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1 – 10 of 110Nigel Croft and Young Hyun Park
The revised ISO9000 family of standards represents a significant improvement on the 1994 version and, if implemented well within organizations, should facilitate the development…
Abstract
The revised ISO9000 family of standards represents a significant improvement on the 1994 version and, if implemented well within organizations, should facilitate the development of effective, process‐oriented Quality Management Systems. This paper describes how the International Standardized Testing Organization (ISTO) tests the understanding of ISO9000:2000, and presents an analysis of the results of the first examinations held in the UK, USA, Mexico and Hong Kong, in February and March 2001.
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Online knowledge sharing is a popular activity worldwide and can be leveraged by organisations to innovate, create and sustain competitive advantage. Although there have been a…
Abstract
Purpose
Online knowledge sharing is a popular activity worldwide and can be leveraged by organisations to innovate, create and sustain competitive advantage. Although there have been a number of studies examining knowledge sharing to encourage employees to convey their skills and experiences to others in an organisation, few attempts have been made to investigate the key motivators of online knowledge sharing in an organisation. Based on the theory of planned behaviour and technological acceptance model, this study aims to review the literature to establish a conceptual framework examining motivators of online knowledge sharing in organisations.
Design/methodology/approach
Previous studies that investigated motivators of online knowledge sharing in organisations in the literature were reviewed to propose a conceptual framework.
Findings
Four-dimensional model, which includes four types of key motivators of online knowledge sharing, namely, individual, social, organisational and technological, was established.
Originality/value
The model serves as a roadmap for future researchers and managers considering their strategy to enhance online knowledge sharing in organisations.
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In the early days of online communities, researchers tended to view lurkers negatively and considered them illegitimate and peripheral members. However, the tide of opinion about…
Abstract
Purpose
In the early days of online communities, researchers tended to view lurkers negatively and considered them illegitimate and peripheral members. However, the tide of opinion about lurkers has gradually become more positive. To take a broad view, lurkers should be included in the knowledge sharing context because while they may not share knowledge directly, they are still stakeholders in online communities who benefit from the knowledge shared. This study aims to review the literature from a knowledge sharing perspective to provide a comprehensive understanding of lurkers in online communities and identify additional reasons behind lurking behavior.
Design/methodology/approach
Previous studies that examined reasons behind lurking behavior in the literature were reviewed.
Findings
A four-dimensional model is provided, which categorizes the additional reasons for lurking into four domains: individual, social, organizational and technological.
Originality/value
The model serves as a roadmap for future researchers in examining lurkers and lurking behavior. Lurkers should be redefined. De-lurking strategies were suggested following the reasons for lurking behavior in the four-dimensional model, but de-lurking strategies were not recommended in all circumstances. An increase in active lurkers is another option to bring more value to online communities.
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Nicole K. Dalmer and Isto Huvila
The purpose of this paper is to suggest that a closer consideration of the notion of work and, more specifically, information work as a sensitizing concept in Library and…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to suggest that a closer consideration of the notion of work and, more specifically, information work as a sensitizing concept in Library and Information Science (LIS) can offer a helpful way to differently consider how people interact and engage with information and can complement a parallel focus on practices, behaviours and activities.
Design/methodology/approach
Starting with the advent of the concept of information work in Corbin and Strauss’ work, the paper then summarizes how information work has evolved and taken shape in LIS research and discourse, both within and outside of health-related information contexts.
Findings
The paper argues that information work affords a lens that can acknowledge the multiple levels of effort and multiple processes (cognitive, physical or social-behavioural) related to information activities. This paper outlines six affordances that the use of information work within LIS scholarship imparts: acknowledges the conceptual, mental and affective; brings attention to the invisibility of particular information activities and their constituents; opens up and distinguishes the many different lines of work; destabilizes hierarchies between professionals and non-professionals; emphasizes goals relating to information activities and their underlying pursuits; and questions work/non-work dichotomies established in existing LIS models.
Originality/value
This paper is a first in bringing together the many iterations of information work research in LIS. In doing so, this paper serves as a prompt for other LIS scholars to take up, challenge the existing borders of, and thus advance the concept of information work.
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While there is relatively plenty of evidence for the positive impact of communication on the perceptions of organizational change, how organizational changes affect information…
Abstract
Purpose
While there is relatively plenty of evidence for the positive impact of communication on the perceptions of organizational change, how organizational changes affect information sharing is relatively unknown. The purpose of this paper is to investigate if a favorable perception of ongoing organizational changes has a positive impact on information sharing and whether trust mediates this relationship.
Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire (n=317) was administered to the employees of a large Finnish multinational organization. Partial least square structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses based on earlier research findings.
Findings
The results show that a positive perception of recent organizational changes improves information sharing both directly and indirectly, mediated by trust. Consequently, when changes are perceived negatively, employees recoil from information sharing which is known to have negative implications for organizations.
Research limitations/implications
Data were collected in a single organization. The nature of the specific changes in the studied organization and its particularities undoubtedly had an effect on respondents’ perceptions.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to organizational information management research by elaborating on the relationship between organizational changes and interpersonal information sharing between employees. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first quantitative study confirming the impact of the perception of organizational changes on employee information-sharing behavior.
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Poschinger Andreas, AG Siemens, Kates Ronald and Keller Hartmut
Isto Huvila, Olle Sköld and Lisa Börjesson
Sharing information about work processes has proven to be difficult. This applies especially to information shared from those who participate in a process to those who remain…
Abstract
Purpose
Sharing information about work processes has proven to be difficult. This applies especially to information shared from those who participate in a process to those who remain outsiders. The purpose of this article is to increase understanding of how professionals document their work practices with a focus on information making by analysing how archaeologists document their information work in archaeological reports.
Design/methodology/approach
In total 47 Swedish archaeological reports published in 2018 were analysed using close reading and constant comparative categorisation.
Findings
Even if explicit narratives of methods and work process have particular significance as documentation of information making, the evidence of information making is spread out all over the report document in (1) procedural narratives, (2) descriptions of methods and tools, (3) actors and actants, (4) photographs, (5) information sources, (6) diagrams and drawings and (7) outcomes. The usability of reports as conveyors of information on information making depends more on how a forthcoming reader can live with it as a whole rather than how to learn of the details it recites.
Research limitations/implications
The study is based on a limited number of documents representing one country and one scholarly and professional field.
Practical implications
Increased focus on the internal coherence of documentation and the complementarity of different types of descriptions could improve information sharing. Further, descriptions of concepts that refer to work activities and the situation when information came into being could similarly improve their usability.
Originality/value
There is little earlier research on how professionals and academics document and describe their information activities.
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Isto Huvila, Åsa Cajander, Jonas Moll, Heidi Enwald, Kristina Eriksson-Backa and Hanife Rexhepi
Data from a national patient survey (N = 1,155) of the Swedish PAEHR “Journalen” users were analysed, and an extended version of the theory of technological frames was developed…
Abstract
Purpose
Data from a national patient survey (N = 1,155) of the Swedish PAEHR “Journalen” users were analysed, and an extended version of the theory of technological frames was developed to explain the variation in the technological and informational framing of information technologies found in the data.
Design/methodology/approach
Patient Accessible Electronic Health Records (PAEHRs) are implemented globally to address challenges with an ageing population. However, firstly, little is known about age-related variation in PAEHR use, and secondly, user perceptions of the PAEHR technology and the health record information and how the technology and information–related perceptions are linked to each other. The purpose of this study is to investigate these two under-studied aspects of PAEHRs and propose a framework based on the theory of technological frames to support studying the second aspect, i.e. the interplay of information and technology–related perceptions.
Findings
The results suggest that younger respondents were more likely to be interested in PAEHR contents for general interest. However, they did not value online access to the information as high as older ones. Older respondents were instead inclined to use medical records information to understand their health condition, prepare for visits, become involved in their own healthcare and think that technology has a much potential. Moreover, the oldest respondents were more likely to consider the information in PAEHRs useful and aimed for them but to experience the technology as inherently difficult to use.
Research limitations/implications
The sample excludes non-users and is not a representative sample of the population of Sweden. However, although the data contain an unknown bias, there are no specific reasons to believe that it would differently affect the survey's age groups.
Practical implications
Age should be taken into account as a key factor that influences perceptions of the usefulness of PAEHRs. It is also crucial to consider separately patients' views of PAEHRs as a technology and of the information contained in the EHR when developing and evaluating existing and future systems and information provision for patients.
Social implications
This study contributes to bridging the gap between information behaviour and systems design research by showing how the theory of technological frames complemented with parallel informational frames to provide a potentially powerful framework for elucidating distinct conceptualisations of (information) technologies and the information they mediate. The empirical findings show how information and information technology needs relating to PAEHRs vary according to age. In contrast to the assumptions in much of the earlier work, they need to be addressed separately.
Originality/value
Few earlier studies focus on (1) age-related variation in PAEHR use and (2) user perceptions of the PAEHR technology and the health record information and how the technology and information–related perceptions are linked to each other.
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Maedeh Ghorbanian Zolbin, Isto Huvila and Shahrokh Nikou
The purpose of this paper is to assess the relationship between elderly people's health literacy skills and those people's decision to make use of digital health service…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to assess the relationship between elderly people's health literacy skills and those people's decision to make use of digital health service platforms. Despite the substantial influence of digitisation on the delivery of healthcare services, understanding how health intervention strategies might help empower elderly people's health literacy skills is critical.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper analyses the existing trends in research on the convergence of health literacy, health intervention programmes and digital health service platforms by reviewing 34 studies published between 2000 and 2020.
Findings
The findings of the review indicate three primary themes (health literacy skills, health management competency and attitude/confidence), which provide a summary of the current literature, and in all three the results show that health intervention programmes help to enhance health literacy skills of elderly people. Based on the review results and by organising the fragmented status quo of health intervention research, the authors develop a comprehensive research model and identify future research directions for research in this domain.
Practical implications
The findings will be useful to health professionals in two ways: (1) the findings provide practical information about the growing need to implement health literacy intervention programmes to satisfy elderly people's appetite for accessing health services due to cognitive and physiological impairments, and (2) the finding help them to understand that with digital health platforms, elderly people have quicker access to health services, improving the quality of care provided to them.
Originality/value
This paper presents a comprehensive research model for analysing the impact of health literacy skills on older people's ability and intention to access digital health information sources, considering various health intervention approaches.
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