Preface for the Third Edition - Read

558 C. State of Practice
14.3.4 Extension and intensity of KMS use
The large number of KMS functions were aggregated to the two measures extension
and intensity of the usage of KMS functions:
extensiongKMS i = 1
implement
--------------------------------
() i
n
g(KMS) = group of [integrative; interactive; bridging] KMS functions
n = number of [integrative; interactive; bridging] KMS functions
implement(i) := 1 if function i is implemented
implement(i) := 0 if function i is not implemented
intensitygKMS g(KMS) = group of [integrative; interactive; bridging] KMS functions
n = number of [integrative; interactive; bridging] KMS functions
frequent(i) := 1 if function i is used “often” or “always”
frequent(i) := 0 if function i is either not implemented or used less frequently
Extension of KMS usage was measured per group of KMS functions—integrative,
interactive and bridging functions—as the number of implemented functions.
Intensity of KMS usage was also measured per group of KMS functions as the
number of frequently used functions (often or always used). These measures will
be used for the analysis of the relationship between the usage of KMS functions on
the one hand and the achievement of business goals on the other hand 122 .
KMS functions in organizations were used in a variety of ways. First of all, most
organizations used basic functions for information retrieval and communication,
like keyword search, navigation, email and email distribution lists. The use of more
advanced functions, however, was preserved for a much smaller group of organizations.
Integrative KMS functions were used widely and frequently, especially to
support knowledge acquisition and publication and to a somewhat lesser extent
knowledge organization. Generally, interactive KMS functions were used less frequently
than integrative KMS functions. Thus, even though the use of interactive
functions was up when compared to previous studies, organizations at least until
1999 did not predominantly use communication-oriented functions as was hypothesized
by Blackler (1995). Hypothesis 5: ’Organizations converge in their use of
ICT and increasingly use communication-oriented functions of knowledge management
systems’ therefore was not supported.
The reason for this might be attributed to the problem of bandwidth preventing
especially multinational organizations from a substantial organizational effort to
boost the use of bandwidth-intensive functions, such as videoconferencing or
122. See section 15.2.4 - “Correlations with goals” on page 575.
=
=
n
n
i = 1
frequent
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() i
n