Global Knowledge Management: Buckman Labs

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Global Knowledge Management Buckman Labs

• Questions for Discussion
• What has been the role of management?
• What are the critical success factors of Buckman
  Labs efforts?
• What is the implication for managing knowledge
  workers?

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Characteristics of Buckman Labs Associates

• Chemical Company
• 1275 associates located in 90 different countries
  around the world
• Speak 15 different languages
• 73 percent have College or University degrees
  today

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An Organizational Chronology of Buckman Labs KM
Development
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KM Systems at Buckman Labs

• 4 Regional Forums Intranet
• TechForum (North America)
• ForoLatino (Latin America)
• EuroForum (Europe)
• AAA (Australasia, Asia and Africa)
• 2 Customer Databases

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Knowledge Management An Analytical Framework

• Infrastructure, Infostructure and Infoculture

Subjective
Infoculture
Inter-
subjective
Infostructure
Infrastructure
Objective
Technically
Socially
determined
determined
Adapted from and Pan and Scarbrough (1998 and
1999)
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Infrastructure, Infostructure, and Infoculture

• Infrastructure the hardware/software which
  enables the physical/communicational contact
  between network members
• Infostructure the formal rules which govern the
  exchange between actors on the network, providing
  a set of cognitive resources (metaphors, common
  language) whereby people make sense of events on
  the network
• Infoculture the stock of background knowledge
  which actors take for granted and which is
  embedded in the social relationships surrounding
  work group processes

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Infrastructure and Infostructure

• Infrastructure
• Knowledge Architecture
• Organizational Knowledge Repository (Memory)
• Capacity of Information Technology
• Infostructure
• Knowledge Sharing Processes
• Global Access and Customer Focus
• Knowledge Strategy
• Use of Language and Metaphor

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Infoculture

• Knowledge Culture
• Knowledge Entrepreneurship and the Role of Top
  Management
• KM-focused HRM
• Training (Job and KM related)
• Recruitment and Selection
• Performance Measurement System
• Reward

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What has been the role of top management?

• Provide visionary leadership willingness to
  change
• Willing to empower employees by giving them full
  access to information and knowledge
• Lead by examples facilitate the emergence of
  CoP
• Knowledge entrepreneurship
• Advocate judge and participant

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What are the critical success factors of Buckman
Labs KM efforts?

• Early implementer/adopter
• Strong support from the top management
• Continuous belief in the value of tacit knowledge
• The use of technology for global knowledge
  sharing
• It was first top-down, then middle-up-down
• Never satisfy with status-quo

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What is the implication for managing knowledge
workers?

• ICT skills
• The need to balance Carrots-and-Sticks
• The role of management Middle management
• A KM-focused HRM
• Performance Evaluation
• Training
• Rewards and Incentives

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Theoretical Implications

• The Previous Views of K A Potential False
  Dichotomy
• Objective Force vs Socially Constructed Product
• Duality of K
• K Sharing is Subject to Social Validation and
  Review Rather Than As a Means of Accessing an
  Objective Reality (Scarbrough, 1996)
• Provides a Context to Understand the Interplay
  Between Informational, Organizational and Social
  Elements of K Sharing Processes

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Managerial Implications

• Focus on the Interrelationships of Technological,
  Organization and Social Elements of K Sharing
• Facilitate RATHER than to Manage K Sharing Within
  and Between Communities
• Need to Manage K Workers Differently - The Need
  for a KM-focus HRM

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A Socio-technical Perspective of Knowledge
Management
Information
Technology
Infostructure
Infrastructure
Organisational Routines Use of Metaphors and
Language Group Problem Solving Process Knowledge
Strategy
Knowledge Architecture Knowledge Base (Org.
Memory) The Capacity of Information Technology
Integration Mechanism
Enabling Mechanism
Infoculture
Co-ordination Mechanism
Nurturing of CoPs
KM-Focused
HRM
Intention, leadership, Interaction Culture,
Reward