Organising Knowledge: Methods and Case Studies

245 Pages·2004·1.173 MB·English

by  Johannes Gadner, Renate Buber, Lyn Richards (eds.)

Organising Knowledge
Methods and Case Studies
Edited by
Johannes Gadner, Renate Buber and
Lyn Richards
Organising Knowledge
Also by the same editors
Applying Quantitative Methods to Marketing
Management Research
Organising Knowledge
Methods and Case Studies
Edited by
Johannes Gadner
Renate Buber
and
Lyn Richards
Selection and editorial matter © Johannes Gadner,
Renate Buber and Lyn Richards 2004
Individual chapters © the contributors 2004
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 20 04 978-1-4039-1 661-7
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Organising knowledge:methods and case studies / editors,Johannes Gadner,
Renate Buber,Lyn Richards.
p.cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4039-1661-6 (cloth)
1.Knowledge,Theory of.2.Knowledge management.3.Gabek
(Computer file) I.Gadner,Johannes.II.Buber,Renate,1954- III.Richard,Lyn.
BD175.0595 2003
001-dc22 2003056407
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Contents
Preface vii
Notes on the Contributors xii
Acknowledgements xvi
Part I Theoretical and Methodological Issues
1 Structures and Diversity in Everyday Knowledge:
From Reality to Cognition, Knowledge and Back 3
Markus Franz Peschl
2 Situatedness and Artefacts in Expert
Knowledge and Activity 28
Hanna Risku
3 The Human Foundation of Knowledge Management 43
Thomas Bernhard Seiler
4 Conceptual Knowledge Organisation and
the Problem of Understanding 60
Johannes Gadner and Doris Ohnesorge
5 Gestalt-Based Linguistics and the GABEK Method:
What Cognitive Science has to Say on
‘Space Logic’ in Everyday Thought 75
Michael Kimmel
6 Managing Complexity: Knowledge Organisation
and Qualitative Software 93
Lyn Richards
Part II Case Studies
7 Consumers’ Knowledge of Controlled
Ventilation Systems 113
Johannes Gadner and Renate Buber
v
vi Contents
8 The Process of Web Personalisation: A Framework
to Determine Appropriate Personalisation Systems 125
Sonja Grabner-Kräuter
9 Evaluating a Computer-Based Marketing Course by
Means of Focus Groups and Interviews 138
Regina Höld
10 The Job Image of Young Sales Assistants:
Introspection and Young Consumers’ Assessment 153
Renate Buber
11 Venture Brazil: Studying Austro-Brazilian Joint
Ventures by Means of GABEK and WinRelan 168
Jürgen Mühlbacher and Jochen Penker
12 Austrian Furniture Retailers’ Perspective on the
Austrian Design Sector 180
Renate Buber and Marion Friedmann
13 Influences of Organisational Learning on
Organisational Performance and Success 193
Roland Yeo
Index 215
Preface
Knowledge forms the basis of all human behaviour in general and
management activities in particular. Although the identification, acqui-
sition, organisation and storage of knowledge, as well as the efficient
use of knowledge, are not new in the scientific and economic worlds,
the systematic development and use of methods and tools to organise
and manage knowledge constitute a new and increasingly important
aspect of academic research and management practice (McDonald
et al., 1997; Stewart, 1997; von Müller, 2000; Wille, 1999a; Reimann-
Rothmeier and McElroy, 2002; Mandl, 2000). In management practice
knowledge organisation mostly involves the use of databases and the
development of data-mining tools, but in academic research the search
for adequate definitions of knowledge, knowledge organisation and
knowledge management is ongoing (Schreyögg and Geiger, 2003).
This book aims to help bridge the gap between scientific research on
knowledge organisation and the economic use of knowledge manage-
ment applications by providing both a theoretical discussion of issues
in knowledge organisation and knowledge management, and several
case studies focusing on knowledge-based problem situations in man-
agement and the application of qualitative methods to solve them.
To cover the wide range of research perspectives and practical
applications (themes, approaches, methods, levels of generalisability),
knowledge is defined here as actively processed networks of cognitive
maps based on the experiences and intrinsic capacities of individuals as
well as social/cultural standards, patterns and schemes for organising
perceptive information on environmental effects and regulating indi-
vidual behaviour within social systems (Oeser and Seitelberger, 1995,
pp. 203–6; Shore, 1996, pp. 311–15). This definition is critically exam-
ined and elaborated on in order to point out the problems of systemat-
ically and theoretically oriented research in knowledge organisation
and management.
Following Schreyögg and Geiger (2003, pp. 12–13), the kind of knowl-
edge dealt with here is characterised by three factors. First, knowledge is
propositional, that is, it is directly bound to communication and has to
be negotiated in discourses. Second, every proposition explicitly or
implicitly claims validity. This means that knowledge demands reasons.
vii
viii Preface
Third, it is not sufficient just to propose reasons for qualifying proposi-
tions as knowledge – these reasons must be recognised within the
specific context being researched. Thus knowledge in this context refers
to all sorts of conceptual knowledge, that is, knowledge properties that
are available from verbal expression and as text.
In this book, various methods and tools that are used to organise and
manage verbal data – that is, propositional knowledge – are described
theoretically and their practicability in various contexts is demonstrated.
In addition the terms knowledge organisation and knowledge manage-
ment are discussed. The core reason for knowledge organisation is to
ease access to knowledge and to make complex knowledge properties
more intelligible (Wille, 1999a,b; Kiel and Rost, 2003). Knowledge
organisation can be defined as a precondition for knowledge manage-
ment which focuses on the systematic and strategic use of knowledge in
economic situations (McElroy, 2002). In short, knowledge has to be
organised systematically in order to manage and use it efficiantly.
This book is a result of the ‘First International Workshop on
Qualitative Research in Marketing and Management’ organised by the
Department of Retailing and Marketing at the Vienna University of
Economics and Business Administration (VUEBA), QSR International
(Qualitative Solutions in Research), Melbourne, and the Institute for
Knowledge Organisation (IWO–Institut für Wissens organisation),
Vienna–which took place at VUEBA 9–11 April 2002. The IWO was
responsible for organising the third day of the workshop which dealt
with qualitative methods for knowledge organisation and their applica-
tion to marketing and management research and practice-the outcome
% is presented in the 13 chapters of this book.
The book is divided into two parts. Part I contains six approaches to
various issues in knowledge organisation and knowledge management.
In Chapter 1 Markus F. Peschl defines different sorts of knowledge from
an interdisciplinary perspective. He describes various approaches to
and definitions of knowledge, as well as their cognitive scientific back-
grounds. The use of knowledge properties in several scientific and
practical contexts is also addressed. From a conceptual point of view,
a model of everyday and expert knowledge is developed.
In Chapter 2 Hanna Risku critically examines situatedness and
artefacts in expert knowledge and activity. She starts from the point
where everyday knowledge is transformed into expert knowledge by
creating flexible reference models based on recurring regularities or pat-
terns. These general reference models distinguish experts from novices
who use superficial characteristics to categorise problems, relying on
explicit, visible keywords.
Preface ix
In Chapter 3 Thomas Bernhard Seiler analyses the nature and funda-
mental conditions of knowledge as prerequisites for knowledge organi-
sation and management. The analysis reveals a contrast between
objectified knowledge and its idiosyncratic origin, and it is shown that
assessment of the knowledge that is implicit in the structure of an
organisation and in the behaviour of its members requires qualitative
research methods.
In Chapter 4 Johannes Gadner and Doris Ohnesorge focus on
methodological aspects of the use of conceptual structures for the
organisation and systematisation of knowledge and the problem of
understanding. After a general and theoretical overview of Gordon
Pask’s notion of protolanguage, two computer-supported qualitative
methods of knowledge organisation based on this concept are
described.
In Chapter 5 Michael Kimmel discusses recent findings in cognitive
linguistics and their relevance for the computer-supported process of
gestalt building using the GABEK method. While the method’s under-
lying assumption about the condensation and spatial grouping of
knowledge into gestalt clusters is confirmed, cognitive approaches point
to the method’s shortcomings and the constraints on automated gestalt
building in on-line cognition.
In Chapter 6 Lyn Richards discusses the problem of managing
complexity. She argues that all (software-assisted) qualitative research
requires the organisation of knowledge that is provided a priori, discov-
ered during enquiry and derived from search and scrutiny. She describes
a number of software packages and various ways of organising, process-
ing and representing knowledge in form of conceptual data.
Part II presents case studies of the organisation and management of
knowledge. In Chapter 7 Johannes Gadner and Renate Buber, concentrate
on consumers’ knowledge of and attitudes towards energy-efficient build-
ings with controlled ventilation systems. From their daily experiences of
their living and working environments, consumers know about certain
aspects of the products and technologies they use. The authors discuss
how the knowledge and experiences of inhabitants of energy-
efficient buildings could be used to design targeted marketing strategies.
In Chapter 8, Sonja Grabner-Kräuter focuses on web-usage mining,
which is defined as the discovery of knowledge about user access pat-
terns from web servers. It comprises the systematic organisation of gen-
eral access pattern tracking and customised usage tracking. The chapter
provides an overview of recommendation systems and analyses the
main factors that have to be considered when determining whether
a system is adequate. It is shown that the success of personalisation