburg (South Africa), students are introduced to these concepts as part of their training to pursue various careers as information and knowledge workers within organisations where these concepts have to be applied Using a philosophy of teaching by example, students are encouraged to share information and knowledge, making use of discussion boards in a virtual learning environment as part of a multiwmodal learning approach that includes facewtowface lectures as well as an online interactive environment. Discussion topics are provided in line with a case study that students are requested to analyse. Students' reflections on the learning that has taken place, based on the responses to the discussion topics, form part of the case study analysis which is assessed. The purpose of the research is to gain insight into the effectiveness of information and knowledge sharing in a virtual environment using discussion boards in terms of its impact to generate a learning culture. A mixed methods approach is applied to 210 registered students in a second year group and 123 registered students in a third year group by monitoring their discussions on allocated topics. Firstly, content analysis methodology is applied to assess the knowledge sharing that is taking place in the virtual environment. Secondly, a survey is conducted at the end of the discussion period to determine student experiences, perceptions and opinions on the knowledge sharing process and is used to adapt and develop the course design. Thirdly, students are required to reflect on the learning experiences as part of the submitted case stUdy analysis assignment. The discussion monitoring will investigate the following variables: (1) student participation rates, frequency and patterns; as well as (2) cognitive and meta-cognitive components of student messages. The survey and reflection will be used to assess the students' (3) perception of learning through sharing; (4) experiences of group dynamics and (5) their perceived individual performances based on the discussion groups. This research includes an investigation of using different group dynamics to compare the experiences of students being managed in a randomly selected group as opposed to students signing up to a group of their own choice. It is hypothesised that the findings from this research will provide important answers required to facilitate students with diverse skills and socio-economic backgrounds in their cognitive and metacognitive development for information and knowledge sharing when making use of online discussions boards.
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Knowledge-sharing through communities of practice at institutions of higher education
- Authors: Buckley, Sheryl Beverley
- Date: 2012-06-05
- Subjects: Communities of practice , Information technology management , Education technology , Knowledge sharing , College teaching
- Type: Thesis
- Identifier: uj:2437 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/4896
- Description: D. Litt. et Phil. , As the world moved from an industrial society to a knowledge society where people tend to work smarter and not harder, knowledge (implicit and explicit) became the main asset of a modern organisation. Human assets took precedence over financial assets. However, the rate at which the knowledge bank was increased owing to the progress in information technology was so fast that it became humanly impossible for one or two people to possess all knowledge. The notion of “knowledge is power” changed to one of “knowledge sharing is power”. While explicit knowledge can be quantified, saved and reused, tacit knowledge can only be shared voluntarily. This sharing of knowledge has given rise to communities of practice (CoPs). This study investigates the phenomenon of CoPs in an academic higher education (HE) institution such as a university. The aim was to establish criteria that could be used to identify the existence of such communities and their contribution to the institution, why CoPs are formed or not and how the formation of a CoP can enrich the knowledge bank of the institution. Once these objectives were achieved, it was hoped that it would be possible to create or encourage existing CoPs and ultimately ways to manage them.
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A multi-agent collaboration model for knowledge sharing
- Authors: Sloan, Nevena
- Date: 2011-08-31T07:42:20Z
- Subjects: Knowledge sharing
- Type: Thesis
- Identifier: uj:7183 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/3793
- Description: M.Sc. , Knowledge has become a valuable resource for organisations contributing to their competitive advantage through innovation. Over the years, the capture of organisational information has grown to include structured information, such as corporate databases, as well as unstructured information, such as best practices, policies, rules and strategies. However, most of the organisational tacit knowledge gained through experience and development of expertise is never captured by the organisation and remains with employees, leaving the organisation whenever employees depart. The goal of the dissertation is to understand how knowledge travels through an enterprise, in order to gain insight into the possibilities of capturing organisational tacit knowledge, while encouraging employee collaboration. Based on this understanding, the aim is to propose a model that will allow knowledge sharing and encourage collaboration in order to present the organisation with an alternative knowledge base of daily user activities, organisational experiences and learning. The proposed collaboration model makes use of multiple agents, namely a user agent, a conversation manager agent, question analysis and query agents and a conversation classifier. The model aims to store knowledge base entries in an ontology-based structure and to leverage off the power of existing search engine technologies to perform searches. An implementation of the proposed model is discussed using Microsoft Office SharePoint Server, a popular enterprise collaboration platform, which assists implementation and user adoption.
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The implementation of knowledge cafés as a technique for knowledge sharing
- Authors: Lefika, Pheladi Tracy
- Date: 2013-07-18
- Subjects: Knowledge management , Knowledge sharing , Knowledge cafés , Organizational learning
- Type: Thesis
- Identifier: uj:7647 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/8517
- Description: M.Phil. (Information Management) , Given the current knowledge economy, knowledge sharing has become a vital process in contributing to the success of any given organisation, whether academic or industry related. It is therefore essential for organisations to be aware of and to understand the various knowledge sharing techniques that exist. Consequently it is also relevant to acknowledge the potential contribution that knowledge sharing can make between peers, for educational purposes. An in-depth literature review was conducted which focused on knowledge sharing, and the various concepts associated with knowledge sharing. A sequential mixed-methods research methodology was followed in order to contribute to the lack of literature pertaining specifically to knowledge cafés. A qualitative Delphi study was conducted to document the guidelines, criteria and potential contribution of knowledge cafés as a knowledge sharing application. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the application of knowledge cafés as a technique for knowledge sharing. The quantitative component of the mixed-methods research was initiated by implementing three knowledge cafés using univariate quantitative data analysis on structured questionnaires to measure participant’s views towards knowledge cafés as a knowledge sharing technique. Essentially this study firstly gathered and documented information on knowledge cafés as a knowledge sharing technique and recommended that knowledge cafés can be used effectively as a technique for knowledge sharing, when appropriate criteria and guidelines are applied.
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Challenges in knowledge sharing in higher education
- Authors: Buckley, Sheryl , Giannakopoulos, Paul
- Date: 2009
- Subjects: Knowledge sharing , Higher education , Tacit kowledge , Explicit knowledge
- Type: Article
- Identifier: uj:6217 , ISBN 978-906638-40-5 , http://hdl.handle.net/10210/5307
- Description: In a knowledge economy, knowledge, the way it is shared and created and the way these actions are managed could lead to either a competitive advantage and the organisation can flourish or be the demise of the organisation irrespective whether it is predominantly knowledge driven or manufacturing driven (Baumard, 1999; Malone, 2003; Nonaka, 1994). Since knowledge (tacit and explicit) resides in the minds of the people and some of it can be subsequently codified and become 'common to all knowledge', then managing people's knowledge becomes a challenge to the organisation (Geisler, 2008; Roberts, 1998; Walczak, 2005). The situation at a University is not very much different but creation of new knowledge is not a voluntary act, nor is transferring of knowledge which is one of its main tasks. However, when it comes to sharing of knowledge among the academics the degree of sharing may vary and it can be voluntary or imposed on if necessary; for example when a group of academics collaborate on a task. If it is true that voluntary sharing of knowledge (mostly tacit) can lead to a competitive advantage, here being the creation of a world class University then an investigation into the knowledge sharing is imperative. This study is an attempt to determine the degree of knowledge sharing in a formal (or informal) Community of Practice (CoP) at a university as well as identification of factors that promote or impede knowledge sharing among the academics.
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SharePoint as enabler for collaboration and efficient project knowledge sharing
- Authors: Khumalo, Sithembiso , Mearns, Martie
- Date: 2019
- Subjects: Microsoft SharePoint , Knowledge sharing , Collaboration
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/297131 , uj:32385 , Abstract: Khumalo, S. & Mearns, M., 2019, ‘SharePoint as enabler for collaboration and efficient project knowledge sharing’, South African Journal of Information Management 21(1), a1044. https://doi.org/ 10.4102/sajim.v21i1.1044 , ISSN: 1560-683X (Online) , ISSN: 2078-1865 (Print)
- Description: Abstract: Background: Cutting-edge web technology applications have improved the manner in which business is conducted, allowing organisations to deliver business projects effectively. There is an untapped potential to power up SharePoint as a business application platform for content management, knowledge sharing and collaboration within organisations.
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Exploring knowledge sharing and knowledge leakage in software development organisations
- Authors: Khoza, Lucas Thulani
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Knowledge sharing , Knowledge leakage , Staff turnover
- Language: English
- Type: Article
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10210/288798 , uj:31318 , Citation: Khoza, L.T. 2018. Exploring knowledge sharing and knowledge leakage in software development organisations.
- Description: Abstract: Knowledge leakage is the loss of knowledge. Staff turnover causes many knowledge leakages. Internal and external knowledge leakage in software development organisations lowers the organisations’ competitive advantage. Knowledge sharing is a process of innovation and value creation that leads to competitive advantage. Innovation is a result of effective knowledge sharing process. Knowledge can be shared internally and externally, however, not all knowledge can be shared externally due to some confidentiality. Some organisations do not promote knowledge sharing in order to avoid knowledge leakage. This study broadens our knowledge on understanding knowledge leakages and knowledge sharing in software development organisations. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from IT professionals to explore knowledge sharing and knowledge leakages. A response rate of 52% were received. The results indicate that people always move from one organisation to the other resulting in an increased knowledge leakage as people will always share whatever they have learnt in the new organisation. Three key critical findings that cause staff turnover are management and citizenship, organisational culture and employee morale.
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