The Role of Knowledge Repositories in Technical Support Environments: Speed Versus Learning in User Performance.

Author List: Gray, Peter H.; Durcikova, Alexandra;
Journal of Management Information Systems, 2005, Volume 22, Issue 3, Page 159-190.
Knowledge repositories are commonly used by technical support analysts in call center environments as a way of capturing and reusing solutions to common problems, and are generally expected to improve service quality, reduce costs, and enhance analyst learning. This study investigates why technical support analysts seek out and access knowledge from these repositories, as opposed to more traditional sources of such knowledge—colleagues and manuals. Focusing on the demand for—rather than supply of—knowledge in organizations, our research elaborates the role played by analysts' learning orientation, perceived work demands, and risk aversion in predicting their knowledge sourcing behavior. Our results include several counterintuitive findings that suggest there is not very much learning going on via technical support knowledge repositories. Analysts seem to be focused on finding recipes for solving customers' problems rather than building a better understanding of the products they support. Implications for research and practice highlight the need for more effective technologies to speed searches, the utility of a formal and visible mechanism for validating knowledge, and the inherent tension between efficiency and learning in these environments.
Keywords: knowledge management systems; knowledge repositories; knowledge sourcing; learning orientation; risk aversion; technical support help desks
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#245 0.227 knowledge sharing contribution practice electronic expertise individuals repositories management technical repository knowledge-sharing shared contributors novelty features peripheral share benefit seekers
#113 0.113 support decision dss systems guidance process making environments decisional users features capabilities provide decision-making user paper findings systems.decision components computer-based
#166 0.098 negative positive effect findings results effects blog suggest role blogs posts examined period relationship employees research employee bloggers reveal companies
#95 0.095 learning mental conceptual new learn situated development working assumptions improve ess existing investigates capture advanced proposes types context building acquisition
#179 0.077 technologies technology new findings efficiency deployed common implications engineers conversion change transformational opportunity deployment make making improve powerful choosing enhance
#272 0.073 requirements analysts systems elicitation techniques analysis process technique understanding determination analyst acquisition interview development used semantic results knowledge structured effectiveness
#31 0.055 problem problems solution solving problem-solving solutions reasoning heuristic theorizing rules solve general generating complex example formulation heuristics effective given finding