Knowledge Management in a Deconcentrated World

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Knowledge Management in a Deconcentrated World

• Alasdair White

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Possible Approaches

• Technological based mainly on computer and
  telecoms technology
• Systemic based on the functional and
  information systems of the organisation
• Behavioural based on the reactions and
  behaviour of the people involved

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Some Definitions

• These may appear to be cognitive dissonances
• There are paradigm shifts taking place as we move
  into what Peter Drucker called the new realities

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Definition of Knowledge Management

• Knowledge Management caters to the critical
  issues of organizational adaptation, survival,
  and competence in face of increasingly
  discontinuous environmental change.
• Essentially, it embodies organizational processes
  that seek synergistic combination of data and
  information processing capacity of information
  technologies, and the creative and innovative
  capacity of human beings.
• (Dr Yogesh Malhotre, BRINT Institute, USA, 2005)

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A Simpler Definition

• Knowledge Management seeks to make the best use
  of the knowledge that is available to an
  organisation, creating new knowledge in the
  process

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Creating knowledge communities

• Other practitioners have talked about knowledge
  existing within communities and thus there is a
  need to develop such communities before knowledge
  can be managed
• Disconnected and discontinuous communities do not
  function well in terms of knowledge management

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Is this an issue?

• In a Concentrated (Co-located) Functional Model
  probably not
• In a Deconcentrated (Dispersed) Functional Model
  it is a challenge

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The Concentrated Functional Model

• Post WW2 to1980s model based on an earlier
  Victorian model
• All functions are co-located in one place
• The office is used to co-locate and coordinate
  the functional activities
• The office links the corporate functions with the
  outside world

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The Deconcentrated Functional Model

• Originated in the 1980s and became established in
  the 1990s
• Decentralised functions
• Outsourced functions
• Location based on available skills, performance,
  and price
• Where activity takes place is often clustered,
  based on where the skills and performance can be
  found

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Causes Leading to the Deconcentrated Model

• Air transport
• Telecoms and the advent of fax
• Couriers
• Internet communications

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The Problems of the Deconcentrated Model 1

• Communications
• Although communications are now simpler, the lack
  of non-verbal communication remains an issue that
  has to be addressed
• 60-80 of communication is non-verbal
• Web-Cam technology is advancing and is reducing
  this as an issue but it is not yet sufficiently
  good nor sufficiently widely implemented to have
  had much impact

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The Problems of the Deconcentrated Model 2

• Dispersed knowledge-base
• The actual knowledge base of the organisation
  which resides predominantly in the brains of
  individuals is now spread over large areas,
  making knowledge transfer difficult

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The Problems of the Deconcentrated Model 3

• Disconnection
• Sociological and behavioural terms
• The social aspects of the organisational
  community are disconnected
• Lack of community identity means groups and
  teams are harder to identify especially if
  home-working is involved

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The Problems of the Deconcentrated Model 4

• Reporting lines are broken
• Matrix management structures have come into
  existence where line-management responsibility
  and activity or location responsibility are not
  co-located
• Greater empowerment is required this challenges
  the received wisdom of current management
  structures
• A new management model is required but has not
  yet been developed

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So what is Knowledge?
Codification
Data
Information
Contextualisation
Application
Contextualisation
Application
Knowledge
Wisdom
Experience
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Types of Knowledge?
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Creating Knowledge through Technology and Systems

• CAD and Virtual Reality
• Expert Systems
• Artificial Intelligence
• Risk Tolerant and Knowledge Based
• Rule Based or Case Based Reasoning
• Neural Networks
• Fuzzy Logic (rule based but imprecision-tolerant)
  

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Transferring Knowledge

• Water-cooler Moments
• Unstructured exchanges
• Enterprise Instant Messengers
• Chattering Classes
• Formal and informal structured exchanges
• Bulletin boards and Whiteboards
• Groupware and Web Collaboration Tools
• LotusNotes, Lotus Domino, Enterprise Knowledge
  Environments and Information Portals

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Barriers to Knowledge Transfer

• 1 Behavioural Psychology the human factor
• Why should we share
• Whats in it for us
• Knowledge is Power
• Control Freaks and other Characters

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Barriers to Knowledge Transfer

• 2 The Need-to-Know principle
• Who needs to know what and why should we tell
  anyone outside the charmed circle?
• 3 Information (and knowledge) overload
• There is simply too much information for us to
  process
• Given the need for relevance, why should we
  bother with all this information in the first
  place?

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Barriers to Knowledge Transfer

• 4 Developmental Issues
• Maslow and the Hierarchy of Needs
• Development Curve Theory
• Comfort Zone Theory

(For notes on the last two, please go to
following URL http//www.pm-solutions.com and
click on Resource Centre and then PMS Quick
Guides and select the Quick Guide to Development
Phases (a pdf download)
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Overcoming the Barriers

• Bribery and other inducements
• Balanced Score Card approach
• Compulsion - we have ways of making you share
• Collegiate Decision Making
• Empowerment and Attributed Responsibility
• MIS and IT systems that actually work in a
  user-friendly manner

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The Knowledge Economy

• For countries in the vanguard of the world
  economy, the balance between knowledge and
  resources has shifted so far towards the former
  that knowledge has become perhaps the most
  important factor determining the standard of
  living - more than land, than tools, than labour.
  Today's most technologically advanced economies
  are truly knowledge-based.

(World Development Report, 1999 quoted in the
New Zealand Ministry of Economic Development
report 2005)
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Sources of Information

• www.skyrme.com
• www.destinationkm.com
• www.kmmag.com
• www.kmnetwork.com
• www.dialogonleadership.org
• www.weleadinlearning.org
• www.cio.com
• www.brint.com
• www.kmworld.com
• www.knowledgebase.net

• These are just some of the many web sites that
  cover this subject some are more useful than
  others