Developing strategic capability through a knowledge network communication work space

Developing strategic capability through a knowledge network communication work space

The USQIndex – The Knowledge Network (USQ-KN) is designed to facilitate staff collaboration, knowledge integration and use through a common communication space both within and across university divisions. It utilises a logically central information and knowledge repository that reduces the opportunity for information and knowledge silos to develop and improves the management of access, search, and discovery. USQ-KN further offers knowledge workers the capability to work asynchronously or synchronously on tasks and projects, reduces the opportunity of having multiple working versions of the same work documents on individual desktops, reduces email attachment traffic, and has the potential to reduce time to task or project completion.

This paper focuses on USQ-KN’s pilot study within the Faculty of Business (FOB) which has operationalised the network as a communication space for the strategic management of the faculty. Eight key faculty decision points were identified and the communication space was developed around these decision points. The faculty’s resource centre was developed and ‘experts’ identified at each decision point to be the gatekeeper for the publication of resources to ensure the quality, relevance, timeliness, and security of the available resources.

Initial implementation of the pilot has been in the faculty’s administration department. An initial workshop of administration staff was conducted to introduce USQ-KN and to encourage staff ownership. The administration decision point was chosen as the initial implementation site and performance evaluation measures defined as current usage rates, intention to continue use, as well as interviews of users and/or intended users. Outcomes indicate that there is a favourable perception of the benefits of USQ-KN and an ongoing intention to continued use.

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