A Framework for a Dynamic Organizational Memory Information System

Personal competences of experienced employees are the most important knowledge assets of knowledge-work oriented enterprises. Thus, it makes perfect sense to start IT support for enterprise knowledge management with a system that facilitates finding of appropriate contact persons for business tasks which require specific knowledge, experiences, or skills. We propose such a competence knowledge base system (CKBS) which builds upon an ontology-based model of competence fields, the use of which allows (i) comprehensive multi-criteria organization and queries for personal competences, (ii) complex heuristic inferences for finding knowledgeable persons in spite of vaguely specified information needs, and (iii) easy integration of the CKBS into an overall organizational memory information system.

Alavi and Leidner (2001, p. 114) defined knowledge management systems (KMSs) as “IT-based systems developed to support and enhance the organizational processes of knowledge creation, storage/retrieval, transfer, and application.” They observed that not all KM initiatives will implement an IT solution, but they support IT as an enabler of KM. Maier (2002) expanded on the IT concept for the KMS by calling it an ICT system that supported the functions of knowledge creation, construction, identification, capturing, acquisition, selection, valuation, organization, linking, structuring, formalization, visualization, distribution, retention, maintenance, refinement, evolution, access, search, and application. Stein and Zwass (1995) define an organizational memory information system (OMIS) as the processes and IT components necessary to capture, store, and bring to bear knowledge created in the past on decisions currently being made. Jennex and Olfman (2004) expanded this definition by incorporating the OMS into the KMS and adding strategy and service components to the KMS.

Organizational knowledge is vital to the realization of goals of organizations. Effective use of this knowledge depends on the selective use of organizational memory. The term organizational memory is concerned with how organizations collect, store, and provide access to experience, skills and know-how. Schools are special organizations in the sense that they promote learning. Its organizational knowledge decides its competitive capacities, while its organizational memory decides its ability to develop persistently. In order to facilitate school organizational learning and memory, we present, by analogy of the mechanism of human memory, a model of school organizational memory process basing on relevant theories and researches of knowledge management. This model incorporates multiple phases of personal and social knowledge conversion that can be compatibly supported by virtual learning environments. This paper also introduces our practice with a virtual learning environment called PRIME, designed specially to support this model. We hope that our research can provide a theoretical framework for school knowledge creation and accumulation, and attract more attention to school knowledge organizational knowledge and memory.

With this research, in the form of a theoretical essay addressing the theme of Organizational Memory and Integrated Management Systems (ERP), we tried to present some evidence of how this type of system can contribute to the consolidation of certain features of Organizational Memory. From a theoretical review of the concepts of Human Memory, extending to the Organizational Memory and Information Systems, with emphasis on Integrated Management Systems (ERP) we tried to draw a parallel between the functions and structures of Organizational Memory and features and characteristics of ERPs. The choice of the ERP system for this study was made due to the complexity and broad scope of this system. It was verified that the ERPs adequately support many functions of the Organizational Memory, highlighting the implementation of logical processes, practices and rules in business. It is hoped that the dialogue presented here can contribute to the advancement of the understanding of organizational memory, since the similarity of Human Memory is a fertile field and there is still much to be researched.

Connecting with the actual using issues of inter-organizational information systems(IOS), this study focuses on analysis assimilation of inter-organizational information systems in the post-implementation stage within organizations. Based on knowledge related theory, There has been a growing stream of research on organizational memory systems which is a major research direction in organizational memory nowadays. With the development of communication technology, the technology of organizational memory systems have promoted upgrade and update, from purely software management to the combination of hardware and software implementation; from wired communication technology to wireless communication technology and RFID (Radio Frequency Identification). What's more, the ad hoc network technology further pushes forward the historic leap in organizational memory systems; and instinct revolution of the impact of organizational memory systems on knowledge has taken place as the technology increasingly changes.

Many US companies adopted business process re-engineering (BPR) strategy to demonstrate the way culture influenced information technology (IT)-enabled organizational change and information systems. It was observed that many corporations improved their business performance after re-engineering their core processes. The BPR strategy used some of the specific cultural characteristics of American citizens to introduce IT-enabled organizational change and information systems. Specific cultural characteristics of the American citizens, such as innovativeness, individualism, self-reliance, a willingness to accept risk, and a desire for change helped them to adopt such a strategy and introduce changes. Several corporations in a number of other countries with diverse cultural traits also adopted the BPR strategy to introduce similar information technology (IT)-enabled organizational change and information systems.

Diverse risks involved in construction projects require a comprehensive and precise decision-making process throughout the project life cycle. Construction firms need to use their know-how effectively to make strategic decisions and gain a competitive advantage in the sector. In pursuance of this, experience gained from previous projects as well as lessons learned from success and failure are valuable resources. In this context, organizational memory (OM) can be used to improve the quality of strategic decisions in construction firms. OM can be established by utilizing knowledge management mechanisms that stay dynamic throughout a construction project’s life cycle. For construction firms, there is a particular need to integrate the tender stage and the construction stage in terms of knowledge management. This way, the outcome of decisions taken in the tender stage, which are usually unfolded after a few years and experienced by different teams, can be integrated back into the system to enhance the OM. The aim of this study is to propose a roadmap for developing an OM tool for strategic decision-making in construction firms. The stages of knowledge acquisition in the development of OM are investigated by literature review and a conceptual model is proposed that involves knowledge acquisition and knowledge sharing for the tender and construction phases in the construction firms.

Purpose Knowledge management is a function of learning orientation, knowledge sharing, organizational memory and knowledge reuse. This paper aims to endeavor to explore a link between knowledge management and value creation which seem to be fragmented in the literature due to various conceptualizations and meanings. The study hypothesized a moderating role of social capital on the relationship between knowledge management and value creation. Design/methodology/approach The study was approached from the theoretical perspective. Study thoroughly reviews and analyzes the literature by developing a link between knowledge management and value creation. The studies were explored from selected databases including “Google scholar”, “Emerald” and “ProQuest” using the keyword search, namely, “Knowledge Sharing”, “Learning Orientation”, “Organizational Memory”, “Knowledge Re-use”, “Knowledge Management”, “Knowledge-based View”, “Competitive Advantage”, “Value Creation” and “Social Capital” to reduce the interpretation bias. Findings Knowledge management is an important predictor of value creation which can be strengthened by developing strong interpersonal relationships with all stakeholders. Organizations can create competitive advantage by managing social capital through knowledge management processes including learning orientation, knowledge sharing, organizational memory and knowledge reuse. Research limitations/implications The study is based on a theoretical model and an apparent limitation is the non-existence here of contributions and discussions that have been based on empirical data. Future study may use other moderating and mediating variables such as industry type, market orientation, human capital and organizational climate to know whether knowledge management directly affects the value creation or indirectly through these variables. The hypotheses emerged from the model can be operationalized by generating the items from the review of the literature. Originality/value The study contributes to the knowledge management literature by developing a theoretical model of knowledge management based on underlying dimensions of learning orientation, knowledge sharing, organizational memory and knowledge re-use.

Executive access to information systems in Australian public organizations

Objectives. The study set out to develop fundamental methodological principles for the logical integration of information systems (IS) in organizations and to quantitatively assess the topological significance of the IS integration process.Methods. Methods based on expert systems were used for the logical integration of information in conjunction with data-mining approaches based on various IS. In order to quantitatively assess the topological significance of the IS integration procedure, graph theory methods were used. Discrete topology methods were also employed for calculating the topological invariants of the IS interconnection topology.Results. Issues and challenges involved in the integration of IS in large organizations are considered in terms of integration methods based on physical and logical principles. While IS integration approaches based on logical principles offer distinct advantages over physical integration approaches, new problems arising in the context of logical integration approaches require innovative solutions. The proposed scheme for the logical integration of IS includes an algebraic method for quantitatively assessing the topological significance of integration, comprising an important numerical indicator in the logical integration of IS. Methods based on learning expert systems, which represent a fundamental solution for organizing the logical integration of IS for intelligent data analysis, are reviewed.Conclusions. When integrating IS in organizations, it is advisable to use a logical integration approach that preserves the logic of existing information systems. The application of logical integration enables intelligent data analysis using various IS. The use of expert systems in logical integration enables the creation of a new logical layer for providing decision support within the organization.

The literature on the impact of organisational memory on performance in terms of innovation is ambiguous. For example, on one hand organisational memory is recognised as a source of organisational inertia and restricts the range of innovative options. On the other hand, it is argued that innovation can be greatly facilitated by an organisation's ability to retain, evaluate and utilise existing knowledge. These contradictory findings are partly due to the lack of conceptualisation and effective measurement of organisational memory. This paper identifies the underlying factors that affect organisational memory, namely organisational memory (OM) storage, OM flow, OM context, and OM creative combination, which are the integral parts of the organisational memory performance model. The practical implication is that building a large knowledge repository is not a simple task. Companies need to promote a culture of knowledge sharing and learning in order to operate effective organisational memory systems.

Workflow management technology has evolved from efficiency-oriented process automation tools to knowledge network building and support systems. This paper presents a workflow management application that collects information-rich business process documents, stores them in an organizational memory system, and informates staff and management in various situations. Combining ASAP R/3 as the workflow machine and IXOAS-ARCHIVE as the knowledge repository of the organizational memory system enabled us to explore powerful options in organizational knowledge distribution. We have been able to document and report organizational performance gains in terms of both process efficiency and knowledge effectiveness.

Organizational memories have been routed recently for their potential to enhance decision-making processes within organizations. Several organizations have acknowledged the importance of these knowledge structures and developed new organizational roles to manage them. Though a number of companies have been successful in creating and maintaining functional organizational memory, data collected from four organizations suggests that there are inherent barriers within organizations that constrain both the development and maintenance of these repositories. This paper focuses on identifying the concepts underlying the adoption process and potential barriers that might have a negative short term impact on usability or a long term effect on the institutionalization of Organizational Memory Systems.

A brief examination is made of the relationship of information system, design methodologies, and associated information processing technology. Historical perspectives are highlighted. The data processing systems is first examined from the standpoint of the application of technology. Areas of data management, centralization and distribution, data integrity and controls, cost-capacity progress, and applications software development are reviewed. The user system is next considered as a locus of a large complement of current research activities. The perspectives related to the user role in system development and the evaluation criteria in the design and development process are addressed. Finally, development and operating methodologies are considered as an important dimension of the information systems impact in organizations. The methodological views and development procedure approaches are presented as critical factors impacting the evolution of information systems in organizations.

The article is devoted to the study of problems of information support of the organization, namely the assessment of the quality of information management. It is determined that the effectiveness of managing the activities of the organization largely depends on the level of information support, which is designed to provide the organization with the necessary information for the formation and achievement of goals. The main approaches to the evaluation of information and information support (semantic, pragmatic, economic, syntactic or structural) are considered. It is determined that the current state of information management of the organization should be determined on the basis of a pragmatic approach (qualitative assessment) for three groups of indicators: effectiveness, resource availability and adequacy. The indicators belonging to the specified groups are considered. It is proposed to assess the quality of management of information support of the organization on the basis of the calculation of the summary indicator. The expediency of assessing the level of management of information support of the organization on the basis of qualitative (non-metric) indicators is substantiated. The problems that arise in the process of assessing the quality of information management of the organization are identified. The role of information technologies and information systems in the process of information management of the organization is characterized. It is determined that the basis of information support of the organization are information systems. The specifics and features of control, evaluation and quality management of information systems in organizations are determined. Problems related to the process of assessing the quality of information systems in the organization are described. The need for further development of theoretical and methodological aspects of evaluation of quality assessment of components of information systems and information systems, as well as information management of the organization as a whole.