Knowledge management ……..

Activating knowledge

Introduction

The combined effects of intensified competition, increased market dynamics, globalisation and ICT developments have
caused an increase in data and information flow over the last decade or so that is unmatched in history. New information
and knowledge are constantly being generated at all levels in the organisation. The flow of information generated
elsewhere is likely to be even larger, it is completely unstructured and, in the current situation where people at all levels
in the organisation interface with “the outside world”, it may reach the organisations from any direction.

Operating in a highly competitive and dynamic market place requires an organisation to respond much more promptly
and quickly than ever before. As described in the section on innovation, companies will only maintain a competitive
edge if they innovate their products, processes and organisation at a speed that is higher than that of the competition.
The strategic choice to compete on the subject of innovation puts a number of performance requirements on an
organisation. In their empirical studies on innovation, Bolwijn (1990 and 1998) describes the organisational
competencies of efficiency, quality and flexibility as prerequisites for successful innovators. Requirements for
continuous innovation and for increasing an organisation’s innovativeness are ability to generate ideas for
improvements, the availability of knowledge (know-how) and speed.
In other words : companies need to know more and have to be able to make maximum use of that knowledge in
innovation initiatives. They start to realise how important it is to "know what they know and know what they don’t
know", what the corporate knowledge assets are, how to create/acquire new knowledge, etc.

The aim of knowledge management :

continuous improvement, innovation …… for creating competitive advantage.

Knowledge management involves looking at knowledge from a meta-level. It deals with knowledge about knowledge
regarding everything that is happening in the organisation, i.e. all activities that “make the organisation tick”, now and in
future. It involves knowledge about directing, running and working in the organisation on a day-to day basis as well as
knowledge about innovation activities for creating competitive advantage.

What is knowledge management

General
Knowing how to handle and structure the information-flood, managing knowledge and innovation has become a critical
business aspect for almost all organisations. It should be managed accordingly by means of a knowledge management
system.
As compared to other management systems concerning for instance safety, quality or finance, knowledge management
itself is a bit of an odd-ball. It may be described as a new way of defining what management is all about. The term
knowledge management implies that the people involved in the activities relating to the management of knowledge have
knowledge about the entire company with everything that is happening in it. They are capable of looking at
organisational knowledge from a meta-level. I.e. the management system for knowledge will incorporate, or rather
govern, those for all other critical business aspects.

The “business-8” for knowledge management as outlined below describes the processes and activities involved in
“doing” knowledge management at two levels : a strategic planning level and practical application thereof.
At the strategic level it involves looking at knowledge on how to organise and direct the company by means of mission,
vision and strategy and reviewing the organisation’s context, systems, assets, performance, innovativeness, and
knowledge infrastructure. At the operational level it covers knowledge and information regarding all tactical and
operational processes and systems. It also covers knowledge and information regarding the processes by which the
organisation creates new knowledge, distributes, shares, protects and uses it in innovation initiatives.
These elements of the knowledge management processes will be further elaborated upon in the activity section below.

V/d Kroonenberg :
Knowledge management is getting the right information and knowledge
in the right quantity at the right time at the right place.

This means that knowledge management should be an integral part of the way an organisation acts on a day-to-day basis,
plans the future and works on creating this future. The organisation should seriously think about in what way it will
locate, identify, develop, buy, organise, transfer, use and analyse information and knowledge and how to identify
knowledge gaps and needs at all levels of the organisation.

Knowledge management is the organisation looking at itself :

it’s business and it’s doing business in all it’s organisational aspects.

Knowledge management: various definition

A number of people and institutions have attempted to describe or define knowledge management, a summary of which
is presented below :

Chun, 1999 : The broad challenge in knowledge management is learning how to design an organisation’s goal, strategy,
culture, work practices, reward systems, and information structure so that the organisation can use what it knows to
innovate and adapt.
American Productivity & Quality Center, 1998 : Knowledge management is the broad process of locating, organising,
transferring, and using the information and expertise within an organisation.
AIAI, 1998 : Knowledge management involves the identification and analysis of available and required knowledge
assets and knowledge asset related processes, and the subsequent planning and control of actions to develop both the
assets and the processes to fulfil organisational objectives. Knowledge assets are the knowledge regarding markets,
products, technologies and organisations that a business owns or needs to own and which enable its business processes
to generate profits.
Knowledge Praxis, 1998: Knowledge management is defined as a business activity with two primary aspects. Firstly,
treating the knowledge component of business activities as an explicit concern of business reflected in strategy, policy,
and practice at all levels of the organisation. And secondly, making a direct connection between an organisation’s
intellectual assets (both explicit [recorded] and tacit [personal know-how] ) and positive business results.
Y. Malhotra, 1997 : Knowledge management embodies organisational processes that seek synergistic combination of
data and information processing capacity of information technologies, and the creative and innovative capacity of human
beings.
M. Weggemans (1998) : Knowledge management is about increasing the return/output and pleasure of the production
factor knowledge. Knowledge is a personal capability consisting of information, competencies, experience and attitude
that enables him/her to execute certain tasks.

Information and knowledge

In order to be able to review (relations between) data, information and knowledge, it is prudent to understand the
meaning of these words. Bellinger (1998) ideas are summarized in the following figure:

Adapted from Bellinger, 1998

Information is a collection of data with a relation, a structure, order or pattern between the different pieces of data. In
other words, information is data given meaning and significance in a certain context. Next, just a body information does
not represent knowledge, knowledge takes information a step further. Information becomes knowledge when it is
interpreted in the beliefs, concepts and mental models of a person in a certain setting and transformed though reasoning
and reflection into new or adapted beliefs, concepts and mental models. I.e. information is knowledge when one is able
to realise and understand patterns, implications and the significance of the information/knowledge. Knowledge may thus
be defined as a personal capacity/capability that is the result of that persons information, experience, competency,
attitude and feeling in a certain setting at any moment in time.

Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) have proposed to divide organisational knowledge into tacit and explicit knowledge :
 Tacit knowledge is the personal knowledge that people use to function in their organisation, perform their tasks and
construct their perception of reality. Although it is difficult to describe tacit knowledge in formal language or to
translate it into rules and recipes, it may be shared by means of discussion, copying or on the job training. It is lost
with people leaving the organisation. When studying or attempting to manage knowledge it is prudent not to want to
describe or view all tacit knowledge in explicit form since it will change according to the person providing this
knowledge and the circumstances. It may be more effective to understand the social and behavioral processes that
transform the information into knowledge.
An organisation’s culture may be described as it’s members cumulated tacit knowledge on the subject of co-
operation and behavior and the shared belief about it’s business, competencies, products and markets, etc. This
knowledge forms the basis for judging actions, customer approach, proposals for innovation, etc. It should be noted
that this type of tacit knowledge will remain in the organisation when people are leaving.
 Explicit knowledge is knowledge that is formally described by means of words, figures, tables or other systems of
symbols. It may be easily distributed within the organisation. Having formalised the knowledge in writing and/or
model, it may be regarded as an asset. Knowledge assets represent economic value and as such may be sold or
traded, they also may have to be protected (see the section on protecting knowledge, below).

Having found that information is not the same as knowledge, it should be noted that knowledge management is not the
same as information management. Information management creates knowledge-intensive work processes. Knowledge
management is more directed towards the competence of organisations and makes it possible to interpret data and add
value (Kenniscentrum CIBIT, 1997).

Knowledge creation and organisational learning

Cybernetics : learning and learning to learn

Introduced by Wiener in the 1940’s, cybernetics is an interdisciplinary science combining elements of information,
communication and control. One of the original aim was to create machines with the adaptive capacities of organisms.
One of the core concepts used to describe the ability of a system to regulate itself (steermanship) involves processes of
information exchange based on negative feedback. Systems based on the principle of negative feedback detect errors of
movement or action beyond predefined limits and correct automatically.
This has led to a number of principles and functional requirements for systems of communication, (single loop) learning
and learning to learn (double loop learning) as represented in the following figure :

Putting the concepts of single and double loop learning in an organisational context leads to a number of observations.
In a relative stable environment it is quite likely that changes in operating norms are seldom required . Companies in
such stable conditions often excel in single loop learning, their systems (e.g. the one for financial management) often
even support the existing norms and company direction. Learning is done within the existing norms, e.g. by means of
failure or deviation reports. Under these conditions it is difficult to achieve step-type changes.
In his image of “organisation as brains”, Morgan (1986) describes that despite the fact that companies have
institutionalised systems for double loop learning, a number of fundamental organisational principles often obstruct the
(second loop) learning processes. Obstructions related to bureaucracy are structures, definition of goals and objectives
and systems of accountability that prevent people from thinking for themselves, not seeing the “total picture” or the
reality of certain situations and taking risks. Morgan proposes a number of guidelines for stimulating a learning-oriented
approach to organisation and management. The guidelines all relate to accepting complexity, constant change and
uncertainty, i.e. an open and no-blame culture, encouraging the analysis and review of complex problems from different
perspectives and avoiding the use of pre-imposed structures of action. The cybernetics approach to planning is to focus
on defining and reviewing constraints and boundary conditions (and thereby creating degrees of freedom in which the
company may evolve) rather than to define a master plan with clear-cut targets. The plan should also include situations
that are to be avoided.

Systems approach
Morgan’s guidelines for stimulating learning in organisations closely relate to the systems thinking, Senge’s “Fifth
Discipline” (…..). Systems thinking is the integrating factor for the other four disciplines required for organisational
learning, the other four being personal mastership, the use of mental models, creating a common vision and team
learning. Senge stresses the character of these disciplines : they are “personal” disciplines and closely relate to what a
person wants, how he/she thinks, how he/she sees the organisation and the resulting inter-personal interaction and
collaborative learning. Rather than defining thé learning organisation, the disciplines will result in combined behavior
(culture) that will foster learning, innovation and progress.

Senge :
The learning organisation is the place where people
continuously discover how they create reality.

Learning processes.
A number of people have published on activities and processes that people engage in for organisational knowledge
creation. Since all models incorporate the same features, only two are described here, one of which is further detailed in
a separate section. Baets (1998) describes three phases in the process of organisational learning. The first one involves
knowledge creation at an individual level. This knowledge is shared and transformed into collective knowledge in the
second phase. In the third phase, other individuals adapt their own knowledge level. In their model for knowledge
conversion, Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) refer to the same base elements as Baets, however they refine the second
phase of sharing and collectivising knowledge. They describe the process of knowledge creation as making tacit
knowledge explicit. It starts with an individual explicitising his/her own tacit knowledge. In the next step of
organisational knowledge creation, this conversion of tacit into explicit knowledge should also take place at an
organisational level, individual knowledge is then transformed to collective knowledge (organisational learning). Please
refer to the section on knowledge creation for more detail

Knowledge communities

A knowledge community may be described as a group of people united by a shared interest

in a particular knowledge domain. The common purpose is to obtain, create and manage
knowledge relevant to the community and spread it amongst it’s members.

General
Being faced with a global competitive arena and having recognised that a wealth of valuable information and knowledge
is continuously being generated outside the organisation, people now see the potential value of inter-organisational
knowledge communities. The quality and quantity of co-operation may range from a number of experts sited in different
units of a company that “know” each other to official strategic alliances between a number of organisations, e.g. on the
subject of new product development.

Most larger corporations, especially those with branches all over the world have formally established experts groups
within the company. These groups are referred to as knowledge / expert clusters, peer groups, technology councils or
technology discussion groups. These intra-organisational knowledge communities are either created “top down” or
simply have evolved bottom up from individual expert needs to review issues with peers.

Building knowledge communities

The need for creating a knowledge community may be very divers, established within an organisational context,
however, they should fit with the strategic aims and the activities of this organisation. Having established such
organisational need, creating a knowledge community on a specific topic will involve :

 Defining it’s mission, vision and strategy.

 Defining all stakeholders in the community that are likely to be interested and committed to actively contribute :
which are sources of knowledge, who is working on the topic or on technologies and/or competencies relating to the
topic.
 Defing the organisation of the community and the way that it will operate. This will include issues s.a. agreeing on
which means and/or forums will be used to share knowledge, joint thinking and knowledge creation, joint
improvement initiatives and maintaining the desired quality of the information and knowledge.
For the organisation of the community it is often decided to appoint a functional expert or focal point as the domain
guardian or network coordinator. The latter is responsible for the knowledge quality and keeping the community
alive by connecting members, focussing on important issues. The coordinator may have to be assisted by sub-
domain experts for maintaining the quality of the information and knowledge and review of the quality of new input
and focus the same in line with the community strategy. Knowledge administrators or librarians may be appointed
to organise and distribute new information and knowledge.

Building knowledge communities sometimes involves starting from scratch, however quite often some sort of informal
network already exists on a specific topic, either inside or outside the company. It is prudent to build on these existing
networks : if at all possible, don’t start a new “program” of, or “plan” for knowledge management. Experience has
shown that existing (informal) networks often require broadening of the scope of the area of interest.

Success factors
A number of experts (a.o. EFQM, 1997; Jacobs, 1999; Shell, 1996: and Weggemans, 1997) have described success
factors for creating knowledge communities, a summary of which is :
 Management commitment in general, but especially on issues relating to behavior and culture, e.g. in creating trust,
nurturing a general willingness to share knowledge and a developing a “feeling of membership”.
 Tap into all sources of knowledge on the subject matter, commitment of the parties involved in contributing to the
community is crucial to the success of the community.
 One of the key issues for an individual’s willingness to actively participate in a knowledge community is
summarised by the question “what’s in it for me ?” : Individuals, especially subject matter experts, are often
reluctant to share their knowledge within a community unless they can see that they will benefit from being an
active member of this community. This means that content management is critical, it is a collaborative task for
experts and facilitators to ensure that state of the art knowledge and information is available to the community. A
 number of companies have “forced” the willingness to share knowledge by including related activities in yearly
reviews and reward systems.
 Emphasis should be on knowledge that is important to both personnel and the organisation, create human forums
along information systems and integrate knowledge sharing and documenting efforts into the normal way of
working
 Communication comes first, achievement second.
 Any tool, method or methodology employed should be supportive for the user of the tool as well as for the
organisation that he/she is in.
 It’s not about IT, it’s about technology and people.
 Personally knowing the members of the community will help building commitment, especially when trying to
develop tacit to explicit knowledge.
 Intranets should enable top-down installation and bottom-up emergence of communities or sub-communities.
 Since undoubtedly people already share knowledge some way or another it is prudent to build on these existing
networks : if at all possible, don’t start a new “program” of, or “plan” for knowledge management.

The role of ICT

Introduction
The rapidly growing body of information and communication technologies, especially the internet-related ones, have
reached a level of maturity where they may be effectively and efficiently applied as a tool to support all activities
relating to knowledge. They may now be used in tools supporting :
 The knowledge management and activating processes as represented in the knowledge-8.
 The availability and usability of company knowledge.
 Individualised decision support and (distance) learning tools that will enable on-the-job support as-and-when
required.

Tt should be noted that the introduction of ICT tools for knowledge management and activating activities will only be
successful if they are part of an overall strategic socio-technical plan. Experiences have shown that especially in plans
for increasing the knowledge creating and innovation capacity of organisations problems will arise not from the ICT
(technical) side, but from cultural (socio) issues. For further reference on this subject, refer to the section on
organisational issues.

Knowledge creation and team support

Intention, autonomy, fluctuation and creative chaos, redundancy and requisite variety have been described by Nonaka
and Takuechi as the enabling conditions in the process of knowledge creation. These enabling conditions constitute an
excellent playground for virtual teams, teams using electronic means for meeting, communicating, exchanging
knowledge, etc. for at least part of their co-operation activities. Within a virtual team it is possible to operate completely
autonomous, independent of any bureaucracy. In an (ideal) virtual team consisting of true experts in their field there is
no hierarchy, the access to data and information is the same for everyone. Electronic means offer instant access to any
information or persons required, it offers effective and efficient possibilities for sharing and distribution of knowledge.
The only success factor that will be dependent on the people participating in the team is that of intention (as with any
other team) : people have to be willing to work as a virtual team, they have to be (individually) motivated to reach the
project and team objectives, they have to be willing and enthusiastic to share knowledge, etc.

Task support : learning and decision support

From his studies on requirements for education and learning in the next century, de Vries (1999) concluded that
contemporary education systems which are centered around subjects of knowledge and existing curricula (and often
around particular preferences of a professor) will not suffice any more. Instead of the current orientation towards
graduation, the focus for education and training will shift to personal and professional goals of the student. It will be
centered around the creation, transfer and management of knowledge that is focussed on a particular situation, problem
setting and/or training need.

Students will receive help and guidance while working their way through a particular problem setting or task. New
knowledge is typically created in teams consisting of other students and mentors, the latter may be professors and/or
expert from business organisations.
This learning mode involving situated task support and knowledge creation in teams is also the prime mode of learning
in organisatinal settings, i.e. in the person’s professional life. Within an organisational setting, this approach to training
and support will be continued.

As such it provides a practical solution to the concepts of “learning on the job” and “ life long learning”. Throughout
their lives, people will be encouraged to actively participate in particular knowledge communities. Starting of as
students or novices receiving help and guidance from professional experts, they themselves will gradually develop into
experts and may act as mentors and/or focal points for others.

ICT in the knowledge value creation chain

Following are options for ICT support in the knowledge value creation chain as presented in the Business – 8 for
knowledge management:
 Including a KM module/workspace offering knowledge services covering the aspects of the Business – 8.
Examples of services are: situated support consisting of existing company knowledge, experiences from previous
years, collaboration tools, competitor profiling, third party information, etc.
 Communication facilities about KM offers everyone in the company to contribute to the knowledge management
efforts. People may contribute, read and start appreciating the issues at hand and possible implications for their
position. A very simple example is an electronic idea/brainstorm-box, where people may input ideas and
contribute to issues raised by others.
 Knowledge creation services may help people in their (asynchronous) learning and innovation initiatives.
 Knowledge dissemination and sharing services.

On-line knowledge communities

A knowledge community may be referred to as an online community if it uses an ICT infrastructure to unite the group of
people and to enable them to share their interests. De Vries (1999) describes three key elements of an online knowledge
community : the members, the shared interests, and the instrumentality. Members may be organisations, experts, masters
or apprentices, all in need of knowledge support ; ideally they all obtain their knowledge from the same source, adapted
to their individual needs and preferences. Shared interests relate to the knowledge domain that unite the members.
Finally, the infrastructure refers to the ICT-application that forms a meeting place for the members : an online
knowledge center.
Design principles for an online knowledge center have been described by Brereton (1988) and (1999) :
 The center has to be defined and organised such that all members share the same mission and the same approach to
the acquisition, management and sharing of knowledge.
 Deliver knowledge services on a competitive base.
 Individuals should be supported in their tasks and interests. The quality and character of this support has to be based
on the level of experience of the individual and the context that he/she is in at the time of requesting the support. The
user decides about where, when, and how tasks are performed.
 Integration : the user has a consistent and uniform view on the knowledge base and it’s structure.

Design guidelines for the aplication of ICT in task support and knowledge management and activating activities
A number of design guidelines for ICT support in task support and knowledge management and activating activities may
be distilled from the issues presented above, from Nonaka and Takeuchi’s description of a knowledge creating
company and from De Vries (1999). The software should :

In general:
 Professionalise the user in terms of his/her individual competencies and organisation objectives and offer a
professional appearance for external visitors.
 Allow easy access & full communication possibilities
 Enable top-down installation and bottom-up emergence of communities or sub-communities.
 Allow access to all sources of knowledge on a specific topic.
 Be supportive for individual as well as for the organisation :
 Individual task support should be provided context specific and dependant on the individual’s level of
experience, i.e. on-line education for novices and on line task and decision support for experts (note that this will
require state-of-the-art domain knowledge content).
 A structured and systematic approach knowledge management in organisational contexts requires a process
orientation. This will “automatically” impose a customer (quality) focus, allow task and activity based support,
enable effective and efficient storing of learning points and align systems for managing the organisation’s
business processes.

For knowledge creation, organisational learning and innovation:

 Support work in projects, i.e. it should enable different roles / functions within the team and support the same. This
may be regarding the level of experience of the team members, e.g. a novice or an expert, or for support of the role
of team attendant.
 Enable the 4 forms of knowledge conversion : Socialisation, externalisation, combination and internalisation.
 Enable members of a knowledge creating team to progress through the phases of knowledge creation : Exchange of
tacit knowledge, developing concepts, review of concepts, constructing a prototype (working system) and level
change of knowledge (a/o. spreading the knowledge).
 Satisfy the enabling conditions for knowledge creation : intention, autonomy, fluctuation and creative chaos,
redundancy and requisite variety.

Organisational issues

General
As described above, the concept of knowledge management assumes managers, or the people involved in knowledge
management processes, to be able to deal with knowledge at the meta-level. In the typical learning and innovative
organisation, new knowledge and information are constantly being generated. Nearly all employees interface with “the
outside world” and fast amounts of information find their way into the organisation. There is a clear need to capture,
structure, manage and spread this information in the most effective and efficient manner. It is of crucial importance to
know what to know, determining who needs to know what, where and when in the organisation, knowing what the
corporate knowledge assets are, taking actions to obtain or develop knowledge that is deemed necessary. The final step
is leveraging the same and creating value by sharing and distributing that knowledge and using it in innovation
initiatives.
Arguably, these final steps of knowledge creation and innovation are the most important ones of all : this is where value
is created. It also pinpoints the crucial importance of people, it places knowledge workers in a central role in the
organisation. Working together in teams, they have the competency (creativity ?) to know how to combine new
information and knowledge with existing knowledge in order to create new knowledge (learning) and to promptly use
the same in innovation initiatives. In the current highly dynamic operating environment, people will have to be willing to
learn continuously, probably for the rest of their life. People will require task, decision and learning support that is
incorporated in their normal way of working ……, i.e. on the subjects relating to their daily tasks as well as on the
subjects relating to knowledge creation and innovation initiatives (project work).

Increasing an organisation’s innovativeness requires an integrated, socio-technical (project –type) approach

incorporating two main streams of attention, one for organisational (socio) change and one for covering all knowledge
infrastructure (technical) aspects :
 The socio-stream starts with the strategic choice for innovation and a clear reflection thereof in the organisation’s
mission, vision, strategy and performance requirements. This will have to be translated into the organisation’s
culture, management practices, reward systems etc. Knowledge sharing and documenting efforts should be
integrated into the normal way of working. Human forums have to be created on subjects relating to competency
and technology that are critical to the organisation.
 The technical knowledge infrastructure stream will involve planning and implementation of information and
communication systems have to be designed such that they support both individual and their organisation. They
should provide task and decision support to people, on the organisational side it should provide support the
processes of knowledge management, knowledge creation and innovation (working in a team environment).

Within the “typical” knowledge intensive and innovative organisation, growth and change are institutionalised : change
has become the “way-of-life”, complexity is recognised and accepted. The company desires to be an industry leader in at
least one technical area.
People see “the total picture” around them, how their work (e.g. taking risks) will affect others and how new information
and knowledge may benefit others. People think for themselves and know how to interface with the outside world, they
recognise the complexity of problems and opportunities and knoe how to review these from different perspectives. They
work with a sense of urgency, rather than an ongoing effort to search for the absolute best solution, people seek
solutions that work and fit requirements.
Decisions are made in teams, functional barriers are (nearly) non-existent. People have an open mind, are willing to
share their knowledge and everybody’s input is equally valued. Information is readily available for all employees. There
is a no blame and non-threatening working environment, people are not afraid to make mistakes and they share
knowledge rather than keeping it to themselves. Positive as well as negative experiences are carefully followed up with
the objective to learn. Everybody has an open attitude towards the organisation’s stakeholders and the environment.
External sources of knowledge are constantly being monitored, valuable ideas are obtained early in their development
life (i.e. at low cost and ahead of the competition).

Defining mission, vision and strategy : management commitment

With reference to the top-part of the Business – 8 for Knowledge Management, main input for effective and efficient
knowledge management and knowledge activating efforts is a clear definition of the company’s mission, vision and
strategy. This will not only determine the overall organisational performance requirements, definition of critical business
aspects and related management systems, it will also provide the charge for the people to direct their efforts and
behaviour in their daily work and knowledge activating efforts. Lessons from the studies on cybernetics and innovation
as described in the previous sections indicate that instead of a defining people’s tasks in great detail, it is prudent to
define constraints and boundary conditions. This will leave the people the freedom to act individually and grab valuable
opportunities “on the way”, opportunities which may otherwise have been lost.

De Geus :
The only relevant learning in an organisation is learning by those who have the power to act.

Management commitment will have to be quantified by freeing people up from their daily routine to initiate and
participate in innovation initiatives. Systems, and probably the types of controls, will have to be changed. Strategic co-
operation within a number of knowledge communities may be required. When initiating new “knowledge programs”,
build on existing networks within and outside the organization.

Culture
Having defined and communicated the mission, vision and strategy to the people in the organisation, the success of a
knowledge intensive, knowledge creating, learning and innovative company will largely be determined by the people
themselves.
Issues relating to culture are summarised as :
 People work with a sense of urgency and speed,
 They feel involved and are responsible for their own tasks : they make their own decisions and understand how their
task fits in "the bigger picture".
 There is a mutual understanding about what is important : people know how to behave in terms of core
competencies, critical business aspects, performance indicators ….. etc. Everybody knows and appreciates the
importance of sharing knowledge and working in teams in the knowledge creation and innovation process..
 Continuous improvement and change is "the way of living". Personal initiative is highly valued. Ideally there is a no
blame and non-threatening working environment, people are not afraid to make mistakes and they share knowledge
rather than keeping it to themselves.
 People co-operate in teams : they a willing and capable of working in a flat organisation with limited bureaucracy.
 The have an open attitude towards others from within the company and towards third parties.
 Risk taking, mistakes should be learned from.

Both Nonaka and Takuechi (1995) and Moss-Kanter (1995) describe a stimulating effect on people’s creativity and
knowledge creation by giving the people job descriptions that are rather loose and consist of multiple tasks. It leaves
people with room to define their own job and knowledge goals and is reported to stimulate creativity, communication
with others in the organisation and will ultimately lead to more knowledge creation.

Structure
It is often said that the knowledge creating, innovative company should be a flat, process oriented network organisation.
Based on a clear organisation charge, everybody can make their own decisions while important decisions are made in
multi-disciplinary teams. The traditional role of middle management is eliminated and functional barriers have been
removed. Functional competencies and excellence are maintained by the institutionalisation of focal points and
knowledge and technology peer groups (knowledge communities).
According to Tissen (1998) these type organisations have in the past often developed into a bowl of small empires that
could not be managed any more. He argues that this problem may be solved with the application of new ICT tools, exact
structures in which typical knowledge workers will organise themselves are not known yet. It is to be expected that at the
end of the day there will be a multitude of different structures, each dictated by a different context, strategy, culture and
(maybe most importantly) the individual ideas of the knowledge workers who will continue to develop their power in the
knowledge society. In this context it is prudent to refer to Weick, who described organisations to consist of a group of
workers that are loosely tied together. They operation fully depends on the situation faced in different circumstances.
Weggemans (1997) elaborates on the difficulties of managing/controlling professionals (ref : Minzberg’s professional
bureaucracy) : in the ideal knowledge organisation there is a balance between the freedom and autonomy of the
professionals and the organisation’s goals and type of control.

Weggemans :
The successful knowledge intensive organisation is characterised by a strong collective vision
and a structure that allows the professional to improvise like a jazz player.

The ideal picture for a knowledge creating, innovative company as painted above may be true for a number of relatively
small hi-tech companies or typical one-off-project organisations, it may not be so straightforward for other types :
Moss-kanter (1998) found that the most successful innovators have a decentralised matrix structure (see structure and
organisation), it’s culture promotes personal initiative and the people are proud of their organisation and team efforts.
Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) propose what they call the hypertext organisation, also a form of matrix organisation.
Combining the advantages of the bureaucratic and the technocratic organisation, they describe the hypertext organisation
to consist of 3 “layers” : the business system (the organisation’s day-to-day business activities), the project team (for
new initiatives) and the knowledge base. A person will always be part of the knowledge base, however at any moment in
time they can only be part of either the business system or be a member of a project team. By successively participating
in the business system (involving operational and systems knowledge) and the project team (where conceptual
knowledge is being used), he/she will progress though the knowledge creating cycle. New knowledge is thus constantly
being created and added to the knowledge base.
Nonaka and Takuechi (1995) also refer to the function of middle management in (larger) organisations. They argue that
due to the way that these companies are organised, with fixed systems and reporting procedures for a.o. innovation
proposals, top management will only receive explicit knowledge. In contrast : on the workfloor the knowledge is
predominantly of the tacit type. This situation will, inevitably, result in miscommunication between management and
workfloor and opportunities for innovation are missed. In this linking of management and workfloor, Nonaka and
Takeuchi describe an important task for middle management : “middle-up-down-management”, the linking pin for
knowledge creation. Due to their involvement in activities at management level as well as on the operational level, for
instance in various project teams, middle management get to know both the tacit and explicit knowledge required for
product and process innovation. They are, to a large extent, the bearers of an organisation’s culture and often the first
person to start the socialisation process of new employees. They are often the ones that “organise” quality assurance and
the services processes. They will play an important role in progressing through the knowledge creation cycle, especially
since they often have informal networks all over the organisation that may play a crucial role in knowledge spreading
and distribution.

Systems
A complete system for knowledge management needs to address the organisation’s production processes, it’s
knowledge processes, the knowledge alliances), the knowledge domain contents, the technical support systems and it’s
culture. These issues are all reviewed in separate section in this chapter.
The knowledge management system should, ideally support both the individual and the organisation. In order to assure
consistency, relate to actual operational tasks and induce a quality orientation, a primary orientation towards the
organisation’s production processes is advisable.

It may be prudent to introduce a merit and reward system for inducing positive knowledge activating behavior. Such
system may include: the willingness to share information and knowledge, the quality of the close-out report of a project,
the willingness and number of initiative for co-operation, the amount of valuable ideas generated, the quality of co-
operation in teams, etc. In some cases it is possible to link the system to the usefulness and value of ideas and knowledge
generated, e.g. by measuring the amount of re-use of that knowledge by other professionals or the actual application in
new products, processes or organisational structures.

Conventional HRM systems may have to be expanded to include a number of competency and performance dimensions
relevant for their specific context and requirements. These competency dimensions may be translated into individual
competency profiles, e.g. it may include knowledge and experience on the subject of technical, commercial and inter-
personal issues. It may also include a number of specific competencies relating to certain customers, partners, pressure
groups, etc. The competency profile will then serve as the basis for assigning individuals to knowledge creation and
innovation teams, thereby motivating personnel to keep on developing their competency profile.

Teams:
The team environment, a group of people working together with the aim to develop their cumulative knowledge, is the
main playground for knowledge creation, innovation and learning.
Ideally, teams established with the prime task of knowledge creation or innovation should comprise of people with all
technical expertise required to carry out the tasks at hand and know what it is to efficiently and effectively contribute in
a team environment. They have an open mind and willing to share their knowledge and working with a sense of urgency,
even while working in longer term planning horizons. They should have mastered competencies related to quality
thinking and flexibility. Functional hierarchy is absent : the input of all team members is treated similarly.

Within a virtual team, a group of people working together using ICT as the main means of communication, there is no
team leader in the conventional sense, every team member has to play their own part. In this case it may be prudent to
involve a team “companion” or team “attendant” with the sole task of guarding the success factor of intention. The
attendant’s task would not be to control and manage, but rather to stimulate the co-operation and creative processes.

Information and Communication :

Within a knowledge creating and innovative company, where people make their own decisions and interface freely with
the outside world, all company information and knowledge should be readily available for all employees. Everybody
knows about the latest developments, e.g. progress in other teams. Nonaka and Takuechi (1995) describe the stimulating
effect of an abundance in information : people are more or less forced to make a creative, and therefor knowledge
creating, choice from this information. Moss-Kanter (1995) states that presenting employees with a free and random
flow of information will stimulate them to look for information in new places or from different perspectives and to
combine information in different subjects.
The way and means of transferring information and knowledge are dependant on the type of organisation and the task at
hand. Variables involved are :
 Organisation specific variables s.a size, geographic spread, the strategic orientation, the working methods, the
amount and character of stakeholders etc.
 Task specific variables s.a. complexity and innovativeness.

“Doing” knowledge management.

Elements of knowledge management are described by means of the business-8 ® for knowledge management which
combines management and operational aspects related to working with organization knowledge:

The processes and activities involved are split in two levels: a strategic planning level and an operational improvement
cycle. In the strategic cycle it is prudent to adopt a systems perspective (Note : Senge’s fifth discipline) and a process
approach for ensuring a consistent and systematic review of performance and identification of improvement initiatives
while in the actual improvement cycle a project approach will be used. This systems approach to knowledge
management allows prioritisation and subsequent detailed planning of specific knowledge improvement initiatives to be
executed at the operational level.

At the strategic level it involves looking at knowledge on how to organise and direct the company by means of mission,
vision and strategy and reviewing the organisation’s context, systems, assets, performance, innovativeness, and
knowledge infrastructure. A knowledge development plan will form the starting point for activities in the operational
knowledge improvement cycle including knowledge creation, leveraging to the rest of the organization, all leading up to
successful innovation programs. Ideally, the people that will be involved in the operati0nal cycle have been (somehow)
involved in preparing the knowledge development plan.

Knowledge management starts with the conventional approaches to doing business:

defining mission, vision and strategy.

Points 1 to 6 are further detailed as:

1. Strategic review
With reference to introductory section, one could argue that the strategic planning efforts carried out in an organization
are the same as KM efforts at a strategic level. The question of “Which business are we in, and which business should
we be in may be translated into:
What do we know, and what should we know.

Main input for effective and efficient knowledge management and knowledge activating efforts is a clear definition of
the company’s mission, vision and strategy. This will not only determine the overall organisational performance
requirements, definition of critical business aspects and related management systems, it will also provide the charge for
the people to direct their efforts and behavior in their daily work and knowledge activating efforts.

2. Determining organisational performance criteria and competency requirements

The organisation’s strategy will largely determine the organizational performance criteria. These criteria, supplemented
with the results of the “Process step – critical business aspect matrix” may be used to determine detailed performance
criteria and competency requirements for parts of the organisation and individuals.

3. Review organizational performance regarding these criteria and competencies

Prepare a knowledge gap-analysis.

4. Determine improvement plan including knowledge development strategy and plan

Prioritise the knowledge development options based on the gap-anlysis and prioritisation tools s.a. a SWOT analysis or
other tools as outlined in the section on strategy or business planning.
Determine the way that the knowledge is to be obtained. The plan for creating or acquiring knowledge (the innovation
plan) may include establishing co-operation with others and the establishment of knowledge communities. Rubinstein
(1989) has presented a number of external technology acquisition methods : licencing, joint ventures, limited R&D
partnerships, minority interests in firms with R&D programs, contracts for R&D to other companies and research
institutes, university contracts, grants and consortia, bilateral cooperative technology arrangements, hiring individual
specialist or team of specialists, Buying technologies embedded in products, material, equipment or processes,
Increasing pressure on suppliers to innovate, persuading customers to share innovation, acquiring small hi-technology
companies.

The knowledge development plan should include activities, recourses and investments for creating/aquiring the
knowledge to be developed and all socio-technical changes required in the organization s.a. knowledge distribution,
training, technical adjustements in processes, systems and products, communication and culture. Please refer to the
section on change for more information.

5. Knowledge creation
Nonaka and Takuechi (1997) describe the creative team process in the following phases:

Phase Main endeavour

1 Exchange of personal knowledge Socialisation
2 Creation of concepts Externalisation
3 Review and checking of concepts Externalisation
4 Preparation of an archetype (=prototype or working model) Combination
5 Niveau wisseling of knowledge Combination and internalisation

They have identified organizational enabling conditions for successful knwoeldge creation teams:
 Intention/autonomy : all team members should be allowed to build their own view of the knowledge that has to be
created and the end-product (if any).
 Independence : All team members should be allowed to function independently.
  Fluctuation and creative chaos : Team members should feel free to release their creativity, there should be no
obstructions of any sort that may kill creativity.
 Redundancy : All relevant information should be available to all team members.
 Variety of information : Team members should be allowed to access whatever source of information that they
require, as fast as possible.

6. Knowledge spreading, sharing and distribution

Distributing/sharing knowledge in the organisation with the aim to leverage the knowledge of the entire organisation to a
higher level. As further explained in the section on knowledge communication, there are as many ways of distributing
knowledge as there are kinds of knowledge. In many cases it will be a combination of different means and forums that
will lead to the best result.

7. Planning and executing innovation initiatives

The final step is the one where value is being created. This is where the new knowledge is applied in innovation
initiatives.

…………………………

To be included:

Protecting knowledge
……………. To be completed ………
Knowledge assets.
One of the cheapest ways of obtaining valuable, often strategic, knowledge is to “buy” top talent from a
competitor or a research institute. (… tegengaan door competitie beding). Perhaps the most dangerous
ones are the middle managers since they have access to a wide variety of detailed information
Knowledge should not be limited to just one person in a company.
This is the problem of not even making the knowledge available. A reason for this is that often people
think their individual knowledge is a valuable resource, and are reluctant to share it completely.