Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Knowledge ...

Jamal El-Den and Xin Zhou
These collaborative tools bring substantial benefits for communication and information/knowledge
transfer among dispersed individuals within <strong>the</strong> organization which in today’s economy is in most
cases a global organization. During <strong>the</strong> BPR process, interaction is a key issue for <strong>the</strong> developers at
any pahse <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> process. The collaborative environment makes knowledge externalization more
effectively and <strong>the</strong> BPR team members can obtain relatively complete knowledge to make decisions
for work/process redesign. Additionally, collaborative tools allow better change management by
permitting <strong>the</strong> team to continuously communicate with <strong>the</strong> organization at large. It is <strong>the</strong> opinion <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>
authors that although current collaborative group support systems and o<strong>the</strong>r communication facilities
provide support for <strong>the</strong> developers in terms <strong>of</strong> exposure to organizational wealth <strong>of</strong> information and
knowledge, <strong>the</strong>y believe that organization “must” develop <strong>the</strong>ir own group-support systems which,
among o<strong>the</strong>rs, should address <strong>the</strong> following functionalities (El-Den 2008):
A work-space (El-Den, 2008) or a “Ba” (Nonaka & Takeouchi, 1996) where group members can
communicate on a same platform with high levels <strong>of</strong> awareness <strong>of</strong> work progress.
Document-based Knowledge articulation functionality where collaborating members can release
<strong>the</strong>ir knowledge/expertise in a written form on <strong>the</strong> work-space.
Knowledge capture functionality where articulated knowledge is captured and temporarly retained
in <strong>the</strong> system for fur<strong>the</strong>r discussions and nurture among <strong>the</strong> members.
Knowledge nurture functionality where discussions on articulated/captured knowledge, in <strong>the</strong> form
<strong>of</strong> opinions, ideas, thoughts, feelings, know-how etc, can be performed among <strong>the</strong> members to
decide on what <strong>of</strong> that “knowledge” is worth retention in <strong>the</strong> DB for future use.
Retention facilities in a form <strong>of</strong> an intelligent DB.
The primary purpose <strong>of</strong> knowledge base applications is to create such repositories in a structured
fashion that can facilitate searching and circulating knowledge throughout <strong>the</strong> organization (Luan &
Serban, 2002). Fur<strong>the</strong>rmore, collaborative tools should include knowledge management and o<strong>the</strong>r
"persistent" means that can decrease <strong>the</strong> time required to accomplish operational activities. Lessons
learned data banks, project management records and reports, corporate letter templates, procedures
and guidelines, and sales contracts are only a few examples where "reinventing <strong>the</strong> wheel" can be
avoided through <strong>the</strong> organization and maintenance <strong>of</strong> corporate knowledge and making it available to
those who will want it and need it (Boyce, 2009). In addition, (Willems, 2009), stated that this sort <strong>of</strong>
communication situation within <strong>the</strong> collaborative environment governs <strong>the</strong> level <strong>of</strong> tacit information that
may be transferred.
By using <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> GSS, <strong>the</strong> team members’ thoughts, know-how, opinions and ideas are freely
articulated and captured. A new vision based on <strong>the</strong> knowledge <strong>of</strong> first two phases through a process
<strong>of</strong> knowledge capture and nurture would be created. Additionally, Collaborative tools enable
participants to better analyze and understand organizational business processes as well as roles in
<strong>the</strong>se processes. By understanding current problems, members may better comprehend <strong>the</strong> need for
change (Marjarnovic, 2000).
6. Conclusion
The paper argued that BPR process can be enhanced by introducing <strong>the</strong> features <strong>of</strong> knowledge
management related to <strong>the</strong> externalization <strong>of</strong> knowledge. It also argued that <strong>the</strong> success <strong>of</strong>
knowledge articulation, capture, nurture, transformation, and retention can be better achieved by <strong>the</strong>
development <strong>of</strong> a group-support system as relying on existing diverse technologies for communication
and externalization <strong>of</strong> knowledge proved to be difficult and leads to diverse learning within <strong>the</strong>
organization. The paper dealt only with <strong>the</strong> first three phases <strong>of</strong> an existing BPR methodology
because <strong>of</strong> length limitations. The paper addressed tacit knowledge transformation among <strong>the</strong> phases
as a result <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> capture and nurture <strong>of</strong> such knowledge among <strong>the</strong> members <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> team involved in
<strong>the</strong> BPR process.
References
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