CHAPTER 3: THE THEORY OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
3.7 Principles of knowledge management
3.6.6 Sophisticated customers, competitors and suppliers
Customers have become more demanding. They increasingly desire customised products and services that support their success and in turn are needed to serve their own customers better. To survive in this environment, enterprises must perform in the same way, or better than their competition by improving their understanding of customer needs and capabilities (Wiig, 1995a).
Competing organisations are constantly implementing innovations in products, services and practices. To keep up, these changes require constant learning to build expertise.
Suppliers continue to improve their capabilities and can participate in creating and supporting innovations to deliver sophisticated products. To take advantage of these opportunities, enterprises must understand new supplier capabilities and how to integrate them with internal efforts, directions and organisational culture.
3.7.1 Knowledge management is expensive
Knowledge is an asset, but its effective management requires investment of money and labour, including the following:
• Knowledge capture, e.g. creation and moving of documents onto computer systems.
• Adding value to knowledge through repackaging and editing.
• Developing information technology infrastructures for the distribution of knowledge and educating people on the creation, sharing and use of knowledge.
3.7.2 Effective knowledge management requires hybrid solutions of people and technology
While computers and communications help with the capture and flow of knowledge, humans come into their own in interpreting it within a broader context for problem solving and decision-making.
3.7.3 Knowledge management is highly political
“Knowledge is power” and thus a highly political undertaking. Davenport (2001) argues that if knowledge is associated with power, money and success, then it is also associated with lobbying, intrigue and backroom deals. If there are no politics going on, then the organisation does not perceive the value of knowledge.
3.7.4 Knowledge management requires leadership
Knowledge will not be well managed unless some senior person or group is given responsibility for it (as with other resources like finance and human resources).
Managing knowledge and learning necessitates a type of leadership that differs fundamentally from the customary view of leader as central actor.
The new type of leaders are seen as facilitators that promote knowledge sharing and learning by their own personal action and behaviours (Davenport, 2001).
3.7.5 Knowledge management benefits more from maps than models, more from markets than hierarchies
Until recently many organisations’ approach to structuring knowledge was hierarchical, rather than thesaurus-based. However, both clients and knowledge analysts found it difficult to navigate through the tree; and new terms also tended to be added at inappropriate levels of the tree. Organisations found the thesaurus approach to be much more satisfactory. It has mapped the knowledge world rather than modelling it.
Letting the market work means that knowledge managers try to make knowledge as attractive and accessible as possible, and then observe what knowledge gets requested by clients, and specific terms they use. Clients who call for expert referrals are unlikely to always use the same terms as those the experts use in describing their work. The function of connecting a client’s needs to available expertise is performed by using online search retrieval systems. Each technical term has a preferred usage and several possible synonyms. The goal is to have these terms as well as those used by clients in the same database.
3.7.6 Sharing and using knowledge are often unnatural acts
If knowledge is a valuable resource, why should people share it? If an employee’s job is to create knowledge, why should he/she put their job at risk by using someone else’s knowledge instead of their own (Nonaka, 1998a: 21).
To enter knowledge into a system and to seek out knowledge from others is threatening and employees have to be highly motivated to undertake such work.
Davenport (2001) suggested that encouragement for individuals to share knowledge can solve the problem.
3.7.7 Knowledge management means improving knowledge work processes
Improvements must be made to those processes that involve the creation, use and sharing of knowledge. While is important to address and improve the knowledge process, it should be kept in mind that knowledge is generated, used and shared intensively in a few specific processes. According to Davenport (2001), the specific processes vary from organisation to organisation and can include market research, product design, and transactional processes. If real improvements are to be made in knowledge management, improvements must be made in these key business
processes.
3.7.8 Knowledge access is just the beginning
Knowledge access is important, but successful knowledge management also requires attention and engagement. In order for knowledge customers to pay attention to knowledge, they must become more than passive recipients. More active involvement with knowledge can be achieved through reporting it to others, through activities based on usage of the knowledge, and receiving the knowledge through close
interaction with other providers of knowledge. This is particularly important when the knowledge to be received is tacit, as Nonaka ( 1998a: 21) has long noted.
3.7.9 Knowledge management never ends
The tasks of knowledge management are never-ending. Like human resource management or financial management, there is never a time when knowledge has been fully managed. It is not a once-off initiative: it is an ongoing management task.
One reason that knowledge management never ends is that the required knowledge is always changing. New technologies, management approaches, regulatory issues and customer concerns are always emerging. Companies change their strategies,
organisational structures and product and service emphases. New managers and new professionals have new needs for knowledge (Wiig, 1995b: 22).
Davenport (2001) noted that this rapid change in knowledge environments means that organisations should not take considerable time in mapping or modelling a particular knowledge environment. By the time they have finished, the environment will no longer be the same or will no longer exist.
3.7.10 Knowledge management requires a knowledge contract
With much knowledge in employees’ heads, and increasing mobility, companies must clarify who owns and who has rights to employee knowledge.
Many organisations have held employee knowledge (at least that developed between nine and five) to be the property of the corporation. Many environmental changes make such an approach difficult. Employees move more often to new jobs and new organisations and the distinction between home life and work life has become blurred.
As knowledge become a more highly valued resource, organisations can expect to see more attention to the legalities of knowledge management (Davenport, 2001).