this document, text or image about?' Gradually moving from the left to the right in Figure 3.1, different understandings of this concept evolve

Most extant knowledge management systems are constrained by their overly rational, static and acontextual view of knowledge. Effectiveness of such systems is constrained by the rapid and discontinuous change that characterizes new organizational environments. The prevailing knowledge management paradigm limits itself by its emphasis on convergence and consensus-oriented processing of information. Strategy experts have underscored that the focus of organizational knowledge management should shift from `prediction of future' [that cannot be computed] to `anticipation of surprise.' Such systems may be enabled by leveraging the divergent interpretations of information based upon the meaning-making capability of human beings. By underscoring the need for synergy between innovation and creativity of humans and the advanced capabilities of new information technologies, this article advances current thinking about knowledge management.

The mainstream concept of information technology enabled knowledge management suffers from the limitations embedded in the traditional organizational control model. Although importance of organization control is acknowledged by many authors as critical to the success of knowledge management implementations, however the concept of `control' is often misinterpreted and misapplied. It is the thesis of this paper that most such assertions are based on incomplete, and often, fallacious understanding of `control'. Several authors have often suggested that knowledge management is an `oxymoron,' however such observations are based upon inadequate and incomplete understanding of `control.' Inadequate and incomplete understanding about organization controls may be often attributed for failure of knowledge management implementations in the new world of business. This paper sets forth two important goals: first, to develop a richer understanding of organizational controls as they relate to knowledge management; and, second, to propose an organic model of organizational controls that facilitates creation of new knowledge, renewal of existing knowledge and knowledge sharing.

Many current implementations of organizational knowledge management, although based on the most advanced information technologies, are hobbled by the pervading organizational controls. Such information systems related organizational controls could spell the success or failure of organizational management initiatives despite application of latest groupware and collaboration software. Often, such failures of knowledge management systems implementations arise from incorrect understanding and misapplication of the notion of `controls.' Hence, it is critical to develop a better understanding of information systems related organizational controls so that they can facilitate the success of knowledge management systems implementations. This paper fills the critical void of incomplete and often incorrect interpretations of organizational controls by developing a better theoretical and conceptual understanding of organizational controls and their pragmatic implications. The paper also proposes an organic model of organizational controls for design of knowledge management systems that can effectively enable creation of new knowledge, renewal of existing knowledge and knowledge sharing.

This report demonstrates the practical and social meaning of meta-architectures for supporting the enterprise of IT-management in general and the management of enterprise-wide integration in particular. In this sense this study refers to metaarchitectures for support of the design as well as the development process. Irrespective of which, uncertainty, defined in terms of unbalance between emotionality and rationality, is the common denominator. The management of enterprise-wide integration has been empirically explored in order to document and understand the underlying models, techniques, tools or meta-architectures employed by Swedish companies for absorbing some degree of the faced uncertainties. Three critical lessons can be derived from this study. First of all, a common, strong cry for methodological knowledge is expressed in all empirical cases. Then, there is a demand for a battery of substantive and procedural methods, models, techniques, tools etc., rather than a ready-made, c...

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This paper draws on the need to understand how mobile technology is implemented and used at the organisational level. IT is a general-purpose technology and therefore its use involves a high degree of uncertainty and ambiguity. Moreover, IT vendors and system developers tend to be very unambiguous in their rhetoric about mobile technology opportunities. Therefore, managers have trouble to identify the real scope, the functionality and the impact of new mobile applications. However, these three types of uncertainties need to be handled in change management projects where new information technology is involved. Gradual uncertainty reduction at these three different levels, i.e. what technology can do; will technology work; and will users adopt it, is studied in this paper. This is achieved through an analysis of the implementation process of an information system where mobile terminals are used to give service technicians access to the ERP system at BT Europe, a leading supplier of forklift trucks. The analysis shows how the three levels of uncertainty interact, and how the computerised parts of the information system are complemented by mindful intertwining with the non-computerised communication and manual data processing, in order for the information system to work.

In the management control literature there is growing interest in the role of management control systems in strategic change situation. (Chenhall & Euske 2007, 601) However there has been very little research about the topic. The accounting literature emphasizes the role of management control system as an organizational mechanism that supports strategic change, but empirical studies have not addressed the way in which management uses the management control system as an organizational mechanism that supports strategic change. The reason for this is that studies on the management control system-strategy relationship have modeled strategy as determinant of management accounting system, rather than as consequence of the management accounting system. The second reason which is partly connected with the first reason is that the notion of control systems playing a proactive role in shaping change is not the conventional approach taken by researchers who saw control systems as passively following change. This study examines how the managers use management accounting in the strategic change in the two organizations. Key words: management accounting, management control systems, strategic change, strategic management accounting, contingency theory, 2

We use the language of variation, selection and retention to create a uniform way of modeling and comparing different change journeys. We identify the genealogical and ecological processes that underlie four engines that drive renewal. This language allows us to trace how initiatives are formed, subsequently selected or rejected and how they subsequently unfold into new units or change existing units. From this we can categorize and analyze journeys that can be more or less suitable in different environments.

A study of organisational change in British Rail