Suchergebnisse

Process oriented Knowledge Management (pKM) has been a widely discussed approach for KM initiatives. The approach ties business strategy closely to KM by connecting knowledge activities to key business processes. Social Software has been taken up in many domains as an organizational tool for managing knowledge. Up till now, the impact of being globally distributed (organizations and teams) has not been emphasized within the pKM view, nor has been the Social Software approach. The globally distributed, Social Software – supported approach has clear impacts for designing and implementing KM processes in the pKM view. Within this paper the authors clarify these implications with an integrated model for introducing Social Software tools for Knowledge Management and aligning those with KM as well as business processes. Their approach emphasizes on aligning the Social Software activities with KM coordination processes, knowledge-intensive business processes and knowledge activities. The authors' work also stresses the need to recognize and deal with KM barriers within the coordination processes in order to define and implement appropriate interventions and activities.

PurposeThe purpose of the paper is to examine how media synchronicity facilitates the emergence of social exchange (i.e. trust and reciprocity) in organizations' information and communication technology (ICT)-mediated interactions. A model of media synchronicity in organizational social exchange (MSiOSE) is proposed.Design/methodology/approachThe paper has a design and review approach. The theoretical analysis is based on social exchange theory (SET) and media synchronicity theory (MST).FindingsThe authors propose that, in general, social exchange benefits from both asynchronous and synchronous communication processes. However, media synchronicity has different boundary conditions (i.e. pros and cons) in relation to the emergence of social exchange, determined in accordance with the mutually interacting patterns of trust and reciprocity predicted by SET. The authors provide testable theoretical propositions to support the analysis.Originality/valueSocial exchange is a critical business factor for organizations due to its well-known positive outcomes, such as the strengthening of social ties. The need for successful social exchange in remote work conditions is particularly emphasized. However, with regard to the communication and behavioral patterns that lead to social exchange via ICT, the theoretical understanding is limited. The study reveals previously unmapped heuristics between social exchange and physical media capabilities. Thus, the study's propositions can be used to study and analyze social exchange in the ever-changing media landscape. As a practical contribution, the study helps organizations to improve their communication strategies and use of ICT.

The goal of this paper is to recommend suitable competence assessment instruments and methods for assessing globalization competence in the Information Systems domain. This is done by matching globalization competences with suitable competence assessment methods. The results of the analysis indicate that the most applicable competence assessment methods for assessing globalization competences in the Information Systems domain are written format assessments (especially essays), candidate self-reports, live interactions (especially group work), and computer simulations. The validity of the outcome is confirmed through a mixed method of document analysis and expert interviews by analyzing and evaluating the assessment methods of Finnish higher education courses in the Information Systems field. Finally, a preliminary comparison between Finnish and Japanese assessment methods is conducted.

PurposeSocial media platforms are increasingly used at work to facilitate work-related activities and can either challenge or make people feel more productive at jobs. This study drew from technostress and employee well-being literature and analyzed longitudinal effects of professional social media (PSM) invasion, work engagement and work exhaustion on PSM-enabled productivity.Design/methodology/approachNationally representative five-wave survey data of Finnish employees were analyzed with hybrid multilevel linear regression analysis. Outcome measure was PSM-enabled productivity and the predictors included PSM invasion, work exhaustion and work engagement. Age, gender, education, occupational sector, managerial position, remote work and personality traits were used as control variables.FindingsPSM invasion and work engagement had both within-person and between-person effects on PSM-enabled productivity. Higher educated and individuals with open personality reported higher PSM-enabled productivity. No association between work exhaustion and PSM-enabled productivity was found.Originality/valueThe findings are central considering the increasing use of social media and other technologies for work purposes. The authors challenge the dominant view in the literature that has often seen PSM invasion as a negative factor. Instead, PSM invasion's positive association with PSM-enabled productivity and the association of work engagement and PSM-enabled productivity should be recognized in work life.

Are the Nordic countries forerunners in Open Education? What is the state of the art, barriers and opportunities of Open Education in the Nordic countries? What are necessary actions on policy, institutional and individual levels? These are the main questions of this paper. Open Educational Resources are discussed widely on a global, European and even Nordic level. UNESCO, which has coined the term Open Educational Resources (OER) some 10 years ago, published in June 2012 a global agenda for OER, the Paris Declaration (adopted by OER World Congress). The Declaration shows the importance of Open Educational Resources and gives recommendations to governments and institutions around the globe. The European Union has started a large-scale initiative on "Opening Up Education" (http://ec.europa.eu/dgs/education_culture/documents/consult/open_en.pdf). The concept of OER seems promising, potentially leading to educational collaborations, having potential for stimulating innovation in education, reducing cost of education, and broadening access to education for all. However, the awareness on the opportunities of using OERs is still low in the Nordic countries. In contrast to Open Access (for publications) or Open Source (for software development), OER are not yet broadly known and accepted / adopted. It is highly necessary to combine the initiatives and ideas of open approaches. This is the case at a user level as well as on policy level (see also Clements & Pawlowski, 2012). Therefore, it is important to promote OER to governments at all levels as well as to institutions. The Nordic countries seem to be a good ground for openness and sharing: the Nordic countries share many values related to education and technology development; the political and governmental institutions are quite similar – there is also a tradition for exchange of knowledge and solutions between the countries. In this paper, we briefly give an introduction to OER and reflect on the state if the art of Open Education in the Nordic countries. In expert workshops by the Nordic Open Education Alliance, barriers and possible interventions to overcome them were explored. Based on these, we formulate recommendations as well as propose implementation actions. This study is based on a position paper from the Nordic Open Education Alliance (http://www.nordlet.org/?=position).