Can Intra-Organizational Wikis Facilitate Knowledge Transfer and Learning? An Explorative Case-Study

Can Intra-Organizational Wikis Facilitate Knowledge Transfer and Learning? An Explorative Case-Study

Alexander Stocker, Gisela Granitzer, Klaus Tochtermann

Abstract: We describe concept and implementation of a wiki-based application facilitating knowledge transfer and learning within the enterprise. Building on two interviews with managerial experts responsible for the roll-out and an online survey of 59 non-executive employees targeted by this new solution, we present the results of our evaluation. Our contribution was highly motivated from the continuing discussion on the potential and pitfalls of Web 2.0 technologies and applications underlying technology enhanced learning and the lack of empirical studies in contrast.

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Stocker, Alexander; Granitzer, Gisela; Tochtermann, Klaus: Can Intra-Organizational Wikis Facilitate Knowledge Transfer and Learning? An Explorative Case-Study, in: Proceedings of eLBa – eLearning Baltics, Rostock, Germany, 2009.

Zum Wert von Wikis in Unternehmen

Mein Beitrag für den WissensWert Blog Carnival Nr. 7

Im Rahmen meiner Aktivitäten am Know-Center habe ich eine Reihe von Fallstudien zu Wikis und Weblogs in Unternehmen durchgeführt. In meinem Konferenzeitrag für die KMIS Konferenz mit dem Titel "Exploring the Value of Enterprise Wikis" stelle ich drei Fallstudien vor.

Aus der Wissensmanagement Perspektive besitzen Wikis nämlich ein riesiges Potenzial, den Wissenstransfer zwischen den Mitarbeitenden in Unternehmen zu verbessern. Trotzdem befinden sich viele Unternehmen noch in einer Experimentierphase. Oft lässt sich in der Analyse noch gar kein richtiger Business-Case erkennen. Vielfach werden technische Aspekte überbewertet.

In meinem Beitrag wird daher insbesondere auf die besonders spannenden Aspekte Motivation, Nutzung, Nutzen für Individuum und Organisation sowie Erfolgsfaktoren eingegangen. Außerdem wird die Ausgangssituation, welche zur Einführung eines Wikis führte, ausführlich beleuchtet.

Von den teilnehmenden Unternehmen wurden beispielsweise folgende Erfolgsfaktoren bei Wiki Projekten genannt:

• Erstbestückung vor Roll-out: Mit genügend Artikeln im Wiki starten
• Roll-out auf einer breiten Mitarbeiterbasis durchführen
• Überzeugte Nutzer gewinnen, welche ihrerseits andere motivieren
• Optimistisches und frustrationsresistentes Wiki-Team
  
• Akzeptanz des Managements einholen, Management für Werbung gewinnen
  
• Intensives internes Marketing

Ein zentrales Ergebnis war auch, dass die Technologie bei Wiki Einführung das geringste Problem darstellt. Die geeignete Einbettung des Wikis in den Geschäftskontext stellt Unternehmen meist vor größere Herausforderungen.

Viel Spaß beim Lesen des Konferenzbeitrags!

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Investigating Weblogs in Small and Medium Enterprises: An Exploratory Case Study

Investigating Weblogs in Small and Medium Enterprises: An Exploratory Case Study
Alexander Stocker and Klaus Tochtermann

Abstract: Contrary to a Wiki where the opinion of the individual user disappears in favor of a more impartial ‘collective intelligence’, a weblog is author-centered, expressing the author’s subjective point of view. This particular property of weblogs played a fundamental role for the popularity weblogs gained for making implicit knowledge explicit in an unsolicited, selforganized
way. However, empirical studies from academia exploring internal corporate weblogs remain scarce, especially when they focus on small and medium enterprises (SMEs) which make up the majority of all enterprises worldwide. To counteract this lack of research, we investigate an internal corporate weblog in an ICT SME from a knowledge management perspective.
We derive both research questions and hypotheses to test within future studies. Furthermore, we consider already gained findings from corporate weblog research and investigate their immediate applicability in the context of SMEs.

Zitat: Stocker, Alexander; Tochtermann, Klaus, Investigating Weblogs in Small and Medium Enterprises: An Exploratory Case Study, in Proceedings of 11th International Conference on Business Information Systems – BIS ‘08 (2nd Workshop on Social Aspects of the Web), Innsbruck, 2008

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Studying Knowledge Transfer with Webloge in Small and Medium Enterprises: An Exploratory Case Study

Studying Knowledge Transfer with Webloge in Small and Medium Enterprises: An Exploratory Case Study
Alexander Stocker, Markus Strohmaier, Klaus Tochtermann

Abstract: Weblogs are widely known as a technology that allows publishing textual content in reverse chronological order, often expressing the subjective points of view of a single or multiple weblog authors. The simplicity and autonomy of weblogs is assumed to play a fundamental role in their popularity and their ability to transform implicit knowledge into explicit forms. In recent years, enterprises began to experiment with weblogs to facilitate inter- and intraorganizational knowledge sharing. Although weblogs have been increasingly adopted in a corporate context, sound exploratory and explanatory knowledge and theories about weblog adoption practices in corporoate contexts are missing. A rich toolset of network-analytic techniques exists to analyze the vast amount of electronic traces produced by large weblog networks. However, in small and medium enterprises, electronic traces are sparse due to the lack of a critical amount of weblogs being maintained, and weblog communications are intervowen with offline exchanges. This requires researchers to adopt and develop new analytical techniques and concepts for advancing the state of research on weblogs. Our paper is intended to expand existing research on corporate weblogs by studying weblog adoption practices for knowledge transfer purposes in Small and Medium Enterprises. In this paper, we report selected findings from a case study in which a weblog was used to facilitate knowledge transfer in an SME. The overall contributions of our paper are deep insights into a single case of a weblog adoption in a small and medium enterprise and the formulation of a set of tentative hypothesis.

Zitat: Stocker, Alexander; Strohmaier, Markus; Tochtermann, Klaus, Studying Knowledge Transfer with Weblogs in Small and Medium Enterprises: An Exploratory Case Study, in: Scalable Computing: Practice and Experience – Special Issue: The Web on the Move, Volume 9, No. 4, 2008.

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