The Problems of Embeddedness Knowledge Transfer Coordination and Reuse in Information Systems Alexia Chang BUS 550 Case Background ChipFab semiconductor fabrication equipment pr ovider based in Taiwan Two types of engineer equipment engineers 100 and field engineers 400 Equipment engineers machine installation Field engineers on site troubleshooting In July 2000 the head of the Human Resource Dep artment incorporated a KM Knowledge Managem ent team which built a knowledge repository D iscover An engineer would record maintenance tips following a structured format Each tip once approved would be acknowledged as a best practice tip and stored in the Discover database By the end of 2001 the KM Team reported encouragin g results 1 The submission of best practice tips had increased fro m 18 to 72 items per month 2 The frequency of knowledge searches in Discover had increased from 117 to 1 176 times per month 3 machine installation time had reportedly been reduce d from 45 days to 30 days In April 2003 the KM Team was dissolved o wing to the lack of support from the key stak eholders the field engineers Why did the equipment engineers find Disco ver useful but field engineers not even thou gh they supported the KM initiative generally Three Knowledge Attributes Knowledge as object Knowledge as cognition Knowledge as capability Knowledge as object Knowledge is tangible objects that can be co nverted and transferred directly to users The major problem of transferring knowledg e as object is conversion Knowledge is transferable from one place to another with less appropriation Knowledge as cognition Experts cognitions socially distributed in human ne tworks Knowledge is better shared through person to pers on communications In sharing knowledge a strong social network may be better than one that is weak as the building of t rustful relationships is achieved more easily Information systems such as groupware can be use d as a people finder or as a discussion forum to est ablish virtual communities that facilitate a personali zed mode of communication Knowledge as capability Knowledge is capability generated from experts w ork activities Situated Knowledge experts must acquire such knowledge by participating in different working situ ations Knowledge cannot be taken away from practices b y transferring it from one place to another as objec ts nor can it be shared as individual cognition Engineers rely on three generic types of cognitive knowledge to build capabilities device procedural and strategic knowledge Placing Practices in Context s Knowledge be it object cognition or capabili ty must be enacted from people s practices and reside in a particular work context To understand knowledge management probl ems analysis of experts actions in situ is ne cessary as this will help us to examine how experts practices are embedded in and sha ped by work contexts Analyzing Practices within Three Work Co ntexts Knowledge Management Issues Knowledge transfer problems Knowledge coordination problems Knowledge reuse problems Solutions The tips should be organized as repair stories documenting strategic knowledge the discove ry of the process of troubleshooting obtained b y solving problems in different maintenance sit uations ChipFab could include a social network map in each repair story ChipFab could include points of unlearning in e ach repair story Quiz Knowledge attributes include A Object B Cognition C Capability D All of the above E Non of the above