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Knowledge Between Context and Capability:Towards Seamless Knowledge Management
Max Erik Rohde
Supervision Committee
Dr. David Sundaram (Primary Supervisor),
Dr. Ami Peiris, Dr. Brent Gallupe
New Zealand Information Systems Doctoral Conference 2010
Department of Information Systems and
Operations Management
30th of July 2010
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Agenda
Motivation Theoretical Background Research Framework Reserch Design Preliminary Results
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Motivation
Working as: software tester, ERP programmer, project managerand student
Information is not documented, not used and/or withoutvalue.
There is no time Few sources exist where complex unstructured information can be
accessed quickly and effortlessly
Great amounts of recorded information are without sustainablevalue
How can we design systems to create and access knowledge inalignment with natural ways of conducting routines?
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Theoretical Background
Conceptualisation of organisational routines (Feldman andPentland, 2003)
Bridging the ostensive and performative is a way to toenable context-informed organisational decisions,
flexibility, and learning (Weick and Sutcliffe, 2006; Levinthal
and Rerup, 2006)
Organisational routines can be formalized using am ITsupported grammar representations (Lee, Wyner and
Pentland, 2008)
Ostensive Performative
Structure or pattern of a
routine
Specific actions performed in a
specific situation
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Theoretical Background
Ostensive dimension of knowledge Knowledge as strategic capability (Kogut & Zander, 1992) Pattern of individual skills and experiences, routines, encoded
information and encultured values (Blackler, 1995)
Performative dimension of knowledge Knowledge as context dependent (Orlikowski, 2002) Individuals fuse individual components of knowledge in a context-
dependent situational application (Thompson & Walsham, 2004).
Knowing emerges from applying and fusing the individual parts ofthe pattern of knowledge while performing routines. A soundconceptualisation of the ostensive dimension of knowledge in a
flexible grammar representation could greatly increaseorganizations ability to leverage the potentials of the knowledgeapplied in routines.
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Theoretical Background
A critical view on information technology If encoded information makes up only some part of the knowledge
pattern, can it be captured using an explicit grammar and can IT
support this ostensive dimension of knowledge?
ICT mechanisms are strong for working with information beingrestricted by an explicit grammar but weak at flexibly meeting
situational requirements. If knowing emerges from the actions of
individuals while performing routines, can rigid information
technology support this process?
Research Problem: Both grammar and IT are by their nature restrictive and
therewith interfering with the natural conduction of routines.
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Research Objectives
Explore, synthesize and integrate knowledge managementand organisational literature to investigate therelationship between ICT mechanisms, restrictiveness andsustainable and actionable knowledge.
Explore the ability of ICT mechanisms to facilitateactionable and sustainable knowledge for and fromperforming routines and balance these routines withvarying degrees of restrictiveness.
Design, implement and evaluate ICT mechanisms, whichcan support the emergence of knowledge from
performing routines while minimizing the interferencewith these routines.
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Research Design
Bridging social and technological world using a multi-methodological approach (Nunamaker, Chen and Purdin, 1991)and by applying the principles:
Coherence: close alignment of artifacts on different semioticlevels (Purao,2002; Sheffield, 2005)
Traceability: well-reasoned and well-documented designprocess (Hevner et al., 2004; D'Souza and Wills, 1998)
Ostensive/performative
System implementation
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Artifacts Iteration 1
Theory
Ar
chitecture
Framework
Design
Discover DisseminateImpl
ementation
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Conclusion
Research aims to address a complex and long prevailingpractical and research problem. Will not find the answer
but seeks to achieve improvement.
Discover through design (Baskerville, 2008) Research designed modularand iterative Emphasis on coherence between social, conceptual, and
technological artifacts and on traceabilityof design process