Week 6 - Organisational Knowledge- why bother…

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1. INTRODUCTION

Today many organisations have become aware that managing knowledge is crucial for their success. With the increasing level of hype around the words Knowledge Management (KM), many organisations want to know if knowledge can really be managed. This article will investigate!

2. “MY PASSING THOUGHTS”

In my article Data <—> Information<—> Knowledge (RSK, 2009a), knowledge is the “understanding of the facts (information) and applying experience or skills to make decision upon it”. Therefore knowledge is an asset to an individual and exploiting this knowledge within an organisation makes it valuable to both.

The question is can organisational knowledge be captured and managed? If only systems are in place to maximise the knowledge that is important to the organisation (Snowden, 2005).

3. BACKGROUND READING

3.1. Purpose of KM within an Organisation

There are many obstacles on the path to managing knowledge within organisations in order to obtain competitive advantage (Dierkes et al., 2001). The first step that the organisation should take is to understand the purpose of having KM.

Having KM within organisation is not just sharing the knowledge; what would that mean in a business context? It must have a return on investment to the organisation of having KM, which can be difficult to measure (Ichijō & Nonaka, 2007). Therefore in a business context what determines that something was known by someone quicker with KM in place? (Mullins 1999). If you can determine that, how can you measure the productivity gained. In addition it can lead to management uneasiness with the costs of implementing KM (Davenport & Volpel, 2001).

3.2. Structure of the Organisation

The impact of organisational structure influences the way power and responsibilities are carried within the organisation as suggested by Debowski (2006). In addition it can have implications in the way knowledge can be disseminated and adopted by others (Davenport & Volpel, 2001). As this can restrict people from sharing and focusing only on their own objectives rather than the organisations. This is also a barrier to KM, hence the continuation of dispute between management and employees creates a volatile environment consequently “sticky knowledge” remains within the organisation because of the structure (Debowski, 2006).

3.3. Organisation Culture / Social Factors

According to Mullins (1999) the first impediment to knowledge success is dealing with the people who have the knowledge. Thus Cook (1999) suggests people feel they give up knowledge, they give up power, which results in people feeling dispensable.

More progressive organisations share information and knowledge more freely (Dalkir, 2005). This attitude needs to permeate the organisations for KM to succeed.

Organisation culture must change to develop KM; however the reality is that knowledge is power in many organisations. Thus knowledge sharing is not working because the fear and self interest of individuals working alone and not as whole for the organisation (Debowski, 2006; Lin, 2007). The ideas of incentives and rewards could make employees motivated to share knowledge (Chaffy, 2005). On the other hand teams within organisations can work more collaborative and see more reasons to share knowledge.

The major obstacle is organisation requires KM, but the support is little, for example: the problem is the lack of time to capture the knowledge that does exist. Reflecting to world wide angle knowledge is difficult to source in the open environment because of the transparency (Debowski, 2006). There are some countries which do and do not “understand the importance of fiscal mobilisation”. Subsequently, if knowledge was shared this would make all countries become better.

3.4. Can Knowledge be Managed

Some critics for example: Streatfield & Wilson (1999) argue that knowledge cannot be managed because it is invisible and intangible. Davenport & Volpel (2001) say “management to mean any concerted attempt to improve how knowledge is created, distributed, or used” then KM is not unachievable. Thus management has previously involved the manipulation of other invisible and intangible issues like motivation, inspiration and creativity. (Davenport & Volpel, 2001)

For example: the European Commission created a knowledge centre where the domain topic area addresses the concern of "road, rail and transportation", the community involvement here is conducted by five research teams from seven different countries. This reflects the idea that organisation knowledge cannot be managed hence the need for organisations to seek others to work together to enable a feasible project delivery TRKC (n.d).

4. MY PERSONAL STAND POINT

Knowledge exists in people, not technology. To share it will require a massive human effort. Technology can help to capture information, but can not create knowledge.

The business strategy of the organisation must acknowledge the requirement(s) to capture knowledge and actively promote the effort, which requires investment to really be flourishing (RSK, 2009b). These investments could include useful technologies for example: search engines, intelligent agents, database management systems, document management systems and repositories (Snowden, 2005).

Organisation knowledge can not be managed and will require the help of others in other prominent fields. For example: Transport for London is working with "education schools across London" as part of improvement service towards "safety and citizenship" Parliamentary (2009). Therefore sharing knowledge externally helps the organisation to provide better service and understanding to its stakeholders.

For organisations, there is no one solution where you can just buy off the shelf, plug in and have KM. However working out strategies to reuse knowledge throughout an organisation is definitely a good idea.

5. THEORY IN PRACTICE

5.1. Organisations Working Together

Organisations appear to have difficulty using internal knowledge, likewise some have exploited externally to seek and share knowledge. Popely (2006) gives a good example of where he discusses about "hybrid effort" of four car manufacturers (Toyota GM, Chrysler and BMW) worked together as partners to create a hybrid model. The impact here was to achieve "economies of scale" but also saving towards heavy cost globally such as "purchasing, product development and new technology".

5.2. Compucorp Organisation

A good example to demonstrate is shown in Woerner (2001) where Compucorp organisation lacked "marketing knowledge or sales", as a result of this, they decided to "sell calculator designs instead of manufacturing calculators". The impact here is because of the knowledge in the marketing and sales area. Thus Compucorp failed to proceed; this could impact the organisation itself through large investment loss and time taken for initial design features.

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Reference(s)
	Book		Chaffey, D. & Wood, S. (2004) Business Information Management: Improving Performance Using Information Systems. Financial Times Prentice Hall: United Kingdom (UK), England, Essex, Harlow. [ISBN: 9780273686552]. [Available on: Amazon: https://amzn.to/3yZ6vdF].
	Journal		Cook, P. (1999) I heard it through the grapevine: making knowledge management work by learning to share knowledge, skills and experience. Industrial and Commercial Training, Volume: 31, Issue: 3, Page(s): 101-105. [doi: 10.1108/00197859910269185]. [Available on: Emerald: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/00197859910269185/full/html].
	Book		Dalkir, K. (2005) Knowledge Management in Theory and Practice. Elsevier: Netherlands, North Holland, Amsterdam. [ISBN: 9780750678643]. [Available on: Amazon: https://amzn.to/3CZYCGb].
	Book		Dalkir, K. (2018) Knowledge Management in Theory and Practice. 3rd Edition. MIT Press: United States of America (USA), Massachusetts (MA), Middlesex, Cambridge. [ISBN: 9780262036870]. [Available on: Amazon: https://amzn.to/3TX9pYx].
	Journal		Davenport, T. H. & Völpel, S. C. (2001) The rise of knowledge towards attention management. Journal of Knowledge Management, Volume: 5, Issue: 3, Page(s): 212-222. [doi: 10.1108/13673270110400816]. [Available on: Emerald: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/13673270110400816/full/html].
	Book		Debowski, S. (2006) Knowledge Management. John Wiley & Sons: United States of America (USA), New York (NY). [ISBN: 9788126514502]. [Available on: Amazon: https://amzn.to/3DqO9oP].
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	Book		Ichijo, K. & Nonaka, I. (2006) Knowledge Creation and Management: New Challenges for Managers. Oxford University Press: United Kingdom (UK), England, Oxfordshire, Oxford. [ISBN: 9780195159622]. [Available on: Amazon: https://amzn.to/3DaXaRB].
	Blog		Kahlon, R. S. (2009) Week 2 - Data <—> Information <—> Knowledge [Online]. dkode: United Kingdom (UK), England, London, Hendon. [Published on: 2009-01-27]. [Article ID: RSK666-0000005]. [Available on: dkode | Ravi: https://ravi.dkode.co/2009/01/week-1-orgnetcop.html].
	Blog		Kahlon, R. S. (2009) Week 4 - Developing a KM Strategy? [Online]. dkode: United Kingdom (UK), England, London, Hendon. [Published on: 2009-02-04]. [Article ID: RSK666-0000008]. [Available on: dkode | Ravi: https://ravi.dkode.co/2009/02/week-2-what-is-knowledge-management_04.html].
	Blog		Kahlon, R. S. (2009) Week 8 - Knowledge Management Systems… [Online]. dkode: United Kingdom (UK), England, London, Hendon. [Published on: 2009-03-12]. [Article ID: RSK666-0000014]. [Available on: dkode | Ravi: http://ravi.dkode.co/2009/03/week-8-knowledge-management-systems.html].
	Journal		Lin, C. P. (2007) To share or not to share: modeling knowledge sharing using exchange ideology as a moderator. Personnel Review, Volume: 36, Issue: 3, Page(s): 457-475. [doi: 10.1108/00483480710731374]. [Available on: Emerald: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/00483480710731374/full/html].
	Web		Mullins, C. (1999) What is Knowledge and Can it Be Managed [Online]. DATAVERSITY Education: United States of America (USA), California (CA), Los Angeles. [Accessed on: 2009-03-03]. [Available on: DATAVERSITY: https://tdan.com/what-is-knowledge-and-can-it-be-managed/5108].
	Web		NETLIPSE. (2009) Projects & Analysis [Online]. Networking Knowledge of Large Infrastructure Projects in Europe: Netherlands, Randstad, Utrecht, Baarn. [Accessed on: 2009-03-03]. [Available on: NETLIPSE: https://netlipse.eu].
	Web		Popely, R. (2006) Hybrid Effort - Trio Takes On Toyota GM, Chrysler and BMW [Online]. Tribune Publishing: United States of America (USA), Illinois (IL), Cook, Chicago. [Accessed on: 2009-03-03]. [Available on: Chicago Tribune: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2006-09-01-0609010172-story.html].
	Book		Rikowski, R. (2007) Knowledge Management: Social, Cultural and Theoretical Perspectives: Practical, Social, Cultural and Theoretical Perspectives. Chandos Publishing: United Kingdom (UK), England, Oxfordshire, Oxford. [ISBN: 9781843341895]. [Available on: Amazon: https://amzn.to/3F6320L].
	Journal		Snowden, D. (2005) Strategy in the context of uncertainty. Handbook of Business Strategy, Volume: 6, Issue: 1, Page(s): 47-54. [doi: 10.1108/08944310510556955]. [Available on: Emerald: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/08944310510556955/full/html].
	Journal		Streatfield, D. & Wilson, T. (1999) Deconstructing ‘knowledge management’. Aslib Proceedings, Volume: 51, Issue: 3, Page(s): 67-72. [doi: 10.1108/eum0000000006964]. [Available on: Emerald: https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/EUM0000000006964/full/html].
	Web		Woerner, J. (2001) Featured Companies: Compucorp [Online]. Joerg Woerner: Germany, Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart. [Accessed on: 2009-03-03]. [Available on: Datamath: http://www.datamath.org/Featured_Companies.htm].

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Reference (or cite) Article
	Kahlon, R. S. (2009) Week 6 - Organisational Knowledge, why bother…? [Online]. dkode: United Kingdom, England, London, Hendon. [Published on: 2009-02-28]. [Article ID: RSK666-0000012]. [Available on: dkode | Ravi - https://ravi.dkode.co/2009/03/organisational-knowledge-why-bother.html].

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