Transcript travelingman2.tripod.com

2-1
Information Knowledge Management for Managers
Chapter 3:
Gearing Information & Knowledge
for Competitive Advantage
Lecture 2A
Total: Lectures 2A – 2B
Module: IKMM
2-2
Class Objectives
Identify:
• what we know, don’t know and want to know through
a knowledge audit
• tools upon which organizations build competitive
advantages
• how learning organizations are supposed to work and
some practical steps to realize the theories
Module: IKMM
2-3
2.0: Introduction
• Knowledge within a company
– If it is not shared, has no returns
– It should also not be monopolized by any group
• Knowledge is now commonly viewed as a sustainable
source of competitive advantage:
– Producing unique products and services, or
– Producing products/services at a lower cost than competitors
is based on superior knowledge
• Knowledge is valuable for creating new ideas, insights
and interpretations and for decision-making
• Motivation to share experience is sometimes low:
– The individual is “giving away” his value and may be very
reluctant to lose a position of influence and respect by making
it available to everyone.
Module: IKMM
2-4
2.1: Tacit Knowledge and Explicit Knowledge
• Tacit knowledge is expertise held by people within the
organization that has not been formally documented:
– It is difficult to manage because it is invisible and intangible
– Tacit means understood without words; implied
• Have you ever noticed how easily you speak your mother tongue?
• Playing a complicated musical piece by heart, a musician
concentrates on the melody without concentrating on where to put
his hands.
– He attends from the melody in his head to where to put his hands.
Module: IKMM
2-5
2.1: Tacit Knowledge and Explicit Knowledge
• Explicit knowledge is knowledge that an organization
already stores in formal systems.
– It includes facts, transactions and events that can be clearly
stated and even recorded in documents or stored in
management information systems or embodied in values,
methods and procedures
• Japanese companies have a strong focus on tacit
knowledge:
– They motivate knowledge creation through visions of products
and strategies coupled with organizational cultures that
promote sharing, transparency and proactive use of knowledge
and innovation.
What about western companies – tacit/explicit orientation? Why/not?
Module: IKMM
2-6
2.2 Knowledge Assets are
"Knowledge is power" versus "Sharing knowledge is power"
Module: IKMM
2-7
2.3: Knowledge Audit
• To determine the strategic role of knowledge in a
company: carry out a knowledge audit
• Purpose of audit includes:
– Assists decision-making in systems and process design.
– Assists in resource planning for information and knowledge
services.
– Identifies gaps and duplication in information processes.
– Provides direction for changes in management structures and
methods.
Module: IKMM
2-8
2.3: Knowledge Audit
Stages of the audit process:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Define the goals of the audit (core competencies).
Identify constraints (time, cost, etc.).
Identify an end or “ideal” state (performance measures).
Select audit method (includes planning and organizing a team
to perform it).
Perform audit (identify knowledge types and sources).
Document knowledge assets.
Determine the strategic position within the existing
infrastructure (value proposition & type of knowledge
management strategy).
Module: IKMM
2-9
2.3: Knowledge Audit – 2nd Look at the Process
Module: IKMM
2-10
2.3: Knowledge Audit - Practice
Example: You and your team mates are stranded on a desert
island. You have found an old hut with some tools, a few
animals (goats/rabbits) and some seeds. You don’t know
how long you will be there and must prepare for a long
term stay. Conduct a knowledge audit.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Define the goals of the audit (core competencies).
Identify constraints (time, cost, etc.).
Identify an end or “ideal” state (performance measures).
Select audit method (includes planning and organizing a team to perform
it).
Perform audit (identify knowledge types and sources).
Document knowledge assets.
Determine the strategic position within the existing infrastructure (value
proposition & type of knowledge management strategy).
Module: IKMM
2-11
2.3: Learning organization
•
Importance of utilising knowledge is reflected in the
drive to create the “learning organization”
Peter Senge defines the basic meaning of the
learning organization as:
•
–
•
“An organization that is continually expanding its capacity
to create its future”
A learning organization is centred on the people
that make up the organization and the knowledge
they hold
–
–
The organization and employees feed off and into the
centre pool of knowledge
The organization uses the knowledge pool as a tool to teach
itself and its employees.
Module: IKMM
2-12
2.4: Competitive Advantage
•
Knowledge management (KM) is a conscious strategy of
–
–
•
KM can incorporate any of the following 4 items:
–
–
–
–
•
getting the right knowledge to the right people at the right time &
helping people share and put information into action that improve
organizational performance
Information technologies
Business processes
Knowledge repositories
Individual behaviours.
Two techniques designed to utilise the ever increasing amounts
of data held by an organization are data warehousing and
datamining.
Module: IKMM
2-13
2.4: Data Warehouse
Module: IKMM
2-14
2.4: Components of a Data Warehouse
Data
warehouse
Module: IKMM
2-15
2.4a: Implement a Data Warehouse
•
A data warehouse is a computer loaded with a database
product such as Oracle or Microsoft SOL server. This
database is configured to hold key information you want to
look at and interfaced with the 'transaction processing' systems
For larger volumes of data, use a toolset called OLAP (on-line
analytical processing) which allows summary information
to be created and stored across the different business
performance metrics.
•
–
•
On-line and instant enquiries can potentially be made on the balances of
any combination of customer/product/regional performance by
date/period range.
Once this warehouse has been set up:
–
–
Information can be combined from the different operations systems into
a consistent format, and
Can be accessed by a wide variety of reporting/analysis/web tools.
Module: IKMM
2-16
2.4a: Implement a Data Warehouse - OLAP
•
OLAP (on-line analytical processing)
•
Part of the broader category of business intelligence
which also encompasses relational reporting and data
mining.
•
Typical applications include:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Business reporting for sales
Marketing
Management reporting
Business process mgmt
Budgeting
Forecasting
Financial reporting
Module: IKMM
2-17
2.5: Data Mining
•
•
•
•
•
Datamining software looks for hidden patterns and
relationships in large pools of data.
Datamining uses statistical analysis tools as well as
techniques like neural networks and fuzzy logic.
True datamining software discovers previously unknown
relationships.
Datamining provides insights that can not be obtained through
OLAP.
The hidden patterns and relationships the software identifies
can be used to guide decision making and to predict future
behavior.
Module: IKMM
2-18
2.4b: Reporting Tools (and more!)
•
To access and utilize data/information from multiple
departments, specialized systems can be necessary.
•
Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) packages promise to integrate your
different applications smoothly and give you a single point of access to all
data.
Watch SAP Video
Module: IKMM
2-19
2.4b: Reporting Tools
•
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software has
been added to this recipe to give this approach a better chance
of happening.
•
Spreadsheets can also be considered a reporting and analysis tool. Module: IKMM
2-20
2.4c: Intranet Enable Reporting/Enquiries
•
Larger companies would have a corporate intranet.
–
•
Typically holds information on employee contact details, standard forms
for holiday requests, terms and conditions of employment and so on.
It is possible now to integrate financial reporting into an
intranet. The leading web page development tools allow the
display of information from a data warehouse and allow users to
drill down on the data to get further detail. There are a number
of benefits to this.
–
–
–
First, the information is presented in a user-friendly format and can be
made 'idiot proof' for non-IT literate staff.
Second, the benefit of using a web browser is that it allows for remote
access to the information quickly and easily.
Third, the web browser technology is becoming an industry standard
and as such is well supported and increasingly reliable.
Module: IKMM
2-21
2.4d: Client/Supplier Access to Information
•
•
•
•
–
So you have implemented the above and have your core
business data from your different systems in a single data
warehouse.
You will be using PC tools like MS Excel to access this and
will have developed part of your intranet so that staff can
access key information quickly and easily wherever they are.
Why not consider making some of this information available
to your business partners?
For example,
If you have customer sales order information in your data
warehouse, why not make it available to your customers and
even suppliers?
Module: IKMM
2-22
2.4e: Streamlined Transaction Processing
•
The next step is to look at the possibility of streamlining
your business processes. How many times are you capturing
your transactions in your organization?
Why not allow customers to generate their orders via the web?
•
–
•
•
If the data warehouse holds information on the clients, the products and
services you sell, it could be relatively straightforward to create an
order front-end with a web browser to this information.
Why not also extend this to allowing your employees and even
customers to 'self service' the information in your systems and
keep it up-to-date themselves.
However, security is always a concern.
Module: IKMM
2-23
2.6: Case Study: Northrop
•
•
•
How did NGACS approach doing a Knowledge Audit?
What were the findings / results?
How did they achieve buy-in from the workers? (Or did
they need to?)
•
Do you think this is the typical company response?
Why/not?
Module: IKMM
2-24
2.6: Case Study: KPMG Consulting
•
Major accounting and consulting firms have structured
document and case-based repositories of reports of
consultants working with clients
–
–
Reports placed in database, used to train, prepare new
consultants
E.g. KPMG’s KWorld
•
•
•
•
•
Tax and accounting firm; 97000 professionals; 1100 offices
in 144 countries. Share knowledge, best practices,
information overload of individual consulants.
One of world’s largest structured knowledge systems
Document repository
Online collaboration tools
Content organized into nine levels by KPMG products and
market segments with many subcategories of knowledge
Module: IKMM
2-25
2.6: Case Study: KPMG Consulting
KPMG is Facing Many Knowledge-Related Issues
Information
Overload
Lack of
Creativity
Loss of InHouse
Knowledge
Limited
Sharing of
Best Practices
Ineffective
Decision
Making
Lack of
Customer
Responsiveness
. . . effective knowledge management is the key to success
Module: IKMM
2-26
2.6: Case Study: KPMG Consulting: KWorld
A Enterprise-Wide Knowledge Management System
K-World’s
Knowledge
Domains
KPMG’s KWorld is
organized into nine levels
of content that are further
classified by product,
market segment, and
geographic area.
Module: IKMM
2-27
Comprehension / Usage Questions
•
•
•
•
What is the strategic role of knowledge in your company?
Does your organization use any KM tools?
How are these tools used? Do you feel they provide any value?
How do you find folks with certain knowledge? By the
company org chart?
• With a partner, discuss conducting a knowledge audit of your
respective companies. Specifically…
•
•
•
•
How would you do it?
Objectives
Who would participate?
Etc.
<End> Module: IKMM
2-28
End of the Chapter Questions
• How could information systems help to access wide
networks and generate valuable information?
• How could information, if harnessed appropriately aid
decision making and reduce the risks that affect
operations?
• Identify the factors that make for a successful
knowledge project.
• How could competitive advantage be realized through
effective knowledge management?
<End> Module: IKMM
2-29
Managing Information & Knowledge Strategically
Chapter 4:
Learning Organizations
(Technology for Learning Systems)
Lecture 2B
Module: IKMM
2-30
2.7: Learning organization
• Learning Organization (LO) is
– where the framework is in place for learning to take place
that changes/transforms the behavior of the organization.
– where learning must transfer from individual(s) to
collective(s) to organizational to inter-organizational, and
vice-versa.
• Organization learning (OL) is
– coming together and interaction of individuals to enable
them to support and encourage one another’s learning,
which will in the longer term be of benefit to the
organization.
– a social process, involving interactions among many
individuals leading to well-informed decision making.
• Ang & Joseph (1996) contrast LO and OL in terms of
structure versus process.
Module: IKMM
2-31
2.7: Learning organization
• Learning Organization is seen as response to an
increasingly unpredictable and dynamic business
environment by
– being adaptive to their external environment
– continually enhancing their capability to change/adapt
– developing collective as well as individual learning
• Learning Organization emphasizes teams and
systems, no hierarchy, in striving to maximize
performance through its focus on quality and customer
satisfaction.
• The advantage of such an organization is that learning
creates knowledge, which becomes the intellectual
capital of the organization and is used as a source of
competitive advantage.
Module: IKMM
2-32
2.8: Five Disciplines to build the Learning Organization
(According to Peter Senge)
1. System thinking
‒
Everyone learns how the whole organization works and how
they support the organization.
2. Shared vision
–
People have a purpose and added commitment in a group by
sharing images of the future they seek to create in common.
3. Mental models
–
–
Everyone sets aside old ways of thinking.
Question current ways of thinking.
4. Team Learning
‒
How dialogue and skilful discussion transforms teams into
swarm and combine their energies and ability greater than the
sum of individual members’ talents.
5. Personal mastery
–
–
Organizations learn through individuals. Personal mastery is
one’s drive towards continuously improvement by learning.
Employees have a deep knowledge and understanding of the
people, the job and the processes they are responsible for.
Module: IKMM
2-33
2.8.1: System Thinking
•
•
•
•
•
•
Is a discipline for seeing structures (the patterns and
connections underlying seemingly diverse personal,
organizational and societal issues).
An appreciation of how our actions shape our reality.
An appreciation that one’s actions impinge all the
members of the work unit.
Focus on interrelationships and not things
Think in circles, not in lines.
Moving beyond blame.
Module: IKMM
2-34
2.8.1: System Thinking
•
•
•
•
•
Seeing interrelationships rather than linear causeeffect chains.
Seeing circles of causality.
Seeing processes of change rather than snapshots.
The practice of systems thinking starts with
understanding the concept called “feedback.”
The language of systems thinking is “links” and
“loops.”
Module: IKMM
2-35
2.8.2: Shared Vision
•
Leaders intent on building shared visions must be
willing to continually share their personal visions.
They must also be prepared to ask,
– “Will you follow me?”
•
•
Vision creates a sense of commonality that binds
people together for a greater good.
A shared vision must be co-created.
Module: IKMM
2-36
2.8.3: Mental Models
•
•
•
•
•
•
Are the images, assumptions, and stories which we carry in
our minds of ourselves, other people, institutions, and every
aspect of the world.
Are like a pane of glass framing and subtly distorting our
vision.
They determine what we see.
They are our cognitive maps of the world people hold in their
long-term memory and short-term perceptions which people
build up as part of their everyday reasoning processes.
Are powerful in affecting what we do because they affect
what we see.
The tools needed to practice this discipline are Reflection and
Inquiry.
Module: IKMM
2-37
2.8.3: Mental Models
•
Skills for working & practicing the discipline on
Mental Models
– Reflection
• Slowing down our thinking processes to become aware
of how we form our mental models.
– Inquiry
• Holding conversations where we openly share views
and develop knowledge about each other’s assumptions
Module: IKMM
2-38
2.8.3: Mental Models
Skills for working & practicing the discipline on
Mental Models
Single-loop learning
Double-loop Learning
• People respond to changes
in their organizational
environment by detecting
errors and correcting them
to maintain the current
desired status.
• No reflection or inquiry
that leads to reframing the
situation.
• Involves surfacing and
challenging deep-rooted
assumptions and norms of
an organization that may
lead to a reformulation of
the problem.
Module: IKMM
2-39
2.8.4: Team Learning
•
•
•
Team Learning is the process of aligning and
developing the capacity of a team to create the
results the members truly desire.
Team learning is a team skill.
Tools of Team Learning are dialogue and
conversation:
–
–
–
–
A flow of thoughts and meaning
No results or decisions
Open and honest talk
Awareness of one’s assumptions, discovery of the
assumptions of others.
Module: IKMM
2-40
2.8.5: Personal Mastery
•
•
•
Is the emotional intelligence-capacity to use our intelligence
(smartness) to the fullest extent.
Organizations learn only through individuals who learn.
Our capacity is limited by 5 demons:
–
–
–
–
–
Fear of not being good enough (you have untapped capacities
within yourself)
Fear of losing control (letting go makes new things happen)
It’s a cruel world out there - life is always a struggle (there is
generosity all around, all you have to do is ask)
I am in this all alone, I can’t count on anyone but myself (there
is help everywhere)
Fear of losses too great to bear, fear of our own mortality
(leaving something behind creates space for something new)
Module: IKMM
2-41
2.8: Shortcomings of Senge’s five disciplines of LO
•
•
•
•
•
It is too philosophical and sophisticated for
practising managers.
Organizations are interested in short-term results.
Employees in eastern cultures are not used to turning
their mirrors inward.
Organizations define learning in a narrow way:
Learning to them is about training their employees to
be efficient.
It ignores the existence of organizational politics.
Module: IKMM
2-42
2.9: Levels of Learning
•
Level 1
– Applies to known situations where changes are minor
•
Level 2
– Applies to new situations where existing responses need to
be changed
•
Level 3
– Applies to more dynamic situations where solutions need
developing
•
Level 4
– About creativity and innovation
(next slide).
Module: IKMM
2-43
2.9: Creativity, Innovation & Knowledge Management
•
•
•
Creativity is the process of generating ideas
Innovation is the sifting, refining and more critically –
the implementation of those ideas.
Creativity – coming up with new ideas - is not enough.
We need innovation – the taking of new or existing
ideas and putting them into action and production.
– Requires the application of existing knowledge and
development of appropriate new knowledge and
transforming it into business value.
•
Innovation is a far tougher proposition than creativity.
Module: IKMM
2-44
2.10: Learning Organization Article
•
Based on the article, why don’t we all work for LOs?
Module: IKMM
2-45
2.10: Learning Organization Article
•
Nokia views KM as a combination of people, processes, technologies, and
culture. It is through learning that organizations are able to improve what they
do. Appropriate knowledge sharing facilitates effective learning. Various
management approaches can be used in combination to produce a learning
organization, which can in turn provide improved service; these include
competence management and performance management. Organizational values
must be reflected in the day-to-day running of an organization in order to
impact on its knowledge strategy. The Nokia Way promotes a culture of
learning that is premised on four pillars: customer satisfaction, respect for the
individual, achievement, and continuous learning. The Nokia Way is facilitated
through a series of mechanisms, mainly interactions between managers,
colleagues, and employees placing power in the hands of the individual to
develop in the organization. A jazz band analogy best captures Nokia’s
approach to KM: the company shares a common vision and creates the space
for an ensemble to perform in unison without controlling the music or
constraining the performance.
Module: IKMM
2-46
2.10: Case Study: Nokia
•
•
•
(2/3)
Change and people management are commonly believed to make up 80% of
KM, whereas IT comprises only 20% of it. In Nokia no one person owns the
KM process—everyone owns it. Human Resources has a crucial role to play in
implementing KM, as do IT, quality, and corporate planning departments.
Organizational learning overlaps performance management (individual focus),
competency management (organizational focus), and knowledge management
(thematic or team focus). Nokia integrates these three approaches in order to
identify best practices and lessons learned.
The Nokia Saga, a novel about Nokia’s history, contains about 100 stories that
many employees read in order to better understand the company’s values. The
storytelling provides examples of what managers do and how they apply Nokia
values. Nokia’s annual report is called “No Limits,” and it gives progress
reports on how the company culture is moving toward a knowledge-sharing
culture—with no limits on learning, participating, and building better futures.
Nokia does not have a Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO). It has a steering group
of about 10 persons from different functional areas coordinating KM activities.
The head of the steering committee is also the head of the quality department.
Module: IKMM
2-47
2.10: Case Study: Nokia
•
(3/3)
Many organizations have a concern that sharing all their knowledge means
giving all their power away. Nokia was able to change its culture to one of
knowledge sharing by designing a flat, networked, global, and multicultural
organization. Speed, flexibility, opportunity, and openness are the key features.
Nokia’s management evaluates how well employees do with respect to
supporting KM in terms of creating, sharing, and reusing knowledge. They do
not have incentive systems, as they believe knowledge sharing should be part
of the company culture and not something that is rewarded with money. The
intention is to try to capture as much organizational knowledge as possible. As
in a good jazz band, the players share a common vision, and are interested in
producing good products through innovation and improvisation. The end result
is not always clearly seen, but because a common vision guides their
performance, these professionals allow their services to be shaped by the
feelings and interactions of the various players who are part of the company.
<End> Module: IKMM
2-48
Comprehension / Usage Questions
• Do you belong to a learning organization? How
so/not?
• How can its learning orientation be improved?
• What are the challenges to implementing these
changes? What must be overcome?
<End> Module: IKMM
2-49
Assignment Introduction
You have been appointed the KM (Knowledge Manager) for
an MNC.
You need to look at the feasibility of formulating and
implementing a strategic Knowledge Management System
that connects your global organization together and allows
you to share the data, information and knowledge that are
gathered or developed within each country with pertinent
parties in other parts of your organization.
Challenges: Balance the needs and requirements of managers
and workers in a multi-national, multi-cultural and ever
changing work environment.
Module: IKMM
2-50
Assignment Introduction
What is relevant to your assignment?
• Knowledge Audit (identify what you don’t know)
• Technology Aids
• Learning Organization
– Desirability?
– Effectiveness as a benchmark / aspiration
– Implementability
Module: IKMM