Posts Tagged ‘knowledge management systems’

I finally finished my proposal for the IPCC conference in Twente, Holland in July 2010. The deadline was today, but unfortunately, I didn’t come across this conference until recently. So fingers crossed that my proposal has intrigued them, and I get the chance to write a full paper on the subject, as well as present at IPCC.

If you have ANY interest in knowledge communication and web 2.0, I highly recommend taking a peek at the conference threads for IPCC. You may want to go to Holland in July…

Anyways, here is the first part of my proposal as well as the final section (I won’t be submitting it in full, as long as it is still being reviewed):

Questioning Knowledge Management Systems: a look at the role of IT, language abilities and corporate networking in the process of sharing knowledge

According to Rolland (2006) and Alavi & Leidner (2001), the underlying assumption today is, that the implementation of standardized knowledge management systems (KMS) is the solution to the need for the management and sharing of knowledge in national as well as international organizations.

However, the author of this paper questions the use of KMS technology as a means to connect and engage employees in the process of sharing and creating knowledge, as it is hypothesized, that the prerequisites for engaging in such a process would be 1) confidence in the technology provided, and 2) the ability to put knowledge into writing, and 3) whether or not the employee is engaged in the corporate network.

Organizations with an interest in KMS and the optimization of its uses need to focus more on the actual process of knowledge communication before implementing major KMS, as the primary criteria for success would be the employees’ ability to communicate in a virtual environment and to engage in a process of knowledge communication.

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This paper seeks to clarify whether knowledge management systems may in some cases prohibit knowledge sharing, and if this may be related to an employee’s inability to engage in knowledge communication. Furthermore, it seeks to clarify whether organizational networking analysis may be a means to identify weaknesses in a KMS, and if these weaknesses can be traced back to the employees’ language proficiency.

So, without the actual ‘body’ of my proposal, what are your initial thoughts of the subject?

In case I won’t be accepted as speaker, I still intend to continue my work in this area, so any thoughts, opinions and ideas are more than welcome.

Cheers,
Line