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The Special Jurisdiction for Peace (abbreviated JEP in Spanish) is a transitional body that was defined in the peace agreement signed between the Colombian government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia - People's Army (abbreviated FARC-EP in Spanish)—agreement that is of worldwide interest because of the historical and political incidence of peace in Colombia. The purpose of this body is to defend the rights of war victims, taking truth, justice, reparation, and non-recurrence as the fundamental aspects for peace-building. Thus, considering JEP’s significance, this paper enquires about the manifestation in the JEP of processes of knowledge management (KM) that contribute and are essential to peace-building and peace stability in Colombia. The research problem presents epistemic, regulatory, and praxeological tensions in order to build the foundations of an interdisciplinary relationship between KM and related disciplines. Consequently, this study aimed to characterise JEP’s processes, elements, tools, and manifestations of KM, by means of theoretical analysis and empirical evidences of the methodologies created and applied by this body for peace-building in Colombia. To this end, this critical, qualitative research used a comprehensive methodology from the social and economic sciences, focused on separating the emerging variables and tools of KM in Colombia to maintain a complex social order process, with concrete effects on the historical, political, economic, and collective memory of the Latin American population. The paper favours the understanding of JEP’s social action, based on its postulates and tools, and it identifies KM—in this body’s formulations and ideals and in their consequences on social transformations—as a strategic basis for the agreement. The findings of this emerging line of research on the role of KM in specific sociopolitical problem solving considerably contribute to expand the social and interdisciplinary function of KM in organisational scenarios, and the particularities of this Colombian case offer a potentially translatable model for the management of other sociopolitical issues in Latin America and the world. Furthermore, the contribution and impact of this study is to transcend the classical organisational culture of KM and insert it at the core of social transformation and stability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to present the findings of the tacit knowledge generation, obtained from a research project carried out in small and medium-sized enterprises -SMEs, which are dedicated to industrial activities and services in Colombia. The research problem, which gives rise to this paper, is the difficulty to manage the employees' skills due to the management routine activities in these organizations. Evidence shows the necessity of designing a management system that transforms the organization into a knowledge management system, taking advantage of the employees' tacit knowledge at different levels of their performance. The methodology used in the study of the selected SMEs has a qualitative and descriptive approach. The data gathering and analysis techniques include surveys, in-depth interviews, focus groups and the analysis of the information by interdisciplinary groups. Particular attention is drawn to the use of a diagnostic instrument, named Integral System of Business Management -SIGE, developed by the authors. This instrument was used to make a diagnosis focused on the analysis of the management system, in order to observe the employees' tacit knowledge generation. The findings are compiled in four groups of variables associated, direct or indirectly, with the knowledge management, namely: 1) Training of the SMEs managers; 2) Initial diagnosis results; 3) Employees' participation in the SIGE implementation; 4) Effects of tacit knowledge after the SIGE implementation. These findings are useful since they allow the identification of new or hidden skills in SMEs employees. This is an incentive for these organizations to increase their skills, and to favour the tacit knowledge management until achieving people and business productivity integration. Conclusions indicate that the SIGE implementation favours the tacit knowledge management in the SMEs and facilitates its transformation into authentic knowledge management systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to show progress on ontological aspects of tacit knowledge, found in Colombia's textile companies where outsourcing occurs. It is a qualitative study based on four concepts that are analized in a spiral: identity, autonomy, tacit knowledge and ontology; citing authors such as Foucault, Kant, Nonaka-Takeuchi, and Bédard. Partial results show that changes in the tacit knowledge occur when workers move from having a direct contract to be subcontracted; is also observed that these changes occur in parallel in the ontological dimension, identity and autonomy of workers. The idea of focusing the analysis on the ontological dimension arises from the need for a debate on a general presumption in the academic literature, where the new knowledge in companies must be managed through strategically designed programs. This paper shows that tacit knowledge is also a result of contingencies arising from decisions on contract workers. The value and usefulness of the partial results for the future of this research is to provide criteria to broaden understanding of tacit knowledge in textile companies, based on analysis of current policies of labor flexibility in today's world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of tis paper is to empirically test the degree of influence of different knowledge sharing mechanisms (ICT-based, personal interaction-based and embedded in management processes) on innovation capability (both on ideation and on innovation project management), as well as the influence of each first-level innovation capacity on company performance. In order to gather information about the relevant variables involved in the research, a questionnaire has been designed and addressed to the CEOs of the companies making up the target population (Spanish and Colombian medium-high and high technology firms with more than 50 employees and R&D activities). Structural equation modelling (SEM) based on partial least squares (PLS) has then been applied to test the hypotheses drawn from the research. The results obtained show that knowledge sharing is a key issue in order to enhance innovation capability. With the exception of ICT-based knowledge sharing mechanisms (whose influence on the generation of new ideas is not statistically significant), all types of mechanism considered exert a significant impact both on ideation and on innovation project management (although their degree of relevance varies), and account for a great deal of variance in both constructs. Differences between countries arise when it comes to the influence of each first-level innovation capacity on company performance. Whereas in the case of Spanish high-tech firms both capacities (ideation and innovation project management) are equally important, in the case of Colombian firms, implementation is by far the most relevant first-order capacity. The main contribution of this paper is to provide empirical evidence about the impact of knowledge sharing on innovation. Moreover, it reveals what the most effective knowledge sharing mechanisms are for this purpose and provides companies with a basic framework in order to shape their knowledge management strategies in this domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to show progress on ontological aspects of tacit knowledge, found in Colombia's textile companies where outsourcing occurs. It is a qualitative study based on four concepts that are analized in a spiral: identity, autonomy, tacit knowledge and ontology; citing authors such as Foucault, Kant, Nonaka-Takeuchi, and Bédard. Partial results show that changes in the tacit knowledge occur when workers move from having a direct contract to be subcontracted; is also observed that these changes occur in parallel in the ontological dimension, identity and autonomy of workers. The idea of focusing the analysis on the ontological dimension arises from the need for a debate on a general presumption in the academic literature, where the new knowledge in companies must be managed through strategically designed programs. This paper shows that tacit knowledge is also a result of contingencies arising from decisions on contract workers. The value and usefulness of the partial results for the future of this research is to provide criteria to broaden understanding of tacit knowledge in textile companies, based on analysis of current policies of labor flexibility in today's world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of tis paper is to empirically test the degree of influence of different knowledge sharing mechanisms (ICT-based, personal interaction-based and embedded in management processes) on innovation capability (both on ideation and on innovation project management), as well as the influence of each first-level innovation capacity on company performance. In order to gather information about the relevant variables involved in the research, a questionnaire has been designed and addressed to the CEOs of the companies making up the target population (Spanish and Colombian medium-high and high technology firms with more than 50 employees and R&D activities). Structural equation modelling (SEM) based on partial least squares (PLS) has then been applied to test the hypotheses drawn from the research. The results obtained show that knowledge sharing is a key issue in order to enhance innovation capability. With the exception of ICT-based knowledge sharing mechanisms (whose influence on the generation of new ideas is not statistically significant), all types of mechanism considered exert a significant impact both on ideation and on innovation project management (although their degree of relevance varies), and account for a great deal of variance in both constructs. Differences between countries arise when it comes to the influence of each first-level innovation capacity on company performance. Whereas in the case of Spanish high-tech firms both capacities (ideation and innovation project management) are equally important, in the case of Colombian firms, implementation is by far the most relevant first-order capacity. The main contribution of this paper is to provide empirical evidence about the impact of knowledge sharing on innovation. Moreover, it reveals what the most effective knowledge sharing mechanisms are for this purpose and provides companies with a basic framework in order to shape their knowledge management strategies in this domain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The world is in a period of reflection about social and economic models. In particular there is a review of the capacities that countries have for improving their competitiveness. The experiences in a society are part of the process of learning and knowledge development in that society: especially in the development of communities. Risks appear continually in the process of the search for, analysis and implementation of solutions to problems. This paper discusses the issues related to the improvement of productivity and knowledge in a society, the risk that poor or even declining productivity brings to the communities and the need to develop people that support the decision making process in communities. The approach to improve the communities' development is through the design of a research programme in knowledge management based on distance learning. The research programme implementation is designed to provide value added to the decisions in communities in order to use collective intelligence, solve collective problems and to achieve goals that support local solutions. This program is organized and focused on four intelligence areas, artificial, collective, sentient and strategic. These areas are productivity related and seek to reduce the risk of lack of competitiveness through formal and integrated problem analysis. In a country such as Colombia, where different regions face varying problems to solve and there is a low level of infrastructure, the factors of production such as knowledge, skilled labour and "soft" infrastructure can be a way to develop the society. This entails using the local physical resources adequately for creating value with the support of people in the region to lead the analysis and search for solutions in the communities. The paper will describe the framework and programme and suggest how it could be applied in Colombia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In such a competitive world, where companies face new challenges every day, clusters, defined as strategies that dynamize national, regional or world economic growth, have become a space leading to knowledge creation, ownership, transferring and diffusion inside companies. This strategy represents a growing source for companies and cities as much as they allow companies belonging to a common sector group into business networks, also, they can spot new business opportunities and become more competitive and sustainable. Knowledge clusters involve different agents from diverse nature such as governmental, private, industrial, educational or entrepreneurial. In other words, these represent a space where demandants (companies) and knowledge offerors (universities, research institutes, consulting groups, etc) interact. These clusters' main goal is to support knowledge creation, ownership, and application processes which can lead to a better development of competitiveness among companies by means of creating a dynamic exchange of information among the companies belonging to the cluster. This paper aims at presenting a model for risk analysis in the process of building a knowledge cluster between private companies and high education institutions (IES*) from a qualitative point of view. This methodology has been used in a process of building a knowledge cluster in Colombia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ECOPETROL S.A. is the National Oil Company (NOC) from Colombia, currently is located at number 13 in the Annual Ranking of the World's Largest Listed Energy Firms, according to PFC Energy 50 - January 2011-. In July 2010, approximately of 30% of direct employees from ECOPETROL S.A. could qualify for the retirement benefit according to the Colombian law. Given that the percentage of people who could leave the company is a representative of the total number of employees and that this population is the greatest experience has within the company, between 17 and 25 years of expertise, the company started from 2005 an initiative aimed at mitigating the impact of loss of knowledge due to decoupling of staff, this initiative is created, consolidated and routed within the Knowledge Management Corporate Program of ECOPETROL and is implemented in all departments of the company. The initiative in question has several stages from the selection of personnel who can retire and has key knowledge for the operation of the Company, the identification of key knowledge of this persons, the training of those who undertake the transfer of knowledge as trainers or coaches, building plans or transfer programs, monitoring the implementation of these plans and the consolidation and evaluation of the results of the transfer made, all framed within of the Deming cycle: Plan, Do, Check and act. In the same way this process is part of a job of sensitization of the people selected as tutors and apprentices who would be supported by the top management of Company. The work done by ECOPETROL allowed the tacit knowledge identification, capture and dissemination within the company through a structured method, with specific deliverables and results that have allowed the continued performance and safe in the operation, even though the retirement of many of the people involved in this process it is a fact. This paper will be of interest to the participants because it shows a real and practical case in the identification, capture and dissemination of tacit knowledge within a company that is exposed to the imminent departure of a large number of employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In such a competitive world, where companies face new challenges every day, clusters, defined as strategies that dynamize national, regional or world economic growth, have become a space leading to knowledge creation, ownership, transferring and diffusion inside companies. This strategy represents a growing source for companies and cities as much as they allow companies belonging to a common sector group into business networks, also, they can spot new business opportunities and become more competitive and sustainable. Knowledge clusters involve different agents from diverse nature such as governmental, private, industrial, educational or entrepreneurial. In other words, these represent a space where demandants (companies) and knowledge offerors (universities, research institutes, consulting groups, etc) interact.These clusters' main goal is to support knowledge creation, ownership, and application processes which can lead to a better development of competitiveness among companies by means of creating a dynamic exchange of information among the companies belonging to the cluster. This paper aims at presenting a model for risk analysis in the process of building a knowledge cluster between private companies and high education institutions (IES*) from a qualitative point of view. This methodology has been used in a process of building a knowledge cluster in Colombia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ECOPETROL S.A. is the National Oil Company (NOC) from Colombia, currently is located at number 13 in the Annual Ranking of the World's Largest Listed Energy Firms, according to PFC Energy 50 - January 2011-. In July 2010, approximately of 30% of direct employees from ECOPETROL S.A. could qualify for the retirement benefit according to the Colombian law. Given that the percentage of people who could leave the company is a representative of the total number of employees and that this population is the greatest experience has within the company, between 17 and 25 years of expertise, the company started from 2005 an initiative aimed at mitigating the impact of loss of knowledge due to decoupling of staff, this initiative is created, consolidated and routed within the Knowledge Management Corporate Program of ECOPETROL and is implemented in all departments of the company. The initiative in question has several stages from the selection of personnel who can retire and has key knowledge for the operation of the Company, the identification of key knowledge of this persons, the training of those who undertake the transfer of knowledge as trainers or coaches, building plans or transfer programs, monitoring the implementation of these plans and the consolidation and evaluation of the results of the transfer made, all framed within of the Deming cycle: Plan, Do, Check and act. In the same way this process is part of a job of sensitization of the people selected as tutors and apprentices who would be supported by the top management of Company. The work done by ECOPETROL allowed the tacit knowledge identification, capture and dissemination within the company through a structured method, with specific deliverables and results that have allowed the continued performance and safe in the operation, even though the retirement of many of the people involved in this process it is a fact. This paper will be of interest to the participants because it shows a real and practical case in the identification, capture and dissemination of tacit knowledge within a company that is exposed to the imminent departure of a large number of employees. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper submits the final results of the doctoral research work about the development of a knowledge based model for a city-region. The model consists of three stages: contextual, intervention and assessment, and technological. Its construction was made from an analysis of knowledge, going through local and regional development models, considering methodologies and models of digital and knowledge cities and regions around the world, and taking into consideration the digital society and the management of knowledge in this society. The work was developed using a participatory action research method that was carried out during the past five years with social agents from cities and sub-regions of the Coffee Triangle Region in Colombia. The contextual stage consists of three structures: one to relate the capital system of a city-region, another with the indicators of the information and knowledge society associated to the capital system, and the last one is a structure to make a multi-contextual observation to the practices, models, initiatives and methodologies of digital and knowledge cities and regions around the world. The intervention and assessment stage proposes the structure of an agenda of action that fosters social agents as knowledge agents, thus adding intensive knowledge processes to the organizations, the communities, and the individual performance. It includes a structure of institutionalism and governability development based on knowledge, and a structure for the management of the city-region social-technological-cultural system as a complex adaptive system. The technological stage proposes a technological infrastructure organization for the city-region centered in the technological intelligence of the territory, in infrastructure levels of digital technologies and in a regional knowledge management system as well as a digital inclusion structure for the social appropriation of digital technologies. The model proposed fits the Knowledge Management research line which belongs to the doctoral program on Information and Knowledge Society in the Computer Science Faculty at Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, Madrid Campus. The validation and implementation of the model has been carried out through a participatory action research model in the Manizales, Caldas, Colombia city-region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]