USING TASK HISTORIES TO SUPPORT PERSON-TO-PERSON KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE - Extracting and using Contextual Overlap and Levels of Expertise to Connect Knowledge Workers

Jörg Schmidl, Helmut Krcmar

2011

Abstract

Knowledge within organizations is increasingly distributed, which raises the challenge to connect the right individuals for knowledge exchange when needed. In this contribution we analyze this challenge in detail and propose a concept to connect the right individuals by relying on the task histories of the knowledge workers. We first investigate relevant theoretical models such as transactive memory theory, social capital theory for knowledge exchange and a model based on socio-motivational and problem solving theory to find relevant constructs. We then analyze the relevant state-of-the-art to find that all approaches have some limitations with respect to the theoretical models. Our proposed solution to the challenge builds on using task histories for the matching, and we show how it can be used to determine contextual overlap and level of expertise – the first one is an adequate indicator for willingness to interact while the second one is an indicator for ability to have a fruitful interaction. We then describe a case study in which we employed our concept in a three month timeframe with 93 individuals. A survey after the case study shows that our assumptions concerning the relevance and benefit of context overlap are substantiated.

References

  1. Binney, D. (2001): The knowledge management spectrum - understanding the KM landscape. In Journal of Knowledge Management 5 (1), pp. 33-42.
  2. Böhmann, T.; Krcmar, H. (2002): Werkzeuge für das Wissensmanagement. In M. Bellmann, H. Krcmar, T. Sommerlatte, Wissensmanagement, Symposion Publishing GmbH, Duesseldorf.
  3. Bromme, Rianer; Jucks, Regina; Rambow, Riklef (2004): Experten-Laien-Kommunikation im Wissensmanagement. In Gabi Reinmann, Heinz Mandl (Eds.): Psychologie des Wissensmanagements. Perspektiven, Theorien und Methoden. 1. ed. Göttingen: Hogrefe, pp. 176-188.
  4. Brown, J. S; Duguid, P. (2001): Knowledge and organization: A social-practice perspective. In Organization science 12 (2), pp. 198-213.
  5. Byrne, D.E (1971): The attraction paradigm: Academic Press.
  6. Constant, D.; Sproull, L.; Kiesler, S. (1996): The kindness of strangers: The usefulness of electronic weak ties for technical advice. In Organization science 7 (2), pp. 119-135.
  7. Davenport, T. H. (2011): Rethinking knowledge work: A strategic approach. In McKinsey Quarterly. McKinsey & Company
  8. Drucker, Peter (1988): The coming of the new organization. In Harvard business review.
  9. Festinger, L. (1954): A theory of social comparison processes. In Human Relations, 7(2) 117-140. 7 (2), pp. 117-140.
  10. Gronau, N.; Uslar, M. (2004): Integrating Knowledge Management and Human Resources Via Skill Management. In Journal of Universal Computer Science: Proceedings of I-Know 7804, pp. 135-142.
  11. Holsapple, C. W; Whinston, A. B (1987): Knowledgebased organizations. In The Information Society 5 (2), pp. 77-90.
  12. Kanfer, R. (1990): Motivation theory and industrial and organizational psychology.
  13. Krcmar, H. (2010): Informationsmanamgent, Berlin: Springer.
  14. Law, S. P. M.; Chang, M. K. (2008): Fostering knowledge exchange in online communities: a social capital building approach. In Proceedings of ICIS. Paris, France, 14.-17.12.2008, pp. Paper 173.
  15. Lin, N. (2001): Building a network theory of social capital. In Social capital: Theory and research, pp. 3- 29.
  16. Makolm, J.; Weiß, S.; Reisinger, D. (2007): Proactive knowledge management: the DYONIPOS research and use-case project. In Proceedings of 1st international conference on theory and practice of elecontric governance. ICEGOV. New York, NY, USA: ACM.
  17. Nahapiet, J.; Ghoshal, S. (1998): Social capital, intellectual capital, and the organizational advantage. In Academy of management review 23 (2), pp. 242- 266.
  18. Newell, A.; Simon, H.A. (1972): Human problem solving: Prentice-Hall Englewood Cliffs, NJ (104).
  19. Nonaka, I. (1994): A dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation. In Organization science 5 (1), pp. 14-37.
  20. Olivera, F.; Goodman, P.S; Tan, S.S.L (2008): Contribution behaviors in distributed environments. In MIS Quarterly 32 (1), pp. 23-42.
  21. Quinn, James Brian (1992): Intelligent enterprise. A knowledge and service based paradigm for industry. New York: Free Press.
  22. Qureshi, Sajda; Briggs, Robert; Hlupic, Vlatka (2006): Value Creation from Intellectual Capital: Convergence of Knowledge Management and Collaboration in the Intellectual Bandwidth Model. In Group Decision and Negotiation 15 (3), pp. 197-220.
  23. Seid, Dawit Yimam; Kobsa, Alfred (2003): Expert finding systems for organizations: Problem and domain analysis and the DEMOIR approach. In Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce.
  24. Serdyukov, P. (2009): Search for expertise. Going beyond direct evidence. SIKS dissertation series.
  25. Tajfel, H. T (1986): J. C. (1986). The social identity theory of intergroup behavior. In Psychology of intergroup relations, pp. 7-24.
  26. Teigland, R. (2003): Knowledge networking: Structure and performance in networks of practice: Stockholm School of Economics.
  27. Turner, J. C.; Hogg, M. A.; Oakes, P. J.; Reicher, S. D.; Wetherell, M. S (1987): Rediscovering the social group: A self-categorization theory: Basil Blackwell.
  28. Wasko, M. M.; Faraj, S. (2005): Why should I share? Examining social capital and knowledge contribution in electronic networks of practice. In MIS Quarterly 29 (1), pp. 35-57.
  29. Wasko, M. M; Faraj, S. (2000): "It is what one does": why people participate and help others in electronic communities of practice. In Journal of Strategic Information Systems 9 (2-3), pp. 155-173.
  30. Wegner, D. M.; Giuliano, T.; Hertel, P. (1985): Cognitive interdependence in close relationships. In William John Ickes (Ed.): Compatible and incompatible relationships. New York, NY, pp. 253-276.
  31. Ye, Yunwen; Nakakoji, Kumiyo; Yamamoto, Yasuhiro (2008): Understanding and Improving Collective Attention Economy for Expertise Sharing. In Zohra Bellahsène, Michel Léonard (Eds.): Proceedings of 20 th CAISE,. Berlin: Springer. pp. 167-181.
  32. Ziegler, Cai-Nicolas; Golbeck, Jennifer (2007): Investigating Interactions of Trust and Interest Similarity. In Decision Support Systems 43 (2), pp. 460-475.
  33. Zimbardo, P. G. (1983): Psychologie. Berlin: Springer.
Download


Paper Citation


in Harvard Style

Schmidl J. and Krcmar H. (2011). USING TASK HISTORIES TO SUPPORT PERSON-TO-PERSON KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE - Extracting and using Contextual Overlap and Levels of Expertise to Connect Knowledge Workers . In Proceedings of the International Conference on Knowledge Management and Information Sharing - Volume 1: KMIS, (IC3K 2011) ISBN 978-989-8425-81-2, pages 77-86. DOI: 10.5220/0003661300770086


in Bibtex Style

@conference{kmis11,
author={Jörg Schmidl and Helmut Krcmar},
title={USING TASK HISTORIES TO SUPPORT PERSON-TO-PERSON KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE - Extracting and using Contextual Overlap and Levels of Expertise to Connect Knowledge Workers},
booktitle={Proceedings of the International Conference on Knowledge Management and Information Sharing - Volume 1: KMIS, (IC3K 2011)},
year={2011},
pages={77-86},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0003661300770086},
isbn={978-989-8425-81-2},
}


in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the International Conference on Knowledge Management and Information Sharing - Volume 1: KMIS, (IC3K 2011)
TI - USING TASK HISTORIES TO SUPPORT PERSON-TO-PERSON KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE - Extracting and using Contextual Overlap and Levels of Expertise to Connect Knowledge Workers
SN - 978-989-8425-81-2
AU - Schmidl J.
AU - Krcmar H.
PY - 2011
SP - 77
EP - 86
DO - 10.5220/0003661300770086