The role of organised information and tacit knowledge in the survival and success of small enterprises in developing communities

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In the business sector of the Information Society, information plays a crucial role in givingan enterprise a competitive advantage. Information as a resource in a small enterpriseincludes internally produced information, information obtained from the externalenvironment as well as the knowledge residing in people's heads. However, thisinformation and knowledge needs to be processed and recorded in physical formats for thepurposes of decision-making and problem solving as it is part of the information resourcesof the small enterprise. This study explored the extent of information and knowledgemanagement in developing communities' small enterprises in pursuit of survival andsuccess. A deeper understanding of the business information needs, sources of information,frustrations and problems were investigated in order to establish and meet the specificneeds of small enterprises in developing communities. More specifically, the objective ofthe study was to promote effective information organisation in small enterprises, withspecial reference to developing communities, as a means to support economic and socialdevelopment of South Africa.For data gathering, a questionnaire was developed and distributed to owner/managers of 17small enterprises in Kayamandi, a developing community in the Stellenbosch area. Thepurpose was to determine owner/managers's needs with regard to information organisationand to identify existing systems, tools and procedures that might be appropriate for thissector. The results indicated the absence or insufficient business education ofowner/managers in Kayamandi, which has a damaging effect on their ability to acquire theinformation they need for their daily business work and operational activities. Moreover,the owner/managers do most of their information gathering using a variety of informalsources, and that information is not organised in information packages. This, in tum,affects their business development.Information should interact with tacit knowledge to improve the quality of work. Inaddition, the oral tradition should be promoted because it plays an important role in thedaily running of the small enterprises in developing communities. In that sense,owner/managers should create an environment that can assist in knowledge sharing fromvarious information sources. Maintaining such knowledge as information in retrieval based information systems could assist owner/managers in the overall functioning of theirbusinesses because they are faced with the challenge of responding effectively to changingcustomer expectations. An affordable information system model is recommended andstructured to fit owner/manager's work habits. The arrangement of information resourcesin the system can be used for categorisation of information either in a manual or electronicsystem.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University