Exploration and Exlpoitation: Toward a Theory of Knowledge Sharing in Digital Government Projects
by Maria Christina Binz-Scharf
Knowledge sharing processes are a central feature of the functioning of government. This has become even more evident... more Knowledge sharing processes are a central feature of the functioning of government. This has become even more evident with the rise of digital government initiatives, as these have a networking effect on bureaucracies. With multiple agencies and multidisciplinary knowledge coming together, it is necessary to combine and reconnect the required knowledge. Based on empirical data from four digital government projects (DGPs) in Switzerland and the United States of America, a theoretical model for knowledge sharing in DGPs is proposed. The model ties together processes and content of knowledge sharing through two task dimensions, each of them subdivided into two phases: (1) Conception and implementation of the project, and (2) Exploration and exploitation of knowledge. I show that the implementation of DG requires a balanced mix of exploration and exploitation of knowledge, where exploration is more important in the conceptual phase, and exploitation becomes more fruitful in the implementation phase. I found that DGPs rely on sparse networks during the conceptual phase of the project, and tend to employ teams or tightly-bound groups as the project moves towards implementation.
How Learning Organisation Practices Close Knowledge Creation
About the Book
This book discusses whether the pursuit of learning organisation status leads to behaviours... more
About the Book
This book discusses whether the pursuit of learning organisation status leads to behaviours that close an organisation to new knowledge. Discussion of three assumptions derived from literature indicates that developing learning processes may not automatically result in useful knowledge. Consideration of learning organisation models, power, potential system closure, knowledge levels and individual preferences suggests that instead the outputs may lead to an organisation effectively reversing the knowledge development cycle, effectively closing the system. Moreover epistemological study indicates that, whilst the models are assumed to be rational in nature, the organisational knowledge is constructed. This mismatch, plus a lack of challenge, is shown to undermine an organisation's ability to recognise or use its knowledge. Four implications are identified: that idea generation becomes less important than idea recognition and use; that knowledge recognition becomes severely limited; that the presence of putative knowledge prevents transformation and that developing learning organisation activities inhibits change.
Das Unternehmen und sein Umfeld. Wahrnehmungsprozesse und Unternehmenskultur am Beispiel eines Chemiekonzerns
co-authored with Meinolf Dierkes and Katrin Hähner
Organisationslernen—institutionelle und kulturelle Dimensionen. WZB Jahrbuch 1998
co-edited with Horst Albach, Meinolf Dierkes & Kristina Vaillant
The Annotated Bibliography of Organizational Learning and Knowledge,
co-edited with M. Dierkes, M. Alexis, B. Hedberg, P. Pawlowsky, J. Stopford, A. Vonderstein
Wo wären wir ohne die Verrückten? Zur Rolle von Außenseitern in Wissenschaft, Politik und Wirtschaft
co-edited with Camilla Krebsbach-Gnath
Handbook of Organizational Learning and Knowledge
co-edited with Meinolf Dierkes, John Child & Ikujiro Nonaka,
Oxford University Press 2001
Finalist For The 2002 Academy of Management's Terry Book Award
This handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the concept of Organizational Learning and related issues of... more This handbook provides a comprehensive overview of the concept of Organizational Learning and related issues of knowledge in organizations. It explains its origins, current applications and where it may be going. It provides a full account of varied disciplinary approaches, and discusses major issues in the field. With contributions from leading international experts, the book will be an invaluable resource for scholars, students and professionals.
Medvirkningsbasert organisasjonslæring og utviklingsarbeid i kommunene
Authors: Eikeland, Olav & Berg, Anne Marie (1997), Oslo, Kommuneforlaget
Groupthink or Deadlock: When Do Leaders Learn from Their Advisors?
by Paul Kowert
State University of New York Press, 2002
The danger of groupthink is now standard fare in leadership training programs and a widely accepted explanation, among... more
The danger of groupthink is now standard fare in leadership training programs and a widely accepted explanation, among political scientists, for policy-making fiascoes. Efforts to avoid groupthink, however, can lead to an even more serious problem—deadlock. Groupthink or Deadlock explores these dual problems in the Eisenhower and Reagan administrations and demonstrates how both presidents were capable of learning and consequently changing their policies, sometimes dramatically, but at the same time doing so in characteristically different ways. Kowert points to the need for leaders to organize their staff in a way that fits their learning and leadership style and allows them to negotiate a path between groupthink and deadlock.
“This book raises an important theoretical point that has not been well explored in the literature on presidential decision-making. Kowert has made a genuine contribution not only with his discussion of how ‘open’ leaders fare in closed groups, but how ‘closed’ leaders fare in open groups.” — John P. Burke, author of Presidential Transitions: From Politics to Practice
“This is a solid contribution to the well-established genre of case-based explorations of presidential decision-making. The author’s pairing of Eisenhower and Reagan provides a new twist. I commend Kowert for tackling a theoretically rich research question.” — Brian D. Ripley, Mercyhurst College
Alternatives considered but not disclosed: The ambiguous role of PowerPoint in cross-project learning
Full reference: Schoeneborn, D. (2008). Alternatives considered but not disclosed: The ambiguous role of PowerPoint in cross-project learning. Wiesbaden: VS Research.
Also available at Google Books: http://books.google.com/books?id=Fy1anXjhcUgC.
Powerfully driven by the work practices of consulting firms, the presentation software Microsoft PowerPoint is... more
Powerfully driven by the work practices of consulting firms, the presentation software Microsoft PowerPoint is increasingly used on all levels of business and educational communication. Nevertheless, slideware ranks among the least explored media in communication studies. This study investigates the role of PowerPoint in organizational communication, particularly in terms of a functional dilemma between its application for
documentation as opposed to presentation purposes. The theoretical part of the analysis combines insights from both organizational communication studies (J. R. Taylor et al.) and social systems theory (N. Luhmann et al.). The empirical analysis shows that PowerPoint documents created for cross-project learning purposes contribute to an invisibilization
rather than a visibilization of decision processes and their contingency. In the light of these results, existing efforts to promote knowledge management based on the learning-from-mistakes principle need to be reconsidered with respect to their realization in communicative practice.
Knowing in Organizations: A Practice-Based Approach
by Dvora Yanow
co-edited with Davide Nicolini and Silvia Gherardi
M E Sharpe, 2003
http://www.mesharpe.com/mall/resultsa.asp?Title=Knowing+in+Organizatio
This book explores the relationship among knowing, learning, and practice in the development of organizational... more
This book explores the relationship among knowing, learning, and practice in the development of organizational knowledge. Scholars and practitioners from the US and abroad focus on organizational learning as a collective, social, and not entirely cognitive activity. These experts represent a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds (including management, IT/collaborative technology, sociology, psychology, and political science) and research traditions (symbolic interaction, activity theory, and actor network theory). They explore the implications for research and intervention growing out of the notion that organizational knowledge cannot be conceived as a mental process residing in members' heads, but rather as a form of social expertise, in which learning is situated in the historical, social, and cultural contexts in which it takes place. Thier work provdes a fresh, authoritative, and challenging look at the changing field of organizational learning that will be equally useful in any advanced level course in which knowledge management is a central concern.
Selected Contents:
List of Tables and Figures
1. Introduction: Toward a Practice-Based View of Knowing and Learning in Organizations Davide Nicolini, Silvia Gherardi, Dvora Yanow
2. Seeing Organizational Learning: A "Cultural" View Dvora Yanow
3. Knowing in Practice: Aesthetic Understanding and Tacit Knowledge Antonio Strati
4. Communities of Practice and Social Learning Systems Etienne Wenger
5. Developing Knowing in Practice: Behind the Scenes of Haute Cuisine Marie-Leandre Gomez, Isabelle Bouty, Carole Drucker-Godard
6. Organizing Process in Complex Activity Networks Frank Blackler, Norman Crump, Seonaidh McDonald
7. Spatial and Temporal Expansion of the Object as a Challenge for Reorganizing Work Yrjo Engestrom, Anne Puonti, Laura Seppanen
8. Organizing Alignment: The Case of Bridge-Building Lucy Suchman
9. To Transfer Is to Transform: The Circulation of Safety Knowledge Silvia Gherardi and Davide Nicolini
10. Allegory and Its Others John Law and Vicky Singleton
About the Editors and Contributors
Index