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AbstractThe introduction of knowledge management (KM) systems has become a key factor that potentially leads to competitive advantage. To take fully advantage of KM systems it is often necessary to make adjustments along a variety of dimensions to the organisations concerned. This paper proposes a KM model built around four factors: strategic; organisational; technical and informational; cultural and human. With special focus on the audit and consultancy profession, this paper identifies the respective influence of individual factors on the use and capitalisation of the knowledge contained in the KM system that is introduced into an organisation. The results show that use of the system is facilitated by technical and information systems (knowledge bases) developed as a significant part of the group's strategy and culture. However, despite organisational actions that focus o knowledge, knowledge capitalisation remains problematic, in large part, due to human and cultural reticence over sharing. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

This article argues that because the U.S. dissemination system in education is based on a research-driven rather than a user-focused model, the system has frequently seemed unresponsive to organizational improvement needs that have arisen from the field. Development of this bias has been exacerbated by political, organizational, and programmatic thrusts in federal agencies. In contrast, dissemination systems in the Netherlands and Denmark have achieved a different balance of support for locally and centrally initiated improvements. An examination of systems in other countries can provide useful models for adapting the U.S. system to current needs.

The use of social science knowledge by policymakers has fallen short of what many social scientists would prefer. Research that supports this conclusion may be flawed by a methodological bias that overlooks the variety of knowledge sources used by decision makers. A survey of social workers that measures knowledge use from the perspective of the user, rather than the producer, of information identifies three types of knowledge sources, all of which are integrated in the decision-making process. We argue here for a shift in the direction of knowledge utilization research that will recognize similarities between knowledge use and knowledge creation.

Given the latest knowledge on climate change, the Dutch government wants to anticipate the increased risk of flooding. For the river Meuse in The Netherlands, the design discharge is estimated to increase from 3800m3/s to 4600m3/s. With the existing policy of "Room for the River", this increase is to be accommodated without raising the dikes. At the same time the floodplains are often claimed for other functions, e.g. new housing or industrial estates. In 2001 the Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management started the study "Integrated assessment of the river Meuse (IVM)" with the objectives of making an inventory of the probable physical effects of a design flood, assuming climate change, on the river Meuse in 2050, investigating possible spatial and technical measures to mitigate these effects, and finally combining various measures to create an integral strategy for flood protection, while at the same time increasing spatial quality. This paper presents the results of research into the decision making process that took place in order to achieve these objectives. Special attention was given to the role of scientific and technical knowledge in the decision making process, e.g. by investigating the effect of the quality of input data on acceptance by stakeholders, and the interactive use of a decision support system to visualise hydraulic effects. Conclusions on successes and pitfalls are drawn from observation and interviews with participants. It demonstrates how it is possible to integrate the necessary, technically complex knowledge in a political debate with stakeholders on how to deal with flood risk. Furthermore, the experience indicates in what area improvements could be made.

This study uses the Knowledge Use System (KUS) that was developed by Barabba and Zaltman in 1991 to delineate decisionmaker variables and characteristics that may thwart utilization of evaluation results. The KUS was originally developed as a tool enabling corporate market reseatch to overcome "obstacles to implementation." The KUS is a process used to point out decisionmaker biases, preconceived notions and other decisionmaker variables. It facilitates discussion and consensus building about important evaluation issues that, if not recognized, might diminish utilization. The results of this study suggest that the KUS is successfully adaptable to higher education contexts. Its use during evaluation appears to improve the quality of the evaluation and the implementation of results.

PurposeInformation technology changes rapidly, and the market trend flow changes even faster. The information systems (IS) department in a technological oriented environment has to ensure that the plans or solutions made by the IS department can align with organizational strategy to avoid resources waste, and adaptability is a crucial issue for an IS department too. This study believes that adaptability and alignment of the IS department are ambidexterity. The concept of knowledge use effectiveness (KUE), based on the human agency theory, proposed a research model mainly founded on intellectual capital, human agency theory, and contextual ambidexterity, and used intellectual capital (including human, structure and relational capital) as a framework to find the antecedents of knowledge usage.Design/methodology/approachThis study conducts an empirical research method and collects 150 valid cases from the IS department employees in Taiwan.FindingsThe results of this study are: (1) KUE in an IS department significantly improves the ambidexterity; (2) intellectual capital has a positive influence on KUE; (3) despite human capital having no influence on iteration, iterational KUE has no influence on adaptability.Originality/valueFor academics, this study has developed KUE through a novel perspective and uses the concept of the human agency to articulate the characteristic of KUE, and thus has combined the intellectual capital, human agency and contextual ambidexterity into a research model. For managers, they should learn that KUE has a positive effect on the IS department ambidexterity, composed of alignment and adaptability. By knowing that, they can understand the concrete elaboration of KUE much better. Therefore, enhancing the process of knowledge usage can be a practical and useful way of improving an IS department performance.