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Article
Publication date: 25 November 2020

Michelle Nathalie Eliasson

The purpose of this study is to explore how Swedish police officers describe occupational knowledge. By learning more about how officers describe occupational knowledge, the study…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to explore how Swedish police officers describe occupational knowledge. By learning more about how officers describe occupational knowledge, the study gives more insight about the types of information that they may be more likely to adopt in their occupational tasks.

Design/methodology/approach

In this study, the author conducted 27 semi-structured interviews with Swedish police officers. I asked officers several open-ended questions about their everyday work life and professional experience.

Findings

Swedish officers divide knowledge into two categories, which are theoretical knowledge and practical knowledge. Theoretical knowledge is learned in the academy and is described as “black and white,” meaning that it is considered static and not applicable to what happens out in patrol. Practical knowledge is learned in the field from colleagues.

Research limitations/implications

Police officers around the world have a wide range of requirements and training to become police officers. However, empirical studies have found that officers tend to use different types of information when performing policing tasks. Depending on how information is perceived and is taught, officers may respond differently to different types of knowledge, due to their evaluation of the validity of the knowledge.

Originality/value

The findings in this study support previous empirical studies on the area of policing and knowledge in two ways; first, this study argues that there is a categorization of knowledge among police officers. Second, this study suggests that officers view one occupational knowledge type as more theoretical and one as more practical.

Details

Policing: An International Journal, vol. 44 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-951X

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 23 July 2018

Roland Yeo and Sue Dopson

The purpose of this paper is to draw on the direct experience of a practitioner undertaking real-time research in his organization to offer insights into the dual role of…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to draw on the direct experience of a practitioner undertaking real-time research in his organization to offer insights into the dual role of practical insider and theoretical outsider. The duality helps the researcher to live “in” and think “out” of the research context to develop a theory for practice and then transpose it to a practice for theory through the collaboration of an external theoretical insider.

Design/methodology/approach

This is a theoretical account of the reflexive experience of the practitioner reintroducing relational ethnography, where the researcher regards processes and spaces as the objects of analysis rather than bounded groups and places. It emphasizes the relational significance of the researcher, researched, and theoretical insider in exploring the structures of relations and meanings in the field of professional practice.

Findings

The paper argues that understanding the complementariness and paradoxes of the dual role helps the researcher to identify knowledge gaps and contest commonsense knowledge in search of critical knowledge and theoretical insights. The transition between the bounded (restrained) and unbounded (unrestrained) selves occurs in the holding space of research, influencing the position from which the researcher views himself, his subjects, and his social world.

Originality/value

The paper extends the dimension of ethnographic research, which de-centers the authority and control of the researcher to that of the relationship between the researcher and informants, by focusing on the relational significance between the researcher, researched, and theoretical insider. This perspective gives rise to a deeper understanding of relational ethnography, seen largely in sociological research, as relevant to organizational research, where structures of relations and actions explored in real time could account for the configuration, conflict, and coordination of work practices.

Details

Qualitative Research in Organizations and Management: An International Journal, vol. 13 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1746-5648

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 22 December 2022

Sergio Evangelista Silva and André Luís Silva

This article introduces a model of knowledge creation in consciousness, the creation of explicit knowledge in six forms and its register and organisation in documents.

Abstract

Purpose

This article introduces a model of knowledge creation in consciousness, the creation of explicit knowledge in six forms and its register and organisation in documents.

Design/methodology/approach

Assuming the premise of three realms of reference to knowledge and two forms of reference to entities, this article, through a phenomenological perspective, deduces a model of the creation of knowledge in consciousness and the creation of explicit knowledge in six forms and its register in documents.

Findings

Two basic types of knowledge are introduced: situated knowledge and theoretical/normative knowledge. Considering three realms of reference of knowledge – the space–time realm, subjectivity realm and linguistic realm – six general types of knowledge are deduced. Finally, three layers of knowledge organisation are presented: classification and mapping documents, theoretical/normative documents and documents of situations.

Practical implications

This article can contribute to the development of more efficient forms of creation of explicit knowledge, its register in documents and the development of more efficient knowledge organisation and management systems.

Originality/value

Relying on established perspectives of the realms where subjectivity is immersed, this article discusses how knowledge is created in consciousness and registered in documents. It also presents a novel perspective of types of knowledge through the combination of dimensions, realms of reference and forms of reference to entities.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 79 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 20 September 2019

Ingrid Maria Carlgren

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the theoretical reflection on learning study as a research approach. The focus is on description and reflection on the methodology of…

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the theoretical reflection on learning study as a research approach. The focus is on description and reflection on the methodology of learning study as paedeutic research. This research is for, not on, teachers, i.e. research into problems and challenges faced by teachers in their professional practice. Learning study as paedeutic research is about the content and processes of formation/Bildung in relation to specific learning objects. Its focus is on subject-specific ways of knowing as well as how such knowing is enabled through teaching.

Design/methodology/approach

The point of departure is a perspective on research approaches as practices, i.e. as activities with certain aims as well as ways of “making” knowledge. Based on a description of the knowledge machinery in a learning study, i.e. those mechanisms that together generate new knowledge, the knowledge claims that can be made are discussed together with the theoretical underpinning of the arguments. The knowledge machinery is described in relation to how it is organised around the delimitation and analysis of an object of Learning as well as designing and evaluating ways to make the critical aspects of this object of learning visible. As an epistemological underpinning, some aspects of pragmatic philosophical thinking regarding the relationship between theory and practice are outlined. Based on that the research process may be described as a development of means-ends relationships – from unconscious empirical relationships to conscious staging of internal and theoretical relations. Abduction is an important tool for this meaning-making.

Findings

Learning study can be described as a particularistic, theory-building research approach concerning the knowing of specific learning objects as well as how they can be taught and learnt. The knowledge that is generated in learning study is theoretical and describes aspects of the teaching and learning of specific objects of learning. The research process can be described in terms of specification where practice is gradually supplied with a more differentiated meaning. A learning study is organised around a specific object of learning that functions as an open and unfolding object of knowledge. It combines a practice-based development of theory with a theory-based development of practice.

Originality/value

The development of the thinking about learning study as research for, rather than on, teachers is paedeutical research. A contribution to reflection on the knowledge machinery and knowledge claims of such research.

Details

International Journal for Lesson and Learning Studies, vol. 9 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2046-8253

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 7 April 2015

Rachel Barker

The main aim of this paper is to address the lack of research on the potential impact of the radical changes in social networking in the so-called network society and indirectly…

2644

Abstract

Purpose

The main aim of this paper is to address the lack of research on the potential impact of the radical changes in social networking in the so-called network society and indirectly the need to manage and constructively share in the collateral knowledge creation. To do this, a tracking study of the knowledge creation and sharing in a discussion forum has been conducted from a knowledge management perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

A quantitative content analysis research design has been adopted in accordance with which content, text and messages on the website were critically examined; categories and themes identified and analysed; content coded and interpreted; and the results reported, relative to the research problem and theory. Both substantive decisions (what and how to code) and technical decisions (how coding will be interpreted) were made during the coding process and the interpretation of the results (Keyton, 2015). Three levels of division were used in the development of the coding system, namely, message construction, a summary of criteria and subcriteria and main links and sublinks (Wagner et al., 2012). The unit of analysis was a website, specifically the SouthAfrica.com online discussion forum, which presented an observable and measurable unit for the dissection of the text into components, criteria, subcriteria and elements to be analysed.

Findings

Two main findings emerged. First, it was empirically found that knowledge intervention by an expert in the organisation is in fact possible (and indeed needed as a proactive means) to ensure new knowledge is created and shared by individuals in the forum on a continuous basis. Second, it was found that a good theoretical foundation or framework can indicate the importance of various aspects which should be considered to obtain useful results from the participants or members of the forum through knowledge management.

Research limitations/implications

The study is limited by the fact that it only focussed on the measurement of knowledge management in one online discussion forum, SouthAfrica.com, during two time frames from an organisational perspective in terms of the three Cs. Further research in other settings would enhance the findings of this study, and researchers are encouraged to use the theoretical framework in future studies.

Practical implications

The main implication for managers in practice is that the research proved that participants in an online discussion forum quite often regard those members who manage the discussion forum as “experts”, but organisations then run the risk that the knowledge created and shared might not support, and/or might be detrimental to, the overall objectives and brand of the organisation.

Originality/value

This paper proposes the use of a theoretical framework to measure knowledge management, as applied to the identified online discussion forum, focussing on the three main components of content, communication and consumer with subcriteria and elements of the knowledge management perspective specifically. The main findings indicated that knowledge creation and sharing in online discussion forums is best supported if these components are proactively managed by an expert in the organisation to sustain and enhance successful communication.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 19 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 1985

Tomas Riha

Nobody concerned with political economy can neglect the history of economic doctrines. Structural changes in the economy and society influence economic thinking and, conversely…

2555

Abstract

Nobody concerned with political economy can neglect the history of economic doctrines. Structural changes in the economy and society influence economic thinking and, conversely, innovative thought structures and attitudes have almost always forced economic institutions and modes of behaviour to adjust. We learn from the history of economic doctrines how a particular theory emerged and whether, and in which environment, it could take root. We can see how a school evolves out of a common methodological perception and similar techniques of analysis, and how it has to establish itself. The interaction between unresolved problems on the one hand, and the search for better solutions or explanations on the other, leads to a change in paradigma and to the formation of new lines of reasoning. As long as the real world is subject to progress and change scientific search for explanation must out of necessity continue.

Details

International Journal of Social Economics, vol. 12 no. 3/4/5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0306-8293

Article
Publication date: 1 April 1992

BERND FROHMANN

A discourse analysis of the cognitive viewpoint in library and information science identifies seven discursive strategies which constitute information as a commodity, and persons…

1659

Abstract

A discourse analysis of the cognitive viewpoint in library and information science identifies seven discursive strategies which constitute information as a commodity, and persons as surveyable information consumers, within market economy conditions. These strategies are: (a) universality of theory, (b) referentiality and reification of ‘images’, (c) internalisation of representations, (d) radical individualism and erasure of the social dimension of theory, (e) insistence upon knowledge, (f) constitution of the information scientist as an expert in image negotiation, and (g) instrumental reason, ruled by efficiency, standardisation, predictability, and determination of effects. The discourse is guided throughout by a yearning for natural‐scientific theory. The effect of the cognitive viewpoint's discursive strategy is to enable knowledge acquisition of information processes only when users' and generators' ‘images’ are constituted as objectively given natural‐scientific entities, and to disable knowledge of the same processes when considered as products of social practices. By its constitution of users as free creators of images, of the information scientist as an expert in image interpretation and delivery, and of databases as repositories of unmediated models of the world, the cognitive viewpoint performs ideological labour for modern capitalist image markets.

Details

Journal of Documentation, vol. 48 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0022-0418

Article
Publication date: 1 January 1976

PAULA F. SILVER

The thesis of this paper is that preparation programs for educational administrators would be vastly improved if available knowledge were systematically used in the design…

Abstract

The thesis of this paper is that preparation programs for educational administrators would be vastly improved if available knowledge were systematically used in the design, management and study of the instructional programs. A review of the literature revealed that (1) conceptual and empirical knowledge have been rarely and inadequately discussed as foundations for program design; (2) management systems or technologies have not been discussed with reference to preparatory programs; (3) theoretical frameworks and sound research methodologies have been disregarded in most research about preparatory programs. Recommendations are made for increased knowledge utilisation in preparing educational administrators. Specifically suggested are: (1) implementation of various management technologies in departments of educational administration; (2) application of behavioral science theories and research methodologies to the study of existing preparation programs; and (3) use of theoretical and empirical knowledge to design and evaluate innovative preparatory programs. Suggestions regarding particular technologies pertinent to program management, specific theory‐based questions to guide research, and relevant bodies of knowledge applicable to program design are included. Conceptual systems theory is recommended as a foundation for programs designed to train “perceptive generalist” practitioners.

Details

Journal of Educational Administration, vol. 14 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0957-8234

Article
Publication date: 21 October 2013

Alexander Serenko and Nick Bontis

– The purpose of this paper is to: investigate the current state of intellectual capital (IC) as an academic discipline, and explore the impact of IC on the state of practice.

1298

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to: investigate the current state of intellectual capital (IC) as an academic discipline, and explore the impact of IC on the state of practice.

Design/methodology/approach

The most influential articles published in the Journal of Intellectual Capital were identified. Analysis of their cited and citing works was done.

Findings

The IC discipline: first, successfully disseminates its knowledge beyond the English-language world but ignores research published in languages other than English; second, has higher self-citation rates; third, uses books for the development of its theoretical foundation; fourth, successfully converts experiential knowledge into academic knowledge; fifth, exerts a limited yet potentially increasing practical impact; and sixth, is at the theoretical consolidation stage of pre-science and is progressing toward becoming a reference discipline. No anomalies in the development of the IC discipline were observed.

Practical implications

IC researchers should pay more attention to works published in non-English journals. Given the status of IC as a professional discipline, they should continue using non-peer reviewed sources to convert experiential knowledge into academic knowledge. They also need to promote their research far beyond the traditional IC domain.

Originality/value

To the best knowledge of the authors, this is the first empirical analysis of the IC discipline from the reference discipline perspective.

Details

Journal of Intellectual Capital, vol. 14 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1469-1930

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 17 February 2012

Ellen Caroline Martins and Hester W.J. Meyer

The purpose of this article is to identify and explore the organizational and behavioral factors that influence knowledge retention, specifically in the tacit knowledge sphere.

9859

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to identify and explore the organizational and behavioral factors that influence knowledge retention, specifically in the tacit knowledge sphere.

Design/methodology/approach

A multidisciplinary approach focusing on knowledge management and organizational behavior was followed to develop a theoretical model that identifies the organizational and behavioral factors to be considered when addressing the issues relating to knowledge loss. A quantitative empirical research paradigm using the survey method was adopted to determine the organizational and behavioral factors that impact on knowledge retention. The survey was conducted electronically and on paper in the water supply industry. The exploratory principal component factor analysis technique (PCFA technique) was used to explore the factor structure underlying the variables. The theoretical model was compared with the newly proposed factor model to determine similarities and differences.

Findings

Nine key factors were identified through the factor analysis, of which knowledge behaviors, strategy implementation, leadership and people knowledge loss risks proved to be the most important. In comparing the factor structure of the theoretically derived model and the PCFA‐composed factor structure, some factors essentially remained the same with few changes, and a number of new factors emerged.

Research limitations/implications

The literature study reveals that little research has been conducted in the field of knowledge retention with a behavioral focus. However, a vast amount of literature is found on knowledge, knowledge management, knowledge retention with a focus on organizational challenges and solution driven knowledge retention initiatives, and the organizational behavior discipline as such, thus facilitating the application of the relevant concepts to knowledge retention from an organizational and behavioral perspective.

Practical implications

This study encourages practitioners to take cognizance of the fact that organizations are different and that enhancing and impeding organizational factors as well as behavioral factors of knowledge retention are to be considered.

Originality/value

The findings should provide insight into the organizational and behavioral factors that should be considered in implementing a knowledge retention strategy to retain critical tacit knowledge, thus ensuring organizational effectiveness and competitive advantage.

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