Over the last years, the topic of knowledge management has rapidly grown in importance among business managers and information systems practitioners. Business organisations worldwide increasingly recognize the effective use of knowledge as a key-differentiating factor and as the most important resource for potential economic success (Stewart, 1998). As a result, many IT companies are implementing new applications and techniques to better manage knowledge.
Knowledge management systems are, in fact, quite common, but a truly successful one is rare. To be successful, such a system must create an environment in which people can share their best practices, increase the quality of their knowledge, and help each other solves problems. Systems that effectively capture and build intellectual capital while minimizing the burden on individuals, however, are unusual (King, 2002). Nowadays more and more organisations discovering social media tools like wikis, blogs, and forums and use them to capture knowledge.
Table of Contents
1. History
2. Economics:
3. Sociology:
3.1 Motivation to share knowledge in Companies
4. Knowledge management in the age of social media
4.1 Behavioral
4.2 Technical
5. Social Media tools
6. Case study on construction project in Vienna
6.1 About the company
6.2 Working on construction project with social media
7. Conclusion
Research Objectives and Key Topics
This report examines the transformative impact of social media tools on knowledge management within organizations, arguing that a balanced integration of both technological and social systems is essential for successful knowledge capture, communication, and collaboration.
- The evolution of knowledge management from historical practices to modern digital approaches.
- Motivational factors and incentive structures for knowledge sharing among employees.
- The classification of knowledge management challenges into behavioral and technical categories.
- The practical application and effectiveness of social media tools in a real-world construction project case study.
Excerpt from the Book
6. Case study on construction project in Vienna
SWZT Chartered Consultants, a professional partnership of architects and engineers specialized in construction project development and execution, won the trust of international clients in Vienna with its successful track record, its multi-lingual team, and its excellent references: Hotel “The Ring”, the Vienna Hilton and several embassies in Vienna. The partnership presents itself as the consultant for international project owners, providing development, project management and engineering services. SWZT acts as the interface between all project members involved and is the engine of all project activities.
The company SWZT had recently shifted to a SharePoint “Confluence” information Infrastructure for project that is in construction, but had never used this infrastructure in a response. The platform could be considered ‘social’ as it provided several key functions of social media: it allowed web pages to be created ‘on the fly’ by anyone on the team.
Further, all contributions were tagged with the contributor’s name and contact information. Anyone who had a comment or additional information would know exactly who to contact for more information, or how to contextualize their response if they had information to share. Using Confluence also changed the social dynamic of the response effort. Past efforts were very linear.
Summary of Chapters
1. History: Explores the origins of knowledge management during the 1990s and notes how previous literature often overlooked foundational influences like philosophy, economics, and psychology.
2. Economics:: Discusses learning from experience as a critical process for future productivity, drawing parallels between historical industrial learning and modern information filtering.
3. Sociology:: Examines social factors and the importance of observable human behavior in developing effective knowledge management tools and techniques.
3.1 Motivation to share knowledge in Companies: Analyzes various incentive models used by global organizations to encourage employees to share their knowledge, distinguishing between tangible and intangible rewards.
4. Knowledge management in the age of social media: Highlights the necessity of rethinking traditional knowledge management strategies due to the emergence of social media in enterprise environments.
4.1 Behavioral: Identifies the lack of incentives for employees to maintain and share current knowledge as a significant barrier to the success of knowledge management systems.
4.2 Technical: Addresses the difficulty of organizing unstructured content and explains how social media facilitates interaction and searchable content structures.
5. Social Media tools: Defines social media as platforms that enable open information exchange and highlights their potential for managing knowledge as information artifacts.
6. Case study on construction project in Vienna: Provides a practical application of social media tools within a professional partnership of architects and engineers.
6.1 About the company: Introduces SWZT Chartered Consultants and their role as a key interface in international construction projects.
6.2 Working on construction project with social media: Details how the implementation of the “Confluence” platform improved project communication, reduced the need for formal meetings, and enhanced team visibility.
7. Conclusion: Summarizes the benefits of tailor-made social media solutions in accelerating information transfer and notes the increasing importance of these tools in daily business life.
Keywords
Knowledge Management, Knowledge Management Systems, Social Media, Intellectual Capital, Technologies, Organizational Behavior, Knowledge Sharing, Incentives, Social Networks, Collaboration, Unstructured Content, Enterprise Solutions, Case Study, Innovation, Efficiency.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core subject of this report?
The report focuses on the effect of social media tools on knowledge management within organizations and how these technologies reshape the interaction between people and information.
What are the primary thematic areas covered?
The report covers the historical evolution of knowledge management, the sociology of knowledge sharing, employee motivation, technical implementation of social tools, and practical industry case studies.
What is the central research goal?
The goal is to understand how social media can best enable organizational members to communicate, collaborate, and coordinate to facilitate effective knowledge capture and utilization.
Which scientific methods are employed?
The report utilizes a comprehensive literature review combined with a specific case study of a construction firm (SWZT) to analyze the practical effectiveness of social media in a professional setting.
What does the main body address?
It addresses the behavioral and technical challenges of knowledge management systems and evaluates how different corporate strategies and incentive structures influence knowledge sharing.
Which keywords best characterize this work?
Key terms include Knowledge Management, Social Media, Intellectual Capital, Knowledge Sharing, and Organizational Behavior.
How did the SWZT company benefit from social media?
By implementing "Confluence," the company improved team visibility, reduced the necessity for frequent formal meetings, and standardized knowledge access across project members.
Why are "hard rewards" often considered temporary?
The report notes that hard rewards, such as monetary incentives, can lose effectiveness over time; once the rewards are removed, knowledge sharing activities often decline significantly.
What is the role of "unstructured content" in this report?
The author argues that while unstructured content is often a "bane" of enterprise systems, the future of knowledge management lies in effectively managing this type of information through new technologies.
- Arbeit zitieren
- Edward Matar (Autor:in), 2012, Organizational behaviour in times of change, München, GRIN Verlag, https://www.hausarbeiten.de/document/270008
