Challenges of Knowledge Sharing in Practice: A Social Approach (Chandos Series for Information Professionals)

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Summary This book looks at the key skills that are required in organizations in the information intensive society; it also examines the power of information behaviour on the construction of different kinds of shared knowledge and social identity in a group. The book introduces the different dimensions of social capital that is structural and cognitive, and looks at the relational aspects of information behaviour in organizations. This book analyses experiences with two different case studies - in the financial and biotechnology industries - in order to gain additional insights in how the internal organization environment should be designed to support the development of the organization's intellectual capital. Key Features 1. Introduces social capital dimensions to the knowledge management framework 2. Provides empirical work on the new combination of social capital and organizational information behaviour. 3. Two different information sharing practices are presented: a claims handling unit (routine based work) and a biotechnology firm (expert work) 4. Develops social capital measures into qualitative information research 5. The book illustrates the importance of social aspects in managing information and knowledge effectively The Author Gunilla Widén-Wulff is Senior Lecturer at the Department of Information Studies, Åbo Akademi University, Finland. She has worked as a visiting researcher at Napier University, Edinburgh, 2004-05. Her teaching and research concerns information seeking, information management in business organizations, and aspects of social capital and knowledge sharing in groups and organizations. She has published several articles and papers in these areas. Readership The book is aimed at academics and students at all levels in library and information science, as well as information management and knowledge management practitioners and managers interested in managing information and knowledge effectively. Contents Part 1: Theories of Information Sharing Information sharing in context Patterns of sharing - enablers and barriers Social navigation Part II: Two Practices in Information Sharing Introducing the two cases Claims handlers Expert organisation Part III: Insights into Information, Knowledge Sharing and Social Capital Dimensions of social capital in the two cases Social capital and sharing - building structures for knowledge sharing and its management Importance of the awareness of social capital in connection with information and knowledge sharing in today's companies Appendices: (1) interview protocol: dimensions of social capital and knowledge sharing; (2) questionnaire: group identity aspects References Index