On 15th February 2008, we organised a small knowledge cafe in our class. The question given to all groups was to find out three things that will prevent Knowledge Management in any organisation. On the basis of that each individual was asked to come with three things that they will do as Chief Knowledge Officer of an organisation to enable the Knowledge Management. All the groups came up with quite a number of things that will prevent knowledge management in any organisation. Each group was asked to select top three things (selected on the basis of voting) out of their list. Each group consist of around six members. Following are the lists of three things selected by all the groups.
Group 1 1. No communication between people. 2. Not allowing people to express there ideas (No creativity, Stick to the procedures only). 3. No documentation of procedures/functions at all.
Group 2 1. No Communication Strategy (Intranet, Internet, Documentation). 2. No Learning and Development. 3. No identification of required knowledge.
Group3 1. No Socialization and Culture (no interaction, communication, and culture). 2. No System (No Storage and Documentation). 3. No Training and Development.
Group4 1. No Information Flow (No communication). 2. No Improvement of Performance. 3. No Systems/Tools
After thinking carefully, I have selected the three things as a Chief Knowledge Officer that I will do in order to enable the Knowledge Management in my organisation which is a Software Development Company. I will also demonstrate how they will practically solve the existing problems in my organisation related to Knowledge Management. The three things are as follows:
1. Communication between people
This topped the list for all the groups. According to me it is quiet obvious that the communication between the people is critical for the success of Knowledge Management in any type of organisation. No matter how much knowledge the people have, but if it is not shared between each other, then it will not increase the overall intellectual skills of the employees, and it will also result in the duplication of effort in solving the problem in day to day activities in an organisation, which will ultimately result in the poor productivity. So in order to increase the productivity of my organisation, I will make sure that there is huge amount of communication between the people in my organisation.
To make sure that I am able to make this happen, I will do the following steps:
I will have Discussion Forums where people can post there problems related to Software Development. The people knowing the solution will provide the solution. Discussion Forums are a very popular tool for knowledge sharing in the area of problem solving on internet. According to one study, they constitute for 53% of many-to-many interaction platforms on internet (Cothrel J, 1999).
I will have Blogs to publish research work done by individuals. Individuals will have there own blogs where they can write articles related to Development in new technologies, Software Project Management, New Programming Methodologies, etc. Blogs will be particularly very useful in Knowledge Creation which is a major knowledge management activity essential for modern business success (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995) (Efimova L., 2004).
I will have blog rating mechanism like Digg. This will ensure that best blogs are brought to the attention of the users.
But still there remains a problem of motivation. People are needed to be motivated so that they will share there knowledge. To make this happen, the activity done by employees on this tools will influence annual Performance Appraisal Procedures.
2. Regular Training & Development
As stated in point 1, the Knowledge Creation is a major knowledge management activity essential for modern business success (Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995). Regular Training & Development will be very helpful in increasing the knowledge base of the employees. This is vital importance in organisations like Software Developing companies due rapid change of existing technologies and introduction of new technologies. As my Training & Development strategy, I will organize regular training sessions on emerging technologies and changes in the existing technologies. This sessions will be taken by subject experts.
3. Allowing and encouraging people to express there ideas
Expression of ideas leads us to innovation, and innovation leads us to Knowledge Creation. Innovation provides new products and processes (Baldwin J., 2003). The foundation of many of the successful modern companies lies on the innovation. One of the best example of this is Google. They thought out of the box for the existing problems and defined even new problems and in turn applied innovation to find the solution for this problems. The solution to these problems leads us to the creation of new knowledge (Bontis N., 2002). This became possible at Google because Google allows its employees to express there creativity and ideas (Google Jobs).
To make this possible in my organisation, I will have policy and practice both in place. The policy to encourage people to express there ideas in terms of innovative solutions to the existing problems and to find new problems and then find solution to that problems. The practice will be to reward the people who come with useful ideas. Thinking out of box will be critical in every employee's promotion.
Importance of Knowledge Cafe
This was my first experience at the Knowledge Cafe. And the best thing I learnt in it was a new way to find solution to our problems. List all the possible things you will do (in a negative sense) to a particular job in. E.g. We were given to prepare a list of all the possible mistakes we can do while buying a mobile phone. Out this list prepare the top three list (on the basis of opinion poll). Negate this top three list, and it will give you the top three things which you will do make sure a job is done.
References
Aldo de Moor & Efimova L. (2004) , "An Argumentation Analysis of Weblog Conversations", 9th International Working Conference on the Language-Action Perspective on Communication Modelling
Balswin J., Hanel P (2004), "Innovation and Knowledge Creation in an Open Economy - Canadian Industry and International Implications", Cambridge Press
Bontis N. & Chun Wei Choo (2002), "The Strategic Management of Intellectual Capital and Organizational Knowledge", Oxford University Press (US) Cothrel J. & Williams R. (1999), "On-line communities: helping them form and grow", Journal of Knowledge Management, Volume 3 · Number 1
Data, Information, and Knowledge are mostly used interchangeably. But according to me they have a hierarchical structure between them.
Data------->Information------->Knowledge (Stenmark D., 2002)
Data lies at the root level. When we add some context to data, we get information. And when we make some decision using our experience on the basis of that information, we get knowledge. I would like to explain this in terms of following example:
Statistical Analysis
In any type of survey or research, sample collection is commonly used practice, where a sample of people are asked about there opinion or answer about one or more questions. The figures collected in this process can be called as Data. Now we prepare charts by creating frequency distribution. This frequency distribution results in some type of charts, which will convey us the Information. The conclusions made from this information using experience results into Knowledge.
To illustrate the interchangeable use of the Data, Information, and Knowledge I would like to give following example.
Information Systems
The family tree of Information Systems is shown below. Now the systems at all the levels are information systems. And we know that a simple definition of Information Systems is a system which converts some input (usually termed as data) to output (usually termed as information) by applying some conversion process. At each level the, the input taken by Information System will be called as data, but that data will not be of grass root level (which does not have any meaning without a context). E.g. The KMS takes the information generated by the TPS as the input to make further more usable to make decisions to management. The MIS takes the information generated by the KMS as in the input, and so on. As we move up towards the top of the triangle, the systems will take input which will be moving from data to information then at systems at the bottom of the triangle. As well as, the output generated by the system will be moving from information to knowledge as we move up in the triangle.
(Topography of Information Systems, Adapted from Britannica Encyclopedia Website)
Cyclic Relationship
Data, Information, and Knowledge also have cyclic relationship between them. As mentioned above they are also used interchangeably. Following figure illustrates the cyclic relationship between them.
(Adapted from Liew A., 2007)
The forward cycle (Date->Information->Knowledge) has been explained before. Let me talk something about the backward cycle. After the creation of the Knowledge, this knowledge can be transferred to others via some type of Communication, which Professor Nonaka calls as Socialisation in his book The Knowledge Creating Company (Nonaka, I, 1995). This transferred knowledge visa Socialisation becomes information for the recipient. This information which is being transferred, if at all can be converted to some codified format, and can be stored in some form of repository, then this information will become data (Liew A., 2007).
According to me, I think the knowledge created can also be directly transfered to Data (bypassing the information step). This is possible if the person possessing the knowledge can directly convert it into some type of stored form (may be written or digital). This will enable the organisations to preserve the knowledge possessed by the people to be available to others even if the person possessing it is not present.
They are also used interchangeably. But I would like to state one rule which can help in understanding the relationship in much simpler way.
When Data, Information, and Knowledge occurs simultaneously in one place, there will be definitely difference between them. But when they appear individually then they can be understood in place of each other.
Stenmark D. (2002), "Information vs. Knowledge:The Role of intranets in Knowledge Management", 35th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences - 2002
Leiw W. (2007), "Understanding Data, Information, Knowledge and Their Inter-Relationships", Journal of Knowledge Management Practice, Volume 8, No. 2, June 2007
Nonaka I. (1995), ‘The Knowledge-Creating Company’
Definition of anything gives us the general introduction of that particular thing. Majority of the things in this world will have a limited number of definitions. But in case of Knowledge Management, we find that there is numerous numbers of definitions. In fact we can say that, instead of calling it definition, we should call it view point or position of particular person regarding Knowledge Management. Moreover, still people are debating whether knowledge can be managed or not (Henriksen J, 2004).
In this article I will try to analyse some of the existing definitions of the Knowledge Management, and based upon that I will present a working definition of Knowledge Management, and finally I will present some examples which will illustrate what this definition means to an organisations.
After studying the existing definitions of Knowledge Management, I found that they primarily talk about the following:
·Creating, storing, distribution (Wigg. K, 1997) and analysis/filtration (Creotec – eBusiness Software Company) of the knowledge.
“A system or framework for managing the organizational processes that create, store and distribute knowledge, as defined by its collective data, information and body of experience (Bridgefield Group).”
“Knowledge management is the name of a concept in which an enterprise consciously and comprehensively gathers, organises, shares, and analyzes its knowledge in terms of resources, documents, and people skills (Creotec – eBusiness Software Company).”
Even when we look at the SECI model by Professor Nonaka and his colleagues, his model talks about knowledge creation and transfer from one form to another in an organisation (Nonaka I., 1995). Even his book which introduced his model to the world was called as “The Knowledge-Creating Company”.
·Increasing the intellectual skills of the employees of an organisation so that they can perform their job in a better way.
“Knowledge Management is the process of improving the job performance of knowledge workers by eliminating relevant ignorance and inability as quickly and inexpensively as possible (KM-Experts).”
·Increasing the efficiency and effectiveness of the processes and functions in an organisation.
I could not find the reference for this argument. But I will try to prove that how Knowledge Management can be instrumental in improving the efficiency and effectiveness of organisational processes and functions by means of some real life organisational examples in the section 1.3.
To summarise this, we can define Knowledge Management as follows:
Knowledge Management is the process of creating, storing, distributing(Wigg. K, 1997) and filtering (Creotec – eBusiness Software Company) the knowledge for the purpose of increasing human intellectual and skills(KM-Experts) resulting in the better efficiency and effectiveness of organisational processes and functions.
Following is the explanation with illustrations of all the important aspects of the above definition of Knowledge Management.
Knowledge Creation is very important for the organisational learning and innovation (Midgley T, 1999). One of the key aspects of the long term success and survival of an organisation is innovation (Nonaka T, 1995). Human Self Learning is also an important source of Knowledge Creation.
Knowledge Storage becomes very important for the Knowledge Distribution. When the person possessing the knowledge is not available, which is a usual problem in organisations in countries like India, where frequent job change is a norm, storage (transferring to explicit) becomes very important, so that the knowledge owned by that person is not lost for the organisation.
Knowledge Distribution is the process of making knowledge available to others. One goal of Knowledgedistribution is to improve individual, group, and organisational learning (Dieng R., 2000).
As the organisation build its intellectual capital on the basis of organisational learning and human learning, it is very important to analyse which knowledge is useful and which is not. All the knowledge generated in an organisation may not be useful to the organisation. So there should be a filtration (Creotec – eBusiness Software Company) process/mechanism which defines which created or existing knowledge should be stored and distributed. This is Knowledge Analysis/Filtration.
To illustrate the whole process I would like to give an example in context of a Software Development company. In Software Project Management, projects with highly variable client needs were very difficult to handle. In year 2001, some people came up with new technique of Agile Project Management which involved client in the whole Software Development Process (Cockburn A., 2001). The development of new Project Management Methodology is a type of Knowledge Creation.
Expressing the existing or newly created knowledge in terms of blogs, discussion forums, manuals, documents, etc. so that it can is readily available to others is Knowledge Storage and Distribution.
One of the ways if implementing agile methodology is Extreme Programming (XP). XP required that all the software to be developed by teams of two sitting side by side on the same machine (Jeffries R., 2001). Software Development companies with limited number of programmers with very good skills and handling mid to large projects may find this not useful. So the management may not implement this technique in the organisations. This is Knowledge Filtration.
One of the primary purposes of any knowledge management exercise in an organisation should be to increase intellectual level and skills of its employees. Moreover one the missions of any knowledge management exercise is to build the intellectual capital, which is an intangible asset of an organisation. Intangible assets are more valuable than tangible assets (Stewart T., 2001). Intellectual skills, expertise, and capabilities of employees are important part of intangible assets (Stewart T., 2001).
To illustrate the whole process I would like to give an example in context of a Software Development company. Think of a Software Development company with thousands of employees. The tools in the Software Development are changing very rapidly, with new versions released frequently. Now if all the employees try to learn the new technological changes individually, then there will be a lot of duplication of effort resulting in waste of time. Moreover the grasping power is not same for all the peoples. So if somebody had learned the new changes and he want to share with all the other employees of the organisation, then Knowledge Management can be very helpful in such a scenario. So this will increases the intellectual skill level to employees with less time and effort.
This argument is supported by Dr. John Gundry and Dr. George Metes in there paper "Team Knowledge Management: A Computer-Mediated Approach", where they emphasise on why Knowledge Management is useful and necessary in building the intellectual capital for an organisation. However they have paid more emphasis on use of computers in this process, the concept itself is quite general in nature.
An increase in the human intellectual and skill will definitely result in the increase in the efficiency and effectiveness of organisational processes and functions e.g. Let we consider the same example of Software Development company. One of the important phases of the Software Development Life Cycle is Software Coding which is the primary work of Software Programmer. Now in his/her daily routine of programming, a programmer faces different types of errors and problems related to tools used in the Coding. Most of the time, a programmer looks for the solution by searching on the manuals, internet and books. Any programmer will know that sometimes small obvious errors can take days to find the cause. Now imagine about the organisation in which thousands of employees are working. If there is proper knowledge management system in place in an organisation, then the process of finding a solution for a particular error will not be repeated, and this will increase the speed of the process, ultimately resulting in the increase in the effectiveness and efficiency of an organisation.
Moreover overall Software Development Process requires continuous improvement as the challenges are ever increasing in the terms of reducing the cost of development and increasing the product quality. Knowledge Management can be critical for this by sharing the existing knowledge of the employees and utilizing the existing knowledge of the organisation (Dyba T., 2004).
While doing research on the definition of Knowledge Management in group, three things which most of us agreed upon was creation, storage, and distribution of knowledge is an integral part of Knowledge Management. But one thing my group member came up with was filtering. This was a really important point. All the knowledge generated in an organisation or possessed by its employees may not be useful or may not be relevant at all. Filtering of knowledge is necessary to make sure that right knowledge is stored and distributed in an organisation among the employees. I also found support for this argument in the definition of Knowledge Management by Creotec which I have already discussed in section 1.1.
Apart from discussion in the seminar and lab, I also had discussion on the blogs with my classmates. My classmate Ikbal W. (2008) defined knowledge management as “Knowledge Management is the process of Knowledge Creation or refining the existing knowledge, Filtration, Storage and Dissemination of any single entity of this universe”.
I was really concerned about the words entity and the universe. What we were required to do was to define knowledge management in terms of organisational context, and not in general terms. I said to him that we should define Knowledge Management in terms of organisational context, and not try to be philosophical. After my comments, Ikbal W. changed his definition and replaced the word entity with the organisation. He also removed the word universe from the definition. He modified definition as “Knowledge Management is the process of Knowledge Creation or refining the existing knowledge, Filtration, Storage and Dissemination of knowledge in an organisation”.
Some of my colleague Kasala P. (2008) and Azeez T. (2008) didn’t used the examples to Knowledge Management. To understand the definition of Knowledge Management, it’s important that we apply that definition to an organization, so that we can understand the practicality of that definition.
Other classmate Kondaveeti K. (2008) said that “We require database to store the information and need to manage knowledge”. I really disagreed with this statement. After the study in the group and seminar, we found that creating right environment is the key to knowledge management. Environment which will encourage people to share their existing knowledge is critical for knowledge management. The use of database is a secondary thing. Even the use depends on the organisational environment. Not all the organisations can use IT to implement knowledge management. One of the good examples is of drillers in oil companies, doing drilling in distant locations. Instead of database, a right environment (like meeting and knowledge cafes) will be more appropriate to enable knowledge sharing.
Koenig M. & Srikantaiah T. (2004), “Knowledge Management Lessons Learned – What Works and What Doesn’t”, ed. Stewart T. (2001), “Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth of Organisations”, Assist Monograph Series
