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Abstract:

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to aim to identify principles that make wikis an effective application when they are used within an organization. Those principles are supposed to make wikis a successful instrument for organizational learning.

Design/methodology/approach – The article makes a distinction between functional and psycho-social principles and emphasizes their impact on organizational learning.

Findings – The functional principles (quick and easy editing; wikilinks; no hierarchical hypertext structure; revision and topicality; collaborative product; scalability and flexibility) may be regarded as the constitutive attributes of wikis. The psycho-social principles (openness; self-organization; autonomy; interest and personal relevance; diversity; serendipity effect) are not directly associated with wikis as a tool, but refer to the application context.

Originality/value – The article explains the functional and psycho-social principles in detail. This will help organizations and knowledge-management executives to employ wikis in an efficient way and avoid their disadvantages. Thus, the functional and psycho-social principles can be a valuable starting point for applying wikis successfully in various organizational scenarios.

Keywords:

Knowledge management, Learning organizations

Article Type:

General review

Article URL:

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/10.1108/14777280910970756

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