I reviewed an article recently on communication and the effects of employees speaking up on managerial style and company communication flow. It was an interesting article, which although only focussing on Asian companies, illustrated a number of important lessons including the implications not just for managerial style and management skills but also I felt on knowledge sharing within organisations.

Knowledge sharing is a part of the much larger continuous learning cycle – learn before, during and after doing. This itself relies on a willingness and freedom to communicate, something that the study above shows is an increasingly complex task particularly in large multi-national organisations.

It reminds me of a project I worked on for an organisation about 12 months ago helping them to develop a learning programme that would be deployed globally and taught through e learning and virtual learning. The method of deployment relied heavily on participants to proactively communicate freely, effectively sometimes in a language that was not their mother tongue.

We found that the most effective way to encourage communication was through development of a learning charter that everyone (students and teachers alike) agreed to before commencement of the programme. The learning charter set out a set of guidelines for behaviour, interaction, time keeping and consideration of others. It was the basis for developing an open environment where inPiduals felt they were able to express themselves and would be listened to and where there was no fear of repercussion for getting something wrong. In addition to the learning charter, part of the success of the programme was getting the ‘teachers’ to develop a consultative coaching style to provide flexibility in the programme – giving more time and encouragement to those that needed it. The programme was so effective that within six months of launch it had a waiting list of participants.

We hope to be covering more on communication, learning and associated KM techniques in later issues. We would be keen to hear of your experiences.

Our latest issue is now out online and I thought it would be useful to take a quick look at it. The articles are an eclectic mix of topics, covering a lot of ground from knowledge management (KM), to information asset management, professional development to information systems transition. Below is a short overview of what you can expect.

KM performance measures: Cheng Sheng Lee and Kuan Yew Wong from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia take a look at knowledge management performance measures in micro-sized, small and medium-sized enterprises. Professional knowledge is often associated with large companies and organizations, who generally have the resources to develop effective KM strategies utilizing a host of techniques and who stand to get the most out of tacit knowledge. But what of small to medium sized organizations? Is KM a useless concept? Lee and Wong investigated organizations in Malaysia and found there were definite benefits for smaller organizations in utilizing KM techniques.

Why is information the elephant asset? Reynold Leming discusses the importance of treating information as any other business asset, utilizing asset management techniques. He highlights how asset management has often disregarded information from its remit and sets out a clear and extremely useful approach for developing an Information Asset Register.

Towards a Rosetta Stone: Managing legacy systems and migrating information and data is very much an issue in most organizations. Morton, Beckford and Cooke of Loughborough University present their research on the possibility of creating a ‘Rosetta Stone’ to facilitate this process.

Developing your career in information: Both for those just starting out and for the more seasoned professional, this article by Victoria Sculfor, Sue Hill and TFPL Recruitment, discusses professional development, the importance of networking on and off line. It covers all aspects of career development and contains some useful links to helpful resources.

Developing and implementing policy: Another returning author, Danny Budzak takes a look at a continuing concern of many organizations: developing and implementing information policy. Drawing on his professional experience, he looks at what to consider to develop and implement an effective information policy that all areas of the organization buy into.

Also returning in the December issue are Martin White’s Perspectives column and Allan Foster’s Initiatives colum.  Our regular columnists Martin White and Allan Foster return looking at a range of issues from the effects of language and global organizations to the latest in IT and Technology related to information management issues, big data, open data and big data analytics. We hope you enjoy reading!

Business information publisher Bureau van Dijk (BvD) has released an updated version of Orbis, the company database. 

SAGE Insight | September 13, 2011 at 8:00 am | Tags: branding, entertainment industry, familiness, qualitative analysis, The Beckhams | Categories: Business & Management | URL: http://wp.me/pUKDm-s8

See a fascinating piece of research on understanding the features that make a family brand work for free. This article seeks to understand how distinctive family brands are created. Recent studies in family business have focused on the benefits for a firm to be known as family owned or family controlled. And if you’re interested in developing your personal brand, look at BIR,2010, 27/1 for Rob Brown/s article on reputation management.

Blog readers can hardly have failed to notice media coverage of the threat of drastic cuts to public library services across the UK. Voices for the Library intends to ensure that the voices of the people who are library users and library professionals and who understand the real value of public libraries are heard.

By setting up a campaigning website to share positive stories from public libraries and librarians, the campaign aims to illustrate the importance of services, why it is vital that they are run well, and how they serve their communities effectively. So if you use a public library and are convinced of their value as local gateways to knowledge, a basis for lifelong learning, as resource providers for independent decision-making and cultural development of individuals and social groups. Do contact them if you have a postitive story to tell – and encourage others to do so.

CILIP has a sector panel which is aiming to communicate the value of information services and libraries in the health, government, commercial and industrial sectors, contact Guy.Daines@cilip.org.uk

Congratulations to Dr Geoff Walton who has been named SLA‘s European Information Professional of the year. The award acknowledges Walton’s work on information literacy.