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TACIT KNOWLEDGE SHARING IN ONLINE ENVIRONMENTS: locating 'Ba' within a platform for public sector professionals.
Centre for Social Informatics - School of Computing - Edinburgh Napier University
Iris Buunk, Prof. Hazel Hall, Dr Colin F. Smith
@irisbuunk
27-30 June 2017
CONTENT
Background Themes
Social media affordances The concept of 'Ba'
Survey implementation Findings
Learning processes Expertise sharing Problem-solving Innovation Productivity
New understandings Questions & Discussion
BACKGROUND
Part of larger doctoral study Easier, faster, better? How social media facilitate the sharing of tacit knowledge between employees within public sector organisations.
Paper based on preliminary results from survey.
Literature review Online survey Methodology Interviews Data analysis Thesis
BACKGROUND
Research Questions
How do social media facilitate the sharing of tacit knowledge between employees?
To what extent do social media bring new capabilities in the sharing of tacit knowledge?
Which situated factors may provide the appropriate context for using social media to enhance tacit knowledge sharing practices?
TACIT KNOWLEDGE?
Assumptions
Intuition
Ideas
Understanding Routines
Expertise
Skills Know-how
Problem solving Best practices
Tips & Tricks
Mental models
Emotions
Viewpoints
Information
Data
Documentation
Reports
Tacit
Explicit
Technical dimension
Cognitive dimension
(Nonaka, 1994; Panahi, Watson, Partridge, 2013)
LITERATURE REVIEW THEMES
•Social media affordances (Panahi, 2013) – Facilitation of tacit knowledge sharing through social media affordances.
•The concept of ‘Ba’ (Nonaka, 1998) – Contextual space shared with others from which relationships emerge, and in which knowledge is exchanged.
SOCIAL MEDIA AFFORDANCES (SMA) Based on the work of Panahi, Watson, Partridge, (2013)
Initiate informal discussions among experts Informal discussions help people with similar skills and interests to discuss & solve issues (Hildrum, 2009)
Foster collective intelligence Enable the connection and addition of employees’ intelligence which consequently enhances collective intelligence (Razmerita, Karchner and Nabeth, 2014).
Make tacit and personal knowledge visible Facilitate online social interactions & help employees discover sources of expertise within the network (Mansour et al., 2011)
Decrease time & effort needed for sharing knowledge Help in communicating tacit knowledge and reduce time & efforts needed for knowledge codification (Gordoyeva, 2010)
THE CONCEPT OF 'BA‘
THE CONCEPT OF 'BA‘
Characteristics
1. Originating Ba 2. Interacting or Dialoging Ba 3. Cyber or Systemizing Ba 4. Exercising Ba
Concept invented by Nonaka & Konno (1998). Inspired by philosopher Kitaro Nishida
場
Contextual space shared with others from which relationships emerge, and in which knowledge is exchanged.
Socialisation Externalisation
Combination Internalisation
Existential Reflective
Synthetic
Originating Ba Interacting Ba (Dialoging)
Exercising Ba Cyber Ba (Systemizing )
Face-to-face
On-the-site
peer-to-peer
Group-to-group Systemic
From
To
Tacit/ tacit
Explicit/ Tacit
Tacit/ Explicit
Explicit/ Explicit
SECI model
Ba model
THE 'BA‘ & SECI MODEL
Why does it matter?
Tacit knowledge is highly contextual.
(Koskinen, Pihlanto, Vanharanta, 2003;
Jakubik, 2007; Krishnaveni & Sujatha, 2012)
'Ba' in the literature
• Nonaka, Konno (1998). The Concept of “Ba”: bulding a foundation for knowledge creation. California Management Review, 40
• Choo, W., Chun, & Alvarenga Neto, R. (2010). Beyond the ba: managing enabling contexts in knowledge organizations. Journal of Knowledge Management, 14(4)
• Martin-Niemi, F., & Greatbanks, R.
(2010). The ba of blogs: enabling conditions for knowledge conversion in blog communities. Vine, 40(1)
Bartolacci, C., Isidori, D., Cristalli, C. Niccolini, F. (2016). Ba evolution. Virtual spaces for inter-organizational knowledge creation. Journal of Knowledge Management, 20(4)
RESEARCH DESIGN Population
• Members of an online social
platform of knowledge sharing hosted by UK public service.
• Respondents based in various
public & 3rd sector organisations (national & local Government, health service, charities) mainly in Scotland.
RESEARCH DESIGN
Online survey
• Demographic questions • Digital usage of social media
features • Knowledge sharing practices
(Lickert scale)
RESEARCH DESIGN Data collection • Survey opened during 6 weeks (July-August 2016) • 1062 respondents
Data analysis • Descriptive statistics • Smart Survey & Excel • Fuller analysis to follow (correlations, T-test) after the analysis of
qualitative data
Findings Social platform KHub enables the sharing of tacit knowledge by facilitating:
1. Learning processes 2. Expertise sharing 3. Problem-solving 4. Innovation 5. Productivity
1.Learning processes
58% indicated that they agreed or strongly agreed with this statement, against a small number (12%) who disagreed or strongly disagreed Learning process occurs during knowledge conversion between tacit & explicit knowledge and through social interactions.
“On KHub I find it easy to develop my learning.”
This correlates with the Exercising Ba
2.Expertise sharing
58 % indicated that they agreed or strongly agreed with this statement against a small number (11%) who disagreed or strongly disagreed. Sharing of knowledge and expertise facilitated by online communities of practice.
‘On Knowledge Hub I find it easy to share my knowledge and expertise’.
This correlates with the Interacting Ba
3.Problem solving
63 % indicated that they agreed or strongly agreed with this statement, against a small number (10 %) who disagreed or strongly disagreed.
'On Knowledge Hub I find it easy to request help from others’ .
‘On Knowledge Hub I find it easy to help others to solve their problems’ 53 % indicated that they agreed or strongly agreed with this statement, against a small number (9%) who disagreed or strongly disagreed.
This correlates with the Interacting Ba
Collaborative media tools can facilitate problem-solving when employees look for answers among the online community of users.
4.Innovation
52 % indicated that they agreed or strongly agreed with this statement, against a small number (14%) who disagreed or strongly disagreed. The discovery of ideas can only occur when those are shared with other members of a community and through social interactions.
This correlates with the Interacting Ba
‘On Knowledge Hub I find it easy to discover new ideas.’
5.Productivity
Less than a third (30.3%) of the respondents have agreed or strongly agreed with this statement, less than a half (42.90%) neither disagreed nor agreed. This does not seem to support what is suggested in the literature.
‘Knowledge Hub has helped me to save time at work.’
DEVELOPMENT OF UNDERSTANDING OF SMA
Panahi et al., 2012 Findings SMA initiate informal discussions among experts
Learning process Problem solving
SMA foster collective intelligence Innovation Expertise sharing
SMA make tacit and personal knowledge visible
Learning process, Problem solving Innovation Expertise sharing
SMA decrease time & effort needed for sharing knowledge
Productivity
WHAT IS THE LINK?
Social interactions
Expertise sharing Informal
discussions
Collective intelligence
Skills visibility
Innovation
Problem solving
WHAT IS THE LINK?
Social interactions facilitate the sharing of tacit knowledge But in which contextual environment?
Socialisation Externalisation
Combination Internalisation
Physical Mental
Synthetic Virtual
Originating Ba Interacting Ba
Exercising Ba Cyber Ba
Face-to-face
On-the-site
peer-to-peer
Group-to-group
DEVELOPMENT OF UNDERSTANDING OF THE ‘BA’
Tacit
Tacit Explicit
Explicit
2. Expertise sharing 3. Problem solving 4. Innovation
1. Learning process
?
Thank you. Any questions?
Next conference:
18th European Conference on Knowledge Management 7 – 8 September 2017 Universitat, Internacional de Catalunya, Spain ‘Skills in Sight: How Social Media Affordances Increase Network Awareness.’
@irisbuunk
uk.linkedin.com/in/irisbuunk/en
www.theknowledgeexplorer.org
www.napier.ac.uk/people/iris-buunk
CONTACT
REFERENCES
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