Saba Sareminia; Alireza Hassanzadeh; Shaaban Elahi; Gholam Ali Montazer
Abstract
Background and Objectives: Knowledge is considered as a major strategic resource for the development of organizational competitive advantage. Effective knowledge management (KM) is essential to almost any organization. Regardless of its size or subject matter, an organization should use the knowledge ...
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Background and Objectives: Knowledge is considered as a major strategic resource for the development of organizational competitive advantage. Effective knowledge management (KM) is essential to almost any organization. Regardless of its size or subject matter, an organization should use the knowledge it possesses in the most effective way possible. But the implementation of KM is still challenging. One of the solutions for this challenge which is mentioned in KM literature is knowledge management road mapping. Roadmaps provide a graphical means for exploring and communicating the relationships among any types of knowledge in the organization. But knowledge management road mapping is a dynamic process and artifact which needs some technology-based instruments.
Methodology: In this study, an organizational ontology has developed a beneficiary systematic literature review according to Davis methodology for facilitating organizational knowledge road mapping. This methodology has five major steps: feasibility study, kick-off phase, refinement phase, evaluation phase, and maintenance and evolution phase.
Findings: The purpose of this article is to facilitate the organizational knowledge management road-mapping through focusing on “organizational knowledge ontology” content. Proposed “organizational knowledge ontology” has described in three phases: “feasibility and kick-off”, “refinement” and “evaluation”. In the first phase; organizational knowledge ontology, beneficiary systematic literature review presents five basic entities: “Environmental Drivers”, “Organizational Goals & Strategies”, “Business Processes & Tasks”, “Actors” and “Resources”. In the second phase, these entities have been studied and specified precisely based on the KM Road-mapping (a conceptual map of KM road mapping) and the object and data properties have defined. The conceptual map of KM Road-mapping has three basic concepts: “KM Strategy”, “KM Deliverables” and “KM Strategy Implementation” and the ontology has developed by linking these concepts. The name of the proposed ontology "STEP C+ Organizational Knowledge Ontology" has retrieved from defined data properties for knowledge blocks that are used for valuing them. In the third phase; some individuals and their data properties have been added to the presented ontology and a KM roadmap has been developed for the case study by the use of some queries in SPARQL Tab in protégé and their results.
Discussion: This study like other research has limitations and based on these limitations some research suggestions are advised. It's suggested that supplementary data gathering methods (such as; interview and focus group) are utilized for developing organizational knowledge ontology. In addition, based on the interpretive research limitations, it's preferred that this research will have been repeated by other researchers with diverse viewpoints.
It's recommended for generalizing the research findings; the proposed ontology (STEP C+ Organizational Knowledge Ontology) will have been applied in different projects with diverse types such as service or production projects, public or private projects, small or large projects, ….
It's suggested that the developed ontology be customized according to the influencing factors in developing countries.
Since road mapping is a time and cost-consuming process; maintaining its dynamics depends on continuous updating. Thereupon for facilitating and accelerating the road mapping process; it's recommended an integrated semantic information system (from knowledge registration by knowledge workers step to knowledge roadmap representation step) will have been developed; it's obvious that the proposed ontology could be part of this dynamic and semantic system. Attention to both “organizational knowledge road mapping” and “organizational ontology” contents; simultaneously, maybe less paid in practice than in theory. This research is trying to facilitate the strategic knowledge management process in the organization by combining these two concepts and by operating this combination, open a way to other researches. On the other hand, in this paper, by defining some criteria for valuing knowledge, Knowledge Management Assessment is facilitated.
