Formation of new ideas through interaction between explicit

and tacit knowledge in individual human minds

• Knowledge Creation consist of socialization (tacit to tacit),
externalization (tacit to explicit), combination (explicit to explicit) and
internalization (explicit to tacit).

• Knowledge update can mean creating new knowledge based on ongoing

experience in a specific domain and then using the new knowledge in
combination with the updated knowledge for knowledge sharing.

• Knowledge can be treated with TEAM WORK.

 Initial Knowledge

Outcome Realized

Outcome compared
to action

Team Performs a job

New Experience /
Knowledge Gained

New Knowledge Reusable

by team on next job

Knowledge captured and

codified to make it usable

Knowledge Creation and Knowledge Transfer via Team

• A Team can commit to perform a job over a specific period of time.

• A job can be regarded as a series of specific tasks carried out in a

specific order.

•When the job is completed, then the team compares the experience it
had initially (while starting the job) to the outcome.

• This comparison translates experience into knowledge.

• While performing the same job in future, the team can take corrective
steps and/or modify the actions based on new knowledge.

• Over time, experience usually leads to expertise where one team can be
known for handling a complex problem very well.

• This knowledge can be transferred to others in a reusable format.

• There exists factors that encourage knowledge transfer.

•Personality is one factor in case of knowledge sharing.

• For example, extrovert people usually posses self confidence, feel

secure and tend to share experience more readily than the introvert, self
centered and security conscious people.

• People with positive attitudes, who usually trust others and who works
in an knowledge sharing environment tends to be better in sharing
knowledge.

• Vocational reinforcement are the key to knowledge sharing.

• People whose vocational needs are sufficiently met by job rein-forcers

are usually found to be more likely to favor knowledge sharing.
 Company
Organizational Knowledge sharing
Policies &
Cultural
Strategies

Personality Vocational Rein-

forces

Attitude Work Norms

Compensation, Autonomy, Recognition, Job Security, Ability Utilization, Creativity, Good

Work Environment, Advancement, Moral Values, social status, Achievements, Independence,
Variety
At various stages of civilization over the past five thousand years, series
of factors have formed bottlenecks on the efficiency of human beings,
threatening to repress the growth of civilization. Up to the end of 1800s,
limits on amount of available land caused problems as populations were
growing and there were more mouths to feed. Then as large-scale
manufacturing came into existence, urban labors became the most
valuable asset.
Technological breakthroughs, machinery came into picture of production
and it began to improve the automation and industry had no longer to
depend on labors to that extent.

But due to investment in machinery, capital became all-important.

Controlling flow of capital was foremost problem for the industrialists at
that time and suddenly capital became the bottleneck to efficiency.
While traditional three factors of production – Land, Labor
and Capital – have become easier to handle, in 21st century,
a fourth factor is increasingly and fast becoming a hurdle or
bottleneck for companies to grow.

This is "Knowledge", which is at the heart of much of

today’s global economy and managing knowledge has
become vital for companies success.
 KNOWLEDGE

Knowledge can be defined as a fluid mix of experience, values, contextual

information and expert insight that provides a framework for evaluating
and incorporating new experiences and information.

Knowledge is information in action. Knowledge is what people in an

organization know about their customers, products, processes, mistakes,
and successes.

Unlike the conventional Material assets, which decrease as they are used,
Knowledge asset increases with use; Ideas breed new ideas, and shared
knowledge stays with the giver while it enriches the receiver.
PEOPLE
CONTENT

TECHNOLOGY
• Knowledge Architecture is a requirement to knowledge sharing.

• The infrastructure is viewed as a combination of people, content and

technology.

• These content are interdependent.

• People with knowledge provide content, relying on technology to

transfer and share knowledge.

• This combination provides the efficiency and performance to managing

the knowledge core of the corporation.
• The idea behind accessing people is to do a good job in assigning job content to
the right person and to ensure that the flow of information flows to the right
people at the right time.

•To speed up knowledge sharing, a knowledge network should be mapped in such

a way as to assign people authority and responsibilities for specific kind of
knowledge content. It means:

• Identifying knowledge centers (e.g. sales, products or marketing)

• Activating knowledge content – lower level knowledge centers that fall under
higher level centers

• Properly staffing experts over each knowledge centers.

The outcome is a corporation - wide knowledge structure and the best of

technology – email, intranets, extranet sand networking to ensure a smooth 24
hour knowledge sharing environment
Identifying Knowledge Content Centers
 • Competition
Data
• Job Openings
• Sales Volume
• Benefits
• Leader Sales
Information

Human
Resources
Sales

Marketing

Customer
Service

• Strategies
• Complaint Rate
• Tools
• Satisfaction
•R&D
Information
• Advertising
Technical Layers of the KM system
 User 1 User 2 …….. User n
Layers

1 User interface - (web browser software installed on each

user’s PC)

Authorized Access Control (security, passwords, firewall,

2 authentication)

3 Collaborative Intelligence and Filtering (intelligent agents, network

mining, customization, personalization)

4 Knowledge-Enabling Applications (customized applications, yellow pages,

videoconferencing, decision support system)

Transport (e-mail, Internet/Web site, TCP/IP protocol to manage

5 Traffic flow)

Middleware (Specialized software for network management

security)
6
7 The Physical Layer (Repositories and Cables)

GROUPWARE
(document exchange DATA
DATABASE APPLICATIONS (payroll) collaboration) WAREHOUSING
Knowledge Transfer
 knowledge Transfer

For any organization knowledge management initiative is driven by its

corporate KM group which attempts to cover all possible opportunities of
knowledge generation in and outside the works. The primary sources
being:

Day-to-day operation
Learning from failure
Published Papers by employees (National and International publications)

Task Force/Consultant/Technical Groups

Engineering Project

Knowledge Sharing across the value chain

Improvement Activities
Knowledge generated through Suggestions, Small Group Activity,
etc.
 Informal Tacit Knowledge Transfer

EXPERT INTRANET
DECISION MAKER
(e.g. e-mail)

Tacit Knowledge Intermediate Tacit Knowledge

 Internet Intranet Extranet

Company Employee
Cloud • Suppliers
• Vendors
• Partners
• Customers

Public at Large • Human Resource • Product

• News/Events Information Information
• Marketing • Production • Sales Information
Information
• E-commerce • Collaboration
• Sales Information Cooperation
• Careers
• Strategic Information
 Stakeholders in KM

Organizations aims at capturing knowledge from various working groups

and outside agencies who play a major role in day-to-day functioning. The
major stakeholders covered under KM being:

Senior Management
Officers
Employees (Supervisors & Workmen)

Customers
Supplier
Experts (In & outside company)
 Types of Knowledge

Explicit knowledge: It is the visible knowledge available in the form of

letters, reports, memos, literatures, etc. Explicit knowledge can be
embedded in objects, rules, systems, methods etc.
Tactic knowledge: It is highly invisible and confined in the mind of a
person. It is hard to formalize and therefore, difficult to communicate to
others.

A master craftsman after years of experience develops a wealth of

expertise ‘at his fingertips’.
But he is often unable to articulate the scientific or
technical principle behind what he knows.
 Transformation of knowledge from tacit to explicit form increases its

usability and visibility. Capturing the experts Tacit Knowledge that

resides within him in the form of Know-how and insights is a very difficult

and challenging task.

While tacit and explicit type of knowledge is only a way to dissect the
field, in reality the situation is more complicated.
The above two categories are so heavily interlinked that such a bipolar
map is not easy to draw in practice.

For example, to understand completely a written document i.e. explicit

knowledge, it often requires a significant amount of experience i.e. tacit
knowledge.
A sophisticated recipe is meaningless to someone who has never stood
in kitchen or
a diagram of machines is impossible to read without an engineering
background
 The Essence of Knowledge Management

Knowledge Management is a process that, continuously and

systematically, transfers knowledge from individuals and teams, who
generate them, to the brain of the organization for the benefit of the entire
organization.

It is the systematic, explicit, and purposeful building, renewal, and

application of knowledge to maximize an enterprise's knowledge-related
effectiveness and returns from its knowledge assets.
The central theme of Knowledge Management is to influence
and reuse knowledge resources that already exist in the
organization so that people will seek out best practices rather
than reinvent the wheel.
 Few other ways to define KM

Capturing, storing, retrieving and distributing tangible Knowledge Assets

such as copyrights patents and licenses.

Gathering, organizing and distributing intangible knowledge, such as

professional know how and expertise, individual insight and experience,
creative solutions and the technology.

Creating an interactive learning environment where people readily

transfer and share what they know, internalize it and apply it to create
new knowledge.
Management Knowledge @ TATA STEELS
 Authors

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Knowledge

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Problems
Internet
Journals, Experts User Online
Vendors Training

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Knowledge

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Kn
Knowledge
Manager Knowledge
Repository

Knowledge

Communities
The strategies ensure knowledge sharing across the entire value chain
from customer to the supplier. Some of the instruments through which
the KM strategies are deployed are:

Knowledge Contribution by an individual (I): All contributions are first

sent to a set of subject matter experts to check their relevance,
correctness of information and utility to the company before being
available in portal for public usage.
Ask Author (I): A user can put forth his/her queries to the author
regarding any particular Knowledge Piece through this route.

Ask Expert (I & II): A panel of experts is identified area-wise to answer

queries of users from all corner of the organization. This feature directs
the query to the relevant expert and thus helps the questioner in seeking
his answer. The queries also remain open for other users to attempt a
reply.

Knowledge Usage (III): Any employee can bring about intangible/tangible

savings in related work areas by using an existing knowledge asset.
Communities of Practice (II): To encourage knowledge sharing behavior
in an informal manner, across the boundaries of departments and
divisions, various Communities of Practice or Knowledge Communities
are formed. Each knowledge community further consists of certain sub-
communities which attempts to focus on smaller functional areas.

The knowledge communities continuously look for new bench marks,

identify gaps, set targets and strive to achieve them through experiments
and best practice deployment. In the process, the new knowledge
gathered is collected in the form of various K-Products, such as, Best
Practice Identification, Trial of new products, Experiments and Best
Practice deployment.
Involving shop-floor employees in KM: A large number of employees in
organization are deployed at the shop-floor. In a century old company,
these employees really possess a wealth of knowledge. In order to
capture the tacit knowledge from shop floor and to facilitate horizontal
deployment of the same at all other locations, a new initiative named as
Knowledge Manthan (means churning) has been started in 2004. Realizing
the rich dividend from its Knowledge Manthan initiative the Knowledge
management group has extended the idea of involving grass-root
employees by launching yet another initiative named ‘MASS’ in the year
2005. Many of the ideas captured through Manthan are now being
deployed through ‘MASS’
Business Cycle: This is a high risk and high opportunity factor on
which you have little or no control.

But you have a chance to control your organization response, depending

upon the way you follow these cycles. For this you need a lot of
information about your organization and you should be sure that your
instructions are carried out through the entire network of organization
without any dilution or change.
Competition: Competition can in many ways. It could be from
traditional markets,

It could be owing to change in consumer tastes, it could be

introduced through government policy.

But when competition comes along you should be sure of

facing it.
Debt: Usually debt can depress performance. But in the changing world
as with everything debt could be an opportunity rather than a dead loss.

Most companies look at debt as a means of using other people’s money

without having to give a slice of organization to them through
shareholders equity.

The way to manage debt is through better information and needless to

say through ERP.
Mergers and Acquisition: It is based on sound business sense and
clear logic you may have decided to go in for diversification.

Divestment: The after effects of such divestment of either

equity or entire divisions need to be carefully studied and
absorbed in the enterprise if its normal working is not to be
disrupted. Otherwise there would be chaos and confusion
and a general reduction in organizational motivation.
Organizational Governance: Governance increasingly the directors
of the organization are called to account.

They should not only be responsible but also be well informed.

Equally important are also the way their instruction are carried out
throughout the organization and the way they get involved in the entire
organizational process.
There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous jōkhima to
conduct or more uncertain of success then to take a lead in the
introduction of new order of things, because the innovation has for
enemies all those who have done well under the old conditions and
lukewarm udāsīna defenders in those who may do well under the new.
‘Seven out of tem reengineering efforts fail because of lack of, or
inadequate attention paid to change management

--- Michael Hammer

 Change Readiness
(tatparatā)
Sponsor

Change
Management

Culture
Resistance
 Physical vs Knowledge Wealth
There are a number of influential factors which will come together in such a way
as to mould the way in which the individuals, groups and organizations view
particular change situations

The main factors are as follows:-

Organizational Culture: Is it open or closed, enterprising or mechanistic,

democratic or autocratic, progressive or entrenched (defensive), conductive to
group work and common goals or oppressive ati kaṭhōra ?
Source of change :- Is it internal to the affected groups and/or individuals
or externally generated and easily controlled ?

Social Background :- Is it one that inhibits collaboration with other

groups and/or individuals, or welcome the opportunity to develop as one
moves towards mutually beneficial goals ?

Education History :- Looking internally focused development reinforcing

traditional practices and customs may work against prior educational
understanding and external ideas.

Problem Owner :- The involvement and the commitment of the problem

owner are essential, as it is managerial suitability of the problem owner to
the task at hand.
Employment History :- Has experience ? Will the “them and us” mentality
interfere with the attainment of a shared perception ?

Style of Management :- The style of management exhibited by those

directly involved in the change situation and to be successful they must
achieve general commitment and involvement within their terms of
references.

Experience :- The track records identified with the individuals, groups and
organization affected by the change, judged in terms of their past ability
to cope with change.
Lewitt (1965) viewed organizations as four interacting variables. A change
that affects any one variable will to a greater or lesser extent interact with
the others to create knock-on effect.
 Understanding the complexity of this organizational network is the first
step in anticipating the likely response to any applied trigger.

Once pulled the change trigger will set off a chain reaction of interrelated
events, which may if not managed quickly create inefficiency.

Lewitt’s Triggers

• Government Policy and Legislation

• Advances in technology process

• Changing consumer requirements, expectations or taste

• Competitors or supply chain activities

•General Economic or Social Pressures

• Acquisition or merger