Presentation in European Conference on Knowledge Management (ECKM) 7.9.2007

1. ECKM 7.9.2007
Applying wikis to managing
knowledge – A socio-technical
approach
Miia Kosonen & Aino Kianto
Lappeenranta University of Technology, Finland
School of Business

2. Why to study wikis in KM?
• The development towards virtual forms or organizing and
collaboration, and increasing need to manage distributed
knowledge
• Many organizations in state of confusion – ’could we use
them?’ how? is it any good for us?’
• Web 2.0 tools such as wikis and weblogs to support
multitude of knowledge-work processes simultaneously
• Close connection with the community-based knowledge
sharing and creation: when successfully embedded in
communities, these tools reach beyond the individual,
codified bases of knowledge

3. Research gap and questions
• Social software – though ’social’ – has been approached
mostly from individual perspective or by providing
managerial how-to-do guidelines
• Current research lacks practical examples on how to
implement social software in organizations, particularly in
the corporate context
• How internal wikis have been incorporated into the
organization?
• How does the incorporation of wikis reflect the socio-
technical dimension of knowledge management?

4. Methodology
• A single case study in one engineering organization from
the ICT industry
• A successful organization within its industry and a forerunner in developing communication
technologies; a fruitful breeding ground for social software adoption and thus a revelatory case
• Group interviews (2) resulting in a total textual dataset of
41 pages, informal conversations with the informants
and company-internal presentation materials
• Analysis the data first inductively (sorting into categories
based on occuring regularities) and then identifying the
relevant parts that required further analysis, mapping
them and reflecting the findings with the existing theory

5. Results
How have internal wikis
been incorporated into the
organization?
Corporate
champion
Technical
support
Informal
networks
Internal branding
and marketing
Social
support
Supportive
organizational
culture
Word-of-
mouth
Individual
motivations,
seeing the benefit
Easiness of
useindividual
technical
social

6. Conclusions
• The success of wiki implementation relied in
– understanding the surrounding community’s needs
– continuously adapting to them (making technical
modifications, giving guidance and support, branding
the tool)
– cultivating a supportive organizational culture
– taking advantage of the informal, unplanned
organization

7. Conclusions
The importance of a socio-technical view: the
close and complex interactions between the
technology and the surrounding organizational
context both
1) in wiki adoption
2) in managing dispersed knowledge generally

8. Theoretical and managerial contribution
• Understanding on successful adoption of wikis by
providing a case example from the ICT industry
• Demonstrating the importance of a socio-technical view
towards adopting online communication and
collaboration technologies in organizations (cf. Huysman
& Wulf, 2006, Zack & McKenney, 1995)
• If organizations want to create sustainable value through
knowledge, they should opt for a comprehensive
approach, which takes into account both the
technologies and the social environment in which they
are to be utilized.

9. Thank you!
Miia Kosonen
Doctoral Student, M.Sc. (Econ.)
Lappeenranta University of Technology
School of Business
Finland
miia.kosonen@lut.fi

10. Thank you!
Miia Kosonen
Doctoral Student, M.Sc. (Econ.)
Lappeenranta University of Technology
School of Business
Finland
miia.kosonen@lut.fi