Knowledge Management Technology for Decision Support: an empirical examination

Abstract

Reports the results of an empirical study of the effectiveness of one type of knowledge management (KM) technology, namely 'contextual knowledge repository,' for supporting individual decision makers in a predictive judgment task context. Results indicate that a given technology is fairly useful, but insufficient to maximally enhance individual decision-making. On one hand, subjects extracted more knowledge and made significantly smaller decision errors than their notional na ve counterparts; on the other hand, subjects tended to extract less knowledge and make significantly larger decision errors compared to notional optimal counterparts. Concludes that individuals can potentially benefit from those KM technologies that provide additional explicit analytical and procedural knowledge, or those that facilitate sharing of tacit knowledge through interaction with others. Indicates the need for further research to address these issues.