11 Sharing Expertise: The Next Step for Knowledge Management (original) (raw)

Explaining knowledge sharing in organizations through the dimensions of social capital

Journal of Information Science, 2004

The increasing complexity of organizations, together with the growing scale of information activities, puts new demands on business corporations. It is believed that investing in social values based on mutuality, trust and respect could yield long-term benefits such as corporate well-being and innovativeness. The benefits are believed to be based on better knowledge sharing, lower transaction costs due to a communicative spirit, and a greater coherence of action. However, the concept of social capital in the field of information behaviour in organizations is new and needs a more solid theoretical framework. The objective of this paper is to contribute to a better understanding of how social and informative aspects are anchored to each other and to explore the mechanisms behind knowledge sharing. Possible measures and contexts for this kind of research are suggested.

Social capital and knowledge management of organizational networks

The study of five types of organizational networks aims to understand how knowledge sharing and social capital are related together to management of organizational networks. Our research questions were (1) what are the enablers and obstacles for knowledge sharing, (2) what are the connections between enablers and obstacles of knowledge sharing and dimensions of social capital, and (3) what are the managerial implications for network management. Based on findings of this study, we assume that in knowledge management and in social capital development in organizational networks different dimensions of social capital may need different kinds of development efforts. The study showed that different network types had different kinds of knowledge sharing needs, and in part similar and different enablers or obstacles of knowledge sharing. Enhancing the development of relevant dimensions of social capital the effectiveness of these enablers may be intensified in the networks.

Managing social capital as knowledge management - some specification and representation issues

2005

Classic' accounts of social capital have emerged in accounts of stable networks or institutional environments. These conditions do not apply in the case of many firms -a case in point being small firm networks that rely on rapid turnover of projects. Our research team is attempting to identify how social capital is manifest in these contexts, and thus to make suggestions for building, maintaining and refreshing such capital. We present work to date that converts this type of tacit knowledge into sets of explicit and manageable local data, and provide examples of information visualizations for profiling and retrieval that support the management of social capital.

Developing Social Capital for Facilitating Knowledge Management Practices

Purpose -This study seeks to explore the effect of social capital (SC) on knowledge management (KM) practices. The main problem under investigation is to assess the importance of SC within an organization and to ascertain how it can ensure that knowledge activities would continue to be fitting and proper in the organization.

Establishing Knowledge Management as an Important Factor to Develop Social Capital for Collaborative Networks

IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology, 2011

Collaborative Networked Organizations are being considered a response to the economic market pressures. Some research projects try to identify the key factors that enable the growth and survival of these collaborative networks. One strategy is to create Virtual Organization Breeding Environments in order to prepare organizations and persons to rapidly respond to a collaboration opportunity. In those breeding environments is possible to develop endogenous resources that permit collaborative practices, like social capital. The present paper discusses the importance of Social Capital and its relationship with Knowledge Management for Virtual Organization Breeding Environments. Knowledge is created during the processes of collaborative networks that rarely are documented and reused. Implementing an effective Knowledge Management method will motivate to increase Social Capital. The present work points out that knowledge sharing is important to develop Social Capital in three Brazilian collaborative networks called VIRFEBRAS, APROVALE and APROBELO.

The relationship between social capital and knowledge management in knowledge-based organizations

Management Science Letters, 2014

This paper presents a survey on relationship between social capital and knowledge management for knowledge based organizations. This research is of descriptive-correlation one and the sample includes 100 faculty members of non-governmental institutes of Babol city. The instrument was questionnaire and the analysis performed using SPSS17 and Lisrel 8.8 software. Pearson correlation test, multiple regression analysis route analysis, and structural equations modeling were used as statistical tests. The research showed that social capital had direct and significant effect on knowledge management in 99% confidence interval. Among the dimensions of social capital, trust and social norms with knowledge application; trust with knowledge acquisition; trust and social norms with knowledge transfer; trust and networks association with knowledge creation; and trust, social norms and networks association with knowledge record had significant and positive effects in 95% confidence interval. Social capital was effective on knowledge management and knowledge based organizations could promote knowledge creation, acquisition, record, application and transfer process by improving social capitals.

Social capital: an indispensable asset in the knowledge-based economy

This paper explores the role of social capital in the knowledge-based economy with a focus on the creation and diffusion of knowledge in companies. Social capital consists of norms and networks that support cooperation. Bridging social capital, aimed at exchanging and learning skills instead of facts, may increase knowledge flows between various communities of practice in firms and may reduce the risk that vital information leaks to competitors. Hence, firms may better invest in activities and norms that encourage exchange of skills between employees, than in formal methods that record factual knowledge. In other words, create opportunities for frequent contacts between employees and cooperation in changing teams, rather than databanks on an intranet containing codified information on former education and working experience of employees. *