Here is the content of the latest issue of:
INFORMATION RESOURCES MANAGEMENT JOURNAL (IRMJ)
Official Publication of the Information Resources Management Association
Volume 13, Issue 1, January - March 2000
Editor: Mehdi Khosrowpour, Pennsylvania State University
The Year 2000 millennium special issue of IRMJ on the theme
"Knowledge Management and New Organization Forms"
Guest Editor: Prof. Yogesh Malhotra,
@Brint.com L.L.C. and Florida Atlantic University
RESEARCH PAPERS:
ARTICLE ONE:
"Knowledge Management and New Organization Forms:A Framework for
Business Model Innovation"
YOGESH MALHOTRA, @Brint.com L.L.C. & Florida Atlantic University
The concept of knowledge management is not new in information systems
practice and research. However, radical changes in the business
environment have suggested limitations of the traditional information-
processing view of knowledge management. Specifically, it is being
realized that the programmed nature of heuristics underlying such systems
may be inadequate for coping with the demands imposed by the new business
environments. New business environments are characterized not only by
rapid pace of change but also discontinuous nature of such change. The new
business environment, characterized by dynamically discontinuous change,
requires a re-conceptualization of knowledge management as it has been
understood in information systems practice and research. One such
conceptualization is proposed in the form of a sense-making model of
knowledge management for new business environments. Application of this
framework will facilitate business model innovation necessary for
sustainable competitive advantage in the new business environment
characterized by dynamic, discontinuous and radical pace of change.
ARTICLE TWO
"Knowledge Management Strategies for Virtual Organisations"
JANICE M. BURN, Edith Cowan University, Australia
COLIN ASH, Edith Cowan University, Australia
Much has been written about the virtual organisation and the impact this
will have on organisational forms, processes and tasks for the 21st
Century. There has been little written about the practicalities of
managing this virtual organisation and managing virtual change. The
ability of the organisation to change or to extend itself as a virtual
entity will reflect the extent to which an understanding of virtual
concepts has been embedded into the knowledge management of the virtual
organisation as a Virtual Organisational Change Model (VOCM). Managing
these change factors is essential to gain and maintain strategic advantage
and to derive virtual value. The authors expand these concepts by using
the example of organisations using Information and Communications
Technology (ICT) and illustrate the three levels of development mode Ð
virtual work, virtual sourcing, and virtual encounters and their
relationship to knowledge management, individually, organisationally and
community wide through the exploitation of ICT.
ARTICLE THREE
"Integrated Analysis and Design of Knowledge Systems and Processes"
MARK NISSEN, Naval Postgraduate School
MAGDI KAMEL, Naval Postgraduate School
KISHORE SENGUPTA, Naval Postgraduate School
Although knowledge management has been investigated in the context of
decision support and expert systems for over a decade, interest in and
attention to this topic have exploded recently. But integration of
knowledge process design with knowledge system design is strangely missing
from the knowledge management literature and practice. The research
described in this chapter focuses on knowledge management and system
design from three integrated perspectives: 1) reengineering process
innovation, 2) expert systems knowledge acquisition and representation,
and 3) information systems analysis and design. Through careful analysis
and discussion, we integrate these three perspectives in a systematic
manner, beginning with analysis and design of the enterprise process of
interest, progressively moving into knowledge capture and formalization,
and then system design and implementation. Thus, we develop an integrated
approach that covers the gamut of design considerations from the
enterprise process in the large, through alternative classes of knowledge
in the middle, and on to specific systems in the detail. We show how this
integrated methodology is more complete than existing developmental
approaches and illustrate the use and utility of the approach through a
specific enterprise example, which addresses many factors widely
considered important in the knowledge management environment. Using the
integrated methodology that we develop and illustrate in this article, the
reader can see how to identify, select, compose and integrate the many
component applications and technologies required for effective knowledge
system and process design.
ARTICLE FOUR
"Computer-Mediated Inter-Organizational Knowledge-Sharing: Insights
from a Virtual Team Innovating Using a Collaborative Tool"
ANN MAJCHRZAK, University of Southern California
RONALD E. RICE, Rutgers University
NELSON KING, University of Southern California
ARVIND MALHOTRA, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
SULIN BA, University of Southern California
How does a team use a computer-mediated technology to share and reuse
knowledge when the team is inter-organizational and virtual, when the team
must compete for the attention of team members with collocated teams, and
when the task is the creation of a completely new innovation? From a
review of the literature on knowledge sharing and reuse using
collaborative tools, three propositions are generated about the likely
behavior of the team in using the collaborative tool and reusing the
knowledge put in the knowledge repository. A multi-method longitudinal
research study of this design team was conducted over their ten-month
design effort. Both qualitative and quantitative data were obtained.
Results indicated that the propositions from the literature were
insufficient to explain the behavior of the team. We found that ambiguity
of the task does not determine use of a collaborative tool; that tool use
does not increase with experience; and that knowledge that is perceived as
transient (whether it really is transient or not) is unlikely to be
referenced properly for later search and retrieval. Implications for
practice and theory are discussed.
THE EXPERT'S OPINION
"Becoming Knowledge-Powered: Planning the Transformation"
An interview with Dave Pollard, Chief Knowledge Officer at Ernst & Young
Canada
In this interview, Dave Pollard, Chief Knowledge Officer at Ernst & Young
Canada since 1994, relates the award-winning process his firm has used,
and which many of the corporations that have visited the Centre for
Business Knowledge in Toronto are adapting for their own needs, to
transform the company from a knowledge-hoarding to a knowledge-sharing
enterprise. Drawing upon E&Y's leading-edge practices in Knowledge
Management, the interview illustrates a five-phase process to plan and
navigate the transformation. This interview was conducted by Yogesh
Malhotra, editor of the Year 2000 millennium special issue of IRMJ on the
theme Knowledge Management and New Organization Forms.
BOOK REVIEW
Harvesting Experience: Reaping the Benefits of Knowledge
by Jan Duffy. ARMA International, Prairie Village KS. 1999, 270 pages,
ISBN: 0933887809.
Review by Amy D. Wohl, Wohl Associates
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For full copies of the above articles, check this issue of the
Information
Resources Management Journal (IRMJ) in your institution's library.
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Note: For a complete list of index of back issues, visit the journal's
website at <http://www.idea-group.com>.
--"Artur F. Silva" <artsilva@individual.eunet.pt>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>