Studying Knowledge Transfer with Weblogs in Small and Medium Enterprises: An Exploratory Case Study

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STUDYING KNOWLEDGE TRANSFERWITH WEBLOGSINSMALL ANDMEDIUM

ENTERPRISES: AN EXPLORATORY CASE STUDY

ALEXANDER STOCKER

∗

, MARKUS STROHMAIER

†

, AND KLAUS TOCHTERMANN

‡

Abstrat. Weblogsarewidelyknownasa tehnology thatallowspublishingtextual ontentinreversehronologialorder,

oftenexpressingthesubjetivepointsofviewofa singleormultipleweblogauthors. Thesimpliityandautonomyofweblogsis

assumedto playafundamentalrole intheirpopularityandtheirabilityto transformimpliitknowledge intoexpliitforms. In

reentyears,enterprisesbegantoexperimentwithweblogstofailitateinter-andintraorganizationalknowledgesharing. Although

weblogshavebeeninreasinglyadoptedinaorporateontext,soundexploratoryandexplanatoryknowledgeandtheoriesabout

weblogadoptionpraties inorporoate ontextsaremissing. Arihtoolsetofnetwork-analytitehniquesexiststoanalyzethe

vastamountofeletronitraesproduedbylargeweblognetworks. However,insmallandmediumenterprises,eletronitraes

aresparse dueto the lakof a ritial amountof weblogs beingmaintained, and weblogommuniations are intervowen with

oineexhanges. Thisrequiresresearherstoadoptanddevelopnewanalytialtehniquesandoneptsforadvaningthestateof

researhonweblogs. Ourpaperisintendedtoexpandexistingresearhonorporateweblogsbystudyingweblogadoptionpraties

forknowledgetransferpurposesinSmallandMediumEnterprises. Inthispaper,wereportseletedndingsfromaasestudyin

whihaweblogwasusedtofailitateknowledgetransferinanSME.Theoverallontributionsofourpaperaredeepinsightsinto

asingleaseofaweblogadoptioninasmallandmediumenterpriseandtheformulationofasetoftentativehypothesis.

Keywords: weblogs,smallandmediumenterprises,knowledgemanagement,knowledgetransfer

1. Introdution. Weblogsenjoygreatpopularityestablishingawell-knownsoureofusergenerated

on-tentontheWeb. TheybenetfromtheurrentWeb2.0trendininternettehnologiesandbusinessmodels[20℄

wherethefousliesonuser-generatedontentandlightweightserviebasedarhitetures. Beinga`log ofthe

web', thetermweblog, attributedto JornBarger, referstowebsitesonwhihentriesare ommonlypresented

inreversehronologialorder[21℄. TermedasEnterprise2.0[16℄orCorporateWeb2.0[26,29℄,ompanieshave

identiedanuntappedpotentialin weblogsontributingtotheirbusinessgoals.

Asasoio-tehnialobjetofinvestigation,weblogsframeabroadareaforinterdisiplinaryresearh. They

beameanewformof'mainstreampersonalommuniation'[24℄formillionsofpeoplepublishingandexhanging

knowledge, thereby onneting like minded people and establishingnetworks of relationships. Weblogs seem

idealforexpertssharingtheirexpertisewithalargeaudiene,buttheyalsoappearsuitedfor`ordinary'people

whowanttosharestorieswithsmallergroups[30℄. Exploringthemotivationofbloggersontheweb,[18℄found

that blogging is anunusually versatilemedium, used foreverythingfrom spontaneously releasingemotion to

supporting ollaborationand ommunity. However,there isalso evidenethat bloggersvaluesharingof their

presentedthoughtswithoutgettingtheintensivefeedbakassoiatedwithotherformsofommuniation[18℄.[7℄

and [8℄haraterizedblogs asa medium having limitedinterativity, ompared to e.g. listserv.[8℄ found the

modal number of ommentsin individual blogs to be zero, indiating thelow level of interation within the

majorityofweblogs.

In a orporate ontext, weblogs enjoy popularity in the form of organizationalblogs. Often, suh blogs

are(1) maintainedbypeople whopost in anoial orsemi-oialapaityat anorganization, (2)endorsed

expliitly or impliitly by that organization, and (3) posted by a person pereived by the audiene to be

learlyaliatedwiththeorganization[11℄. Employeesare inreasinglydisseminatinginformation abouttheir

experienes and progress at work to the publi [4℄. From a orporate view, utilization of weblogs has even

been heraldedasaparadigmshift forthe way ompaniesareinterating with theirustomers. Theyprovide

theabilityof restoringahumanfae to aompany's self-presentation withrespetto information tehnology

extendingtheustomer relationship[3℄. Aimingtowardsaategorizationoforporate weblogs, [33℄reateda

taxonomydesribingeldsofappliationsandupominghallengesforweblogs.

InanEnterprise2.0 movement[16℄, ompaniesstarted toadopt wikisandweblogs,supportingknowledge

transferandaimingtofailitateandimprovetheiremployees'knowledgework. Bothtoolsentailthepotentialof

makingthepratiesofknowledgeworkandtheiroutputmorevisibleandgraspable. Aordingto[23℄,

knowl-edgetransferistheuni-diretionaltargetedtransferofknowledgefromindividualAtoindividualB.Knowledge

∗

Know-Center,Ineldgasse21a,8010Graz,astokerknow-enter.at

†

KnowledgeManagementInstitute,GrazUniversityofTehnology,Ineldgasse21a,8010Graz,markus.strohmaiertugraz. at

‡

Know-Center, Knowledge ManagementInstitute, Graz UniversityofTehnology, Institute forNetworked Media,Joanneum

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sharingisanextension toknowledgetransfer,whereknowledgeowsin bothdiretions, fromindividual A to

individualBandvieversa. Corporateweblogsmayontributetoodiationandpersonalizationof

organiza-tional knowledge [10℄. Examining internal weblogs in projetmanagementwithin Mirosoft,[6℄identied the

neessityoffurther empirialstudiesonthetopiofinternal orporateweblogs.

Empirial studiesof weblogsfrom aademiaexploring internalorporate weblogs remainsare,andthey

tend to fouson largesale enterprises, whih make upjust aminority of allenterprises worldwide. After a

briefliteraturereviewonliteraturewithexpliitfousonweblognetworkswithinlarge-saleenterprises,wewill

addresstheneedforempirialinquiriesonerningtheadoptionofweblogswithinsmallandmediumenterprises

(SMEs). Insmall andmedium enterprises,eletroni traesare sparsedue to thelakof aritialamountof

weblogs being maintainedand the weblog ommuniationsare often interwovenwith oine exhanges. This

irumstanerequiresresearhtoadoptanddevelopnewanalytialtehniquesandoneptsforadvaningthe

stateoftheartonweblogsinsmallandmediumenterprises. Ourpresentedndingsarebasedonanexploratory

asestudyondutedinanAustriaSMEsettledintheICTindustryandemploying50knowledgeworkers. We

analyzestrutureandpropertiesofthis internalweblogandexpliitlyprobeitsimpatonknowledgetransfer.

Ourontributionsaredeepinsightsintoasingleaseofaweblogadoptioninasmallandmediumenterpriseand

theformulationof tentativehypothesesto be testedin further studies. Finally,weonludewitha summary

andadisussiononthelimitationofourresearh.

2. Related Work. Comparedto the number of sienti publiations on the topi of weblogsin total,

thosepubliationsfousingoninternalweblogsinorporatesettingsaresare. Asigniantreasonmaybethe

fat that itismorehallengingforresearherstoinvestigateaweblogwithin aorporate ontext. Dueto the

sensitivityandondeneofthepublishedinformation,suhweblogsarelosedorporatesystems. Beauseof

theaesstoritialbusinessinformationpublished,aloserelationshipoftheresearhertowardstheenterprise

isaninevitablepreondition.

Fourexemplarypubliationsfousonasingleasewithinabigmultinationalenterprisehavingalargesetof

weblogs[12,9,5,14℄. SuhaweblognetworkalreadyownsstruturesandpropertiessimilartotheBlogosphere,

a olletive term for the population of weblogs on the Web [25℄. Solely through examining eletroni traes

reatedbyweblogusers,interestingndingsaboutweblogshavebeenreported.

Tolearnmoreaboutstrutures and properties of internal weblogs within organizations, [12℄ investigated

the internal Blogosphere of IBM. The weblog network was visualized as a soial graph based on eletroni

traes, where bloggersand ommentatorsonstituted the nodeswhile the edges symbolized therelationships

betweenthem in terms ofommentsand trakbaks. Theauthors laimedto bethe rstto omprehensively

haraterize a soial network expressed by weblogs within an enterprise. They presented new tehniques to

model theimpat ofaweblog post basedon itsrangewithin an organizationalhierarhyusing mathematial

operationsbutleavinganempirialinquiryopen.

[9℄exploredthesoialaspetsofbloggingwithinanunstatedlarge-saleenterpriseusingempirialmethods

ofresearh. Theyanalyzedbothmotivationofbloggingindividualsandtheirpratiesofusingweblogs. Pivotal

fortheiranalysiswastheobservedphenomenon thatbusybloggerspublishedalmost twieasmuh omments

within weblogs they visited than posts in their own. The authors brought to light that weblogs are able to

strengthentheweaktiesbetweenbloggers. Furthermoreweblogsenabledaninformalmehanismtoenourage

disparate and widespread departments to go for a onstrutive ontat. Weblogs provided good means for

employeestoestablishandmaintainpersonalnetworks. Busybloggersdidnotonlyreatevalueforthemselves,

butalsoforthemediumweblogusers.

The growing network of weblogs at Mirosoft was investigated by [5℄. They studied where, how and

whyemployeesblogged,howpersonalthewritingwasinworkrelatedblogsandwhathappenedwhenblogging

beameaformalworkobjetive. WhileMirosoftvaluedexternalustomer-orientedweblogs,alotofskeptiism

existedtowardsinternalweblogstowhihnolearbusinesspurposeouldbeattributed.Contrariwisetoexternal

weblogs,internaloneswerenotformallysupportedbytheompany. Employeeswerefreetodeterminewhether,

when andfor what reasontheyblogged. A lot ofbloggersdesribed bloggingasawayof sharingpassionfor

theirwork andommuniatingdiretlywith othersinside andoutsidetheompany. Manydesribedblogging

asa desireto reveal the humanside of a ompany, while others used weblogs purely for doumentation and

organizationpurposes.

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ommuniation. Theauthors found that blogs areemployedin internalommuniationto fulll strategy

im-plementationgoalsandto fosterinformalinterations. Furthermore,theyhypothesizedorporatelimateand

orporateulture determinethe suessof weblogadoption. Finding abalanebetweenformalguidane and

self-eayseemstobeinevitable. Intheviewoftheauthorsblogsoeraneetivemeansforsharingknowledge

inorganizationsinaninformalmanner.

3. Researh Setting. The goal of our researh was to probe an internal manager weblog evolving in

an Austrian ICT SME employing 50 knowledge workers. The European Union provides a reommendation

forlassifyingSMEs: SMEs are enterprises whih employlessthan 250persons and haveamaximumannual

turnoverof 50 millionEUR or 43 million EUR balane sheet total. Due to the dierent basionditions in

SMEsomparedtothoseinlargesaleenterprises,wealsoassumedierentpropertiesandstruturesofinternal

orporateweblogs. Ourresearhwasmotivated bythelakof qualitative studiesofweblogsin theontext of

SMEs. Taken into aount that SMEs omprisethe majority of allenterprises worldwide, we aentuate the

relevaneofourstudy.

We hose ase study researh as our preferred researh tehnique, beause the researhed phenomenon,

theweblog, annotbeseparatedfrom its ontext, i. e. supporting knowledge transfer. Aording to [32℄,`a

ase study is an empirial inquiry that investigates a ontemporaryphenomenon within its real-life ontext,

espeially when the boundariesbetween phenomenon and ontext are not learly evident'. Aording to the

priniple`use multiple soures of evidene' [32℄ dierent soures of information had been taken into aount

allowingustoaddressabroaderrangeofhistorial,attitudinalandbehavioralissues. Anyndingssuhaase

study generatesare likelyto bemoreonvining and aurate. FollowingPatton's reommendations[22℄, we

hoseaninformation-rihaseprovidingmanyopportunitiesforlearning.

Westartedinvestigatingtheweblogwithrespettoitspropertytofailitatetheknowledgetransferbetween

managerandemployees. Aomparisonbetweenontentofe-mailssentbythemanagertoallemployeesandthe

weblogontentisinluded. Furthermore,wehad thehaneto interviewthemanagertalkingabouthisgoals

andthestrategiesof theorganization. Weevenreeivedaertainamountofontrol overtheweblog,shutting

down theweblogforashort periodof time. Finallywearriedoutasurveyobtaininganothersetof ndings.

Usingmultiple souresof evideneenabled us toderivemoreauray andrelevant hypothesis in ontrastto

usingjustasinglesoureofdata.

Together withthedesktop researhonduted,wewereabletomakethefollowingontributions:

•

Weshowedwhyaweblogwasusedinthispartiularorganizationandhowitaetedknowledgetransfer.

Furthermoreweaddressedthequestionofweblogadoption intermsofpopularityandhowto raiseit.

•

Westudiedwhetherpresenttehniquesfrominternalweblogresearhareappliabletoweblogresearh

intheontextofSMEs.

•

Researhing weblogs in business settings is still laking sienti rigor. The overall goal of this

ex-ploratoryase-studywastoformulateresearhquestionsandtodeveloptentativehypothesesdesribing

theadoption ofweblogsin SMEs.

4. Condutingthe exploratory ase-study.

4.1. Exploringtheartefat. Webeganourexplorationbyinvestigatingtheweblog'shistoryofreation:

Duringaritialprojetmeeting,themanagerwasreportingtoallemployeeshourlybutonlyforashortperiod

oftime,therebyadoptingaverypersonalwritingstyle. Afterthemeetingwasnished,heexpressedthedesire

toobtainaweblogforfuture overageofrelevantinformation.

AninstaneofWordpress(http://www.wordpress.org)(liensedundertheGNUGeneralPubliLiense)

had been installed onthe Web serverof the ompany. Wordpressprovides manyfeatures, but mostof them

remainedunusedwithinthisase: Ablogrollinludingotherweblogsorweb-siteswhihareregularlyvisitedby

theauthorwasmissing. Themanagerdidneitherinserthyperlinkstopointtointerestinginternalorexternal

resoures, nor post multimedia-enrihed ontent. Communiating ondential information, this weblog was

aessiblefromtheintranetonly.

Weexplored theweblog ontentfrom bothaqualitativeperspetive(i. e. what didthe manager

ommu-niate to employees)and a quantitativeperspetive(i. e. howoften didthe managerinform theemployees).

Fromaquantitativeperspetive,wemeasuredoperationalmetrissuhasnumberand frequenyof postsand

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Themanager mainly usedthe weblog to shareknowledgeabout tasksaomplishedon behalf of the

rep-resented organization. Thereby he adopted a subjetive informal writing style, typial for weblogs, as [11℄

mentionedin theirpaper. Theommuniatedinformationwasofbothstrateginature,e.g. inluding

knowl-edgeaboutontrats,hallenges, partner-aquisitionorpresentation ofdeisionsfrom strategimeetings,and

operative nature, e.g. inluding reports from business trips and stories about the partiipation at various

events. Whileinformationrelevantforallemployeeswassharedviatheweblog,time-ritialinformationbeing

of partiular interest to a limited group of employees wastransported via personal talks, telephone alls or

e-mails. Time-ritialinformationrelevantforeverybodywasstillommuniatedviainternale-mailstoassure

theinformationtransportedreahesallreeiversin time.

Table4.1

Quantitativeanalysisofthemanagerweblog

month number number min max avg

posts omments timedierenebetweenposts(indays)

May 8 0 5 1,1

June 5 1 2 14 5,6

July 9 0 7 3,7

August 3 2 21 10,3

September 2 8 18 13,0

Otober 1 19 19 19,0

November 2 5 24 15,0

Fromstudyingtheeletronitraeswedeteted(1)astrongdereaseofpublishedpostsovertimeand(2)

a rise in the average time dierene of posts over time. Furthermore, we observed the phenomenon of only

oneommentbeingposted duringtheentiredurationofourstudy. Wewill seekexplanationsin thefollowing

setions,afterextendingtheresearhsope.

4.2. Extending the researh sope. Theanalysis ofinternal weblogs in large-saleorporate settings

an be based upon extensive network data that is eletroni traes of e.g. relations between a large set of

internalorporate weblogsonstitutedby omments,trakbaksand blogrolls. Unfortunately,tehniquesthat

anbesuessfullyappliedinlargeenterprises[12℄,inludingnetworktheoryandsoialnetworkanalysisbased

on eletroni traes, an not be applied in the same way in SMEs. In the ontext of SMEs, there is often

onlyasingleorasmallsetofweblogsinvolved,whihrenderstypialresearhmeasuresofnetworkapproahes

[31℄suhasdegreeorentralityofweblognetworksimpratialorevenmeaningless. Instead,itbeomesmore

interesting howa weblog interferes and interfaes with nodes (ators) that are oinesuh as the dierent

stakeholdersin anorganizationommuniatingwiththeweblogauthor. Oursituation requiredextendingthe

sope of analyzing purely eletroni traes as done in many studies of weblogs in large sale enterprises or

in the Blogosphere to inluding oine traes of ators, reading or interating without authoring a weblog

themselves.

In this paper we argue that espeially for small and medium enterprisesthough we expet the same

argumenttoholdforlargeenterprisesaswelltraditionalmeansofsoialnetworkanalysisareinsuient,due

totheexlusivefousoneletronitraes. AnalyzingweblogsinSMEsrequiresmethodsthatinludetheoine

ontext. Theremay notbe enougheletronitraesto aurately understandthe strutureand properties of

weblogs andhowtheymaybeembedded into SMEs. Therefore,phenomena whih areinvestigatedpurely on

the basis of eletroni traes might turn out to be obvious, biased or simply wrong. Our investigated ase

involvedjustoneinternal weblog.

A soialgraphbasedoneletroni(online)traesonlydepitsthe `internalBlogosphere' asaverysimple

onstrut. We expeted ommenting praties to play an important indiator for the suess of a weblog

in terms of popularity. By observing only one posted omment, we rst assumed averylow interest of the

partiularweblogwithin itspossibleaudiene. However,wewantedto learnmoreabouttherespetiveweblog

andthereforeextendedourinvestigationto theoineators,asdemonstratedin gure4.1.

4.3. Conduting an experiment. Contraryto theapproahfrom Kolari[12℄and ourdisussion inthe

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weblog

author

weblog

commenter

electronic (online) traces

offline traces

Fig.4.1.Soialgraph basedoneletroni(online)andnon-eletroni(oine)traes

•

Howdiddierentatorspereivethis weblogintheontextofknowledgetransfer?

•

Whatwerethebenetsforemployeesreadingthisweblog? Didemployeesignorethisweblogasasoure

ofinformation,andifso,why?

•

Whatwastherationaleofjust oneommentbeingpublishedduring thetimeofinvestigation?

Wesetupanexperiment: Firstwedeativatedtheweblogexatlysevendaysafterapostwasreated. By

sendingane-mailto eah ofthe50employees, weaskedwhether theyhad readthereentpostandwereable

torealltheontent. Ourrequestwasrepeatedonetoreeiveahigherrateofreturn.

14 employees in total(28%) replied to our request. 11 employees (22%) were ableto basially reite the

ontentofthe pastweblogpost. Oneemployeeexpressedthat hedidnotread thepost. Twomoreemployees

provided us with an explanation of their rationale being a nonreader. They typially read weblogs within

web-based feed readers, but the respetive RSS feed ould not be subsribed to in this way, due to astrit

rewallat plae at theorganization. Thereforetheydidnot readthe posts. Thisfat learly depitedagoal

onitbetweenmanagerandemployees. Referringto[27℄,weassumedfurthergoalonitstobeareasonfor

weakeningtheintendedknowledgetransfer.

Analyzingthendings ofour experiment,wewereableto derivethefollowingtentativehypothesesfrom

theexperiment:

•

Few ommentsinSMEs'weblogsdonotneessarilyequatefewreaders.

•

Spei IT infrastrutures (rewall) are able to ounterat orporate weblog praties, reduing the

abilityofthepartiularweblogto failitateknowledgetransfer.

•

Studiesofweblogspurelybasedoneletronitraesmayleadtobiasedorwrongndings. Havingjust

asingleorasmallsetofweblogs,itismoreinterestingto examinetheimpatoftheweblogonoine

nodes(ators). Soialnetworkanalysisanbeappliedaswell,butneedsoinetraesasinputdata.

4.4. Conduting a survey.

4.4.1. Survey Setup. Our rstndings dealingwith theatual readingbehavioraentuatedthe need

for a more detailed survey. The goal of this survey was to inrease the auray of our ndings regarding

motivationofweblogreadersandnonreaders. Additionally,weintendedtoprobetowhatextentthegoalofthe

managerusingtheweblogtofailitateknowledgetransfertowardstheemployeeswasahieved.

All employeeswhowereableto rememberthelast weblog post during ourexperimentwere requestedvia

e-mailto answersixquestions onerningtheir weblog reading praties. This populationformed group A

weblogreaders. Allemployeesrefusingtoreplyintheexperimentweresurveyedusingadierentquestionnaire

inludingfurther four questions. We probed their rationaleof notreading the weblog, espeially referringto

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Table4.2

Weblogquestionnaire(s)

WeblogSurvey

AReaders BNon readers

A1: Ireadtheweblog,beause...

A2: Howandfromwhihloationdoyoureadthe

we-blog?

A3: How oftendoyoureadtheweblog?

A4: From your point of view, is ommenting to the

orporateweblogpost reasonable?

A5: Towhatextentisthemanagerabletoimprovethe

weblogfrom atehnial,anorganizational,anda

on-tentperspetive?

A6: Has theknowledgetransferfrommanager to

em-ployees been improved by the weblog ompared tothe

previous(yes, ratheryes,ratherno, no)?

B1: Idonotreadtheweblogbeause...

B2: Iwouldreadtheweblogif...

B3: From yourpointof view, whihpartiular

ativ-ities are able toimprove the knowledge transfer from

manager toemployees?

B3.1: Do weblogs aount for knowledge transfer

in-struments?

nally added to groupB. The qualitativedata generated by the respondents' answerswasthen transformed

intoquantitativedatabydeningategoriesfortheanswersperquestion.

4.4.2. Survey Resultsand Interpretation. Wereeived40replies(80%)of50possible. Altogether20

replieswerereeivedfrom membersofgroupA(readers),andanother20fromthoseofgroupB(nonreaders).

Inthe following, questions raisedand answersgiven bygroup Awill be presented. Theaim of questions

A1-A3 wasto examinethe motivation ofemployees reading theweblog. From an organizationalperspetive,

further attentionis paidto what extentthemanager'sgoalofinformingtheemployees(a)had beenahieved

and(b)wasinfat ahievablebyseletingaweblogasaninstrumentforknowledgetransfer.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

Solely information about the

manager

Solely information about the

company

Information about manager and

company

Other

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QuestionA1: I readthe weblog, beause...

Interpretation

Almost all replying employees learly stated their interest in the tasks the manager was arrying out.

Theywantedto know,what theirmanageris atuallydoing. Onethird statedageneralinterestin what was

happeningwithinandintheperipheryoftheirorganizationaswell. Theywereuriousaboutompanystrategy

and organizationaldevelopment. Solely the knowledge provided by the managermotivated the employees to

read the weblog. Even in SMEs, where fae-to-fae meetings are more frequent and knowledge is diusing

faster due to laking hierarhialstrutures, there is ademand for suh a kindof odied knowledge from a

prominentknowledgebarrier.Itappearsthatmakingtheknowledgeofamanagerexpliitbyutilizingaweblog

willstimulateagroupofemployeesto readthewebloginorporatesettings.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

Browser

RSS-Feed-Reader (Intranet)

RSS Plugin (Outlook)

Fig.4.3. Toolsforreadingtheweblog

QuestionA2: How and from whihloationdo you readthe weblog?

Interpretation

TenemployeesusedanordinaryWebbrowser,expliitlymentioningInternetExplorerandMozillaFirefox.

EightemployeesusedRSSfeedreaders,whiletwoemployeeswentforanopensoureRSSpluginforOutlook. 16

employeesreadtheweblogsolelywithintheoeandthreeemployeesexpliitlyaddressedtheaessrestrition,

whih wewerealsopointedoutin ourexperiment. Beauseoftheaessrestrition,employeeswereunableto

useweb-basedfeedreaders. Thisonstraintanonitwiththeemployees'weblogsreadingpraties. Reading

weblogs bysubsribing theirfeeds is moreeientthan browsingthem. However, half of the readersused a

webbrowsertoperiodiallysanfornewpostsintheexploredase. Weassumepersonaltrainingtoberuial

forestablishingeetiveweblogpraties.

QuestionA3: How often doyou readthe weblog?

Interpretation

Halfoftheemployeesbrowsedtheweblogfornewlyreatedpostsatleastoneaweek,whileveemployees

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0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

multiple times per

week

weekly

multiple times per

month

monthly or less

ad-hoc (RSS)

Fig.4.4. Weblogreadingbehavior

feed,beingnotiedafterapostwaspublished. Ourresultssuggestthatfurther trainingon(available)weblog

funtionalityis requiredevenin ICTompanies.

The following questionwasaimed at exploring thereason of only oneomment being posted during the

timeofinvestigation.

Question A4: From your point ofview, is ommentingto the orporateweblog post

reason-able?

Interpretation

Eight employees positivelyanswered this questionand quoted to mention dierent points of view to the

author, inluding additional information and aspets whih had not been taken into onsideration yet. Six

employeeslearlyansweredwith`no': Theweblogwaspurelypereivedasaunidiretionalknowledgetransfer

medium, not aplatform for sharingknowledge. The remaining employees argued that reasons both for and

against omments exist. We found this question to be stated in some ambiguous way, therefore failing to

deliveranansweraordingto ourintentionexploring therationaleofnon-ommentingwithin this partiular

weblog. Therefore,wetrytoreommendanswersreferringtotherespetiveliteratureonvirtualommunities,

disretionarydatabasesandknowledgesharing.

Fromavirtualommunityresearhperspetiveandwithrespetto[19℄theobservedbehavioranbetermed

with`lurking',whenonlyamarginalfrationofommunitymembersativelypostsontent. Lurkersonstitute

the majority of usersin eletroni forums and platforms. Theyfor example wantto remain anonymous and

preserveprivayandsafety,havenoknowledgetooer,orsimplydonotfeelaspei needtopost.

Byanalyzingthesoialdynamisunderlyingknowledgesharing,[1℄provideasoio-eonomialexplanation

for theidentied phenomenon, theso alled knowledge sharingdilemma. Theytreat knowledge sharingasa

problemofsoialooperation,manifestingin asoialdilemma. Insuhadilemma,individualsmaximizetheir

own pay-o fortheolletive'sloss. TheSME employees maysee littlerewardfor sharingtheir knowledgein

theweblogandthereforetheyabstain.

Whenresearhingdisretionarydatabases,analyzingtheindividuals'voluntaryontributionto an

intera-tivemedium,[28℄founddisretionaryinformationgenerallyundersupplied. Althoughthetehnologyforstoring

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0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

yes

no

don't know

Fig.4.5. Commentingtoaweblogpost

individualeorttoontributeknowledge. However,therearestillostsforindividuals,relatedtotheproessof

makingtheknowledgeexpliitandavailablein aomment,andto thesoialdynamitheommentmayause

intheSME.

Anoverallquestionforallknowledgemanagersadoptingweblogsdealswiththerationaleforuserssharing

theirknowledge: A known motivefor usersis to inrease theirindividual pay-o bysharing knowledge. The

higherthevalueforknowledgesharingfortheindividual,thegreaterthemotivationwillbe[1℄. Alotofpeople

onditionallyooperatein publigoodgames. Suhlikeindividualswillooperate,ifotherswillooperate,too.

Vieversa theywill defet, ifothers stopthe ooperation. Even if partiipantsmeet again, suh a behavior

anbe observed [13℄. If people expet to retrieveuseful knowledge in return, they are willing to ontribute

knowledge[2℄. Thisbehavioranberelatedtotheoneptofreiproity. Knowledgesharingmayevenleadto

ahigherreputation[2℄oftheknowledgesharer. Ahighreputationanbeseenasameanstoadvaneinareer,

to be reognizedasan expert orto retrieveabetter payment. Soialnorms andsoialpressurealso havean

inueneontheknowledgesharingpraties[17℄. Behaviorrulesenforedbysantionsofagroupanariseina

sornoftheothersifonewillnotontributetoaknowledgerepository. Individualsbelievingtheirontribution

valuableto others mayontribute[15℄. This is pereivedeay, whensomebody believeshis/herindividual

ontributionshelptoahieveaommongoal. Furthermore,asenseofgroupidentityandasenseofommunity

haveapositiveinueneontheontributiontoknowledgerepositories[13℄.

[1℄suggestthreepossiblesolutionsoftheknowledgesharingdilemma: (1)restruturingthepay-ofuntion,

(2)inreasingpereivedeayofindividualontributions,and(3)establishinggroupidentityandpromoting

personalresponsibility. Aordingtothetheory,themanagerouldhavedierentoptionsin ourexploredase:

Individual pay-o anbe inreasedby inreasingthebenetspereived. Forinstaneemployeesmaybe

on-vinedto makeommentsin blogs,iftheyareshownthat theyantakepartindeision-makingproessesby

providingimmediate personal feedbaktothe manager. Therebytheymayalsoeasetheirownworkandearn

reputation,thusinreasingtheirprofessionalstatus. Ifthemanagerwould larifythat feedbakisappreiated

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viaaweblogmayevenfurtherenhanegroupidentity,whihisbeneiaryforthedevelopmentofanenterprise.

Themanagershouldenourageommuniationviatheweblogandpromoteasenseofbelongingtothe

ommu-nityomposedofemployees. Until now,nopromotionativitiesonerningthewebloghavebeenonduted.

Approximatelyhalf oftheemployeeswere readingtheweblog. Thegoalof thenextquestionwasto study

thebarriersinvolved,whenadopting internalweblogsin theontextof SMEs.

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

Administrative

Technical

Content

Fig.4.6.Improvingtheweblog

QuestionA5: Towhatextentisthe managerabletoimprovetheweblogfroma tehnial,an

organizational,and a ontent perspetive?

Interpretation

All employees reading the weblog pereived the ontent as appropriate for their demand of knowledge,

few of them mentioned to integrate hyperlinks to (external) resoures. From an administrativeperspetive,

the mostsubstantialritiism given by the employees dealt with the pereived lowfrequeny of posts. Nine

employees expliitly requested a highernumber of posts and three employees aentuated aall for ahigher

frequenyofomments,too. Ahighernumberofpost seemstobeoneneessaryfatorfor(orporate)weblogs

to besuessful. Byahievingahighernumberofomments,beauseof reiproity,moreemployeesouldbe

enouragedto addommentsontheirown,failitating knowledgesharing. Twoemployeesrequested toutilize

ategories, hene lustering weblog posts and making them easier retrievable. From a tehnial perspetive,

threeemployeesarguedformakingtheweblogavailable fromplaes outsidetheoe. Theweblogdesignwas

ritiizedbythreeemployeesasnotbeingveryprofessional.

Thesubstantialgoalofthemanagerwastoimproveknowledgetransfertowardstheemployees. Thelosing

questionforgroupAaddressed,whether thewebloghadontributedtoahievethatgoal.

QuestionA6: Has theknowledge transfer from manager to employeesbeen improved by the

weblogompared to theprevious (yes,rather yes,rather no, no)?

Interpretation

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0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

yes

raher yes

rather no

no

Fig.4.7. Betterknowledgetransferthroughblogging

to read theweblog. Three employees stated `rather no' reasoningwith thelowfrequeny ofposts, while one

employee answered`no'. Past researhonknowledgemanagementled to abroadrangeofknowledgetransfer

instruments,whih wereproposedtofailitateknowledgetransferbymeansoforganizational,soiologialand

tehnologial approahes [27℄. Inan SME ontext, someoneould argue that tehnologial failitatorsmight

beunsuidtableasopposedtoorganizationalorsoiologialinstruments. However,wefoundaninternalweblog

toprovideagoodtehnologialfailitationofknowledgetransfer,evenin SMEswhere thenumberofpossible

reipientsislowerandhierarhiesareat,omparedtolargerenterprises.

Subsequent,theresultsofthesurveyedgroupBaredisplayed. QuestionsB1-B2dealt withtherationaleof

employeesnotreadingtheweblog.

QuestionB1: I do notread the weblogbeause...

Interpretation

Themajorityonsistingof eightemployeesdenied readingbeausetheysimplyforgoteithertheexistene

ortheURLoftheweblog. Sineitsintrodutionasanewinformationportal,onlyonee-mailhadbeenwritten

bytheauthorto promotethe newweblog. Three employeesritiizedtheweblogs'slakingabilityto beread

viaweb-basedfeedreaders. Twoemployeesdidnotreadweblogsatallandoneemployeearguedalakoftime

forreadingativitiesbesidetheworktasks.

Weblogsprovidegoodmeanstostoreandarhiveknowledgeandmakeiteasilyaessibleto(new)

employ-ees. Explaining the weblog's goals to employees might help to establishit as an eetivetool forknowledge

transferand/orsharing.Ifdoneso,theemployeeswillbetterunderstandwhytheyshouldreadtheweblog,and

whih individualbenettheygeneratebydoingso. Suhastatusouldbeahievedby thehelp ofpromotion

ativities,whihareruialeveninSMEstosustainawebloginitsinitialphase. Ifnegleted,theweblogould

remainunknownto newemployeesandsomemayevenforgetitsexistene.

QuestionB2: I wouldreadthe weblogif...

Interpretation

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0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

forgot its existence

information not

relevant

weblog is unknown

technical barriers

do not like weblogs

less time

less information

Fig.4.8. Argumentsagainstreadingtheweblog

to them. Six employeesindiatedto read theweblogifthey reeivedanotiation fornewposts reated,for

instane via email. Three employees stated to read the weblog, if it were aessible from the web allowing

subsriptionwith web-basedfeedreaders. Dueto thefat thattheauthor oftheweblogonduted almostno

promotion,newemployeesdidnotlearnaboutitsexistene. However,threeemployeeswerenotabletoprovide

arationalefortheirnon-readingbehaviorandpromisedtoreadtheweblogin future.

Oneommonargumentforweblogsisitspotentialtoredueinformationoverloadandinterruptions,whih

areoftenbothaused byemails. However,ertainemployeesmightfavorsolutionsbasedonpush-mehanisms

overthosebasedonpull-mehanisms.AsaresultofhisresearhinEnterprise2.0,[16℄alsodesribedknowledge

workerspreferring hannels over portals. Adopting weblogs is dierent to using email and on this aount

aordspropertrainingamongtheemployeesforeetiveusagein orporateommuniation.

Questions B-B3.1addressed, whether a weblog is pereived as an instrument for knowledge transfer by

thenonreaders at all. Besidesthat, we wantedto examinepreferredknowledgetransferinstrumentsfrom an

employee'sperspetive.

Question B3: From your point of view, whih partiular ativities are able to improve the

knowledge transferfrom manager to employees?

Interpretation

Priortothissurvey,weassumedthatnonreaderswouldnotpereivetheweblogasaninstrumenttofailitate

knowledge transfer, but interestinglyeightemployees did. Besides that, personal talks, meetings, email, jour

xesandinformaltalkswerenamed. Sixemployeesplaedimportaneonpersonalmeetingsbetweenmanager

andemployees. Ourresultsshow,thatemployeesinSMEsseemtorequestmorelosenesstowardstheirmanager.

Onthisaountemployeesouldpreferfae-to-faesituations, althougheetiveandeienttoolstosupport

internalommuniation,inludingweblogs,areavailable.

QuestionB3.1: Do weblogs aount forknowledge transfer instruments?

Interpretation

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0%

5%

10%

15%

20%

25%

30%

35%

40%

45%

50%

information was relevant

notification after blog

post

weblog was known

more time available

access problem solved

•

Weblogswillberead,iftheyprovidesuientlyinterestingontentthatisnotavailablefromalternative

soures.

•

Thefrequenyofpostsillustratesakeyfatorforweblogsuessintermsofpopularity. Alowfrequeny

onstitutesabarriertopereivetheweblogasaknowledgetransferinstrument.

•

Commentingto weblogposts leadsto ahangeoftheknowledgeworkers'pereptionof theweblogas

apureinformationportal,henefailitatingknowledgesharing.

•

Laking skills and personal weblog praties lead to an ineetive utilization of weblogs in terms of

knowledge transfer,e.g when employeesdemand notiationfeatures that are available but unknown

tothem.

•

Weblogsrequiretraining,bothin funtions andpratiesontheside oftheblogger,aswellasonthe

sideofthereadersin orporate settingsto sustaineetivenessandeieny.

•

Aessrestritionsregardingtoolsand/orloationwillonitwithweblogreadingpraties,potentially

resultingin dissatisfation.

•

Weblogshavetobepromotedbytheauthorstoeetivelyusethemasfailitatorsofknowledgetransfer.

•

InternalweblogsinSMEsareabletoimproveknowledgetransferin priniple.

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0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

formal talks and meetings

weblogs

emails

jour fixes

informal talks

Fig.4.10. Instrumentsimprovingknowledgetransfer

5. Limitationofresearhand futurework. Themotivationforoursingle-asestudywasbasedonthe

fatthatknownpreliminaryaademiase-studiesfousedonlarge-saleenterprises,butmostoftheenterprises

worldwidearemadeupofSMEs. WeintendedtoadvaneweblogresearhtoanSMEontext,referringtotheir

largepopulation.

However,onelimitationofthendingsgeneratedbyourstudyisnoteworthy: Firstofall,dataforderiving

our hypotheses wasgenerated by only oneweblog in oneSME. Single-ase studiesprovide limitedutility for

generalization. However,unlikesurveys,asestudies donotmakeinferenesaboutapopulation(or universe)

on the basis of empirial data olleted about a sample [32℄. In ontrast to methods based on statistial

generalization, ase studiesdo not reasonaboutthe seletedases asbeing sampling units. Individual ases

areto beseletedasalaboratoryinvestigatorseletsthetopiof anewexperiment[32℄. Ifwehadonduted

a multiple-ase study, the developed tentative hypotheses would have a stronger basis, allowing repliation

of ndings. Keeping that in mind, we intend to test the hypotheses derived within further ase studies to

investigatewhether orroborationmaybeahieved.

6. Conlusion. OurexploratoryasestudyaimedatgeneratingndingsaboutinternalweblogsinSMEs

from a knowledge management perspetive. The overall ontributions of our paper are deep insights into a

singleaseofaweblogadoptionand theformulationofaset oftentativehypotheses. Ourstudy onstitutesa

rststepfor moreomprehensiveinvestigations. Inonlusion,weoutline ourontributionsto organizational

weblogresearhin anutshell.

Unsurprisingly,it seems,that weblogsalso suer from theknowledge sharingdilemma,although through

theirsimpliity,theywillsigniantlyreduetheostofontributingknowledge. Ahighfrequenyofpostsmay

onstituteonekeyfatorforweblogsuessin termsofpopularity. However,alownumberof ommentsdoes

notautomatially equatealownumberof readers. Our resultssuggest,that tehniquesfrom weblogresearh

inluding soial network analysis, whih are purely based on eletroni traes, may lead to invalid ndings

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0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

yes

no

Fig.4.11. Areweblogsknowledgetransferinstruments

Asourexplorationrevealed,weblogsdonotrunlikealokwork,buthavetobeativelyandprofessionally

promoted,evenin SMEswherethenumberofemployeesislowerandgroupidentitymaybehigher. Atighter

involvementofreaderspostingommentsmightinreasetheirpereivedeay,thusleadingtoalivelier,and

perhapsamoreeetiveweblogfailitatingknowledgetransferandsharing. Havingmoreemployeespublishing

ontentmayalsoinreasereiproity,attratingmoreandmorefellows.

Wefound that knowledge madeexpliit in a weblog by aprominent knowledge barrier (e.g. amanager)

alonestimulatesahighmotivationforagroupofpeopletoreadtheweblog. Itseemsthatemployeeswillprefer

weblogsprovidinginformation,whihisofsuientinterestordiretrelevanefortheirworkassignmentsand

notavailablefromotherhannels. Explainingthegoalsoftheweblogtoemployeesfrequentlywillremindthem

tokeepin touh withtheweblog.

WefoundthatspeiITinfrastruturesouldestablishbarriers,ollidingwiththereadingpratiesofthe

employees. Ourresultssuggestremovingtheseobstalesthroughpropertrainingonorporateweblogpraties

andfuntions,wheneverpossible. Thiswillreduepossibledissatisfationamongsttheemployeewhihisaused

byineetiveusagepatterns.

Aknowledgment. TheKnow-CenterisfundedwithintheAustrianCOMETProgramCompetene

Cen-tersforExellentTehnologiesundertheauspiesoftheAustrianMinistryofTransport,Innovationand

Teh-nology,theAustrianMinistryofEonomisandLaborandbytheStateofStyria. COMETismanagedbythe

AustrianResearhPromotionAgenyFFG.

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Editedby: DominikFlejter,TomaszKazmarek,MarekKowalkiewiz

Reeived: February1st, 2008

Aepted: Marh 21st,2008