Problem Solving Case Study and Proposal Report

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Organisational Analysis

Analysing and Codifying Organisational Knowledge

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Aims

To discuss knowledge as an organisational resource (VIRO)

To discuss knowledge creation cycles in organisations

To build on your understanding of knowledge cycles organisations.

Codifying knowledge

Controlled dictionaries, vocabularies

Taxonomies

Folksonomies

Organisational Implications

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Definition of Knowledge Management

“Knowledge Management is the process of capturing, distributing, and effectively using knowledge.”

Davenport, T. and Prusak, L. (1998)

This definition does not commit any stakeholder to any particular form of method or technology.

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Job Profiles in Knowledge Management

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Knowledge and Competitive Advantage

As a Resource:

Knowledge, in the organisational context, is:

the sum of what is known among organisational members.

Organisational success requires organisations to develop new techniques and competencies to fully utilise the intelligence & knowledge among its organisational members.

To become aware of and utilise both explicit and tacit knowledge.

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Knowledge – Resource Based View

Competitive Advantage

Part of strategy is taking a resource based view of the organisation

Knowledge, learning are intangible resources

Competition in the ‘knowledge economy’ requires organisations:

to acquire & make use of (i.e. exploit) existing knowledge (within and beyond the organisation)

manage and utilise knowledge innovatively through exploration and searching for new options

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Explicit versus Tacit Knowledge

Explicit knowledge:

Can be codified (tangible)

Precisely and formally articulated

Easy to transfer, share, document and communicate

"Explicit knowledge is emphasised as a management tool to be exploited as organisational knowledge. Groupware, intranets, list servers, knowledge repositories, database management and knowledge action networks allow the sharing of organisational knowledge”

Scarbrough et al. (1999)

“Managers hope that these tools will retain knowledge within the company when employees have left, and also that this will encourage learning and the flourishing of communities of interest across functional boundaries"

Radcliffe-Martin, Coakes and Sugden (2000)

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Explicit versus Tacit Knowledge

Tacit knowledge:

Subconsciously understood or applied

Difficult to articulate and often context-specific

Developed from direct action and experience

Shared through conversation or story-telling

"Tacit knowledge is not available as a text. . . .It involves intangible factors embedded in personal beliefs, experiences, and values" (Pan and Scarbrough 1999).

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Knowledge as a Resource

Resource Analysis (VIRO)

Organisational Analysis examines resources as:

V - Valuable

I – Imitable (or non-imitable)

R - Rare

O – Organised (well deployed)

Preparing some business students for their Capstone course

How do we put a “value” on knowledge as a resource?

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Challenges to Knowledge Management

A number of challenges exist to KM

Different knowledge formats in organisations

Lack of systems integration

Knowledge creation – how does this occur?

Knowledge loss

focus on artefact rather than process

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Knowledge Formats

Whether we are aware, knowledge is held in organisations in various ways:

Think of all the paper based instances you can encounter

Digital: Databases, and serialised in different formats

What has been missed?

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Diversity of Applications in Organisations

SAP

Procurement

Manufacturing Planning

Sales

Finance

No system is integrated – different formats

Nor may it desirable for systems to integrated

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Lack of Systems Integration

Does digitisation offer the solution?

The challenge:

once digitisation occurs, knowledge can become more difficult to discover

No system is integrated, with different data formats causing problems

Nor is it always desirable for systems to be completely integrated

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Knowledge loss

Remember Organisational Learning Cycles

Single, Double and Triple Loop Learning

Organisational Learning Occurs through a number of activities, e.g.

Strategy

Human Resources

Project management - Project start to completion

Human interaction, e.g. Concurrent Engineering

Design thinking, e.g. Controlled Convergence

Manufacturing

Sales

Marketing

All of these are value adding activities – How?

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The Richness of Knowledge

Focus on artefact (end result) rather than process

A large part of learning is a social activity

Remember organisational isomorphism: how do we become the same?

Or rather, should we be the same?

……….. and therefore knowledge loss

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Spiral of Knowledge Creation

Let’s discuss these four steps

When value adding activities occur: (i) existing knowledge is drawn upon and (ii) new knowledge is generated.

Nonaka I, Toyama R and Konno N (2000)

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The Challenge of Knowledge Management – the “Sociology” of Knowledge Creation

Knowledge is constantly being constructed

What we often think of as being “knowledge” is only the end result

What is often missed out, is the process of knowledge creation.

Innovation

Social interaction

Individual thinking

Nonaka I, Toyama R and Konno N (2000)

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Knowledge Capture Must be Continuous

The process of socialisation, i.e. Design, Development

Codifying is continuous and the meaning of codes changes, i.e. easily forgotten

In a neohumanist – postmodernist sense, the organisational narrative changes

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Knowledge Management – Understanding Ontology

Remember, there may be different ontological assumptions

Therefore, if you understand ontology, the neohumanist (postmodernist) paradigm views knowledge as liberating.

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Role of Consultants in Analysis

As a consultant or manager, you must become aware that ‘ideas’ and ‘values’ influence social and organisational behaviour.

The social world is negotiated, organised and reproduced (i.e. constructed) by our interpretations of events, the action of others and the symbols around us.

The social world is ‘objectified’ through repeating past behaviours and shared experience, understanding (i.e. meaning) and interaction.

Inter-subjectivity: an individual’s internalisation and interpretation of shared experience and meaning.

The Social Construction of Reality (Berger and Luckmann,1966)

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The Neohumanist Perspective

Each organisation has its narrative… captured in language and imagery.

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Meta-Data, Tagging

We now examine the technical aspects of knowledge management

Not in terms of technical platforms, but how knowledge is “highlighted”

Assuming individuals recognise patterns

Wants to highlight an aspect of knowledge that is interesting

For the purpose of creating interest and sharing

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Meta-Data

Example of tagging

Do you use document properties?

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Document Meta-Data

Purpose of “tagging” is to give more information about an artefact

Make knowledge “discoverable”

Microsoft Word Document

Document Properties

Opportunities for you to “tag”

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Tagging – Making Knowledge Discoverable

Database

Knowledge Management Platform

Database

Knowledge Management solutions exist – often technology driven.

Application