The purpose of this paper is to explore the knowledge processes that interplay in the social construction and appropriation of knowledge and to test these constructs empirically…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the knowledge processes that interplay in the social construction and appropriation of knowledge and to test these constructs empirically in project teams.
Design/methodology/approach
Literature research and quantitative survey were used. The research identified project success, faster completion times, operational efficiency, innovation and generation of new knowledge as dominating project management expectations in the past ten years. It studied how these projects construct and appropriate knowledge within project teams to achieve these five objectives. Using a quantitative approach, data were sought from 1,000 respondents out of a population of 10,000 from 11 project management areas in eight world regions to test the conceptual model in real-world scenarios. The data gathered were analyzed using quantitative analysis tools and techniques such as reliability, correlation and regression.
Findings
There is a lingering difficulty within organizations on how to translate tacit knowledge into action. The transfer and utilization of tacit knowledge was shown to be embedded and nested within relationships. Innovation in projects was found to be mostly linked to replication and codification of knowledge (explicit dimension) as opposed to interpretation and assimilation (tacit dimension). Arriving at a mutual interpretation of project details and requirements does not depend on canonical (formal documentation) methods but mostly on non-canonical (informal) and relational processes embedded within the team.
Originality/value
This work studies, in empirical and geographical detail, the social interplay of knowledge and provided evidence relative to the appropriation of knowledge in the project organizational form, which can be extrapolated to wider contexts. The work scoped the inter-relational nature of knowledge and provided further evidence on the nebulous nature of tacit/intangible knowledge. It also proved further that organizations mostly rely on explicit knowledge to drive organizational results, as it is easily actionable and measurable.
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Keywords
The purpose of this paper is to explore the development of a knowledge management (KM) strategy at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and how this was embedded in the business…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore the development of a knowledge management (KM) strategy at the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and how this was embedded in the business processes of the bank.
Design/methodology/approach
Literature research and a case study were used as the methodology of the paper.
Findings
The need to align KM strategy with business strategy was identified as critical to the success of KM. It was discovered that focusing KM on the Bank's payments system process helped create value and drive business results. A combined approach of codification and personalization was adopted for the KM program of CBN. The strategy adopted involved using a two‐pronged approach of communities of practice and a functional portal to drive knowledge management. The paper identifies that this strategy is adding value to the organization and increasing knowledge flows across a dispersed and distributed work environment.
Originality/value
Knowledge management in large public sector organizations in Africa is not common. Equally, KM in regulatory financial institutions like Central Banks in Africa is not very common. The paper highlights the challenges of implementing a KM program in a distributed, dispersed and networked public sector organization with 36 branches serving a population of 160 million people in sub‐Saharan Africa.
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Henry Adobor, Enyonam Kudonoo and Alireza Daneshfar
The purpose of this paper is to explore organizational memory (OM) in three public agencies in a developing country context. Research suggests that knowledge management (KM) can…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore organizational memory (OM) in three public agencies in a developing country context. Research suggests that knowledge management (KM) can build a nation’s intellectual capital and improve the effectiveness of public sector management. Therefore, how knowledge is preserved is important.
Design/methodology/approach
The study targeted three large public institutions in Ghana. The study used a survey of 756 individuals in managerial and operational level positions in institutions to test the hypotheses in the study.
Findings
The findings confirm that knowledge management capability (KMC) has a positive and significant impact on OM. Knowledge acquisition and retention capabilities, in particular, are critical variables in building OM.
Research limitations/implications
The research relied on self-reports and so one cannot completely rule out social desirability and consistency biases. Using cross-sectional data also makes it difficult to make inferences about the causality.
Practical implications
Public agencies desirous of building their OM will need to build critical KMC and infrastructure.
Originality/value
This paper links KMC to OM in public institutions in an emerging country context.