Week 7 : Knowledge Management Organisational Culture

On 19 of July 2013 . We had our the seventh lecture of TKM 1291 Introduction to Knowledge Management. The topic of this lecture is Knowledge Management Organizational Culture. So Basically the learning Outcome for this lecture as follows :

 

1- Develop better understanding of organizational culture and key dimensions of different cultures.

2- Identify cultural enablers and obstacles of knowledge sharing.

3- Discuss relationship between organizational change and KM.

4- Identify major phases involved in initiating organizational change to attain KM goals.

So first of all we learned what is Organizational culture, which is:-
* Shared assumptions, beliefs and values.
* Powerful unifying force.
* Embedded in lager social environment.

Then we came cross some points of culture as an enabler of transfer , which is : -
* KM begins with self knowledge.
* KM deals people.
* The tacit and explicit spiral and SECI model (Nonaka and Takeuchi).

 

Next we have discussed the Typology of cultures which is :-

( High Sociability + High Solidarity) = Communal Cultural.

( Low Sociability + High Solidarity)= Mercenary Cultural.

( High Sociability + Low Solidarity)= Networked Cultural.

( Low Sociability + Low Solidarity)= Fragmented Cultural.

 

* Sociability : measure for friendliness - high sociability - people orientation, team orientation and process focus.

* Solidarity : measure for task orientation - high solidarity - people work well together toward common goals despite personal conflicts.

Then we have discussed the analysis of organizational culture : the levels which are : -

1- Artifacts : Visible structures and processes.

2- Espoused Values : Conscious or stated strategies, goals and assumptions.

3- Basic assumptions and values : Unconscious, taken for granted beliefs, thoughts and feelings.

So we have moved on and realize that there are several factors have been identified as cultural influences include : Past patterns and history , Teamwork, Climate and morale, Information flows across the community, supervision quality, leadership and Workplace interactions .

 

Then we have learned some of the ways that culture may operate in workplace such as :
1- Exchange - regulator.

2- Compass.

3- Social glue.

4- Sacred cow.

Next we went through Knowledge Cultural Enablers which are Influences that con tribute to the creation of an effective and positive knowledge community such as Core values , Structural support , Enacted values and Interaction with Colleagues.

  

Then we studied Effective Knowledge Cultures which is value-driven process , Shared knowledge , Collaboration , trust and long integrated approach.

 

 

Then Madam have showed us a video of the women culture in Microsoft Corporation as an example of Enablers and Obstacles that may Woman face within the workplace environment.

 

In summary this lecture aims to show that since culture penetrates to the essence of an organization , it is considered acute sense of what an organization is its mission , core values seems to have become a necessary asset of the modern company. Beside that Organisational culture consists of the set of norms, routines and unspoken rules of how things are done in that organization. Finally showed us that the development of an effective knowledge community requires dedicated and ongoing support.

 



 

 

Week 7 : The Mid-term Test Day

On 16 of July 2013 was our Mid-term Test of TKM 1291 Introduction to Knowledge Management. So basically the duration was one hour with 20 marks as coursework  . The format was one case study that we have to analyses the KM key terms of it.

The Case Study was about Xerox Corporation which is one of the largest producers of printers and photocopiers in the world. So the first question was  how to identify data, information and knowledge required for a Xerox technician to troubleshoot a printer which fails to print. The second question required from us to give two examples for tacit and explicit knowledge of a Xerox technician. Third question was about the reasons in our point of view of Eureka was not preferred or used by Xerox employees. The fourth question was requiring to describe how Trish ( worker in Xerox) learnt to solve a customer problem using Dalkir's Integrated KM life cycle. The fifth question was to give examples of situation (refers to Xerox case study) where the knowledge creation processes takes place based on Nonaka and Takeuchi's Model ( Internalization , Externalization , Combination and Socialization ). The last question was to give reasons in our opinion is a cognitive map suitable to create a more comprehensive service manual for Xerox copiers and printers.

In our opinion the midterm test required a quite time to solve and analyze it probably behind that most of us didn't manage to do it well.   

Week 6 : Knowledge Acquisition and Application

On 12^th July, we moved on to our new lecture, which is Knowledge Acquisition and Application. The lecturer explained to us about the learning outcomes as usual. So, basically the learning outcomes consist of:

·         Understand how user and task modeling approaches can help promote effective knowledge use at the individual, group, and organizational level.

·         Describe how organizational knowledge management architecture is designed.

·         Define organizational learning and describe the links between individual and organizational learning.

·         Compare and contrast learning and understanding with internalization of knowledge.

Basically, knowledge acquisition means reuse the existing knowledge to promote efficiency and lead to innovation in an effective way. In other hand, we can say that knowledge application is an application of knowledge which is filtered through human brain and applied to job tasks.

Besides that, we also learnt about Myers-Briggs Type Indicator which is located in individual level of knowledge application. Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) is an example of a widely used tool to assess cognitive styles. There are four dimensions of personality type, which are consisting of:

·         Interest: How we interact with the world and where we direct our energy (Extraversion-Introversion).

·         Perception: The kind of information we naturally notice (sensing-intuition).

·         Judgment: How we make decisions (thinking-feeling).

·         Environment: Whether we prefer to live in a more structured way or a more spontaneous way (judgment-perception).

 

 

Figure 1: Myers-Briggs Type Indicator

A part from that, we studied about Bloom’s Taxonomy. Basically, Bloom divided knowledge into a hierarchical scheme that distinguishes between:

·         psychomotor skills – perception, set, guided response, mechanism, complex overt response, adaptation, origination.

·         affective domain (e.g., attitudes) – receiving phenomena, responding to phenomena, valuing, organizing value, internalizing value.

·         cognitive domain (e.g., knowledge)- knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation; a.k.a hierarchy of learning.

 

Figure 2: Cognitive Learning Objectives

 

We then moved on to Organizational Level which is part of Knowledge Application. Normally, small organizations focus on knowledge acquisition easily. With few people and limited dispersal of knowledge, they seem to face relatively few obstacles sharing or reusing knowledge. However, large organizations, in contrast, have difficulty finding and reusing knowledge. Even determining whether the knowledge exists within the organization can be difficult sometimes.

In other hand, we studied about knowledge repository. It is all about:

·         contain valuable content that is a mix of tacit and explicit knowledge.

·         based on the unique experiences of the individuals who are or were a part of that company.

·         contain the know-how that has been tried, tested, and found to work in work situations.

Knowledge Repository Content:

·         Factual – terminology, specific details and elements or organizational practice.

·         Conceptual – theories, models, principles and generalizations.

·         Procedural – skills, algorithms, techniques and methods.

·         Meta-cognitive – knowledge about knowledge: learning, thinking, problem-solving.

 

Figure 3: Repository Development

 

Lastly, we can conclude that a knowledge repository should be a one-stop shop for knowledge application. The employees should be able to find out what they need in order to access, understand, and apply the cumulative experience and expertise of the organization. They also need to understand the knowledge requirements of both the users and their tasks are the key to understanding, identifying, and using the correct knowledge from the various sources. Moreover, we can say that:

·         Knowledge repositories are most effective if they are structured in a systematic manner.

·         A range of strategies can be considered: development of ontologies, thesauruses, use of metatags, strong quality control.

·         The ongoing currency and integrity of the system need to be rigorously preserved and protected.

Week 6 : Tutorial 5

On 9 of July 2013 , we had our Fifth tutorial of TKM 1291 ( Introduction to Knowledge Management) . In this tutorial we have discussed about the Communities of Practice (COP).

So we went through Communities of Practice (COP) and how we can distinguish a COP from a formal work group , a group team and an informal network. Then we discussed how this COP add values to organizations . Then we have discussed COP implementation in London 2012 Olympics,to understand the concept of the COP more, Then we proceed to discussed  about short case study about Medical website called (Kenxa) where a global team of scientists working on a vaccine for the SARS virus to look up experts and to create communities and to share knowledge with them. so we discussed whether this case reffering to a community of practice or a project team and also the benefits of sharing knowledge in the quest of finding a cure for SARS virus.

At the end of the class Madam have conducted Neuroscience Activity which was colour's Names with different colours and request from our friend Tariq to state the colours. He abled to state the correct ones but he took a quite some of time to figure it out.

Finally Madam have reminded us that our Mid-term will be next week  on 16 of July at the same tutorial time and wished for us all the best.

 

Week 5 : Knowledge Sharing and Communities of Practice (COP)

 

As we already finished both the lecture and tutorial for chapter 4, we moved on to the Lecture 5 which is about Knowledge Sharing and Communities of Practice (CoP). We have been told by the lecturer that this topic is quite important for us in this syllabus.

So, basically we need to know about several learning outcomes, which are:

·         Describing the key components of a community practice

·         Must define the major roles and tasks in a community of practice

·         And finally, identifying the enablers and obstacles to knowledge sharing

First of all, we must say that once knowledge has been captured and codified, it need to be shared and spread among the organization.

 

Figure 1: Intergrated KM Cycle

In tradition, knowledge has been shared by ‘word of mouth’. Since

the socializing comes naturally to us, there are fewer opportunities

in today’s expended global companies. We must agree that

knowledge sharing these days is faster, more global, more mobile

and of course more connected, thanks to the Internet.

 

Figure 2: Meaning of CoP

                                                                          Figure 3: CoP Cycle

 

 

Besides that, we also learnt about Social Network Analysis (SNA). Basically SNA is about the mapping and measuring of relationship and flows with whomever that in charges for knowledge processing. SNA also identifies the networks so that it can improve the knowledge flow and performance, identify key brokers and hoarders. There are few techniques for SNA, which are:

·         Visualization tools used in conjunction with surveys

·         Cluster analysis – identify highly integrated subgroups

·         Can be automated (e.g. email mapping)

 

 

 

 

Figure 4: SNA nodes

 

A part from that, we also studied about the Community Yellow Pages (1 of the earliest KM applications), Knowledge Sharing Communities, Social Computing, Social Presence, Facilitating Knowledge Sharing, Obstacles to Knowledge Sharing, Undernet and so on.

 

So, in conclusion of this chapter, we can say that

·         Knowledge sharing occurs quite efficiently and effectively in communities of practice where members share a professional interest and goal.

·         Virtual communities are the primary sources of social capital produced that are of value to the organization.

·         Social network analysis can be used to visualize the people and their connections in virtual communities.

·         Some of the key obstacles to knowledge sharing are notions such as knowledge is property, knowledge is power, credibility of the content and the source, organizational culture, and the presence of undernets .

 

 

 

 

 

Week 5 : Tutorial 4

On 2nd of July we had our Tutorial 4 of TKM 1291 Introduction to knowledge management , which related to chapter 4 topic : Knowledge Capture and Codification .

At the beginning we have discussed what is Knowledge Codification is , which be defined in brief by the first phase of the KM cycle which could to transfer :

- Tacit (Undocumented) - to - Explicit (Documented).
- Explicit (Draft) - to - Explicit (Document).

 

Also we can say that the aim for Knowledge Codification is to make the knowledge more accessible, transferable, manageable and retrievable.

 

Then we proceed to discuss about the advantages of interviewing an experts to capture and codify tacit knowledge in an organization. which we said in brief that promoting knowledge sharing , primary source of knowledge and clarifying the knowledge might be good advantages.

Then we proceed to discuss about the key features of the cognitive maps and the decisions trees. we discussed a few points about them which as follows :

Cognitive Mapping :

- Captures conceptual interrelationships.

- Simple to understand.

Decision Tree :
- Representative of decision process.
- Suites  procedural knowledge.
- Easy to produce and understand.

 

Then we proceed and discussed a short scenario about Bessemer who sold a patent for his advanced steel making process and was sued by the purchasers who couldn't get it to work. In the end Bessemer set up his own steel company because he knew how to do it, even though he could not convey it to his patent users. Bessemer's company became one of the largest in the world and changed the face of steel making .

So our task was to figure out Which type of Knowledge capturing technique did the purchasers adopt? and Why did the technique fail? . So Basically the technique over here is Learning by being told. The reason why this technique fails because the patent description is very brief.

Then we have discussed some of the examples of Learning by Observation techniques which in general Tacit - to - Tacit. 

 

At the end of the class we have list out some of the pros and cons of the single experts and multiple experts which in brief as follows : -

 Single Experts Pros : -

- Ideal when building a simple KM system.

- With a single expert conflicts are easier to resolve.

 

 

Single Experts Cons : -

- Kind of risk if the knowledge of the expert is not easy to capture. 

- Single experts are more likely to change scheduled meetings than those who are a part of a team.

 

Multiple Experts Pros : -

- A pool of experts tend to enrich the quality of knowledge captured.

- During discussions experts extend the one another courtesies based on mutual respect.

 

Multiple Experts Cons : -

-Working with multiple experts may require more than one knowledge developer.

- Leads to a " process loss" in determining a solution.