MIS 435 Knowledge Management

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MIS 435Knowledge Management

• Chapter 9
• Step 5 Designing the Knowledge Management Team

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Objectives

• Design the Knowledge Management team
• Identify sources of requisite expertise
• Identify critical points of failure
  requirements, control, management buy-in, and end
  user buy-in.
• Structure the Knowledge Management team
  organizationally, strategically, and
  technologically.
• Balance technical and managerial expertise
  manage stakeholder expectations.
• Resolve team-sizing issues

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Building KM Systems

• Built on expertise, skills, and insights of a
  diverse variety of stakeholders.
• The quality of the collaborative relationship
  between these stakeholders determines the
  ultimate success of the system.

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Building KM Systems (cont.)

• Fifth step of the knowledge management road map.
• This step involves the design of the knowledge
  management team that will build, implement,
  focus, and deploy the knowledge management
  system.

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10 Step Roadmap

• Analyze the existing infrastructure
• Align Knowledge Management and business strategy
• Design the KM infrastructure
• Audit existing Knowledge assets systems
• Design the KM team
• Create the KM blueprint
• Develop the KM system
• Deploy, using results-driven incremental
  methodology
• Manage change, culture, and reward structures
• Evaluate performance

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Sources of Expertise

• Internal, centralized IT departments
• Team-based local experts
• External vendors, contractors, partners, and
  consultants
• End users and front-line staff

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Local Experts and Intradepartmental Gurus

• Critical to have end-user involvement
• Gurus are the best people the gauge the possible
  usefulness of each feature that your system has.
• Gurus are the first to notice

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Internal IT Departments

• IT staff is needed because it is the IT staff
  that will bring the knowledge of
• Infrastructure capabilities and limitations
• Connectivity and compatibility among the
  team-based systems and the overall organizational
  technology infrastructure
• Standardization issues across different
  platforms, applications and tools
• Technicalities underlying the adaptation of these
  tools by various knowledge worker groups within
  the company

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Nonlocal Experts and Extradepartmental Gurus

• Laterality Laterality refers to the ability to
  cut across functional boundaries and relate to
  people from different areas.

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Characteristics of External Expertise

• Bridge
• Learn
• Value
• Understanding
• Creativity and Rationality

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Characteristics of Communities of Practice

• Multifunctional
• Enacting a common purpose
• Developing
• Changes

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Consultants

• Internal consultants
• External consultants

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Consultant Considerations

• Reputation
• History of the consultant
• Successful work
• Competitor relations
• Trust and confidence

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Managers

• Manager Involvement is Key

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Team Composition and Selection Criteria

• Functionality diversity can lead to only two
  possible outcomes, depending on how it is
  handled.
• The first and most common is conflict and
  tension.
• The second is characterized by synergy,
  creativity and innovation.

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Core Team

• The core team should consist of the following
  participants
• Knowledge champion or senior manager
• IT staff
• User delegates representing the core business
  area that is going to depend on the Knowledge
  Management system.

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KM Team Structure
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Team Life Span and Sizing Issues

• Two viewpoints on the future of
• Knowledge Management
• One belief is that Knowledge Management will
  continue to depend on people to manage knowledge
  throughout the lifetime of the organization.
• The second is that Knowledge Management is a
  self-eliminating initiative.

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The Project Leader

• The Knowledge Management project leader helps
  members of the team understand the projects
  mission and align their efforts with the
  companys overall goals and objectives.
• A leader must resolve internal dynamics, serve as
  a translator, and take charge of delegation.

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The Knowledge Management Teams Project Space

• One of the first tasks that the Knowledge
  Management team needs to undertake is that of
  understanding the projects strategic intent,
  organizational context, technological
  constraints, monetary limitations, and short-term
  as well as long-term goals.

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Some Questions that the Knowledge Management Team
should answer collectively

• 1. What is the companys envisioned strategic and
  performance goal?
• 2. Where does the KM team fit in the
  organizational hierarchy?
• 3. Does the KM project fit vertically or
  horizontally in the value chain?
• 4. What are the financial and time constraints
  for the project?
• 5. What are the technical limitations of existing
  technology platforms?

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Questions

• 6. What are the critical elements in terms of
  skills, people, and knowledge that are still
  missing in the team?
• 7. What are the immediate payoffs?
• 8. What level of commitment does the team have
  from senior management and from the users?
• 9. What are the cultural blockades that should
  be expected?
• 10. Has any competitor or non-competing firm
  implemented a project like this?

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Managing Stakeholders Expectations

• The second task, after the Knowledge Management
  has decided on an initial set of objectives, is
  to present this work formally to various
  stakeholder groups.
• This interaction can help the team compare the
  projects objective with stakeholder expectations
  and perceptions.

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Chemistry

• Chemistry within a team is an essential but often
  overlooked consideration.
• Choice of individuals aside, the features of the
  team are determined best by considering all of
  its members taken together.
• Consider how well a teams potential members fit
  together as a whole.

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Case Study How KM was implemented at Heineken

• Heineken designed a number of scenarios to see
  whether its corporate office could become more
  processes oriented.
• Three questions that needed to be answered
• 1. What is the added value of the corporate
  office?
• 2. What strategic processes does it apply?
• 3. How can the corporate office be organized
  around these processes?

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Heineken

• The Company defined strategic processes of the
  corporate office.
• Those directly related to the strategy of the
  company.
• Those semipermanent in character, changing only
  when the strategy of the company as a whole
  changes.
• Those making a multifunctional contribution to
  the entire company that rises above the business
  units and is divisible into separate strategic
  processes.

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Heineken

• Heineken created several scenarios
• Strengthening worldwide market presence
• Stimulating operational excellence
• Optimizing management performance
• Maximizing company financial leverage

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Heineken Results

• The corporate office was no longer organized by
  functional disciplines but instead they were
  organized in teams around the companys strategic
  processes.
• The delivery of this responsibility and,
  therefore, the added value and accountability
  became more explicit and clearly defined.
• Teams were connected in smart networks, where
  workers work together in soft networks or people
  and knowledge.

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Highways to Failure

• The Breakpoint Buy-in Failure
• Lack of an active role of the top management has
  been identified as the primary reason that many
  projects fail.
• The second reason is failure of users to buy in
  to the project and fail to see why they need the
  system.

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Controlling and Balancing Requirements

• There are some areas where the Knowledge
  Management project manager, have significant
  control. However, there are some areas in which
  they have little or no control.
• Customer Mandate refers to the level of buy-in
  from the ultimate users, who in effect are the
  systems customers.
• This is a high risk area over which managers have
  little control.

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Categorizing Risks in Building the Knowledge
Management System Proactively

Importance of the risk
High
Moderate
Low High
Project Manager Level of Control
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Solving User Buy-In Problems

• This problem can be tackled effectively by
  including representatives from the actual
  would-be end-user community in the Knowledge
  Management team.
• Management must be actively involved to ensure
  that senior managers actually buy into the
  project and that the bigger picture that
  management has in mind is well accommodated and
  incorporated.