ISECON 2001 Conference Cincinnati, Ohio, USA November 14, 2001

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ISECON 2001 ConferenceCincinnati, Ohio, USA
November 1-4, 2001

• K.H.VAT (Mr)
• Software Engineering
• Faculty of Science Technology
• University of Macau, Macau SAR
• China
• 
  November 2, 2001

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Towards a Learning Organization Model for
Knowledge Synthesis An IS Perspective

• Motivation
• The Situation of Concern
• The Problem of Knowledge Management
• The Idea of Organizational Learning
• The Promise of Learning Organization
• Knowledge Infrastructure -- Organizational Memory
• The Challenges

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Motivation

• Knowledge Economy -- The Message
• Knowledge is a valuable organizational resource
• Organizations competitive edge lies in the
  intellectual capital of the employees
• How to harness the human capital to stay ahead of
  the pack
• How to leverage the collective knowledge of the
  organization

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The Situation of Concern

• Knowledge as the lifeblood of survival
• Knowing what information is needed
• Knowing how information must be processed
• Knowing why information is needed
• Knowing when which information is needed
• Knowing where information can be found to achieve
  a specific result
• Knowing who knows what and who knows how to do
  what

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The Problem

• Knowledge Management as the Focus
• Conceptualization, Review, Consolidation, and
  Action Aspects of such activities as
• Developing knowledge
• Securing knowledge
• Distributing knowledge
• Combining knowledge

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KM Cycle Conceptualize, Review, Consolidate, Act

• Trying to get a view on the state of the
  knowledge in the organization
• Analyzing the strength and weakness of the
  knowledge household.
• Checking what has been achieved in the past and
  what the current state of affairs is
• Selecting the optimal plans for correcting
  bottlenecks and analyzing them for risks that
  accompany their implementation
• Effectuating the plans chosen.

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Knowledge Development

• Organization survive by the continuous
  development of new knowledge based on creative
  ideas, the analysis of failures, daily
  experiences and work in progress (RD)

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Knowledge Securing (Storage)

• Individual knowledge must be made accessible to
  others in the organization at the right time and
  place. This can be achieved by using some type of
  repository for user-friendly access and retrieval.

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Knowledge Distribution

• Knowledge must be actively distributed to those
  who need it, with the shortest turn-around time
  to enhance organizational competitiveness.
• We need a facility to determine who should be
  informed about a particular piece of new
  knowledge.

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Knowledge Combination

• An organization can perform at its best if all
  available knowledge can be combined in its new
  products and services.
• We need a facility to make it easier to access
  knowledge developed in different parts of the
  organization or its business partners.

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The Idea of Organizational Learning

• Interactions between tacit knowledge and explicit
  knowledge
• Tacit knowledge -- knowledge not easily expressed
  and communicated
• Explicit knowledge -- knowledge codified and
  expressed in formal language
• Four possible styles of interaction
  tacit-tacit, explicit-explicit, tacit-explicit,
  explicit-tacit

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Knowledge Socialization tacit-tacit

• This mode generates new tacit knowledge by
  sharing and exchanging know-how and past
  experiences among organizational members.
• Knowledge socialization usually occurs in the
  form of informal communication when someone
  raises a question for discussion or an issue to
  be responded.

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Knowledge Combination explicit-explicit

• This mode of interaction generates new explicit
  knowledge by combining pre-existing explicit
  knowledge and bringing it together to produce new
  insight.
• Knowledge combination involves knowledge sharing
  and decision coordination among different
  organizational members.

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Knowledge Externalization tacit-explicit

• This mode of interaction involves structuring or
  articulating tacit knowledge into explicit
  knowledge, thus allowing it to be communicated to
  other users
• Knowledge externalization involves concept
  mapping, tacit knowledge categorization and
  representation

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Knowledge Internalization explicit-tacit

• This mode of interaction maps explicit knowledge
  into internal knowledge when individuals, exposed
  to others knowledge, make it their own.
• Knowledge internalization occurs when we are
  actively searching for methods or lessons learned
  to solve problems at hand.
• We internalize knowledge by doing, and also by
  observing what other people have done in a
  similar context and by example.

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The Promise of Learning Organization

• Places where people continually expand their
  capacity to create the results they truly desire,
  where new and expansive patterns of thinking are
  nurtured, where collective aspiration is set
  free, and where people are continually learning
  how to learn together (Peter Senge The Fifth
  Discipline 1990).
• An organization which focuses on developing and
  using its information and knowledge capabilities
  in order to create higher-value information and
  knowledge, to modify behaviors to reflect new
  knowledge and insights, and to improve
  bottom-line results (David Garvin Building a
  Learning Organization 1993).

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Knowledge Infrastructure

• A three-tiered Web-enabled configuration
• Front-end Knowledge Management Services (KMS)
• Middle Knowledge Management Architecture (KMA)
• Back-end Organizational Memory (OM)
• Focus on Organizational Memory

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KMS -- Our Strategies

• KMS based on knowledge interaction modes
  introduced
• Socialization e-mails, discussion forum,
  bulletin boards
• Internalization lessons-learned databases,
  process history tracking, computer-based training
  (hypermedia-based) data mining
• Externalization knowledge ontologies, network
  publishing, or data warehousing
• Combination group decision support system,
  workflow system, or document management system.

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KMA -- Our Design Concern

• Open, flexible and customizable to the ways
  communities of practice learn and evolve
• Support KM concerns to create, retain, share,
  account for, and leverage knowledge from the
  personal level to the team level, the
  organizational level, and even the
  inter-organizational level
• Two architectural perspectives business and
  technology

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KMA Business Architecture

• Development of organization and management
  solutions and methods related to modeling the
  business functionality
• Organizational Functionality business
  strategies, processes, and structures that
  enhance and facilitate organization-wide
  knowledge leveraging
• KM-related components e-Business models,
  e-Process models, and e-Application models.

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KMA Technology Architecture

• Development of ICT components within an
  intranet-based knowledge medium to translate the
  organizations business vision into effective
  electronic applications which support the intra-
  and inter-organizational KM processes
• Distinct stages of development e-Application
  rules, e-Application data, and e-Application
  distribution
• Mission collects information from various
  sources, and presents it to KMS users for
  knowledge evolution.

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Business Architectural Components

• E-Business models provide a high-level
  perspective of the business initiative
• E-Process models describe the internal and
  external processes representing the
  organizations daily behavior
• E-Application models represent the electronic
  applications to be developed to streamline
  business processes from the end-user perspective

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Technology Architectural Components

• E-Application Rules technical mechanisms to
  enforce business rules peculiar to every business
  process to govern its operation
• E-Application Data data stored and manipulated
  by the electronic applications
• E-Application Distribution distributed
  architecture allowing application resources to be
  located on individual application servers
  connected by a network infrastructure -- a
  backbone for communications.

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OM -- The Repository

• KMS require iterations of references and
  modification of the components developed in the
  business and technology architectures of the KMA
• We need a reusable asset repository for storing
  various business-specific and technology-related
  components in the form of tacit and explicit
  knowledge items
• OM structured into business repository and
  technology repository, to secure organizational
  knowledge.

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The Business Repository of OM

• Designed in support of KMAs business
  architecture
• Storing knowledge items used to standardize
  definitions of business and process models
• Archived components can be recalled to be reused
  and modified for new business and process models

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The Technology Repository of OM

• Designed in support of KMAs technology
  architecture
• Storing technology resources such as business
  objects, pre-built and purchased components,
  developer documentation, and other technology
  standards and artifacts

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The AOD Framework of OM

• Acquire gather, inquire, validate/verify,
  encode
• Organize profile, associate, rank, classify
• Distribute awareness, identification, delivery

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OMs Knowledge Items

• Follows CommonKADS organization model to store
  knowledge items as objects with different
  attributes
• Categorized into three major groups general,
  content, and availability
• General name, role description, activity,
  domain(s)
• Content generic task type, nature,
  product/service, functions
• Availability time, location, form.

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Web Information Systems (WISs)

• Implementation concerns of KMS, KMA, and OM
• Iterative means to realize ongoing functional
  requirements
• WISs geared toward exploiting the benefits of the
  Web platform
• WISs should enable users to perform work
• WISs tightly integrated with such devices as
  distributed databases or knowledge servers
• WISs subject to rigorous business value
  assessment and user-centered prototyping.

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Learning Organization Model for Knowledge
Synthesis

• Experimenting with the Virtual University (VU)
  concept
• Component of VU Knowledge Infrastructure (KI)
• KI (and the constituent OM) is to enable
  knowledge development and transfer among teachers
  and students in an interactive and collaborative
  manner
• Supporting Knowledge tasks acquisition,
  creation, packaging, and application of emergent
  knowledge
• Example restructuring VUs degree programs as
  webs of logically coherent courses organized as
  sets of logically complete modules expressed as
  serial sets of sessions to enable component-based
  development.

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Challenges

• Organizational knowledge is created via
  individual knowledge, but is more than the sum of
  individual knowledge
• Complete organizational knowledge is created only
  when individuals keep modifying their knowledge
  through interactions with other organizational
  members
• A well-devised OM with a suitable KMA design and
  configuration enhances the probability of
  seamless, flexible knowledge acquisition,
  sharing, and integration among knowledge workers
  throughout the organization
• How to devise KMSs to turn the scattered, diverse
  knowledge of their knowledge workers into
  well-structured knowledge assets ready for
  deposit and reuse in the OM.