Knowledge Management Infrastructure Framework for Enhancing Knowledge-Intensive Business Processes
Abstract
:1. Introduction
2. Literature Review
2.1. Knowledge Management
2.2. Knowledge-Intensive Organizations and KIBP
2.3. KM Infrastructure
2.4. KM Infrastructure as an Enabler of KIBPs
3. Research Method
3.1. Research Approach
3.2. Case Selection
3.3. Data Collection
3.4. Data Analysis
4. KM Infrastructure Framework
4.1. KM Infrastructure Categories
4.2. Overview of the KMIF
4.3. Operational Block
4.4. Formal Block
5. Discussion
6. Limitations and Future Research
7. Conclusions
Author Contributions
Funding
Institutional Review Board Statement
Informed Consent Statement
Data Availability Statement
Conflicts of Interest
Appendix A. Interview Questions
- 1.
- Name & email, current organization, job category
- 2.
- How long have you been working in this job category?
- 3.
- What functions is your organization responsible for?
- 4.
- Give an outline of the most critical business processes you are involved in in Support. What is your role in these processes?
- 5.
- What is your role in these processes?
- a.
- How would you describe your job to someone who is not part of [the organization]?
- b.
- Give an organizational chart of the structure that relates to your position (departments, groups, units etc.). Where are your job activities in the process flow?
- 6.
- Is your work governed by standards? Which standards or scorecards?
- 1.
- Which members are involved in the process as actors or stakeholders, including decision makers, providers, users, or beneficiaries of knowledge? (Please provide names and roles)
- 2.
- What digital/non-digital information resources do you use to perform your work tasks? (Information systems, file servers, ECM, DM, PC, paper boxes, people, groups)
- 3.
- Think of a person or group that you consider ‘knowledgeable’ and useful for carrying out your job. Please describe the role of each person and how they are involved in performing your tasks. What kind of information do they provide you?
- 4.
- To what extent are these resources useful and to what extent do they help you carry out your job?
- 5.
- What are your expectations from electronic information resources?
- 6.
- Think of your own expertise and experience. Who are the consumers of your knowledge?
- 7.
- What activities do you undertake in order to perform your tasks?
- 8.
- What are the frequencies and durations of the processes/tasks? Describe the tasks’ preconditions and post-conditions, their triggering events and decision-making points.
- 9.
- What risks are involved in carrying out your work?
- 10.
- When you cannot find information needed to carry out your job, where do you go to find it?
- a.
- Would you contact colleagues from other [the organization] organizations for information on (x)? Think of a person, or group, or [the organization] sub-organizations that you consider ‘knowledgeable’ and useful for carrying out your job. Do you have an organizational map of knowledge experts in your job area?
- b.
- What external factors/external organizations do you have to deal with in order to fulfill your job?
- 11.
- Think of your own expertise and experience. What do you do, or know, that if adopted by others in [the organization] would benefit their organization? What are your ‘gems’ that others don’t always see?
- 12.
- Who are the organization’s stakeholders and what is their interest in the business activities you carry out?
- 13.
- How are the processes actually executed in the organization, formally and informally? What styles of communication are common? What social and interpersonal skills are required? What kind of networking is desired?
- 14.
- What are the qualities and performance measures that the organization uses to determine whether tasks are executed successfully?
- 15.
- How do you keep yourself updated on issues related to [the organization] technical support?
- 16.
- Estimate how much time per week you spend searching for task-related information?
- a.
- What proportion of the information you are looking for resides in electronic documents, papers or people (knowledge in the minds of people)
- b.
- How do you find the information? What methods and tools do you use? (For example, searching a knowledge management system, searching email, specific websites and search engines)
- 17.
- What do you do with the information or documents you find?
- 18.
- Can you show me how you classify and organize information that is saved?
- 19.
- In general, how do you determine the correctness of the information you find? (Trust for information source, ranking…)
Appendix B. Questionnaire
- (1)
- Please select your team name
- (2)
- What format do you use to create issue-related information? You may choose multiple cells for each item
Office: Excel, Word, Power Point | SharePoint | Star Trak Mainframe | Star-Web | Jira | Paper | |||
Customer info (site id, name, contacts, etc) | ||||||||
Issue info | ||||||||
Problem info | ||||||||
Product info | ||||||||
Release info | ||||||||
Solution info | ||||||||
Training content |
- (3)
- Where do you store issue-related information? You may choose multiple cells for each item
File Servers/Shares | Personal Computer | SharePoint | Mainframe | Star-Web | support.ca.com | Wiki | ||
Customer info (site id, name, contacts, etc) | ||||||||
Issue info | ||||||||
Problem info | ||||||||
Product info | ||||||||
Release info | ||||||||
Solution info | ||||||||
Training content |
- (4)
- Where do you look for relevant information when you are resolving an issue? You may choose multiple cells for each item
Customer Info | Product Info | Issue Resolving Info | Similar Issues Info | Similar Solution Info | Problem Info | New Release Info (Fix, Updates, New Version) | |
Best Practices of Services | |||||||
Organization.com | |||||||
Consumer knowledge base | |||||||
Consult co-workers | |||||||
File Servers/Shares | |||||||
Find.Organization.com | |||||||
Green Books of SWAT | |||||||
Issue Review System | |||||||
Employee Portal—Enterprise Accounts | |||||||
Jira | |||||||
Outside resources | |||||||
Personal computer | |||||||
CenterPoint (aka SharePoint) Lists | |||||||
StarTrak Mainframe | |||||||
Star–Web | |||||||
support.Organization.com | |||||||
Training systems | |||||||
Wiki |
- (5)
- If you look for relevant information on file shares, please specify the file shares that you access/use:
- (6)
- For each type of information system (on the left), please estimate its level of quality in terms of the following parameters: accuracy, recency, and ease of finding the information. If you are not familiar with a system, please indicate that in the last column.
Accuracy & Trustworthiness | Recency of Information | Ease of Finding & Retrieving the Information | No Experience with System | |||||||||||||
Very Bad | Bad | Not Sure | Good | Very Good | Very Bad | Bad | Not Sure | Good | Very Good | Very Bad | Bad | Not Sure | Good | Very Good | ||
Best Practices of Services | ||||||||||||||||
Organization.com | ||||||||||||||||
Consumer knowledge base | ||||||||||||||||
Consult co-workers | ||||||||||||||||
File Servers/Shares | ||||||||||||||||
Find. Organization.com | ||||||||||||||||
Green Books | ||||||||||||||||
Issue Review System | ||||||||||||||||
Employee Portal—Enterprise Accounts | ||||||||||||||||
Jira | ||||||||||||||||
Outside resources | ||||||||||||||||
Personal Computer | ||||||||||||||||
SharePoint | ||||||||||||||||
Mainframe | ||||||||||||||||
Star-Web | ||||||||||||||||
support. Organization.com | ||||||||||||||||
Training systems | ||||||||||||||||
Wiki |
- (7)
- For each type of knowledge item (on the left), please estimate its quality in terms of the following parameters: accuracy, recency, and ease of finding the information
Accuracy & Trustworthiness | Recency of Information | Ease of Finding & Retrieving the Information | |||||||||||||
Very Bad | Bad | Not Sure | Good | Very Good | Very Bad | Bad | Not Sure | Good | Very Good | Very Bad | Bad | Not Sure | Good | Very Good | |
Customer info | |||||||||||||||
Product info | |||||||||||||||
Issue info | |||||||||||||||
Solution info | |||||||||||||||
Problem info | |||||||||||||||
Training content | |||||||||||||||
Releases info |
- (8)
- Where does the relevant knowledge exist for each type of information? Please choose the relative percentage for each source—each row should total 100%)
Public (Organizational Repositories) | Non Public (Personal PC, Paper, Emails…) | People’s Mind | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
(%) | (%) | (%) | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
10 | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 | 60 | 70 | 80 | 90 | 10 | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 | 60 | 70 | 80 | 90 | 10 | 20 | 30 | 40 | 50 | 60 | 70 | 80 | 90 | |
Customer info | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Product info | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Issue info | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Solution info | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Problem info | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Training content | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Releases info |
- (9)
- When you create an issue in Star, what is the best way to create keywords so that others may locate the issue easily?
- Authors create their own tags (keywords) for issues they create or modify
- Authors choose keywords from the organization’s predefined list of values (if the required value is missing, it may be added)
- Keywords are generated automatically based on information inserted for the current issue
- Other (please specify)
- (10)
- I prefer to use CenterPoint (aka SharePoint) knowledge portals because: please select all relevant statements
- It is interesting
- It is a central repository for all technical information
- It has a simple GUI that makes it usable
- I find the information useful and it provides me with shortcuts for completing my tasks
- My manager asked me to use it
- Other (please specify)
- (11)
- I prefer not to use SharePoint knowledge portals because: please indicate all relevant statements
- I am too busy to use it
- It seems useless
- I do not understand how to use it
- The interface is not friendly
- The information in it seems unreliable
- The information is duplicated from other sources
- I prefer reading hard copy documents
- Other (please specify)
- (12)
- Are you comfortable with sharing your professional experience and innovative ideas within a sharable corporate-wide collaborative system (e.g. CenterPoint, aka SharePoint)? Please choose one suitable answer
- Yes, it allows me to answer each question only once
- Yes, it allows other people to see my answers
- Yes, it provides a single place for updates to a question, such as a searchable discussion forum
- No, because it takes a lot of time
- No, I prefer to help people by telephone
- No, I prefer to help people by email
- No, I prefer to help people in face-to-face meetings
- Other (please specify)
- (13)
- Which of the following has potential to develop a successful knowledge management solution within your organization?
No Potential | Slight Potential | Moderate Potential | Good Potential | Excellent Potential | |
Improve the information technology infrastructure | |||||
Develop systematic training for all support engineers | |||||
Develop an integrative organization repository of information and knowledge | |||||
Develop effective and efficient methods of gathering information | |||||
Encourage a culture that promotes sharing of knowledge | |||||
Provide incentives to support engineers who contribute knowledge | |||||
Allow a place and time for support engineers to discuss their personal knowledge | |||||
Allocate resources for generating knowledge | |||||
Encourage support engineers to be innovative and creative | |||||
Have well-defined keyword management |
- (14)
- What are the main individual barriers to successful knowledge management in your organization?
- (15)
- What are the main organizational barriers to successful knowledge management in your organization?
- (16)
- What are the main technological barriers to successful knowledge management in your organization?
- (17)
- How many hours per week do you spend creating knowledge documents as part of the “Write for success” program?
- More than 10 h
- 7 to 10 h
- 4 to 7 h
- 1 to 4 h
- Less than 1 h (but greater than 0)
- I do not participate in this program
- (18)
- How important are each of the following CenterPoint (aka SharePoint) tools to your job:
Very Important | Moderately Important | Of Little Importance | Unimportant | |
Announcements and alerts | ||||
Calendar tools | ||||
Discussion Board | ||||
Document access and sharing | ||||
Document creation and maintenance for the knowledge library | ||||
Sharepoint Lists | ||||
Surveys | ||||
Links to other applications | ||||
Other (please provide details in comment field below) |
- (19)
- What improvements to the organizational tools, processes, and incentive programs would increase your contributions to knowledge creation, sharing, and maintenance?
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Phase | Step | Main Activities | |
---|---|---|---|
Research design phase | Step 1 | Review of technical literature | Defining the research question |
Step 2 | Case selection | Theoretical (not random) sampling | |
Step 3 | Development of rigorous data collection protocol | Defining themes that delineate the boundaries of the research question and building an initial guide for interviews | |
Step 4 | Entering the field | Collecting and analyzing overlapping data | |
Using flexible and opportunistic data collection methods | |||
Data collection phase | Step 5 | Data ordering | Sequencing events chronologically |
Data analysis phase | Step 6 | Data analysis | Using coding and memo |
Step 7 | Theoretical sampling | Looking for theoretical replication across cases | |
Return to Step 4 (until theoretical saturation) | Step 8 | Reaching closure | Looking for theoretical saturation when possible |
Literature comparison phase | Step 9 | Comparison between emergent theory and extant literature | Making comparisons with conflicting and similar frameworks |
Phenomenon | Concept |
---|---|
“The question is what knowledge to write about?” | Knowledge creation policy |
“I think that we should have a knowledge creation policy on what kind of information is valid for knowledge creation …” | Knowledge creation policy |
“Documents are scattered in many places” | Duplication of knowledge storage repositories |
“We have many versions of documents, caused by duplication of knowledge storage repositories” | Duplication of knowledge storage repositories |
“Managers should apply best practices for work method modifications” | Work method modification |
Concepts | Category |
---|---|
Operational knowledge creation policy Operational knowledge categorization Customer-oriented operational knowledge creation | Operational knowledge capture |
Core Category | Sub-Category | Sub-Category Description |
---|---|---|
Operational knowledge procedures Deal with knowledge procedures that are directly involved in claim-resolution processes | Operational knowledge capture | A set of procedures that deal with knowledge capturing during the execution of claim-resolution process tasks directly within the operational environment. |
Operational knowledge access | A set of procedures that allows engineers to access useful knowledge for claim resolution directly within the operational environment. This includes processes such as real-time communication among engineers and searching and retrieving operational documentation. | |
Formal knowledge procedures Deal with knowledge procedures that are conducted outside the claim-resolution process. The related knowledge, however, should be used during the claim-resolution process | Knowledge development | A set of formal learning procedures executed by engineers that aims to externalize personal knowledge by analyzing mishaps and failures, best practices, and lessons learned. These procedures include creating formal documentation of product-related information that helps engineers resolve claims. |
Knowledge assimilation | Refers to the use of organizational experience and practices, systematic modification of procedure instructions and work methods by applying mishaps and failure analysis, and developing training materials based on lessons learned and best practices. | |
Knowledge dissemination | A set of procedures that help engineers obtain useful knowledge for claim resolution outside the operational environment. This includes formal meetings among engineers for knowledge transfer, the rotation of engineers among teams, and mentorship. | |
Knowledge worker (engineer) training Deals with training procedures aimed at increasing the level of professionalism and skills of engineers involved in the claim-resolution process | Group training | A set of procedures, such as training on new products, releases, service packs, and other materials, provides engineers with the means for solving problems quickly and effectively. |
Self-training | The aims of self-training are identical to those of group training. Still, Support allocates defined work time and provides user-friendly training packages for self-training to enhance engineers’ ability to use organizational information systems and product-related materials. | |
KM-related culture Deals with the cultural environment required for the claim-resolution process to encourage engineers to contribute knowledge | Rewards for knowledge contribution | Refers to the various “reward programs” that include financial incentives or recognition programs introduced to encourage engineers to contribute knowledge. |
Consideration of failure analysis | Refers to the necessity to create and maintain an open environment in which engineers are not afraid to confess to mistakes and failures. | |
Information systems (IS) Deals with all relevant IS involved in the claim-resolution process | Operational IS | Refers to the IS that are directly involved in the execution of the claim-resolution tasks. |
KM-related IS | Refers to IS that are external to the process, such as organizational portals, team websites, search engines, and document management systems. |
Customer Information | Product Information | Similar Claims and Solutions | New Releases | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Best practices of services | 6.7% | 24.4% | 28.9% | 17.8% |
Support internet website | 6.7% | 46.7% | 20.0% | 26.7% |
Customer support website | 8.9% | 68.9% | 46.7% | 64.4% |
Consumer knowledge base | 4.4% | 8.9% | 37.8% | 8.9% |
Portal 1 | 15.6% | 13.3% | 2.2% | 4.4% |
File servers | 2.2% | 13.3% | 17.8% | 22.2% |
Portal 2 | 11.1% | 44.4% | 75.6% | 40.0% |
Best practices of field team | 2.2% | 20.0% | 15.6% | 6.7% |
Portal 3 | 15.6% | 26.7% | 24.4% | 20.0% |
Outside resources | 0.0% | 20.0% | 35.6% | 6.7% |
Personal computer | 11.1% | 26.7% | 31.1% | 17.8% |
CRM mainframe | 77.8% | 37.8% | 77.8% | 42.2% |
CRM web | 15.6% | 6.7% | 15.6% | 4.4% |
Talking directly with co-workers (e.g., phone or face-to-face) | 31.1% | 48.9% | 64.4% | 57.8% |
Training systems | 0.0% | 31.1% | 15.6% | 20.0% |
Written interactions with co-workers (e.g., email, text messaging, forums) | 40.0% | 62.2% | 71.1% | 62.2% |
Wiki | 4.4% | 24.4% | 20.0% | 17.8% |
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Aviv, I.; Hadar, I.; Levy, M. Knowledge Management Infrastructure Framework for Enhancing Knowledge-Intensive Business Processes. Sustainability 2021, 13, 11387. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132011387
Aviv I, Hadar I, Levy M. Knowledge Management Infrastructure Framework for Enhancing Knowledge-Intensive Business Processes. Sustainability. 2021; 13(20):11387. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132011387
Chicago/Turabian StyleAviv, Itzhak, Irit Hadar, and Meira Levy. 2021. "Knowledge Management Infrastructure Framework for Enhancing Knowledge-Intensive Business Processes" Sustainability 13, no. 20: 11387. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132011387