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Development of a diagnostic tool for assessing knowledge management

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Development of a diagnostic tool for assessing knowledge management

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DEVELOPMENT OF A DIAGNOSTIC TOOL FOR
ASSESSING KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
by
Deidre Emery
A Dissertation to be Presented to the
FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
In Partial Fulfillment of the
Requirements for the Degree
DOCTOR OF EDUCATION
December 2001
Copyright 2001 Deidre Emery
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UMI Number: 3073772
Copyright 2001 by
Emery, Deidre Ann
All rights reserved.
_ _ ®
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UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
School of Education
Los Angeles, California 50089-0031
This dissertation, w ritten by
_______Deidre Anne Emery
under the direction o f h£X — Dissertation Committee, and
approved by a ll members o f the Committee, has been
presented lo and accepted by the Faculty o f the School
o f Education in p artialfu lfillm en t o f the requirements fo r
the degree o f
D octor o f E d u c a tio n
/* /w Z ooo
Date
Dissei littee m
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Dedication
To my
mother, Anne Rozenas,
and
father, Brony Rozenas,
for teaching me the value of a good education.
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iii
Acknowledgements
Heartfelt thanks to my dissertation committee,
Dr. Edward Kazlauskas, Dr. Dennis Hocevar, and Dr. Toby Tetenbaum
for their guidance during the research, development, and completion of my
qualification exam and dissertation study.
Special appreciation goes to:
Dr. Tamar Elkeles, Vice President of The Learning Center,
who was instrumental in making this study possible;
Kristie McCue, Vice President of Technical Publications,
Virginia Shaw and the Learning Technology Team:
Pamela Blyth, Sally Eichner, Barbara Lauer, Scott Papathakis,
and Jennifer Saucedo, who supported my study research;
Class colleagues, who provided advice and optimism,
including “Skip” Boyd, who helped calculate my data;
Teri Graves, who provided her formatting expertise;
Yvonne McFadden, who helped me navigate through school administration;
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My parents, and uncle, Alphonse Rozenas,
who provided emotional and financial assistance;
and
Mark Emery, who helped with research duties
by carrying heavy loads of articles and books to and from the library.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dedication..................................................................................... ii
Acknowledgements...................................................................... iii
List of Tables................................................................................ ix
List of Figures........................................................................... x
Abstract........................................................................................ xi
Chapter I: The Problem................................................................ 1
Overview............................................................................ 1
Statement of the Problem............................................... 2
Significance.................................................................... 4
Background.................................................................... 5
Research Questions........................................................ 7
Research Methodology................................................... 8
Limitations....................................................................... 8
Definitions....................................................................... 9
Chapter II: Literature Review....................................................... 13
Overview......................................................................... 13
Knowledge Management Organization.............................. 15
Introduction............................................................. 15
Knowledge Defined................................................ 15
Knowledge Management Defined........................ 18
Knowledge Management as Use of Information
vs. Knowledge Management as Generation of
Knowledge............................................................. 20
Conclusion 22
V
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Knowledge Management Worker_________________ 22
Introduction_____________________________ 22
Knowledge Manager Worker Attributes_______ 23
Achievement/Competence Theory.___________ 24
Motivation Theory.________________________ 25
Goals.____________________________ 27
Personal Agency Beliefs.___________ 33
Emotions.................................................... 37
Conclusion_____________________________ 40
Knowledge Management Technology............................. 40
Introduction_____________________________ 40
Related Knowledge Management Technologies... 41
Web-based Technology as a Knowledge
Management Tool________________________ 43
Web-based Technology Problems........................ 44
Usability and Usability Testing Defined________ 45
Computer-Based Usability Research_________ 47
Web Site Usability Research________________ 50
Optimizing Web Site Usability_______________ 55
Conclusion_____________________________ 57
Summary......................................................................... 58
Chapter III: Methodology and Procedures________________ 60
Overview____________________________________ 60
Population Description__________________________ 60
Sample Description______________________ 61
Survey Tool Design and Description_______________ 61
Data Analysis_________________________________ 65
Pilot Study Description_________________________ 66
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Data Collection, Storage, and Protection ................. 67
Su rvey Tool Data Analysis Strategy ........................ 68
Chapter IV: Results.................................................................. 69
Overview......................................................................... 69
Pilot Survey Tool Results................................................ 69
Final Survey Tool Results............................................... 71
Application Usability, Company Culture, Personal
Ability Means and Standard Deviations................ 71
Application Usability Reliability Scores................. 72
Company Culture Reliability Scores..................... 74
Personal Ability Reliability Scores......................... 75
Manager and Non-Manager Mean Differences...... 76
Engineer and Non-Engineer Mean Differences..... 77
Company Function to Application Usability
Correlation Scores_______________________ 78
Correlation of Company Function to Corporate
Culture....................................................... 79
Correlation of Company Function to Personal
Ability......................................................... 79
Application Usability, Corporate Culture, Personal
Ability, and Overall Correlation Scores. 80
Qualitative Results................................................ 81
Conclusion...................................................................... 84
Chapter V: Discussion............................................................... 86
Overview......................................................................... 86
Introduction...................................................................... 86
Purpose of Study............................................................. 87
Sample Description.......................................................... 88
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Survey Tool Design and Description________________ 88
Summary of Findings........................................................ 91
Conclusions__________________________________ 95
Recommendations for Further Research_______ 98
References................................................................................. 100
Appendix A................................................................................. 108
Pilot Study Survey Form.________________________ 109
Appendix B................................................................................. 113
Consent Form.................................................................. 114
Appendix C................................................................................. 116
Final Survey Tool............................................................. 117
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LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1. The Behavior Engineering Model_________ 14
Table 2.2. Petrash's Six Step Process for Managing
Intellectual Property______________________ 19
Table 2.3. Clark's CANE Theory...................................... 27
Table 2.4. Taxonomy of Human Goals_________ 28
Table 2.5. Ford's Emotion Taxonomy.............................. 38
Table 2.6. IT Strategies................................................... 41
Table 2.7. Computer and User Interface History............. 48
Table 2.8. Usability Factors Tested................................ 50
Table 4.1. Means and Standard Deviations.................... 72
Table 4.2. Reliability of Perceived Usability of
Application........................................................... 73
Table 4.3. Reliability of Perceived Company Culture 74
Table 4.4. Reliability of Perceived Personal Ability 75
Table 4.5. Comparison of Manager and Non-Manager
Scores.................................................................. 76
Table 4.6. Comparison of Engineer and Non-Engineer
Scores.................................................................. 77
Table 4.7. Company Function by Application Choice. 78
Table 4.8. Company Function by Corporate Culture 79
Table 4.9. Company Function by Personal Ability. 80
Table 4.10. Pearson Correlation Factors of Overall
Score to Personal Ability, Application Usability,
Company Culture.__________________ 81
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LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2.1. Brooking's Knowledge Equation ........... 16
Figure 2.2. M. Ford's Achievement Formula................... 25
Figure 2.3. M. Ford's Motivational Systems Theory. 26
Figure 3.1. Path Flow Diagram....................................... 62
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xi
Abstract
This study describes the design and development of an assessment
tool to evaluate employee Knowledge Management efforts using three
company specific web-based applications. The assessment tool is
comprised of survey questions requesting employee opinions about how:
• Their company creates and sustains a Knowledge Management
environment
• They view their own Knowledge Management capabilities as they relate
to the web based applications available for their jobs
• Useful the available web-based applications are to acquire, store, and
disseminate knowledge created through their Knowledge Management
efforts
Results show the survey was useful in identifying three factors in the
assessment of a company’s Knowledge Management efforts. The factors
are Company Culture, Personal Ability, and Application Usability. There is a
strong correlation across these factors and, of the three, Company Culture is
the most important factor in the use of applications to facilitate a company’s
Knowledge Management efforts. Scores further identified that there is a
distinct difference among the reported usability of web-based Knowledge
Management applications found within a company. This suggests that, even
though companies make applications available to employees with varying
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xii
roles and responsibilities, they have different uses and therefore, may not be
designed with equivalent usability standards.
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1
Chapter I: The Problem
Overview
Today organizations operate in a knowledge age in which few, if any,
of the old rules apply. It is a non-linear, unstable, and non-predictable world
in which pre-defined goals and even best practices cannot guarantee
success...[l]n today’s competitive business world, what a company knows
and how it leverages that knowledge offers the only sustainable advantage.
In a knowledge age, the key to an organization’s success lies in the ability of
its workforce to learn, generate knowledge, innovate, and manage
performance better and faster than its competitors” (Tetenbaum &
Tetenbaum, 1999, pp.2-3). Knowledge, therefore, has replaced natural
resources, products, machinery, and financial capital as the most important
factor in current economic life (Stewart, 1999).
Knowledge Management involves recognizing, documenting, and
distributing both the explicit and tacit knowledge resident in an organization’s
workforce and customers. The mission is to provide the right knowledge to
the right people so they can become efficient and innovative employees
(Stewart, 1997c, Davenport & Prusak, 1998, O’Dell & Grayson, 1998).
Historically people worked for years in their companies, accruing data
and information and building knowledge. These were independent efforts
and a means for employees to get raises and praise for the content assets
they generated. This content and the means by which it was obtained was
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treasured and guarded. Today, with short-term job responsibilities and high
mobility of the corporate work force, especially in the technology industry, the
need to develop products within six months to a year pressures employees to
create, collect, and disseminate knowledge efficiently to a variety of people
across long distances.
Three components of the workplace are intrinsic to proper Knowledge
Management efforts; they are company culture, user competence, and
technology. It is important to take these factors into consideration when
assessing Knowledge Management strategies using an assessment tool
because they are inter-related and together provide a comprehensive
understanding of the factors effecting the workplace.
Statement of the Problem
Companies need a standardized way to evaluate whether or not the
effectiveness of their company knowledge is being reduced through the
improper use of company culture, employee capacity, and technology. This
information is valuable to the company’s financial wellbeing. It provides
insight to the proper people to hire, the best products and programs to
purchase, and the most useful policies to put into place to enhance
innovation.
Specific problem points:
• The nature of business is changing very quickly and is becoming more
dependent on the effective use of computer systems, especially web-
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based technology, to hold and disseminate knowledge so employees can
not only do their work more efficiently, but more creatively.
• The high mobility of workers reduces the ability for them to access critical,
complete, and comprehensive information when required thereby
hampering their ability to be fully productive.
• A distinction can exist between the perspective of management and
employees as to the effectiveness of their company’s Knowledge
Management efforts making communication between these groups
difficult. These group differences can skew assessment efforts if both
populations are not included in an evaluation implementation.
• Knowledge is being valued more than ever, but there is no standard
mechanism for identifying, evaluating, using, and disseminating this
content when and where it is needed.
• Technology is changing rapidly. This means that both the development
cycle of a company's products must be reduced and the ability to
market/advertise the items must be increased. Knowledge Management
is critical to enhance these functions. It plays an important role in
generating the creativity required to remain innovative in a volatile market.
• There is a general communication need within company divisions, among
companies doing business, and across the world’s customers at large.
This is due to the division of work groups and increased market
requirements. A properly functioning Knowledge Management system
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can reduce communication inadequacies and provide the best information
to the most appropriate audience for decision-making purposes.
To reduce the harmful effects of a changing economy, evolving technology,
and increased worker mobility, Knowledge Management needs to address
the creation, storage, and dissemination of knowledge, via online technology,
in ways that people can easily absorb, access, and use on the job.
Assessing these efforts can be valuable to a company’s future business
process decisions. This assessment strategy provides a holistic approach to
communication shortcomings that cannot be addressed by traditional
methods such as training programs and simple software upgrades.
Significance
Today a business can succeed or fail based on its ability to
disseminate data, information, and knowledge to employees to enhance their
jobs and extend company value. The proper use of web-based technology
for this Knowledge Management effort is vital for its success. Web-based
technology is pervasive in companies and will increase in use as time
continues and the technology becomes easier to use.
A survey tool is needed to quickly evaluate Knowledge Management
web-based technology applications used in institutions. At this time, no
standardized tool exists for this purpose. Such a tool can provide a
mechanism that analysts can use to quickly evaluate a company’s online
Knowledge Management effectiveness. Subjective information provided by
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study participants can provide valuable insight to the usefulness of the web-
based technology applications in company Knowledge Management efforts.
The tool can also be easily generalized for use in other companies, thereby
enhancing its value for assessment purposes across industries.
Background
Historically, companies were satisfied to save and use data in their
computers to support simple organizational data “crunching” requirements.
Examples include the calculation of accounts-payable and accounts-
receivable dollar amounts by one individual using a single computer. The
employee was required to load a single application on his computer in order
to complete these functions. This was considered Data Management and
required little to no insight into human factors or company culture issues
because efforts were limited to individual computers.
Next, as computers became inter-linked and more powerful, allowing
for multiple users, companies were able to provide numerous employees with
access to identical, meaningful data (information) at the same time.
Examples include the ability to access, revise, and store work related
processes and procedures organized by topic. Employees could do this only
if their computers shared identical software and they obtained the proper
permissions for use. This was considered Information Management. It
required a basic understanding of how humans organize information and how
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companies support that information use because efforts extended across
numerous, but finite number of users.
Recently, web technology has linked a limitless number of employees,
via a common browser interface, with others inside and outside of company
“firewall” boundaries. Examples include the ability for companies to provide
advanced search capabilities and meaningful relationships to related content.
This is considered the beginning of Knowledge Management efforts and
requires an understanding of human information processing and company
environmental factors.
Knowledge Management is a complex subject that integrates both
Data and Information Management expertise, processes, and biases.
Because companies are pressured to extend their efforts globally across
thousands of people, they rely more on the developing technology and
techniques to disseminate knowledge across those boundaries. Developers
of Knowledge Management initiatives are working on devising strategies for
the effective identification, storage, and dissemination of knowledge for
employee as well as external end-user use. Because of the complexity of
the task, they are still searching for the best way to systematize their efforts.
Knowledge Management efforts are complex, iterative, and can be
most useful when supported by web-based technology. This technology
allows for the intercommunication of a limitless number of users
unencumbered by time and distance boundaries. The creation of a
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diagnostic tool that assesses whether or not employees store, generate, and
disseminate knowledge to enhance innovation using a company’s web-based
technology is a productive place to begin this evaluation.
Research Questions
This study is designed to answer the following questions about a tool
developed to assess a company's use of Knowledge Management web-
based applications.
Research question 1: Is the Knowledge Management tool developed for
this study reliable and valid?
Research question 2: Is there a significant difference between how
management and non-management employees rate their company culture, the
web-based application, and their ability to use the application?
Research question 3: Is there a significant difference between how
engineers and non-engineer employees rate their company culture, the web-
based application, and their ability to use the application?
Research question 4: How do employees in each of the three business
functions, Corporate, Business, and Engineering, rate their Corporate Culture,
Personal Ability, and the Usability of each of three applications, a Self-service
related application, a Project-related application, and a Company-related
application?
Research question 5: Do the combined ratings on the diagnostic tool for
each cluster of items for the Company Culture, Application Usability, and
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Personal Ability categories correlate with each other as well as to the separate
overall successful Knowledge Management strategy rating?
Research Methodology
This study illustrates the creation of a diagnostic survey tool that
measures an employee’s opinion of company Knowledge Management
efforts. The survey asks questions about three constructs: company culture,
user competence, and technology. A minimum of 12 questions are
generated for each construct. Each question has a direct relation to literature
resources and research.
The survey tool was distributed to approximately 250 employees of a
"high tech" company who volunteered to answer the questions. The survey
was distributed via a paper format or online form. Survey questions were
evaluated for reliability using Cronbach’s alpha. Assessment includes the
evaluation of answers from volunteers with different job titles, such as
manager, software/hardware engineer, administrative assistant, and
sales/marketing specialist, as well as the divisions in which they work.
Limitations
• Participants are recruited from one company, thereby limiting the ability of
the tool to be tested in a variety of environments.
• The application questions are based on the web-based technologies
currently used within the company. No questions about electronic bulletin
boards, virtual conference rooms, and chat rooms were included, since
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these options are not readily used within the company. Future
adaptations of the diagnostic tool will need to be altered to include these
online features.
• The population is fairly homogeneous. Extra effort was taken to obtain an
equal number of management/non-management and engineer/non
engineer respondent surveys. However, more engineers answered the
survey than any other group.
• Respondents were volunteers. This could create a bias toward
participants who are motivated enough to answer the diagnostic tool
versus those who are not.
• All employees use web-based applications on their jobs, therefore survey
participants will be more sensitive to the usability of the web-based
applications being studied than naive users.
Definitions
1. Company Culture: the skills, arts, customary beliefs, social forms, and
material traits of a group of people in a given organization.
2. Employee Capacity (personal agency beliefs): evaluations about whether
one can achieve a goal, including expectancies about the personal
capabilities needed for effective action and about whether the
environment will be responsive to one's goal-attainment efforts (Ford, M,
1992).
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3. Human Capital: the value provided by the conversion of human potential
into a tangible asset (Gilbert, 1996).
4. Human Performance Technology (HPT): "an engineering approach to
attaining desired accomplishments from human performers" (Stolovich,
1992, p.7).
5. Human Resources Management (HRM): "provide[s] the leadership
necessary to recruit, select, orient, manage, and develop the
organization’s employees, who in turn will carry out their assigned
responsibilities to help the enterprise achieve its goals" Nadler and
Wiggs, 1986, p.2).
6. Information: a collection of data endowed with relevance and purpose
(Stewart, 1999).
7. Information Management (IM): "ways to know what is important and what
is not important, what variables to focus on and which to pay less
attention to - and we need ways to do this which can help groups or
teams develop shared understanding" (Senge, 1990, p. 128).
8. Information Technology (IT): the engineering and management
techniques used in the creation, combination, storage, manipulation,
retrieval, and dissemination of information associated with social,
economic, and/or cultural matters (Maguire, Kazlauskas & Weir, 1994).
9. Intellectual Capital: packaged, useful knowledge with a purpose (Stewart,
1999)
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10. Knowledge: a mix of experiences, values, contextual information, and
expert insights that provide a framework for evaluating and incorporating
novel experiences and information (Davenport & Prusak, 1998). Though
knowledge is typically considered a condition of cognitive awareness, it is
also a body of truth, information, and principles that can be captured for
mankind’s use.
11. Knowledge Management: a collaborative discipline that aims to improve
organizational performance by getting the right knowledge to the right
people at the right time in ways that strive to make them smarter, more
innovative, and better decision makers (O'Dell & Grayson, 1998;
Tetenbaum &Tetenbaum, 1999).
12. Knowledge Management Technoloqies: “technologies that capture, store,
and distribute structured knowledge for use by people. The goal of these
technologies is to take knowledge that exists in human heads and paper
documents and make it widely available throughout an organization”
(Davenport & Prusak, 1998, p. 129.)
13. Organizational Development (OD): a "collection of change techniques or
interventions, from organization-wide changes in structure and systems to
psychotherapeutic counseling sessions with groups and individuals,
undertaken in response to changes in the external environment that seek
to improve organizational effectiveness and employee well-being"
(Robbins, 1994, p.273).
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14. Usability: a composite of multiple components of an interface which
include: learnability, efficiency, memorability, errors, and satisfaction
(Nielsen, 1993).
15. Usability Testing: a process to bridge the gap between a user's and
developer's view of the ease or difficulty of using a web site (Williams,
1997).
16. Web Lifestyle. Web Workstvle: the "new way of living and working that
will become common as consumers and workers take advantage of digital
devices and digital connections to transform the way they work and their
approach to living. Once the infrastructure is in place, new unforeseen
applications will emerge, just as the telephone, radio, television, and
computer emerged only after electrical use became commonplace"
(Gates, 1999, p. 450).
17.Web-based Technologies: the hardware infrastructure and software
programs that combine to create internet, intranet, and extranet
functionality.
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Chapter II: Literature Review
Overview
This literature review includes a discussion of three Knowledge
Management components of an organization: its company culture, employee
base, and the technology it uses. The first section describes company
culture issues. These are explored under the heading of the Knowledge
Management Organization. This section includes definitions of Knowledge
Management and its related terms, as well as a discussion of how these
concepts link to the survival challenges of an organization. The employee
base is discussed in the second section under the heading of the Knowledge
Management Worker. This section describes the behaviors employees must
demonstrate on the job and the internal factors that support them to thrive in
an organization facing survival challenges. Technology issues are reviewed
in the final section. This section includes a description of related Knowledge
Management technologies, the choice of web-based technology as the
optimal Knowledge Management tool, and a history of computer usability
research and testing techniques.
The Knowledge Management Organization, Knowledge Management
Worker, and Knowledge Management Technology categories, respectively,
are derived from a combination of Gilbert’s Behavior Engineering Model and
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) research.
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The Knowledge Management Organization category corresponds
directly to Gilbert’s “Environment Supports” category, identified in Table 2.1
(Gilbert, 1996, p. 88) below. Gilbert contends that an organization’s ability to
provide employees with adequate data about the job, access to adequately
engineered technology required to do the job, and incentives to continue to
do the job, creates the optimal environment to elicit competence.
Table 2.1. The Behavior Engineering Model
The Behavior Engineering Model
Information Instrumentation Motivation
Environmental
Supports
Data provided to
employee in
form of
feedback,
expectations,
and guidelines
Tools and
materials
provided to
employee that
match human
factors
Monetary, non
monetary, and
career
development
incentives
provided to
employee
Person’s
Repertory of
Behavior
Knowledge
provided to
employee in
form job
placement and
training
The capacity of
the employee to
do the job
Employee
motivation to do
the job
The Knowledge Management Worker category corresponds to
Gilbert’s “Person’s Repertory of Behavior” category (Gilbert, 1996, p. 88).
Gilbert emphasizes that employee success is contingent upon their proper
match to the job, capacity to do the job, and personal motivation to continue
to do the job.
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The Knowledge Management Technology category focuses on the
perceived usability by employees of each web-based technology application
required for their job. Though Gilbert includes the criteria of adequately
designed technology as an environmental factor in his model, this study is
designed to research the applications used for Knowledge Management in
more detail. This research incorporates Human-Computer Interaction factors
such as learnability, memorability, and error rates.
This study is based on the premise that these three categories
combine to create a composite picture of a company’s Knowledge
Management system. The resulting diagnostic tool’s survey questions are
derived from specific items discussed in each category.
Knowledge Management Organization
introduction
Knowledge has replaced natural resources, products, machinery, and
financial capital as a company’s most important factor. Knowing how to
identify, leverage, and manage company knowledge is the key to its
continued success.
Knowledge Defined
In order to define knowledge, one needs to first understand the
concepts of data, information, and knowledge. Data are facts. Information is
data endowed with relevance and purpose. The act of converting data into
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information requires knowledge. And knowledge, by definition, is specialized
to a particular person and situation (Drucker, 1998).
Knowledge can be defined simply as “information in action” (O’Dell &
Grayson, 1998, p. 5), or as a “fluid mix of framed experience, values,
contextual information, and expert insight that provides a framework for
evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information” (Davenport &
Prusak, 1998, p.5).
It can also be viewed in the form of the equation in Figure 2.1.
(Brooking, 1999, p. 5):
Knowledge = Information in Context + Understanding
Figure 2.1. Brooking's Knowledge Equation
There are numerous classifications of knowledge. Brooking (1999)
considers Critical Knowledge as knowledge or competencies required for the
completion of a task. This can include one or more of the following
dimensions of knowledge:
• Explicit knowledge: knowledge which is made available from one person
to another for inspection
• Tacit knowledge: knowledge which has not been made explicit (Brooking,
1999, Polanyi, 1997)
• Pragmatic knowledge: factual knowledge and knowledge used to make
decisions
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• Automatic knowledge: knowledge which is routine, working knowledge
(mostly tacit)
• Systematic knowledge: knowledge of how things get done
• Goal Setting or Idealistic knowledge: knowledge represented by the vision
and business principles of a leader
Machlup (1962, pp.21-22) proposes the following five types of knowledge:
• Practical knowledge which includes professional, business, workman’s,
political, and household knowledge
• Intellectual knowledge which satisfies intellectual curiosity and is
regarded as part of a liberal education
• Small-talk and pastime knowledge which satisfies non-intellectual
curiosity or the desire to be entertained such as with jokes
• Spiritual knowledge which is related to the salvation of the soul
• Unwanted knowledge which includes accidentally acquired knowledge
that is outside one’s interests
Allee (1997) believes “The fabric of our knowledge about knowledge is
still on the loom, being woven anew with each new discovery and
breakthrough. At this point in our knowledging process we are all struggling
for a common language, seeking common threads. The Knowledge
Archetype is the warp and woof of that fabric, the basic structure of
knowledge and complexity underlying the rich embroidery of all our
language, model, and descriptions” (p. 59).
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In contrast, Stewart, the author of Intellectual Capital, does not
differentiate between data, information, and knowledge “for the simple
reason that one man’s knowledge is another man’s data” (Stewart, 1999, p.
69). He chooses to be more ominous about the concept. He describes
company tangible and intangible assets using the metaphor of an iceberg.
“Above the surface, the financial and physical resources, glittering in the sun,
visible, sometimes even awesome. Beneath, unseen, something vastly
larger, whose importance everyone recognizes but whose contours no one
knows” (p.63). He believes that by making appropriate data, information,
knowledge, etc. explicit corporate assets can be generated. The result
becomes intellectual capital that can be quantified, such as patents.
Consequently, though knowledge is typically considered a condition of
cognitive awareness, for application to an organizational setting it also
becomes a body of truth, information, and principles that can be captured
for mankind's use.
Knowledge Management Defined
Knowledge Management is a “conscious strategy of getting the right
knowledge to the right people at the right time and helping people share and
put information into action in ways that strive to improve organizational
performance” (O’Dell, 1998, p. 6). “Making personal knowledge available to
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others is the central activity of the knowledge-creating company” (Nonaka,
1998, p. 26). Human Performance Technologists aid this type of activity by
providing an engineering approach to the knowledge management process.
Knowledge Management and Human Performance Technology efforts
falter when the enablers of the process are poorly understood and poorly
managed. These enablers take the form of company culture, technology,
infrastructure, and measurement (O’Dell, 1998).
Stewart (1999) describes Petrash’s useful, but simple Knowledge
Management strategy in Table 2.2.
Table 2.2. Petrash’s Six-Step Process for Managing Intellectual Property
Petrash’s Six-Step Process for Managing Intellectual Property
No. Step Name Step Description
1. Strategize Business Define the role of knowledge in each business or
business unit.
2. Assess Competitors Assess competitors’ strategies and patent
portfolios.
3. Classify Portfolio Identify what the company owns, uses, and who in
the business is responsible for it.
4. Evaluate Properties Specify the cost and value of the intellectual
properties, and decide whether to keep, sell, or
abandon them.
5. Invest in Assets Identify gaps that must be filled to exploit
knowledge or fill holes to fend off rivals.
6. Assemble and
Repeat
Assemble the newly created knowledge portfolio
and repeat the process continuously.
Petrash recognizes that this strategy has been used to evaluate hard
assets. He applies the same strategy to intellectual assets (Stewart, 1999, p.
62-63).
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Knowledge Management relies on a systematic, strategic, holistic
approach to obtaining, synthesizing, and distributing information. This
method has worked for Japanese companies for many years because “The
fundamental principle of organizational design at the Japanese companies is
redundancy - the conscious overlapping of company information, business
activities, and managerial responsibilities” (Nonaka, 1998, p. 36). American
companies, in contrast, developed and prospered historically using a “free
spirit,” entrepreneurial mentality. Some of that “freedom” has to be
harnessed in order to provide a company environment that allows Knowledge
Management to work.
Knowledge Management as Use of Information vs. Knowledge
Management as Generation of Knowledge
The concept of Knowledge Management was preceded by Data
Management (DM) and Information Management (IM) activities which have
existed in companies in one form or another for decades. However, the
application of Knowledge Management in the work place has become more
critical due to the evolution of computer complexity and the reliance on it to
support the globalization of the work environment.
Knowledge Management is a process that incorporates the capture,
storage, and distribution of structured knowledge for use by people. The
goal is to take knowledge that exists in human minds and documents and
make it available throughout an organization. It is the value added by the
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context, experience, and interpretation of people that transforms data and
information into knowledge. The ability to capture and manage those human
additions makes information technologies suited to working with knowledge.
A tremendous amount of time can be wasted sorting through trash to find a
few treasures (Davenport & Prusak, 1998).
Brooking (1999) identifies those treasures as the critical assets that
combine to create a “Dream Tickef (p. 30) that successfully support a
corporate goal. Dream Tickets can be made up of market assets
(manufacture), infrastructure assets (auditing system), intellectual capital
assets (patents), and/or human centered assets (employee wisdom).
In all organizations, limited information already exists in one form or
another. What is required for proper Knowledge Management is to find the
information and distinguish its proper use. To do this, the information must
reside in a standard, consistent format or set of formats. It must be easily
searchable and weighted as to its value for specific organizational uses.
Value is based on how well it relates to the organization’s vision (Nonaka,
1998). It thereby becomes a repository of lessons learned where information
is systematized for easy storage and retrieval (Liebowitz, 1999).
Organizations must also have a strategy to generate and capture new
knowledge. For this they must identify who has the professional intellect, the
cognitive knowledge, advanced skills, and systems understanding that drive
the company to stay competitive. The value of this kind of intellect increases
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markedly as one moves up the scale from cognitive knowledge to self
motivated creativity which is driven by will, motivation, and adaptability for
success. Highly motivated and creative groups often outperform groups with
greater physical or financial resources. Without self-motivated creativity,
intellectual leaders can lose their knowledge advantage through
complacency (Quinn, 1998). Motivating these resources to create
knowledge then capturing, standardizing, weighting, storing, and distributing
it becomes a vital contribution to an organization’s process improvement.
Conclusion
The Knowledge Management Organization defines the context in
which employees work. It does this by specifying to employees what
knowledge it values, providing guidelines as to how that knowledge is
derived and used on the job, specifying tools required to manage that
knowledge, and providing incentives to perpetuate the Knowledge
Management process.
Knowledge Management Worker
Introduction
Historically, company employees built their careers by accruing data
and information and generating company-related knowledge. Job proficiency
and the ability to maintain stability were rewarded with raises and
promotions. Compliance to the system sufficed. These were independent
efforts and a means for employees to be praised for the content assets they
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generated. This content and the means by which it was obtained was
treasured and guarded.
Today, shortterm job responsibilities and high mobility, especially in
the technology industry, are prevalent. The need for companies to bring
products to market within six months to a year pressures employees to
create, collect, and disseminate knowledge quickly and efficiently.
Knowledge Management Worker Attributes
Companies wanting to successfully manage their knowledge must
redefine the way they support and select their employees. Knowledge
Management Workers need to be provided with company incentives and
strategies to share their data, information, and knowledge in ways that
benefit other employees to be productive. In concert with the new work
policies, companies also need to select employees for values and work
ethics that will ensure the new policies are meticulously followed.
Companies are starting to look for employees that exhibit a "SWAN" profile
(Salter, 1999). They want to hire people who are "Smart, hard-Working,
Ambitious, and Nice." These employees are willing to share what they know,
and by brainstorming and recruiting other swans, they continue to infuse the
company with new ideas.
Knowledge Management Workers may also exhibit one or more of the
following attributes:
• imagination, creativity, and innovation while having fun
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• the ability to be perpetual students
• feeling safe to experiment and learn by failure
• the ability to be heretics, mavericks, odd-balls or rule-busters
• feeling comfortable with conflict
• the ability to collaborate by joining forces, pooling information,
constructing alternative solutions and forging agreement, avoid hoarding
information and finding and sharing best practices
This provides interesting insight to company management who must
not only account for company cultural and technological factors, but
employee behavioral stages that effect a Knowledge Management
intervention. To do this, management must identify what motivates
employees to use the technology to achieve business goals and support
personal business needs.
Achievement/Competence Theory
Martin Ford’s (1992) Achievement/Competence theory is based on
Donald Ford’s (1987) Living Systems Framework (LSF). LSF describes the
development of the whole person within a particular context and focuses on
the individual as a unit of analysis. It embeds the individual in the biological,
social, and environmental contexts essential for development. M. Ford
provides the formula, in Figure 2.2, that combines LSF factors into one
model.
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________________ M. Ford's Achievement Formula________________
Achievement/Competence = Motivation x Skill x Responsive Environment
Biology
Note: the multiplication signs are used to convey the idea that relationships among the
components are complex and nonlinear.
Figure 2.2. M.Ford's Achievement Formula
According to the Achievement Formula, when a company exhibits a
responsive environment and hires employees at a particular skill level, the
remaining factor to investigate is the personal motivation of the employees.
This formula corresponds to Gilbert’s Behavior Engineering Model which
specifies that effective employees must have knowledge of the job, the
capacity to do the job, and the motivation to continue to do the job.
The Achievement Formula includes a theory of motivation that
combines an individual’s goals, emotions, and personal agency beliefs.
Motivation is, as suggested by M. Ford (1992), an integrative construct
representing the direction a person is going (goals), the emotional energy
(emotions) and experiences supporting or inhibiting movement in that
direction, and the expectancies (personal agency beliefs) a person has about
whether or not it is possible to reach a predetermined destination.
Motivation Theory
One of the most comprehensive models of motivation, and the
underlying model used in this section, is Martin Ford's Motivational Systems
Theory (MST) (Pintrich & Schunk, 1996) illustrated in Figure 2.3. He defines
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motivation as "the organized patterning of three psychological functions that
serve to direct, energize, and regulate goal-directed activity: personal goals,
emotional arousal processes, and personal agency beliefs" (M. Ford, 1992,
p.3). MST is an integrative theory that organizes motivational constructs
identified in a number of different theories into one model. It is designed to
be compatible with existing theories of motivation without replacing them
thereby making it a challenge to find existing research that contradicts his
basic premises (M. Ford, 1992).
____________ M. Ford's Motivational Systems Theory____________
Motivation = Goals x Personal Agency Beliefs x Emotions
Figure 2.3. M. Ford's Motivational Systems Theory
If any one of these three components is missing in a situation,
individuals will not be motivated to accomplish a task. Each one of these
components is defined later in this paper.
The CANE (Commitment And Necessary Effort) model (Clark, 1998),
illustrated in Table 2.3, is another way to summarize motivation research.
The model assumes performance motivation to be a two-stage process. The
first or “commitmenf stage, relies on an individual’s processing of three
factors: 1) Values (Will I be more effective based on the goal/task’s utility,
interest, and importance?), 2) Personal Agency (Can I or will I be permitted
to do the goal/task?) and 3) Emotion or Mood (Do I feel like doing the
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goal/task?). It is hypothesized that as value, mood and personal agency
increase, goal commitment will also increase.
The second stage estimates that one’s personal self-efficacy
influences both the quantity and quality of effort invested in the goal.
Table 2.3 Clark's CANE Theory
Clark’s CANE Theory
Goal Choice = Values x Personal Agency x Emotions
Stage 1: Commitment Stage
• Utility (Continued value?)
• Interest (Am I curious?)
• Importance (Is this for
me?)
Efficacy (Can I do it?) Do I feel like
it?
Stage 2: Effort Stage
Efficacy (How much
effort does it take?)
Goals
Motivational goals can be classified in numerous ways. M. Ford’s
(1992) MST model includes a 24-category Taxonomy of Human Goals
shown in Table 2.4. This taxonomy is based on the premise th a t...
personal goals have two basic properties: they represent the
consequences to be achieved (or avoided), and they direct the other
components of the person to try to produce those consequences (or
prevent them from occurring)... In MST the term goal content is used
to describe the desired or undesired consequences represented by a
particular goal. Questions such as “What do you want?,” W hat are
you trying to accomplish?” and W hy did you do that?” require
answers framed in terms of goals content (p. 83)... The specific
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content of a goal may also change ... in response to feedback and
feedforward information (p.84).
Table 2.4. Taxonomy of Human Goals
Taxonomy of Human Goals
Desired within-person
consequences
Desired person-environment
consequences
Affective Goals
• Entertainment
• Tranquility
• Happiness
• Bodily Sensations
• Physical Well-Being
Self-Assertive Social Relationship Goals
• Individuality
• Self-Determination
• Superiority
• Resource Acquisition
Cognitive Goals
• Exploration
• Understanding
• Intellectual Creativity
• Positive Self-Evaluation
Integrative Social Relationship Goals
• Belongingness
• Social Responsibility
• Equity
• Resource Provision
Subjective Organization Goals
• Unity
• Transcendence
Task Goals
• Mastery
• Task Creativity
• Management
• Material Gain
• Safety
Goals, therefore:
• represent a desire to maintain or enhance one’s identity as a separate
person
• reflect the human desire for freedom, independence, and choice in
contexts that threaten to restrict or undermine these conditions
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• are typically evaluated on subjective criteria such as artistry or originality
rather than in terms of objective standards of excellence or improvement
In order for a web-based technology application to be an effective
Knowledge Management tool, employees must:
1. Use the technology regularly while working to achieve business goals
2. Recognize the power of retaining information to both themselves and the
company
The first goal could be supported by focusing on computer-related
activities and messages to make employees feel that using the technology
enhances their social bonds with coworkers who value the business goals.
The second goal could be supported by appealing to employee feelings and
beliefs of personal well-being.
The following research on computer-related messaging can guide
company employees to meet these two goals.
A computer’s primary function is to be a source of work related
information. However, this is not its only capability. It can also be used as a
vehicle for motivating users to change their goal values. Values are based
on the individual’s interest in a task, its importance, or utility (Wigfield, 1993).
Rokeach (1979) was able to initiate long-term value (goal) change in people
by exposing them to computer-based feedback. His work has been
replicated and extended by other researchers (Sanders & Atwood, 1979).
Sanders and Atwood cite Rokeach's definition of a value as "a single belief
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that has a transcendental quality to it, guiding actions, attitudes, judgments,
and comparisons across specific objects and situations beyond immediate
goals to more ultimate goals” (p. 228).
Rokeach asked the questions: Can a computer be programmed to
induce long-term changes in human values? Can long-term value change be
induced in people even when no target values are pre-selected for
experimental treatment? He set out to find the answers by performing the
following experiment.
Rokeach (1979) used computers to ask 109 white university students
questions about their political values and attitudes. Once the computerized
questionnaire was administered, he provided the students with feedback, via
the same computer, about how their beliefs related to others' political values
and attitudes. This feedback was deliberately designed to make the students
aware of contradictions existing within their own value system. Twenty-five
percent of the students discovered that they supported civil rights for black
Americans yet did not care about the value of equality. Another 15 percent
discovered that they placed a high priority on equality, yet endorsed certain
racist positions. Thirty percent discovered that, even though they regard
themselves as citizens of a democratic society, they cared neither for civil
rights for black Americans nor for the more general value of equality.
Students who became aware, through computer feedback, of their
personal belief system contradictions exhibited significant increases in the
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importance they attached to the political values of equality and freedom.
This significantly changed their related attitudes concerning civil rights for
black Americans. They also behaved significantly more often in an
egalitarian manner. For instance, they responded more frequently than did a
control group to a solicitation to join the NAACP (National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People). Also, these cognitive and behavioral
effects were observed in the students many months after the initial
experimental treatment.
These results indicate that the basic psychological mechanism that
generates this kind of enduring change is the arousal of a state of self
dissatisfaction. Feedback of objective information about one’s own and
others' values, attitudes, and behavior made many students consciously
aware that they held values and attitudes or engaged in behaviors that
contradicted their self-esteem or their conceptions of themselves as moral or
competent persons. This occurred even though these attitudes matched
those of their peer group. This realization aroused a state of self
dissatisfaction. To reduce this emotional state, students reordered their
value priorities and modified their attitudes and behavior to make them more
compatible with their self-conceptions as tolerant democratic citizens.
By design, a computer has the ability to integrate and dispense
company value and goal information to users about the use of the computer
applications on their jobs. This can be accomplished through online passive
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and active feedback embedded in the computer. Feedback, according to
Ruth Clark (1989), is "any response that informs the trainee of the
correctness of their answers and explains why” (p. 207). Therefore, a
Knowledge Management computer interface can be altered to ask
employees questions and provide online feedback to them about their sense
of accomplishment and willingness to use the Knowledge Management
technology to increase their job effectiveness. Computer users’ values,
attitudes, and behaviors have the potential for undergoing long term change
if they experience the ideal values embedded in the technology as
inconsistent with self-conceptions concerning their competence. Changing
their attitudes to become more consistent with company attitudes reflected in
the computer technology can enhance employee self-conceptions and
esteem.
When employees become aware, through self-confrontation, of
contradictions between their conceptions of self and their values, attitudes,
and/or behavior, they will reorganize their values and attitudes, and, thus,
their behavior, in order to make them more consistent with their conceptions
of self. This strategy can successfully lead to lasting attitude change.
Self-confrontation can also be used as a self-selection mechanism
whereby employees are able to identify that their values no longer align with
the company’s new vision and mission. Employees who see this
misalignment and refuse to change may choose to leave the company.
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Appropriate rewards can also be useful to enhance employee
motivation (Caudron, 1997). For example, monetary incentives can
strengthen goal commitments but only when employees value money, the
amount is appropriate, and the related goal is attainable (Locke & Latham,
1990; Libby & Lipe, 1992). Goal conflicts are found to occur when a reward
is perceived as a manipulation, in conflict with the goal, and/or a devaluation
of the goal (M. Ford, 1992; Deci, 1978; Lepper & Green, 1978; Spitzer, 1996;
Pritchard, Campbell, & Campbell, 1977). These conflicts can be reduced
when employees are included in the goal setting and reward process
(Latham, Mitchell, & Dossett, 1978; Terborg & Miller, 1978; Awasthi & Pratt,
1990).
Company managers must be aware that to offer rewards with no
intrinsic meaning to employees will not motivate them to use the Knowledge
Management technology or to appreciate the power of retaining its
knowledge within the system.
Personal Agency Beliefs
Personal Agency Beliefs are defined by M. Ford (1992) as ...
anticipatory evaluations about whether one can achieve a goal,
including: (a) Capability Beliefs . . . expectancies about whether one
has the personal capabilities needed for effective action ..., and (b)
Context Beliefs . . . expectancies about whether the environment will
be responsive to one's goal-attainment efforts. Personal Agency
Beliefs . . . play a particularly crucial role in situations that are of the
greatest developmental significance . . . those involving challenging
but attainable goals, (p. 45).
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"The concept of capability beliefs in MST is similar to Bandura's
concept of self-efficacy expectations" (Ford, 1992, p. 127). However, the
concept of self-efficacy should not be confused with self-concept. "Self-
efficacy, unlike self-concept, deals primarily with cognitively perceived
capability of the self' (Bong & Clark, 1997, p. 3).
MSTs concept of capability differs from Bandura’s concept of self-
efficacy in two important ways. First, Bandura fails to clarify the different
kinds of skills involved in self-efficacy judgments, thereby creating confusion.
Second, Bandura restricts the concept of self-efficacy to beliefs about task
goals in context-specific situations (Ford, 1992). MST, in contrast, chooses
to generalize its assessment of context specific capability and context beliefs,
thereby making it easier to use as a predictive model. Regardless of these
differences, it is worthwhile to delve more deeply into Bandura’s concept of
self-efficacy.
Bandura (1986) believes that people with the same set of skills will
perform poorly, adequately, or exceedingly well on a task depending on their
level of self-efficacy. People's self-efficacy determines how much effort they
will exert, and how long they will persevere to obtain a goal. The stronger
the belief in their own personal capabilities, the greater and more persistent
are their efforts to continue with a task. Anxiety is low when people choose
tasks within their perceived self-efficacy range. Self-doubts produce
increases in feelings of distress, physiological arousal, and self-doubts.
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When faced with task difficulties, people who have self-doubts about their
personal capabilities reduce or eliminate their efforts and settle for mediocre
solutions. Those who have strong beliefs in their capabilities exert greater
effort to master the task’s challenges. Therefore, a strong perseverance and
determination will typically pay off in successful performance
accomplishments.
Successful human attainment and positive well-being usually require
an optimistic sense of personal efficacy. This is because social interactions
are littered with difficulties and inequities. To succeed, people must have a
strong sense of personal efficacy to sustain them in their effort to complete a
task. Self-doubts can manifest soon after the experience of minor failures.
However, feelings of self-doubt that arise at these times are not the problem,
since these feelings occur as a natural, immediate reaction to a set back.
The important issue is the speed of recovery of self-efficacy. Some people
quickly recover their beliefs of self-assurance; others succumb to feelings of
inadequacy. Because completing a task usually requires sustained effort in
the face of difficulties, it is the resiliency of people’s self-beliefs during those
difficulties that makes them persevere to become successful. (Bandura,
1997).
Salomon (1984) studied the effects of learners’ a priori perceptions of
print and television media to their perceived self-efficacy in handling the
media. He also studied how these perceptions relate to the amount of
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invested mental effort (AIME), learning, and perceived self-efficacy (PSE).
He defined AIME as “the number of nonautomatic mental elaborations
applied to material and measured by learners' self-reports” (p. 647).
Salomon found participants' a priori perceptions of television and print
differed significantly. These differences became evident in their choice of
causes to explain success in learning from the two media.
As a result of his findings, Salomon suggests that:
• Inferential learning may not depend only on participants’ stimulus
attributes and personal abilities but also on their decision as to how much
of their unautomated skills (AIME) to use.
* Participants’ perceptions of media sources and of themselves reflect their
past experience, abilities, and social norms. Once these imagery
perceptions and attributions become firmly held they will lead to self-
sustaining prophecies.
Salomon’s findings show that it is useful to address company
employees’ a priori beliefs of computer products as tools and personal power
enhancers. Employees may already believe that the use of certain computer
products are designed to inhibit their self-efficacy and personal learning
instead of enhancing them. These beliefs would be major deterrents to using
the system.
Mager (1992) believes that for people to perform a job successfully,
four conditions must be present: personal skill, self-efficacy, opportunity to
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perform, and a supportive environment. He defines self-efficacy as “people’s
judgments about their capabilities to execute particular courses of action” (p.
33). Self-efficacy effects choice behavior, motivation, perseverance, problem
solving skills, and stressful emotions. It is strengthened by the continued
practice of skills to be learned and by the conditions and consequences
related to the practice.
People must have a strong sense of efficacy before they attempt to
apply their knowledge and/or learn new things. Their belief in their ability to
perform makes them less vulnerable to challenging on-the-job (OJT)
conditions and helps them survive rejection. It supports their determination
to persevere in the face of difficulties and setbacks.
A productive company environment must be designed so employees
can learn to credit their successes to their own performance, rather than to
the influence of outside factors. The company’s culture and policies must
support this framework in order to provide the best opportunity for Knowledge
Management technology to be accepted and used.
Emotions
M. Ford (1992) defines emotions, the last MST motivational factor,
as...
organized functional patterns consisting of three components: (a)
affective (neural-psychological) (i.e., the general subjective feeling
part of the emotion); (b) physiological (i.e., a supporting pattern of
biological processing), and (c) transactional (i.e., a pattern of motor
and communicative actions designed to facilitate goal attainment).
Thus emotions help people deal with varying circumstances by
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providing evaluative information about the person's interactions with
the environment and by supporting and facilitating action designed to
produce desired consequences (p. 51).
Ford believes that emotions provide a unique way of looking at
people’s motivational patterns, especially when they are unable to
consciously communicate their goals and personal agency beliefs.
Emotions, once activated, become anchored in memory in the form of a
mood, and remain long after the associated goal is attained.
Ford (1992, p. 148) uses the LSF emotion taxonomy in MST to identify
human emotional patterns exhibited during perceived times of opportunities
and problems. The categories and related emotions are listed in Table 2.5.
Table 2.5. Ford’s Emotion Taxonomy
Ford’s Em otion Taxonom y
Categories Related Emotions
Instrumental emotions that help
regulate the initiation,
continuation, repetition, and
termination of behavior episodes
1. Satisfaction - pleasure - joy
2. Downheartedness - discouragement -
depression
3. Curiosity - interest - excitement
4. Disinterest - boredom - apathy
Instrumental emotions that help
regulate efforts to cope with
potentially disrupting or damaging
circumstances
1. Startle - surprise - astonishment
2. Annoyance - anger - rage
3. Wariness - fear - terror
4. Dislike - disgust - loathing
Social emotions that help regulate
interpersonal bonding
1. Sexual arousal - pleasure - excitement
2. Acceptance - affection - love
3. Loneliness - sorrow - grief
Emotions elicited from company employees about using the Knowledge
Management technology revolve around the patterns shown in Table 2.5.
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Positive emotional messages must be attached to the use of the Knowledge
Management system. For example, appealing to employee curiosity,
interest, and excitement promotes their personal exploration of novel
behavior. The novel behavior they can be encouraged to explore is through
the use of the Knowledge Management technology.
Bower (1995) and Evans (1989) cited a number of studies where
emotions, mood, and feelings were shown to stimulate or detract from a
person’s acceptance of information. Bower found that the act of thinking is
diffused with emotion because feelings become associated in memory with
events that caused that emotion. The stimulation of the emotion triggers the
retrieval of all related memories. The emotion then brings to mind the
concepts, attitudes, inferences, etc. associated with it. Moods, therefore,
affect people’s evaluation of their beliefs about their past and present
circumstances in addition to their judgments about the future. People dwell
on and prefer situations and things that confirm their current feelings.
Therefore, information is more easily accepted when it is framed in a manner
that reflects their mood. Bower suggests that “Mood effects are far greater
on vague, amorphous topics that people rarely think about. Nonetheless,...
you can even soften or produce a quantitative change in the extremity of
someone's rigid opinion on an issue by altering their mood and emphasizing
countervailing evidence” (p. 30). Bower’s tactics may be applied to a
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company environment and the Knowledge Management technology interface
design to make employees feel good about them.
Conclusion
The implementation of a Knowledge Management technology and its
related applications not only must be systematic and measurable, but it must
integrate external company and internal employee requirements.
To truly motivate employees to use knowledge to enhance their jobs,
company management has to prove to them that it is in their best interests to
use it. A company environment needs to systematically reinforce the
message that it is emotionally enjoyable and beneficial for employees to
manage knowledge. This message can be delivered via numerous modes
and media. However, it will typically effect employees with a neutral or
positive acceptance to the message. This message can also eliminate
employees who refuse to change, because resistant employees secure no
support among their peers and eventually self-select out of the organization.
Overtime, company required Knowledge Management guidelines will be
internalized by remaining employees, if a conscious effort to follow the
process is continued by the company.
Knowledge Management Technology
Introduction
The workplace has grown too complex and globally distributed for
organizations to rely solely on employee social networks or company
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directives to get work done. It has become impossible to expect workers to
perform tasks without technological support. Technology-based support
systems must be based on performance requirements and give employees a
more wholistic picture of the work to be done (Winslow, 1994).'
Related Knowledge Management Technologies
Over the last few decades various Information Technology (IT)
strategies have been used to capture, distill, and disseminate information
and knowledge via technology. Table 2.6 describes the most popular of
these strategies:
Table 2.6. IT Strategies
IT Strategies
Concept Name Concept Description
Decision Support
Systems (DSS)
Since there is a link between information and decision
making (Bentley, 1998), DSS’ are used to support strategic
planning on all levels of an organization (Maguire,
Kazlauskas & Weir, 1994). The DSS concept was initiated
by the military to aid the U.S. Air Force (North American Air
Defense Command) make decisions about air defense.
This was done through a combination of data collection,
storage, and retrieval devices coupled with an analysis and
display capability built specifically to meet user
requirements. Information was text based (indexed) and/or
rule based (if then) (Belew, 1984). Corporations
incorporated the concept when computers became less
expensive and were the basis for the corporate war room
where executives would chart the company’s future.
Decisions were analyzed as to level of structure, problem
type, phase, and focus (McLean, 1983).
Management
Information
Systems (MIS)
An MIS is a “federation of functional information systems”
(Hicks, 1984, p. 28). An MIS provides business transaction
data on an organization’s internal operations and business
environment. It does not support strategic planning
(Maguire, Kazlauskas & Weir, 1994). An MIS has been
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42
IT Strategies
Concept Name Concept Description
most successful in providing information for routine,
structured and preanticipated types of decisions. It has
also been used to acquire and store large quantities of
detailed data concerning transaction processing (Hicks,
1984). Hartman, Matthes & Proeme (1972) created the
ARDI (Analysis, Requirements determination, Design and
development, Implementation and evaluation) model as a
training guide for system engineering developers.
Information
Services (IS)
An IS refers to an individual, group, or company that
provides support services to another entity. Library
services, media specialists and consulting firms such as
Andersen Consulting and Coopers & Librand all have the
same thing in common. They provide an expertise in a
particular knowledge area that can be shared to support
and enhance the attainment of personal and/or corporate
goals. In order to remain responsive to the variety and
depth of user demands, an IS must exhibit flexible and
multifaceted behaviors and properties (Maguire,
Kazlauskas & Weir, 1994). Zuboff (1988) compares
Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon architectural design, used to
view all areas in a prison, with the IS model’s requirement
to see all things at all times. She suggests that IS groups
which “translate, record, and display human behavior can
provide the computer age version of universal transparency
with a degree of illumination that would have exceeded
even Bentham’s most outlandish fantasies” (p. 322).
Information
Resource
Management
(IRM)
IRM provides a centrally located integrating mechanism to
managers for the combination of technology, information
policy, and organizational strategy. It was initiated by the
federal government by its passing of the Paperwork
Reduction Act of 1980 (Maguire, Kazlauskas & Weir, 1994).
Electronic
Document
Management
Systems (EDMS)
An EDMS controls and manages the document collection
by creating an electronic library of sorts. It is an enabling
technology that (is):
• user focused
• a repository of all documents
• manages documents
• filters and delivers documents to users
It, therefore, is user-centered, not document centered
(Bielawski & Boyle, 1997).
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IT Strategies
Concept Name Concept Description
Electronic
Performance
Support Systems
(EPSS)
Raybould (1995) defines an EPSS as "the electronic
infrastructure that captures, stores, and distributes
individual and corporate knowledge assets throughout an
organization to enable individuals to achieve required levels
of performance in the fastest possible time and with a
minimum of support from other people" (p. 10). Gloria Gery
(1991) agrees with Raybould (1995) that an EPSS is more
than just a glorified help system. Companies are adopting
EPSS’ because they contribute to the organization's goals,
often produce savings, and improve the quality and quantity
of work related decisions (Reynolds, 1993). These
systems are designed for employees who work with vast
amounts of information and have many routine but complex
decisions to make.
Knowledge Management, therefore, is the overarching vision to which
all these Information Technology (IT) strategies apply. Each one represents
a slice or cross-section of a Knowledge Management system designed to
meet specific needs and goals. However, the most useful Knowledge
Management technology currently available is the World Wide Web because
of its evolving feature sophistication and simplicity of use (Davenport &
Prusak, 1998).
Web-based Technology as a Knowledge Management Tool
“Think of an intranet [web-based technology] as a living, evolving
organism that feeds on information. With the proper nourishment, it can
grow into a knowledge network” (Cohen, 1998, p. 50).
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44
Gates (1999) believes a company’s information flow is its electronic
lifeblood. He describes the web as a digital nervous system. He states “Like
a human being, a company has to have an internal communication
mechanism, a ‘nervous system,’ to coordinate its actions (p.22).” This
mechanism can be used to manage knowledge to improve strategic thought
and bring insight to business operations.
Companies such as Hewlitt-Packard, Andersen Consulting, and Booz-
Allen & Hamilton are all using web-based systems to package and
disseminate data, information, and knowledge. Their web sites and the
applications run on them, such as Lotus Notes, help employees identify
experts, obtain best practice information, and review historical data. Web-
based technology creates a specific culture within a company that mutates
and evolves along with business requirements.
The web also becomes a public relations mechanism when it takes
the form of an extranet. The medium, therefore, becomes the message,
because it provides the public with insight into the personality and content of
the company. It also offers the public with a mechanism by which to
communicate with the company (McEachern & O’Keefe, 1998).
Web-based Technology Problems
Web-based technology, however, has various development and
maintenance challenges. “The web is crawling with bugs!” states Gary
Anthes (1997, p. 37), senior editor of Computer World Magazine. He
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45
recently reviewed the web sites of four car-rental agencies. What he found in
his research was an “appalling lack of quality.” He experienced debilitating
bugs and user-hostile messages. He also saw things that just didn’t work,
such as a site index page with no information and forms that could not be
edited, requiring users to start a new form whenever they made a mistake.
He believes these problems should have been caught in the end-user testing
phase. He found that poor design and inattention to detail were rampant in
sites found all over the net. He contends that inadequate usability testing is
one of the primary reasons for these inadequacies.
Radosevich (1997, p. 81) states that “Many companies make the
mistake of designing web sites based on their marketing and business
objectives rather than customer needs. Those that place a premium on
customer needs often base their Web site decisions on common-sense
design procedures and forget about usability testing. The need for usable
sites has become a requirement not only because a Web site is the initial
point of contact of a customer to the company but also because site
management has become so expensive that companies should get their
money’s worth in reaching customers effectively.”
Usability and Usability Testing Defined
Regardless of whether the terms usability testing, usability
engineering, or end-user testing are used, the same definition applies.
“Usability engineering draws on the response of users to determine the
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46
viability of interactive systems and interfaces. Measurability parameters are
generally either subjective, wherein users’ preferences are evaluated, or
objective, wherein users’ capabilities for utilizing the system are studied”
(Nielsen 1994).
Usability testing, therefore, is a process to bridge the gap between the
users’ and developers’ view of the ease or difficulty of using a site. An
average web page can easily contain from between fifteen to twenty
documentable human performance problems. The problems can include
architecture, color, graphics, and theme. The feedback from usability testing
enables developers to improve the future versions of the producf (Williams,
1997).
Nielsen (1993) identifies usability as a composite of multiple
components of an interface. He associates usability with the following five
attributes:
• Learnability: the ease with which the novice user learns to use a system.
• Efficiency: the ability of experienced users to optimize their use of the
system.
• Memorability: the ability of users to remember how to use the interface.
• Errors: the ability of users to minimize the number and degree of errors
while using the interface.
• Satisfaction: how pleasant users perceive their use of a system.
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The concept of usability engineering can be applied to all aspects of a
system with which a human might interact. This can include interactions with
low level systems interactions such as reading a book to high technology
systems such as using a computer. Insights into a product’s usability
provides information about how useful the product is for the user to
understand, access, learn from, enjoy, and profit from its messages.
Computer-based Usability Research
Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) is the study of the ways people
interact with and through computers.
As computers began to evolve, human factor discussions shifted from
physical concerns to problems with the communication between computers
and users. This increased dependence on the multi-disciplinary field of HCI
(Nielsen, 1993).
Tesler (1991) identified the changes in the computer’s role from
cloistered oracle to personal implement to active assistant. He describes
four paradigms or waves of computing:
• The first wave (batch) was during thel 960s when the computer was
adopted as a data processing engine.
• The second wave (time-sharing) occurred in the 1970s when the
computer’s services were shared among many subscribers
• The third wave (desktop) came in the 1980s when the computer was
transformed into a desktop productivity tool for individuals.
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• The fourth wave (network) is currently under way during the 1990s. It
includes networked laptop devices and electronic pocket calculators.
A change in HCI focus accompanied each paradigm shift.
Nielsen (1993, p. 50) has also summarized the generations of
computers and user interfaces in more detail. A subset of his table is
represented in Table 2.7.
Table 2.7. Computer and User Interface History
Computer and User Interface History
Generation Hardware &
Operation
Technology
Terminal
Technology
User types User
Interface
paradigm
0
-1945
Pre-history
Mechanical-
used for
calculations
Punch cards Inventors None
1
1945-1955
Pioneer
Vacuum
tubes-used
for limited
timeframes
Typewriter Experts Programming
2
1955-1965
Historical
Transistors-
used outside
of lab
Line oriented
terminals
Professional
computerists
Command
language
3
1965-1980
Traditional
Integrated
circuits- used
for time
sharing
Alpha
numeric full
screen
terminals
Specialized
groups
without
knowledge of
computers
Hierarchical
menus
4
1980-1995
Modern
Single user
personal
computers
Graphical
displays
Hobbyists Graphical User
Interfaces
5
1995-?
Future
Networked
single user
embedded
systems
Multimedia Everybody Noncommand
based
interfaces
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49
Regardless of the sophistication of the computer, its role is primarily to
help people help people. Figuring out how to do this has proved more
difficult than expected (Landauer, 1996).
Martin’s Design of Man-Computer Dialogues (1973) was one of the
first books devoted to man-machine interaction. He describes examples of
how computer and machine interfaces can be designed for optimal use. He
also cites techniques that can be used to direct the proper use of these
systems.
Card, Moran & Newell’s book (1983), The Psychology of Human-
Computer Interaction, continued Martin’s work. It identified the research
done to that date on the significant HCI techniques appropriate for the design
of interactive computer systems. The techniques changed focus over the
years from fitting technology to people’s bodies to fitting their minds
(Norman, 1993).
Regardless of the studies cited, there are specific themes that address
HCI usability studies. They continue to incorporate learnability, efficiency
memorability, error, and satisfaction issues that occur as users interact with
the system. To do this, usability tests incorporated the users actually using
the system by:
• Videotaping them while they used the system
• Audiotaping their verbalized thoughts
• Timing their clicks from one area to another
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• Following their navigations
• Providing focused questions to be answered
• Specifying the goals for each task
One difference between usability studies of HCI and studies of the
web is that HCI studies focused on one software program, application or
machine at a time. With the web’s network and surf capabilities, it is nearly
impossible to set an equivalent content scope and specify a homogeneous
group of end users.
Web Site Usability Research
As internets, intranets, and extranets became more prevalent on the
web, numerous efforts were taken to do usability testing (Norman, 1998,
Nielsen, 1998, Landauer, 1996, Schneiderman, 1998). They tested a
number of factors; the primary ones are categorized in Table 2.8.
Table 2.8. Usability Factors Tested
Usability Factors Tested
Navigation Screen
Function
Screen
Design
Text Illustrations
Time Delay Rules Borders &
Frames
Writing
Style
Graphics
Browser Types Goals Menus Scanning Symbols &
Icons
Search Engines Scroll Bars Layout Directives Color
Links Pointing
Devices
White Space Readability Animation
Response Time Form Fill-in Buttons Message Maps
Site Maps Cursor Windows Font Diagrams
Consistency Context
Help
Dialog Boxes Point Size Advertisements
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Nielsen (1994) summarized the contents and uses of 13 usability labs
from such notable companies as Microsoft, IBM, NCR, and SAP. The labs
typically consisted of two rooms, one as an observation room, the other as a
user room with a one-way mirror, and video recording equipment and key log
coding equipment and scan converter used to directly tape the screen image.
Both formative and summative evaluations for all types of computer
products.”
From these tests, usability standards were created to aid as guidelines
for developing interfaces that made sense and provided required information
efficiently. Some of these standards are:
• Yale’s web site standards (Lynch & Horton, 1997)
• Sun’s web site development standards (Nielsen, 1998)
• SIGCHI World Wide Web Special Interest Area (1999)
• International Standards Organization (ISO Information Publications, 1999)
Even with these efforts, there appear to be no mutually agreed upon
standards for developing web sites. This could be because standards often
force designers to use suboptimal designs. The best way to lay out a screen
or structure a user system dialog may not be the same for different jobs
(Landauer, 1996).
Thovtrup and Nielsen (1991) researched developer compliance to
interface standards. They found that highly motivated participants achieved
only a 71% compliance with a two page standard. Developers within a
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52
company creating real products broke between 32% and 55% of the
mandatory rules in the standard. They concluded that user interface
standards are very likely to be violated. Some violations occur because of
misinterpretation, others because the standards are not considered clear
and/or memorable, and others because the standard restricted the creativity
of the designers.
Standards are also challenged by the variety of people having
different specialties such as graphic designers, database administrators,
technical writers, instructional designers, and programmers, developing web
sites. It is possible that the bias from each developer’s background takes
precedence in the web design. Also, there are no “web police” mandating
that designers must follow certain standards in order to have their web sites
published.
Picking (1996) suggests that:
• web interfaces provide inadequate tools to support authoring
• web interfaces do not encourage the semantic organization of work
• the web does not integrate sufficiently with other media
Spool, et al. (1997) have done numerous usability studies in their lab
on applications, products, and web sites. They focused their web site studies
on the belief that the usability of a site depends on what users are trying to
accomplish. Whatever the goal, information is a central theme.
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They picked a set of nine popular sites with content useful for the
general public and invited users familiar with a web browser to their usability
lab. The users were asked four types of questions as they used the
interfaces. The questions took the form of:
• simple facts
• comparison of facts
• judgment
• comparison of judgment about the web sites
After more than 50 tests, a comparison of the sites was made.
Test sessions lasted about three hours. Each user tested as many web sites
as possible within that time frame. The order in which the sites were tested
varied. In the pre-test briefing, users were told they would first be taken to a
web site then asked to find answers to several questions. Netscape
Navigator’s bookmarks were used to get users to each site. A task was
counted successful if the user found the right answer. Data were collected
after each task.
In addition, Spool, et al. used a test format based on a method for
workload studies at NASA. By measuring factors such as fatigue and
confusion, they could rate the sites on the subjective experience of the user
on the site. Post-test questionnaires asked users to rate the site in sixteen
different areas such as ease of reading data and appearance of site.
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54
Results were averaged and placed in a table for easy reference. A subset of
those results are reported using Nielsen’s five categories below:
• Learnability: There was no correlation between graphic design elements
and the users’ success at finding information. Graphics did not add to or
detract from the users’ ability to find information.
• Efficiency: The more white space there was on a web site, the less
successful users were at finding information. It was surmised that this
was because users skim web sites instead of reading them.
• Memorability: The use of animation deterred users from concentrating on
screen content. Not only did users verbally mention their frustration with
the animation, they tried to cover up the animation with their hands while
they read the rest of the screen’s content. They also could not easily
compare different items that were on different screens. This was dubbed
as a “pogo-stick” problem because users have to hop up and down the
site to get the information they need.
• Errors: Searching for information was frustrating. It took an inordinate
amount of time and effort to answer even simple questions. Users either
gave up without finding what they were looking for, got lost, or wandered
off the site without being aware of it.
• Satisfaction: Sites that assumed the user had a lot of detailed knowledge
about the domain tested poorly. Users rated the sites favorably not on
the graphic design of the site, but the ease of its use. The site that was
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considered most favorable was one that had long descriptive links which
helped users predict where they will go and what information they will find
once chosen.
Spool, et al. conclude that for web sites, user preference doesn’t
measure the same things as it does for software. The more research results
they find, the more they realize there is no definitive answer as to what
makes a web site usable. It is still a challenge to design sites for finding or
comparing information so users can find the best house, car or job.
In software applications, users form mental models of the product,
how it works, and where the functionality is located. There is no evidence
that web site users attempt to lay out the site in their minds or even think
about a site structure at all.
If web sites do not follow the design principles generated by print-
based and HCI-based research, then what can be done to make web sites
usable?
Optimizing Web Site Usability
The best solution would be to find a way for designers to predict the
usability of a user interface before it is tested. Not only would such a method
minimize the need for user testing, it would allow for precise estimates of
design solutions without first having to build them in entirety.
This strategy was attempted via an HCI analytic method known as
GOMS (goals, operators, methods, and selection rules) (Card, Moran &
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56
Newell, 1983). The GOMS method involves the ability to predict the actual
sequence of operators a person will use and the time required to do a
specific task. This is done by:
1. listing possible user goals and sub-goals (e.g., remove a word in a
document)
2. identifying the set of operator acts available on the computer to complete
the task (e.g., click the mouse, highlight the word)
3. describing the methods or procedures for accomplishing a goal (e.g.,
double-click on the word with the mouse to highlight it)
4. specifying the selection rules chosen to accomplish the task (e.g., either
use the delete key or backspace key).
Once these factors are thoroughly tested by a small number of users,
the ability to predict the responses of other users can be established.
Weaknesses in the model have been identified (Carroll & Campbell,
1986). The most important is its inability to guarantee the error-free
performance of expert users. Even expert users make a large amount of
errors. The GOMS model also fails to capture a user’s fatigue level,
individual differences, or mental workload (Olson and Olson, 1990).
Larry Marine (1998) has identified a different strategy for analyzing
task flow, objectives, screen design, and behaviors before starting full web
site development. He stresses that it is important to map out all these
processes before programming them. He suggests that a paper and pencil
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57
approach to design assessment be used first as a preliminary usability
testing method.
Conclusion
Knowledge Management, as a technological process, continues to
mature and evolve along with increased user demands and computer
sophistication. Technology is becoming so powerful and flexible that users
will be able to customize it more precisely to meet their particular needs - a
process one can consider “mass customization” (Brown, 1998, p. 161).
Programmed correctly, the technology itself will become invisible. An
example of this advanced technology is the web. Web sites are:
• increasing in use as purveyors of information
• being created by developers with varied backgrounds
• being developed on an ad hoc basis
• outlets for the personal expression of their developers
• not being certified for web development quality
• being developed using a variety of standards, if used at all
• dependent on rapidly changing software and hardware requirements
• being used by an increasingly sophisticated user base
With the complexity and continued evolution of web-based media and
its user base, there is no way yet, to standardize courses, development tools,
browser requirements, etc. to allow developers to create high quality, error
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free sites. Until such standards are feasible, usability testing is critical to
measure the integrity and usability of each unique design.
A user opinion diagnostic tool may be used as a prelude to in-depth
usability testing. The results from this assessment can identify the
applications most in need of further attention.
Summary
The literature review identifies the need for a standardized tool to
evaluate company Knowledge Management efforts. The literature research
is also a foundation for the creation of the diagnostic survey tool and
provides direction to the categories of inquiry on which to focus the
evaluation effort.
The resulting diagnostic tool is designed as a user opinion document.
It is a standardized tool that provides a comprehensive, high level, look at a
company’s Knowledge Management efforts. It identifies whether or not
employees believe the company is meeting Knowledge Management
requirements in the categories of environment, user capability, and web-
based technology.
The diagnostic tool does not:
• include an in-depth usability study of the technologies
• ask for specific details
• require examples
• follow-up with observations or interviews
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However, these items can be used as follow-up strategies specified by the
diagnostic tool results.
The implication for this tool is that it can be used by companies to
pinpoint where their Knowledge Management efforts can be improved,
thereby increasing the companies’ chances for success.
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Chapter III: Methodology and Procedures
Overview
This chapter describes the research design and procedures used in
this study. The participants, survey methods, and measurements used to
conduct the study are discussed.
The purpose of this study is to explore employee perception of the
quality of their company’s Knowledge Management efforts, the quality of their
ability to use web-based Knowledge Management applications, and the
quality of the applications themselves. Perceptions are measured using the
survey tool described in this chapter.
Population Description
The target company's environment is comprised mostly of hardware
and software engineers. For the purpose of this study, they are considered
technical employees. There are also a number of support personnel who do
not have the same engineering background. They are considered non
technical employees. In addition, manager and non-manager populations are
differentiated. Manager level employees and above are considered
managers, while professional and administrative level employees are
considered non-managers. For example, an engineer can be both a
manager and a technical employee.
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Employees required for this study must cope with high pressure
Research and Development (R&D) technology efforts, continuous change,
and the need to share information with others around the world quickly.
Regardless of their technical expertise, all employees have access to their
own computers, web applications, and job-related data, information, and
knowledge.
Sample Description
The printed survey (diagnostic tool) was distributed to employees at
the company who volunteered to answer the survey’s questions.
Approximately 250 volunteers were required to respond in order to obtain
sufficient responses to perform a factor analysis of the items. Management,
non-management, technical and non-technical employee categories were
included.
Survey Tool Design and Description
The survey tool is designed as a self-rating instrument. It is
comprised of:
• demographics questions
• clusters of Likert-type items based on Gilbert’s Behavioral Engineering
model
• open-ended questions
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Employees use the survey tool to identify their individual backgrounds
and rate their company’s Knowledge Management efforts as they relate to
their work and certain web-based applications available on the job. The
survey is designed to measure three distinct dimensions, also referred to as
factors and categories, of Knowledge Management effectiveness: company
culture, the employee’s personal capability, and one of three web-based
application’s usability. The dimensions are derived from a combination of
Gilbert’s Behavior Engineering Model (Gilbert, 1996, p. 88) and Human-
Computer Interaction (HCI) research. The Path Flow diagram, Figure 1,
illustrates how these categories relate to each other.
Path Flow
Company
Culture
'Motivation
'Knowledge
'Capacity
Application
Technology
User
Capability
'Information
'Instrumentality
'Incentives
Usability:
•Memorability
•Leamability
•Efficiency
•Errors
•Satisfaction
Knowledge
Management
Assessment
Tool
Figure 3.1. Path Flow Diagram
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63
In addition to the demographics questions, the first two dimensions
have a total of 12 items each, and the third dimension has a total of 15 items.
These items are rated on a 7 point Likert scale where 1 = Strongly disagree,
2= Do not agree, 3=No opinion, 4=Agree, 5 = Partially agree, 6=Agree, and
7=Strongly agree responses.
The remaining Summary questions are comprised overall Knowledge
Management items. The first asks how the company’s Knowledge
Management efforts compare with those of other companies. This item is
based on a 7-point Likert scale where 1=Non-existent, 2=Poor, 3=Below
average, 4=No opinion, 5=Acceptable, 6=Good, and 7=Excellent. Two open-
ended questions ask what the participant likes best and likes least about the
company’s Knowledge Management efforts.
Each dimension is split into various a priori factors. The company
culture dimension is grouped into information, instrumentality, and incentive
subsections. Each of these subsections has four related items. The
personal capability dimension is grouped into knowledge, capacity, and
motivation subsections. Each of these subsections has four related items.
The technology dimension is grouped into efficiency, learnability, satisfaction,
error reduction, and memorability subsections. Each of these subsections
has three related items. Participants are asked to choose one of three web-
based Knowledge Management applications used on the job. Each
application was designed specifically for the company and focused on the
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ability to meet a particular employee knowledge management requirement.
The first choice is a self-service related application where employees
can obtain and enter information about themselves personally or about their
direct reports.
The second choice is a project-related application that contains
documents, correspondence, directives, etc. about team assignments.
The third choice is a company related application that holds
information about company and division-wide strategies, programs,
presentations, and directives.
The items of each dimension are positively phrased declarative
statements. Sample items are: “Employees actively share work related
information” (company culture factor); “I share knowledge with others to
create new ideas” (personal ability factor), and “The application is a valuable
tool for my job success” (technology factor).
In addition to the Likert items, two open-ended questions are asked as
part of an overall assessment of the company’s Knowledge Management
efforts. Respondents are requested to respond about which company
related Knowledge Management initiatives are and are not most helpful to
them as employees.
Items are coded on a 1 to 7 scale so that high total scores on each
dimension indicate a positive Knowledge Management evaluation. Because
all items are positive, no items needed to be reflected (reverse scored).
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Answers to the two open-ended questions were collated and used to
enhance the quantified results. In addition, scores on each dimension were
averaged and compared with the overall Knowledge Management score.
Survey items for each dimension have their foundation in the literature
and are mapped directly to the research questions.
Data Analysis
Research question 1: Is the Knowledge Management tool developed
for this study reliable? This question is answered by the application of
Cronbach’s alpha coefficient to the resulting data.
Research question 2: Is there a significant difference between how
management and non-management employees rate their company culture,
the web-based application, and their ability to use the application? This
question is answered by the application of analysis of variance. The
calculation of survey results from each population indicates whether or not
there are differences in how management and non-management employees
view company culture, the applications they use, and their personal ability to
use the applications.
Research question 3: Is there a significant difference between how
engineers and non-engineer employees rate their company culture, the web-
based application, and their ability to use the application? The calculation of
survey results from each population indicates whether or not there are
differences in how engineers and non-engineer employees view company
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66
culture, the applications they use, and their personal ability to use the
applications.
Research question 4: How do employees in each of the three business
functions, Corporate, Business, and Engineering, rate their Corporate
Culture, Personal Ability, and the Usability of each of three applications, a
Self-service related application, a Project-related application, and a
Company-related application? The calculation of survey results from each
business functions indicates whether or not there are differences in how each
business function views company culture, the applications they use, and their
personal ability to use the applications.
Research question 5: Do the combined ratings on the diagnostic tool
for each cluster of items for the Company Culture, Application Usability, and
Personal Ability categories correlate with each other as well as to the
separate overall successful Knowledge Management strategy rating? Survey
results for each dimension are correlated and compared to the overall
company rating given by each participant.
Pilot Study Description
Before conducting the survey, a pilot study was conducted to evaluate
the quality of the survey questions and the length of time it took participants
to complete the survey. For the pilot study, the existing survey was given, by
the investigator, during a meeting, to six company employees. Each
employee first independently answered the survey questions. They then
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67
discussed in a group, with the investigator as the facilitator, their evaluation
of the survey on the quality of its:
• directive and question clarity (such as lack of ambiguity of directions)
• use of terminology (such as terms and acronyms specific to the
organization)
• focus (such as the choice of the three web-based applications to
evaluate)
• length of time to complete
Pilot study results were compiled by the facilitator and integrated into
a new version of the survey eventually used for the study. Pilot study results
are described in the Results chapter of this paper.
Data Collection, Storage, and Protection
The survey was distributed, by the investigator, to approximately 250
employees during the month of May 2000 via printed and/or email
attachment formats.
Informed consent information was distributed along with both email
and print versions of the survey. Participants were required to read the
consent information before answering the survey. They were also provided
copies of the consent information for their records.
All response data were stored in locked files in the investigator’s
office. Only the investigator reviewed the raw data. Once the data were
compiled and analyzed, all original responses were destroyed.
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Survey Tool Data Analysis Strategy
Internal consistency reliability, using the traditional 1952 Cronbach’s
alpha formula, were computed in the study for each of the three dimensions.
A total reliability score was computed. A factor analysis (3 principal
components with varimax rotation) also was conducted to assess the
factorial validity of the survey.
Survey data will eventually need to be compiled over several hundred
studies, so that a factor analysis can be conducted to establish validity.
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Chapter IV: Results
Overview
This chapter describes the results obtained from the implementation of
both the pilot survey and final survey.
Pilot Survey Tool Results
The purpose of the pilot study was to provide an opportunity for
participants from the “high tech” population to comment about the survey tool
questions and process. In addition to completing the survey, participants
provided feedback on the survey’s usability and applicability to the target
population. (See Appendix A for a copy of the Pilot Study survey.)
Participants described whether or not pilot survey directions were
easy to understand, items were clear, terminology used was applicable to the
population, and if there were suggestions for improvement. Individual
responses to the pilot survey items are not included in this document
because the survey was changed significantly as a result of their feedback.
Their compiled results are organized under each question below:
• Are the directions easy to understand?
Suggestions were provided by participants to edit the introductory text by
making initial directions more succinct, providing a simple description of
Knowledge Management, and specifying what action to take to respond
to each item type, such as to circle a response.
• Are the individual items clear?
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70
Items were discussed that had confusing meanings such as item #6 in the
Personal Capability section that states: I increase my job success by how
easily I find new knowledge. Items such as these were rewritten.
• Is the terminology used applicable to the population?
Some terms were not applicable to the survey. Specifically the terms
“technology” and “system” needed to be replaced with the term
“application.” Also terms that could be replaced with simpler terms were
identified, such as replacing “capability” with “ability.”
• What suggestions for improvement could be made?
It was clarified that the participant population would not volunteer for a
survey that contained more than about 50 items, given their work
schedule and tight deadlines, so the survey was reduced in scope. In
addition, open-ended questions provided at the end of each category
were considered unnecessary. As an alternative, open-ended questions
were asked once at the end of the survey and rewritten to be included as
information in the “overall” category. Also, items were renumbered to
start sequentially once throughout the survey rather than starting over
again three times for each category.
Based on the number and quality of the responses provided from the
pilot study a redesign of the final survey was completed and reviewed by
company management. The survey was then reviewed and edited by
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71
members of the dissertation committee. (See Appendix C for a copy of the
Final Survey)
Final Survey Tool Results
This section describes the total eligible survey tool responses,
quantified results, methods of calculation, qualitative responses to open-
ended questions, and conclusion.
From a total of 234 responses, 207 or 88% were returned completed
and eligible for quantification. Responses were then eliminated based on the
length of time the respondent worked with the application. Respondents who
reported they worked less than one week on their application of choice
(Company-related, Project-related, or Self service-related) were omitted,
leaving a final total of usable responses at 203 or 87% of the total responses
submitted.
Responses were calculated to assess item reliability, validity, and
correlation.
Application Usability, Company Culture, Personal Ability Means and
Standard Deviations
Means and standard deviations were calculated on each
questionnaire factor for all 203 responses and are represented in Table 4.1.
Results showed that most responded with a score of Partially Agree (5) to
Agree (6) on the factors of Personal Ability, Application Usability, and
Company Culture. The vast majority of respondents believed they
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72
experienced good usability on the application of choice, personal ability in
working with the application, and a company culture that supported use of
the application in a knowledge management environment.
The Overall factor scores had a larger standard deviation, or greater
spread of responses, than those reported for Personal Ability, Application
Usability, and Company Culture factors. Responses for the Overall factor
ranged between Partially Disagree (3) to Agree (5) meaning that their
assessment of the knowledge management activities of companies outside
of their own were varied.
Table 4.1. Means and Standard Deviations
Factor Case Mean Standard Deviation
Application Usability 203 5.26 .90
Company Culture 203 4.98 .81
Personal Ability 203 5.51 .60
Overall 203 5.14 1.23
Application Usability Reliability Scores
Item-total correlation’s were computed for usability and are
represented in Table 4.2. They ranged from .23 to .80. Cronbach’s alpha
result was .92 which indicates high reliability. The only score that is suspect
is Item 34 (below .3) which discussed the concept of bookmarking. This
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73
could be a result of title confusion, because not all applications use the term
bookmarking to describe the equivalent functionality such as favorites.
Table 4.2. Reliability of Perceived Usability of Application
Application Usability
Factor Items
Corrected Item-
Total Correlation
Score
Item 32 Application is easy to use
.72
Item 33 Application allows me to quickly find
knowledge I need
.74
Item 34 Application’s bookmarking function helps
me identify important content
.23
Item 35 Application’s graphics enhance the
content’s message
.57
Item 36 Application’s design makes sense
.80
Item 37 Application’s interface is easy to remember
.80
Item 38 Application is pleasant to use
.76
Item 39 Application’s link titles provide good
descriptions about the content found in the
links
.72
Item 40 Application is a valuable tool for my job
success
.46
Item 41 Application’s design reduces user error
.71
Item 42 Information contained in the application is
always correct
.60
Item 43 Application is error free (functions properly,
doesn’t crash)
.43
Item 44 Application’s interface has a standard look
and feel
.56
Item 45 Application’s text directly applies to
terminology used in my work
.63
Item 46 Application’s screen layout helps me
remember where to find information
.70
Cronbach’s Alpha = .92
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74
Company Culture Reliability Scores
Item-total correlations were computed for reliability and are
represented in Table 4.3.
Table 4.3. Reliability of Perceived Company Culture
Company Culture
Factor Items
Corrected Item-
Total Correlation
Score
Item 5 Employees know how to use available
knowledge to support innovation
.60
Item 6 Employees have many Knowledge
Management mentors available to answer
questions
.53
Item 7 Employees use available processes to
manage knowledge when making work
related decisions
.65
Item 8 Employees are coached about Knowledge
Management activities
.61
Item 9 Employees know how to get the right
information to the right people
.64
Item 10 Employees can easily access web-based
Knowledge Management applications (i.e.,
Company-related, Project-related, Self-
service-related) when needed
.42
Item 1 1 Employees are given clear communication
as to the kind of knowledge to be found in
the web-based applications (i.e., Company-
related, Project-related, Self-service-related)
.49
Item 12 Employees use knowledge in the web-based
applications to improve job performance
(i.e., Company-related, Project-related, Self
service-related)
.53
Item 13 Employees actively share work related
information
.58
Item 14 Employees feel comfortable sharing
knowledge
.52
Item 15 Employees who manage work related
knowledge feel valued
.50
Item 16 Employees who manage knowledge are
considered role models
.50
Cronbach’s Alpha = .87
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They ranged from .49 to .65. Cronbach’s alpha result was .87 which
indicates high reliability.
No items correlated below .3, therefore each item was highly related
to the Company Culture construct.
Personal Ability Reliability Scores
Item-total correlations were computed for reliability in Table 4.4.
Table 4.4. Reliability of Perceived Personal Ability
Personal Ability
Factor Items
Corrected
Item-Total
Correlation
Score
Item 17 I use the web-based applications (such as
Company-related, Project-related, Self-service-
related) before using other resources
.30
Item 18 I needed the training on the web-based
applications (such as Company-related, Project-
related, Self-service-related) to be successful on
the job
.20
Item 19 I share knowledge with others to create new ideas .40
Item 20 I have altered my perspective of work-related
issues since using the web-based applications
(such as Company-related, Project-related, Self-
service-related)
.38
Item 21 I actively use the web-based applications to
enhance my job
.50
Item 22 I increase my job success by how easily I find new
knowledge
.46
Item 23 I am confident that I can find answers to any
problem I must solve
.29
Item 24 I always take into account other people’s ideas
even when they conflict with mine
.33
Item 25 I am committed to finding new knowledge to
support my job goals
.46
Item 26 I enjoy learning new things
.26
Item 27 I increase my personal development by actively
sharing knowledge
.45
Item 28 I feel rewarded by the company when I share what
I know
.40
Cronbach’s Alpha = .71
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76
They ranged from .20 to .50. Cronbach’s alpha result was .71 which
indicates high reliability.
Item 18, which focused on the concept of training, becomes suspect
because its item total correlation (.20) is well below .3. Personal Ability does
not appear to relate directly to online application training. This could be
because the applications may be very easy to use and do not require formal
training to use them successfully on the job.
Item 26, which focused on personal enjoyment, is moderately low with
a total item correlation of .26. This suggests that the concept of enjoyment
may be nebulous and may need further clarification if used in future studies.
Manager and Non-Manager Mean Differences
Means and standard deviations for the three factors for managers and
non-managers are presented in Table 4.5.
Table 4.5. Comparison of Manager and Non-Manager Scores
Factor Manager Non-
Manager
Significance F-
Ratio
Application
Usability
x = 4.82
s = 1.06
n =56
x = 5.34
s = .83
n = 147
.06 n.s. 3.9
Company
Culture
x = 4.82
s = .87
n = 56
x = 5.04
s = .79
n = 147
.08 n.s. 3.0
Personal
Ability
x = 5.43
s = .60
n = 56
x = 5.54
s = .59
n = 147
.22 n.s. 1.5
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77
A One-Way ANOVA was calculated which showed there were no significant
differences between the responses of managers and non-managers on each
of the three factors.
Engineer and Non-Engineer Mean Differences
Means and standard deviations for the three factors for engineers and
non-engineers are presented in Table 4.6.
Table 4.6. Comparison of Engineer and Non-Engineer Scores
Factor Engineer Non-
Engineer
Significance F-Ratio
Application
Usability
x = 5.44
s = .77
n = 76
x = 5.15
s = .96
n = 127
.03* 5.01
Company
Culture
x = 5.17
s = .73
n=76
x = 4.87
s = .85
n = 127
.01* 6.29
Personal
Ability
x = 5.57
s = .60
n = 76
x = 5.48
s = .60
n = 127
.30 n.s. 1.10
* p<.05
A One-Way ANOVA was calculated which showed there was no
significant difference between the responses of engineers and non-engineers
on Personal Ability, however, there were significant differences between the
means for Company Culture and Application Usability. Engineers rated
Company Culture and Application Usability higher than non-engineers
(p<.05).
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Company Function to Application Usability Correlation Scores
Means and standard deviations for the three factors for each company
function are presented in Table 4.7.
Table 4.7. Company Function by Application Choice
Company
Function
Application Usability Factor Significance F-
Ratio
Self
service-
related
Project-
related
Company
-related
Corporate x = 5.83
s = .58
n = 13
x = 4.42
s = .90
n =13
x = 5.39
s = .88
n = 36
.00* 9.96
Business x = 5.64
s = .60
n = 6
x = 4.83
s =1.33
n = 12
x = 4.98
s = .76
n = 13
.27 n.s. 1.37
Engineering x = 5.77
s = .57
n = 24
x = 4.88
s = .95
n = 37
x = 5.42
s = .72
n = 49
.00* 10.00
*p<.05
A One-Way ANOVA was calculated which showed there was no
significant difference between the responses of Business Function personnel
on Application Usability. This could be due to the small number of responses
included in the calculation. There were, however, significant differences
between Corporate and Engineering Function personnel responses to
Application Usability.
Though the majority of Corporate Function personnel used the
Company-related application, each of the three function types rated the Self
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79
service-related application as the most usable and the Project-related
application as least usable.
Correlation of Company Function to Corporate Culture
Means and standard deviations for the three factors for each company
function are presented in Table 4.8.
Table 4.8. Company Function by Corporate Culture
Company
Function
Corporate
Culture Factor
Significance F-Ratio
Corporate x = 4.82
s = .82
n = 62 .04* 3.36
Business x = 4.83
s = .80
n = 31
Engineering x = 5.12
s = .80
n = 110
*p<.05
A One-Way ANOVA was calculated which showed there was a
significant difference between Company Function personnel classification on
Corporate Culture. Corporate and Business Function personnel rate
Corporate Culture as better than Engineering Function personnel.
Correlation of Company Function to Personal Ability
Means and standard deviations for the three factors for each company
function are presented in Table 4.9.
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80
Table 4.9. Company Function by Personal Ability
Company Function Personal Ability
Factor
Significance F-Ratio
Corporate x = 5.50
s = .57
n = 62 .12 n.s. 2.18
Business x = 5.32
s = .64
n = 31
Engineering x = 5.58
s = .59
n = 110
A One-Way ANOVA was calculated which showed there was no
significant difference between the responses of all Company Function
personnel on Personal Ability. This could be a result of the homogeneity of
the population on the personal ability factor.
Application Usability, Corporate Culture, Personal Ability, and Overall
Correlation Scores
Correlations were calculated for the total scores on the three factors.
The matrix is represented in Table 4.10. Results showed positive correlations
and significant values for all groups. Company Culture is considered the
most important determinant of Application Usability accounting for 29% of the
total score. Respondents are more likely to attribute the Company Culture
instead of themselves, indicated as the Personal Ability score, as the source
of changes. As Personal Ability increases, Application Usability increases
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81
but this effect is smaller than that of Company Culture and accounts for 14%
of the total. The Overall score is also strongly related as a function of
Company Culture and accounts for 29% of the total.
Table 4.10. Pearson Correlation Factors of Overall Score to Personal Ability,
Application Usability, Company Culture
Application
Usability
Company
Culture
Personal
Ability
Overall
Application
Usability
.5396
p=.0001
shared
variance =
29%
.3764
p=.0001
shared
variance =
14%
.3742
p=.0001
shared
variance =
14%
Company
Culture
.5380
p=.0001
shared
variance =
15%
.5439
p=.0001
shared
variance =
29%
Personal
Ability
.4240
p=.0001
shared
variance =
18%
Overall
Qualitative Results
Each respondent was requested to respond to the open-ended Items
47 and 48, along with the Comments section. Representative responses are
described as follows:
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82
Item 47: Which Knowledge Management initiatives are helpful to me
as an employee?
Respondents identified helpful initiatives where:
• Applications are organized in one place and accessible at all times
• Applications provide a means to learn about the company and get
answers about its function
• Classes are excellent. For example, company online training varies from
Okay to very good.
• Information about many projects and access to documents are helpful
• Web-based engineering document queries and download using the
application is excellent
• Other resources are included such as: Meeting Maker, PH, QBS, QLIS,
Obit, Admin Helper, emails, and CM
These responses show examples of some of the most important
factors that respondents found helpful with their ability to access information
and use it toward creative activities at work.
Item 48: Which Knowledge Management initiatives are not helpful to
me as an employee?
Initiatives where:
• Issues specific to departments are not provided
• The application is hard, inconvenient to use
• Applications show information too verbose and difficult to understand
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83
• Documents are not properly labeled and sorted
• There is a lack of critical information (such as, legal) available
• Department specific acronyms are used and don't know what they mean
• The information provided is not exhaustive, so users have to go back and
access other sources
• There is not enough job specific training and the application is not
universally used
• There is no mentoring or on the job training that allows for knowledge
support
• Emails don’t update what is happening at the company, like promotions
and news to research on one's own
These responses show examples of some of the most important
factors that respondents believe deleterious to their ability to access
information and use it toward their creative activities at work.
Comments:
Respondents provided the following miscellaneous comments about
their experience with knowledge management applications:
• In general, documentation is poor, the user typically gains expert
knowledge through extensive use.
• Departments and groups within the company are moving in exciting new
directions, but these initiatives seem to be held closely and not shared.
My group is trying to develop applications with XML and KM in document
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84
production. We're unaware of any similar efforts (present or past) and
would like some way to find the right people to ask.
• Knowledge at the company is job security, job services is a big concern
among employees.
• My department has its own database, but it is not the most user-friendly
and there are times when it is easier to find information from external
resources.
• Intra-company communication via email is very good, but via telephone is
poor.
• The company is too email driven and lacks knowledge management
process.
• The biggest challenge is knowledge management is ever evolving. This
evolution is difficult to track. The systems started years ago are no longer
useful. Information is lost in updates while other information is found
confusing.
Respondents mentioned a number of other observations they had in
regard to the applications and methods of knowledge exchange. Comments
ranged from the effectiveness of company functions to the challenge of future
KM efforts.
Conclusion
This chapter reviewed the results obtained from the implementation of
the survey. Results showed that the survey was useful in identifying three
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85
factors in the assessment of knowledge management efforts. The three
factors are Company Culture, Personal Ability, and Application Usability.
There was a strong correlation across these factors. Scores further identified
that of the three corporate functions, Corporate, Business, and Engineering,
the majority of Corporate Function personnel used the Company-related
application, but rated the Self service-related application as most usable and
the Project related application as least usable. Also, Corporate and Business
Function personnel rated Corporate Culture as better than Engineering
Function personnel.
The implications of these findings suggest that Company Culture,
Personal Ability, and Application Usability are viable factors in assessing a
company’s Knowledge Management efforts. Of those three factors,
Corporate Culture is considered the most responsible for the success of
those efforts. Also, there is a distinct difference among the reported usability
of web-based Knowledge Management applications found within a company.
This suggests that, even though companies make applications available to
employees, they have different uses and therefore, may not be designed with
equivalent usability standards.
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Chapter V: Discussion
SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS, AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Overview
This chapter includes an introduction and review of the purpose of the
study, a summary of findings of the investigation, followed by a statement of
conclusions and recommendations for further research.
Introduction
Organizations operate in a knowledge age where few of the old rules
about the development and distribution of knowledge apply. Employees
experience a non-linear, unstable, and un-predictable world in which even
the application of best practices cannot guarantee company success. To
remain competitive, organizations must capture and leverage knowledge.
This provides them with their only sustainable advantage. In today’s
knowledge age, organizational success lies in the ability of the workforce to
learn, generate knowledge, innovate, and manage performance better and
faster than competitors. Knowledge, therefore, has replaced natural
resources, products, machinery, and financial capital as the most important
factor in current economic life (Stewart, 1999).
Knowledge Management involves recognizing, documenting, and
distributing both the explicit and tacit knowledge resident in an organization’s
workforce and customers. The mission is to provide the right knowledge to
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87
the right people so they can become efficient and innovative employees
(Stewart, 1997c, Davenport & Prusak, 1998, O’Dell & Grayson, 1998).
Historically people worked for years in their companies, accruing data
and information and building knowledge. These were independent efforts
and a means for employees to obtain raises and praise for the content assets
they generated. This content and the means by which it was obtained was
treasured and guarded. Today, with short-term job responsibilities and high
mobility of its work force, especially in the technology industry, the need to
develop products within six months to a year pressures employees to create,
collect, and disseminate knowledge efficiently across long distances.
Three components of the workplace are intrinsic to proper Knowledge
Management efforts; they are the nature of the company culture, the
personal ability of the employees, and usability of the application that
disseminates the content. It is critical to take these factors into consideration
when assessing Knowledge Management strategies using an assessment
tool.
Purpose of Study
Today a business can succeed or fail based on its ability to
disseminate data, information, and knowledge to employees to enhance their
jobs and extend company value. The proper use of web-based technology
for this Knowledge Management effort is vital for its success. Web
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8 8
technology is pervasive in companies and will increase in use as time
continues and the technology becomes easier to use.
A survey tool is needed to quickly evaluate Knowledge Management
technology used in institutions since no standardized tool currently exists for
this purpose. Such a tool can provide an integrated mechanism that analysts
can use. Subjective information provided by the study provides valuable
insight as to the usefulness of the web technology. The tool can also be
easily generalized for use in other companies, thereby enhancing its value
for assessment purposes across industries.
Sample Description
The printed survey (diagnostic tool) was distributed to employees at
the company who volunteered to answer the survey’s questions.
Approximately 250 volunteers were required to respond in order to obtain
sufficient responses to perform a factor analysis of the items. Management,
non-management, technical and non-technical employee categories were
included.
Survey Tool Design and Description
The survey tool is designed as a self-rating instrument. It is
comprised of:
• demographics questions
• clusters of Likert-type items based on Gilbert’s Behavioral Engineering
model
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89
• open-ended questions
Employees use the survey tool to identify their individual backgrounds
and rate their company’s Knowledge Management efforts as they relate to
their work and certain web-based applications available on the job. The
survey is designed to measure three distinct dimensions, also referred to as
factors and categories, of Knowledge Management effectiveness: company
culture, the employee’s personal capability, and one of three web-based
application’s usability. The dimensions are derived from a combination of
Gilbert’s Behavior Engineering Model (Gilbert, 1996, p. 88) and Human-
Computer Interaction (HCI) research.
In addition to the demographics questions, the first two dimensions
have a total of 12 items each, and the third dimension has a total of 15 items.
These items are rated on a 7 point Likert scale where 1 = Strongly disagree,
2= Do not agree, 3=No opinion, 4=Agree, 5 = Partially agree, 6=Agree, and
7=Strongly agree responses.
The remaining Summary questions are comprised overall Knowledge
Management items. The first asks how the company’s Knowledge
Management efforts compare with those of other companies. This item is
based on a 7-point Likert scale items where 1 =Non-existent, 2=Poor,
3=Below average, 4=No opinion, 5=Acceptable, 6=Good, and 7=Excellent.
Two open-ended questions ask what the participant likes best and likes least
about the company’s Knowledge Management efforts.
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90
Each dimension is split into various factors. The company culture dimension
is grouped into information, instrumentality, and incentive subsections. Each
of these subsections has four related items. The personal capability
dimension is grouped into knowledge, capacity, and motivation subsections.
Each of these subsections has four related items. The technology dimension
is grouped into efficiency, learnability, satisfaction, error reduction, and
memorability subsections. Each of these subsections has three related
items. Participants are asked to choose one of three web-based Knowledge
Management applications used on the job. Each application was designed
specifically for the company and focused on the ability to meet a particular
employee knowledge management requirement.
The first choice is a self-service related application where employees
can obtain and enter information about themselves personally or about their
direct reports.
The second choice is a project-related application that contains
documents, correspondence, directives, etc. about team assignments.
The third choice is a company-related application that holds
information about company Jnd division-wide strategies, programs,
presentations, and directives.
The items of each dimension are positively phrased declarative
statements. Sample items are: “Employees actively share work related
information” (company culture factor); “I share knowledge with others to
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91
create new ideas” (personal ability factor), and The application is a valuable
tool for my job success” (technology factor).
In addition to the Likert items, two open-ended questions are asked as
part of an overall assessment of the company’s Knowledge Management
efforts. Respondents are requested to respond about which company
related Knowledge Management initiatives are and are not most helpful to
them as employees.
Items are coded on a 1 to 7 scale so that high total scores on each
dimension indicate a positive Knowledge Management evaluation. Because
all items are positive, no items needed to be reflected (reverse scored).
Answers to the two open-ended questions were collated and used to
enhance the quantified results. In addition, scores on each dimension were
averaged and compared with the overall Knowledge Management score.
Survey items for each dimension have their foundation in the literature
and are mapped directly to the research questions.
Summary of Findings
This study answered the following questions about the survey tool
developed to assess a company's use of Knowledge Management
technology.
Research question 1: Is the Knowledge Management tool developed
for this study reliable and valid?
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92
Means and standard deviations were calculated on each
questionnaire factor for all 203 responses, 87% of the survey population.
Results showed that most responded with a score of Partially Agree to Agree
on the factors of Personal Ability, Application Usability, and Company
Culture. The vast majority of respondents believed they experienced good
usability on their application of choice, personal ability in working with the
application, and a company culture that supported use of the application in a
knowledge management environment.
The Overall factor scores had a larger standard deviation, or greater
spread of responses, than those reported for Personal Ability, Application
Usability, and Company Culture factors. Responses for the Overall factor
ranged between Partially Disagree (3) to Agree (6) meaning that their
assessment of the knowledge management activities of companies other
than their own were varied.
Cronbach’s alpha reliability was .80 with factor reliabilities of .92
(usability), .72 (personal ability), and .87 (company culture) demonstrating
good internal consistency across items reinforcing the premise that:
• they each measured the Application Usability factor reliably with the
exception of the bookmarking item. This could be a result of title
confusion, because not all applications use the term bookmarking to
describe the equivalent functionality such as favorites.
• they each measured the Company Culture factor reliably. No items
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93
correlated below .3, therefore each item was at least moderately related
to the Company Culture construct.
• each item measured the Personal Ability factor reliably. Item 18, which
focused on the concept of training, becomes suspect because its item
total correlation is below .3. Personal Ability does not appear to relate
directly to online application training. This could be because the
applications may be very easy to use and do not require formal training to
use them successfully on the job.
Research question 2: Is there a significant difference between how
management and non-management employees rate their company culture,
the technology, and their ability to use the technology?
The One-Way ANOVA indicated there was no significant difference
between the responses of managers and non-managers on any of the three
factors.
Research Question 3: Is there a significant difference between how
engineers and non-engineer employees rate their company culture, the
technology, and their ability to use the technology?
The One-Way ANOVA indicated there was no significant difference
between the responses engineers and non-engineers on Personal Ability,
however, there were significant differences between the means for Company
Culture and Application Usability. Engineers rated Company Culture and
Application Usability higher than non-engineers.
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94
Research question 4: How do employees in each of the three
business functions. Corporate. Business, and Engineering, rate their
Corporate Culture. Personal Ability, and the Usability of each of three
applications, a Self-service related application, a Project-related application,
and a Company-related application?
A One-Way ANOVA was calculated. Results showed there was:
• no significant difference between the responses of Business Function
personnel on Application Usability. This could be due to the small
number of responses included in the calculation. There were, however,
significant differences between Corporate and Engineering Function
personnel responses to Application Usability. Though the majority of
Corporate Function personnel used the Company-related application,
each of the three function types rated the Self service-related application
as the most usable and the Project-related application as least usable.
• a significant difference between Company Function personnel
classification on Corporate Culture. Corporate and Business Function
personnel rate Corporate Culture as better than Engineering Function
personnel.
• no significant difference between the responses of all Company Function
personnel on Personal Ability. This could be a result of the homogeneity
of the population on the personal ability factor.
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95
Research question 5: Do the combined ratings on the diagnostic tool
for each cluster of items for the Company Culture. Application Usability, and
Personal Ability categories correlate with each other as well as to the
separate overall successful Knowledge Management strategy rating?
Survey results for each dimension were correlated and compared to
the overall company rating given by each participant. Results showed
positive correlations and significant values for all groups. Company Culture
is considered the most important determinant of Application Usability
accounting for 29% of the total score. Respondents are more likely to
attribute the Company Culture instead of themselves, indicated as the
Personal Ability score, as the source of changes. As Personal Ability
increases, Application Usability increases but this effect is smaller than that
of Company Culture and accounts for 14% of the total. The Overall score is
also strongly related as a function of Company Culture and accounts for 29%
of the total.
Conclusions
Several conclusions can be drawn concerning the assessment of
knowledge management technology in a company:
• The findings highlight the influential role of the three factors, company
culture, application usability, and personal ability, on the assessment of a
knowledge management application. It also supports Gilbert’s premise
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96
that culture is the leading factor for successful company specific
initiatives. These three factors are not only critical to the success of an
effective knowledge management tool, but a healthy knowledge
management environment. The factors also provide insight into the
proper selection of and direction to employees as they continue their
knowledge management activities.
• One of the greatest benefits of this study is that it identifies the
importance of company culture on the effective use of a knowledge
management tool. Both internal and third party developers can use this
information to ensure the company's "climate" is receptive and
"engineered" to the use of knowledge management tools.
• Assessment studies should always include a pilot survey to ensure that
proper reference is made to company related terminology and business
processes. Knowledge management should be defined clearly and
numerous examples should be provided. Management related questions
should not imply that management can and will make changes based
upon survey results. Also, a reliable method is needed to obtain
responses anonymously.
• Employee comments suggest that they expect more knowledge
management efforts of increasing complexity to be instituted at the
company. Along with that, more attention and financial assistance will be
placed on these types of initiatives. If increased knowledge management
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97
efforts do occur, analysis and revision of these efforts will be critical.
Proper evaluation of knowledge management tools can provide effective
insight as to whether or not the time, effort, and money it takes to create
such a product was or will be worthwhile. Similar evaluation efforts could
be used to anticipate the impact of legacy system upgrades and prototype
creation before a large amount of money is applied to the venture. Even
the evaluation of external third party vendors using an assessment tool
could be useful. Appropriate modifications will be needed to
accommodate the new application, environment, and end-user.
There were specific limitations to this study. As in many comparative
studies, the construct was based on self-report measures which may have
artificially inflated relations among factors. Also, the study may be
compromised by the uneven comparability of results across different division
settings.
Another limitation of this study is that it relied on a fairly homogeneous
population, and did not include an equal amount of participants for each
functional area. Also, contextual factors may have influenced the results
(e.g., company size, which could limit the generalizability to other
companies). Socioeconomic status of employees were not considered in this
study and may be a contributing variable to responses.
These are only a few of the potentially confounding variables that may
have affected the outcomes of this study.
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98
Recommendations for Further Research
In the future, companies are expected to increase their use of web
technology to capture and distribute information for knowledge creation. To
optimize the use of these web-based knowledge management applications,
companies will need to provide a method by which they can be evaluated
properly.
To the extent that this study’s findings can be generalized to other
companies, there are clear implications for knowledge management
application assessment.
• Proper assessment and revision of an application’s usability is not
enough to ensure the application will be used. It is critical to identify the
company’s cultural context in which the application is being used as well
as the personal capability of the employees using the application. All
these factors contribute to the effective use of the application.
• An assessment based on self report can be helpful in identifying the
personal opinions of employees, but that is not enough to complete a full
evaluation of an application. Employee opinions are useful to obtain
preliminary information, but should be followed-up with a more detailed
evaluation method such as a forced answer choice questionnaire along
with a usability study. Also, it would be better to analyze one application
at a time in the context in which it is used. This would eliminate confusion
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99
on the part of the respondents and provide more comprehensive data
because the answers would be related to specific work related behavior.
• Assessment tools can be made accessible online for easy use by
respondents. The tools can be automated so data accumulation and
calculation can be completed immediately after answers are submitted.
This would provide researchers with the ability to quickly and easily obtain
information so that continuous improvements can be made.
• Part of the assessment process should include the timely dissemination
of results to company management in order to obtain stakeholder
feedback. Management support will ensure that changes will occur
based on study results.
• It would be useful to conduct similar surveys across a number of different
kinds of companies, such as, finance, health, and manufacturing
organizations, to identify where there are similarities and differences in
responses in those organizations.
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100
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I
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108
Appendix A
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Pilot Study Survey Tool
109
Introduction: Thank you for volunteering to answer questions about your company’s
web-based Knowledge Management efforts. Knowledge Management is a strategy for
capturing and presenting data and information to employees in such a way that it
supports their decision-making, troubleshooting, forecasting, and creative work related
efforts. Web-based systems can facilitate these efforts.
1
Directions: Please read each statement below and respond based on your experience
at your company. Individual responses are kept confidential. Only combined numbers
will be reported.
1 have worked at my company since 2000, 1999, 1998,1997,
1996, etc.
My job title is fill in the blank
# Company Culture Questions Scale
At my company, 1 believe that...
m
i t
emplbyiees^reigivenrcleandiret^onsiiasttbihbw^a^
u s e la y m l^ le ^ o w l^ g ^ ^
emjMbyees&re|ledfbpc£^
m
W
em jjlbyi^^usefavallablefj^
iempibyee^re^ivelprbpei^eeabaclcabbuttheir^ db^^®re^l§^3J4f5tadfe^
5 employees have a systematic way to get the right
information to the right people
do not agree 1,2,3,4,5 agree
6 employee can easily access web-based knowledge
management systems (ie Company-related, Project-
related, Self service related applications) when
needed
do not agree 1,2,3,4,5 agree
7 employees are given clear communication as to the
kind of knowledge to be found in the web-based
systems
do not agree 1,2,3,4,5 agree
8 employees use knowledge in the web-based
systems to improve job performance
do not agree 1,2,3,4,5 agree
Q-.
r i
em jrtope^activeiyisba^ ,doffio^g^e^|^3|4|^agf^et
m
en^Ioyees^xpefienc»saI«Timate&^
ttaSHMMNaMMBHHl
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110
£ ' v * - r C
em pldye^w ffo^s^re^bw l^id^aii^^m bw leagedl
i MSMSSem
13 what 1 like most about my company’s knowledge
management culture is ...
fill in the blank
14 what 1 like least about my company’s knowledge
management culture is ...
fill in the blank
# Personal Capability Questions Scale
At my company, 1 believe that...
m
llaro^ffi^e1^b«S E ^ii^'i|b1b ffii^i^nlhg^^ch|ai^
C p m jp ^ y ^ re l^ e d ||i^ j^ ^ ^ e d ^ e l^ ^ iy i^ ^ ^ ^ ^ |
rci^ ^ ^ p p iic afio i^ ’ |:a b o ^ ^ l6 b f^ ^ ^ ^ f^ ^ ^ ^ §
S v S
Gompany:related^lTOj»^related«-Seifeervice^^^
reiatedrapplicatJon^beforelwsmgbtherTesources^S
S i i S i s a
l« h a re ^ d w ^ ^ ^ w ^ ^ ^ ^ ^ g ^ ^ ^ e ® e w p _ d e ^ ^ p
P
|:havebttered^y^)^pec^e^w drliFre1ated'Is^es|
sinc^usingiUMw^^asedltechnolMKesCsacl^E^^
5 1 actively use the web-based technologies to
enhance my job
do not agree 1,2,3,4,5 agree
6 1 increase my job success by how easily 1 find new
knowledge
do not agree 1,2,3,4,5 agree
7 1 am confident that 1 can find answers to any
problem 1 must solve
do not agree 1,2,3,4,5 agree
8 1 actively take into account other people's ideas that
differ from mine
do not agree 1,2,3,4,5 agree
f 9 j 5
li
Kam^mhutted^Pffindind^bvvfJchbwJe^^t^uppdrt
wmwmmssg^gmsgshm
m
WMS&SMS.
m
Itfee£rewiarbediby4Kt£roinb^
1 1 8 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1
13 what 1 like most about my ability to use my
company’s web-based technologies to manage
knowledge is ...
fill in the blank
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I l l
14 what 1 like least about my ability to use my
company’s web-based technologies to manage
knowledge is ...
fill in the blank
• ' S J " v • •
# W eb-based Tech n o lo g y Q uestio n s S cale
Please choose a web-based technology and answer
the related questions below:
1. Project-related
2. Company-related
3. Self service-related
1 have worked on this system for 0 -1 week,
>1 week-1 mo,
>1 mo-6 mos,
>6 mos - year,
> 1 year-2 yrs,
>than 2 years
1 spend, on average, X amount of time on the system
each week
less than 1 hr,
1-4 hrs,
5-10 hrs,
over 10 hrs
A t m y com pany, 1 b elieve th a t...
th e ^ ^ e ro ^ fli^ i^ ^ G ^ u rc k ^ lfih d lld id w li^ e g r^ ^
| § j ^ ^ | i ^ P |
m
the^y^em'^&bbkmarlqnq^^
4 the system's graphics enhance the content's
message
do not agree 1,2,3,4,5 agree
5 the system's design makes sense do not agree 1,2,3,4,5 agree
6 the system's interface is easy to remember do not agree 1,2,3,4,5 agree
;7
,8?
j9 l
the;sy^em ^;lihKtitl^prqvidi^bddidies«np»tidn^^
aboutthe;content‘fo,und?inithe?IinfeW ®«^lipif#^i
W B S B S i
10 the system's design reduces user error do not agree 1,2,3,4,5 agree
1 1 the information contained in the system is always
correct
do not agree 1,2,3,4,5 agree
12 the system is error free do not agree 1,2,3,4,5 agree
113 thejsystem ^hteriai^Jha^^hdardyodkandjfeel^
gAfilllliiil
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112
14;
16 what I like most about my company’s web-based
system is ...
fill in the blank
17 what 1 like least about my company’s web-based
system is ...
fill in the blank
Overall, company knowledge management efforts
are ...
poor 1,2,3,4,5 excellent
Thank you for your participation.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Appendix B
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114
Consent Form
University of Southern California
Office of the Vice Provost for Research
UNIVERSITY PARK INSTITUTIONAL REVIEW BOARD
CONSENT TO PARTICIPATE IN STUDY
Development of a Diagnostic Tool for Assessing Knowledge
Management
You are requested to participate in a study conducted by Deidre Emery, from
the Department of Education at the University of Southern California. The
results will contribute toward the completion of her doctorate dissertation.
You are eligible as a participant in this study because you work at a “high
tech” company and have access to World Wide Web application technology.
Purpose of the Study
This study is designed to obtain your opinions of how specific web
applications are used to identify, store, and distribute knowledge throughout
a company.
Procedures
If you volunteer to participate in this study, please sign this form below, then
fill out the attached questionnaire and return it to Deidre Emery when
completed. It should take approximately 10 minutes to answer the questions.
Benefits
The results of this study will provide insight into how best to analyze
Knowledge Management efforts for the world wide web in different company
settings. This could potentially increase the usability of current web
interfaces in order to make information, data, and knowledge more
accessible to employees on the job.
Risks
All responses will be kept strictly confidential and will be viewed solely by the
investigator. The surveys will be destroyed following data analysis and only
composite information will be reported. When research results are published
or discussed in conferences, no information will be included that would reveal
your identity.
Payment
There is no payment for participation in this study. However, please circle
the number below to indicate if you would like to receive study results.
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115
1. Yes, please send me general information and/or study conclusions.
2. No, I do no request study results.
Questions
If you have questions or concerns about this study, please contact Deidre
Emery at 760.729.6250. You can discontinue participation without penalty.
You are not waiving any legal claims, rights or remedies because of your
participation in this study. If you have questions regarding your rights as a
participant, contact the Office of the Vice President for Research, Bovard
Administration Building, Room 203, Los Angeles, CA 90089-4019, (213) 740-
6709.
Participant’s Signature
I understand the procedures described above. My questions have been
answered to my satisfaction, and I agree to participate in this study. I have
been given a copy of this form.
Name of Participant
Signature of Participant Date
Investigator’s Signature
I have explained the study to the participant in this document and provided
an opportunity for all questions to be answered. I believe that he/she can
understand the information described in this document and freely consents to
participate.
Deidre Emery__________________________
Name of Investigator
Signature of Investigator Date
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.
Appendix C
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Final Survey Tool
117
Research Survey
Thank you for participating in this survey. Knowledge Management
is a strategy for capturing and presenting data and information to
employees to support their decision-making, troubleshooting,
forecasting, and creative work related efforts. Web-based
applications, such as the Company-related, Project-related, and Self
service-related applications, can facilitate these efforts.
Please read each statement below, fill in the requested information or make the choice
that best describes your experience at work. Individual responses are kept confidential.
Only combined responses will be reported.
Answer in this Column
1
How long have you been employed with the
company? Month Year
2 What is your job title?
Choose No More Than Two that
best Apply:
O Director level or above
O Manager level
O Engineer
O Professional (i.e., staff level,
individual contributor)
O Administration (i.e., support
personnel)
3
Do you have direct reports?
O Yes O No
4 In which functional area do you work?
Choose One:
O Corporate
O Business
O Engineering ■
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118
Company Reisited Questions
1 believe that...
Ratings for items below:
1 - Strongly disagree
2 - Do not agree
3 - Partially disagree
4 - No opinion
5 - Partially agree
6 - Agree
7 - Strongly agree
5
Employees know how to use available
knowledge to support innovation
O 1 O 2 0 3 0 4 O 5 O 6 O 7
6
Employees have many Knowledge
Management mentors available to
answer questions
O 1 O 2 0 3 0 4 O 5 O 6 O 7
7
Employees use available processes to
manage knowledge when making
work related decisions
O 1 O 2 0 3 0 4 O 5 O 6 o 7
8
Employees are coached about
Knowledge Management activities
o 1 O 2 0 3 0 4 O 5 O 6 o 7
9
Employees know how to get the right
information to the right people
o 1 O 2 0 3 0 4 O 5 O 6 o 7
10
Employees can easily access web-
based Knowledge Management
applications (i.e., Company-related,
Project-related, Self service related
applications) when needed
o 1 O 2 0 3 0 4 O 5 O 6 o 7
1 1
Employees are given clear
communication as to the kind of
knowledge to be found in the web-
based applications (i.e., Company-
related, Project-related, Self service
related applications)
o 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 O 5 O 6 o 7
12
Employees use knowledge jn the web-
based applications to improve job
performance (i.e., Company-related,
Project-related, Self service related
applications)
o 1 O 2 0 3 0 4 O 5 O 6 O 7
13
Employees actively share work related
information
o 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 O 5 O 6 o 7
14
Employees feel comfortable sharing
knowledge
o 1 O 2 0 3 0 4 O 5 O 6 o 7
15
Employees who manage work related
knowledge feel valued
o 1 O 2 0 3 0 4 O 5 O 6 o 7
16
Employees who manage knowledge
are considered role models
o 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 O 5 O 6 o 7
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119
Personal Ability Questions
1 believe that...
Ratings for items below:
1 - Strongly disagree
2 - Do not agree
3 - Partially disagree
4 - No opinion
5 - Partially agree
6 - Agree
7 - Strongly agree
17
I use the web-based applications (such
as Company-related, Project-
related, Self service related
applications) before using other
resources
O 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 O 5 O 6 O 7
18
I needed the training on the web-
based applications (such as
Company-related, Project-related,
Self service related applications) to
be successful on job
O 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 O 5 O 6 O 7
19
I share knowledge with others to create
new ideas
O 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 O 5 O 6 O 7
20
I have altered my perspective of work-
related issues since using the web-
based applications (such as
Company-related, Project-related,
Self service related applications)
O 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 O 5 O 6 O 7
21
I actively use the web-based
applications to enhance my job
o 1 O 2 0 3 0 4 O 5 O 6 O 7
22
I increase my job success by how
easily I find new knowledge
o 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 O 5 O 6 O 7
23
I am confident that I can find answers
to any problem I must solve
o 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 O 5 O 6 O 7
24
I always take into account other
people's ideas even when they
conflict with mine
o 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 O 5 O 6 O 7
25
I am committed to finding new
knowledge to support my job goals
o 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 O 5 O 6 O 7
26 I enjoy learning new things o 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 O 5 O 6 O 7
27
I increase my personal development by
actively sharing knowledge
o 1 O 2 0 3 0 4 O 5 O 6 O 7
28
I feel rewarded by the company when I
share what I know
o 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 O 5 O 6 O 7
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120
Web-based Application Questions
29
Please choose one web-based
application to the right and answer
questions 30 to 46 below about that
specific application:
Choose One Application:
O Self service-related)
O Project-related
O Company-related)
30
I have worked with this application (per
line 29) for...
Choose One:
O Less than 1 week
O 1 week to 1 month
O 1 month to 6 months
O 7 months to 1 year
O 1 to 2 years
O More than 2 years
3 1
I spend, on average, X amount of time
o n the application (per line 29) each
week.
Choose One:
O Less than 1 hour
O 1 to 4 hours
O 5 to 10 hours
O 10 to 20 hours
O 20 to 30 hours
O More than 30 hours
I believe that the...
Ratings for items below:
1 - Strongly disagree
2 - Do not agree
3 - Partially disagree
4 - No opinion
5 - Partially agree
6 - Agree
7 - Strongly agree
32
Application is easy to use
0 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 0 5 0 6 0 7
33
Application allows me to quickly find
knowledge I need
0 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 0 5 0 6 0 7
34
Application's bookmarking function
helps me identify important content
0 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 0 5 0 6 0 7
35
Application's graphics enhance the
content's message
0 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 0 5 0 6 0 7
36
Application's design makes sense
0 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 0 5 0 6 0 7
37
Application's interface is easy to
remember
0 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 0 5 0 6 0 7
38
Application is pleasant to use
0 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 0 5 0 6 0 7
39
Application's link titles provide good
descriptions about the content found
in the links
0 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 0 5 0 6 0 7
40
Application is a valuable tool for my job
success
0 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 0 5 0 6 0 7
41
Application's design reduces user error
0 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 0 5 0 6 0 7
42
Information contained in the application
is always correct
0 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 0 5 0 6 0 7
43 Application is error free (functions 0 1 0 2 0 3 0 4 0 5 0 6 0 7
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I
121
properly, doesn't crash)
44
Application's interface has a standard
look and feel
O 1 o 2 O 3 O 4 O 5 O 6 O 7
45
Application's text directly applies to
terminology used in my work
o 1 o 2 O 3 O 4 O 5 O 6 O 7
46
Application's screen layout helps me
remember where to find information
o 1 o 2 O 3 O 4 O 5 O 6 O 7
Summary Questions
47
Which Knowledge Management initiatives are helpful to me as an employee?
(describe below)
a.
b.
c.
48
Which Knowledge Management initiatives are not helpful to me as an employee?
(describe below)
a.
b.
c.
49
Overall, Knowledge Management efforts in
companies are...
Choose One:
O Non-existent
O Poor
O Below Average
O No Opinion
O Acceptable
O Good
O Excellent
Please Provide Comments About This Survey Here
Thank you, very much, for your participation.
Sincerely,
Deidre Emery
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission.

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Asset Metadata

Creator Emery, Deidre Ann (author)

Core Title Development of a diagnostic tool for assessing knowledge management

School Graduate School

Degree Doctor of Education

Degree Program Education

Publisher University of Southern California (original), University of Southern California. Libraries (digital)

Tag education, technology of,education, tests and measurements,OAI-PMH Harvest,psychology, industrial

Language English

Contributor Digitized by ProQuest (provenance)

Advisor Kazlauskas, Edward (committee chair), Hocevar, Dennis (committee member), Tetenbaum, Toby (committee member)

Permanent Link (DOI) https://doi.org/10.25549/usctheses-c16-217363

Unique identifier UC11339172

Identifier 3073772.pdf (filename),usctheses-c16-217363 (legacy record id)

Legacy Identifier 3073772.pdf

Dmrecord 217363

Document Type Dissertation

Rights Emery, Deidre Ann

Type texts

Source University of Southern California (contributing entity), University of Southern California Dissertations and Theses (collection)

Access Conditions The author retains rights to his/her dissertation, thesis or other graduate work according to U.S. copyright law. Electronic access is being provided by the USC Libraries in agreement with the au...

Repository Name University of Southern California Digital Library

Repository Location USC Digital Library, University of Southern California, University Park Campus, Los Angeles, California 90089, USA