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- Research Proposals -Valuing Knowledge Management in

Organizations

Alexandre Perrin, Junior PhD StudentCERAM Sophia Antipolis, European School of Management – Nice, Francealexandre.perrin@ceram.fr – www.alexandreperrin.com

1. About me2. About my research3. About my thesis4. About my articles

Discussion

AGENDA

PROFESSIONAL

ACADEMIC

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006

Nantes Graduate School of ManagementMaster in Management

CERAM Sophia Antipolis

Specialized Master in KM

PhD GrantEUDOKMA (European

Doctoral on KM)

SIEMENS LAFARGE AMADEUS

How can we value Knowledge Management practices in our organization ?

Action-Research

1. About me

LAFARGE

Knowledge Management…a technical issue ?

personal experience…NO !

KM is far more complex and interesting

…the reason for doing a PhD

Gap between theory and practice

Organizations have hard time valuing knowledge management effectively

Academic can help Business to value knowledge management Lack of theoretical approach Lack of operational methodology

1. About me2. About my research3. About my thesis4. About my articles

Discussion

AGENDA

2. About my research

2.1 Research environment

2.2 Research questions

2.3 Research methodology

2.1 Research environment: everybody talks about Knowledge !

Practice FrameworkThe Knowledge Based Organization

Economy LegalManagement

My problem:How Valuing Knowledge Management

?

The Knowledge Economy

Knowledge Management

Organization

Research

Organizations can build a competitive advantage by managing effectively information and knowledge

Faced with a low return on investment from technology and a lack of absorption from employees, organizations live a false revolution of information

Research Framework The Knowledge

Paradigm

Intellectual Property

2.2 Research Questions

1. Theoretical Question: What are the valuable dimensions of Knowledge Management practices ?

2. Empirical Question: How can an organization value these practices ?

3. Methodological Question: How can I build a model to value and monitor the increase of economical and organizational performance ?

My aim: find scientific ways to value Knowledge Management

2.3 Research Methodology

How: Action Research + Literature Review Where: Global French companies that have implemented

a Knowledge Management Strategy Amadeus in Sophia Antipolis: Marketing Lafarge in Paris: Information Systems

What: Longitudinal Case Study built on semi-structured interviews

Who: Collaboration with Knowledge Manager and Business Units (10)

How long: 18 months

1. About me2. About my research3. About my thesis4. About my articles

Discussion

AGENDA

3. About my thesis

3.1 The KM Framework

3.1 Typology of Knowledge Management practices

3.2 Typology of tools to monitor KM practices

3.1 The KM Framework

TECHNOLOGYORGANISATION

STRATEGYCULTURE

3.2 Typology of KM practices

TECHNOLOGYKnowledge Systems

Are the information tools blocking knowledge sharing?

CODIFICATION VS PERSONALISATION

ORGANISATIONLearning Structure

Are the employees aware and supported?

TOP DOWN VS BOTTOM-UP

STRATEGYKnowledge Portfolio

What kind of knowledge the company manage?

EXPLORATION VS EXPLOITATION

CULTUREKnowledge Sharing

How often do employees collaborate?

COLLABORATION VS RETENTION

3.3 Typology of tools to monitor KM practices

CULTURE

Collaborative Climate Index

STRATEGY

StoryTellingIntangible Assets Monitor

ORGANISATION

Maturity ModelsCost Analysis

TECHNOLOGY

Usage MetricsFeedbacks

1. About me2. About my research3. About my thesis4. About my articles

Discussion

AGENDA

4. About my articles

Article 1: Mc Gill J., Perrin A. et Vidal P. (2004) - Valuing Knowledge Management in Organizations, from theory to practice: the case of Lafarge Group - 5th Conference on Organization Knowledge and Learning Capabilities (OKLC), Innsbruck, Austria

Article 2:

Perrin A., Stanley T. et Rolland N. (2004) - Managing organizational networks and knowledge transfer in a global service company - 24th Annual International Conference of the Strategic Management Society (SMS), San Juan, Puerto Rico

Valuing Knowledge Management: from theory to practice, the Lafarge Case

Alexandre PerrinDoctoral Student

Pascal VidalProfessor in IS

Jennifer McGillKnowledge Manager

Theoretical foundations

In the Knowledge Based View (KBV) of the firm, knowledge is recognized as a vital source of competitive advantage (Nonaka, 1994; Spender, 1996 ; Grant, 2000)

Knowledge integration needs cooperation, but depends on coordination between individuals and knowledge they retained. The firm must manage the integration of discontinuous types of knowledge into a coherent organizational view (Spender, 1996).

According to this academic field, leveraging knowledge leads to knowledge management strategies.

Issues raised by the case in the KBV

1. What is the role of a knowledge manager ?

2. How an organization defines a strategy to manage knowledge ?

3. How an organization can value knowledge management ?

Case on DVD

The goal of a Knowledge Manager?

“Put in place a knowledge sharing culture, which becomes a natural way of working in

the organization…without the ongoing need of a Knowledge Manager.”

Jennifer McGill,

Lafarge Corporate Knowledge Manager

Issue N°1: The role of the Knowledge Manager

According to Earl (1999): CKOs have two principal design competencies: they are “technologists” and “environmentalists”. They encourage and initiate investments in information technology as well as in the social environment.

A survey carried out in 92 firms show that organizations have shifted to the « environmental » side of Knowledge Management.

Knowledge Management Strategy 1998 2000 2002Technological (codification) 72 % 66 % 33%Personalization (personal networks) 6 % 8 % 12%Socialization (communities of practice) 12 % 26 % 55%

Rolland (2004)

Issue N°2: The choice for a Knowledge Management Strategy, the case of Lafarge

Lafarge has followed this trend: while knowledge has been documented in the past thanks to a technological strategy, and the barriers to access in the international environment have been removed, the challenge today is to ensure contribution and use of this knowledge to improve business performance.

About Lafarge: The world leader in construction materials Four business lines: Cement, Aggregates & Concrete, Gypsum and Roofing

solutions. One of France's largest corporations in terms of sales (13,6 billions €)

Knowledge Management at Lafarge

The vision for knowledge management is to support Lafarge in its efforts to become the undisputed world leader in building materials by:

Generating value for key stakeholders through the widespread sharing and application of expertise, good and best practices.

Providing local businesses with a simple way to access knowledge & know-how, find experts and work collaboratively on solutions that leverage and apply the knowledge of the company.

To provide tools that will analyze knowledge and turn it into actionable business intelligence to further enable performance improvements for Lafarge business and customers.

Key knowledge stakeholders are defined as employees, customers, suppliers and partners

Knowledge Management Achievements

Goal 1: Generating value for stakeholders Internal: post-it session and definition of user needs External: presentation on “Performance and KM” to shareholders

Goal 2: Providing simple ways to access knowledge Search Engine New Information Portal (Navigation bar, Profiling…My Leo)

Goal 3: Build a culture of knowledge sharing and collaborative communities Collaborative Tools to support workgroup Story Telling from Communication Team

Goal 4: Providing tools to help decision Not only softwares… Mc Dermott (1999): Information Technology has led many companies to imagine a new world of

leveraged knowledge […] as a result, many companies are rethinking how work gets done, linking people through electronic media so they can leverage each other's knowledge.

1. Strategy & Content

4. Culture

3. User access& Technology

2. Governance Process &Organization

Knowledge initiatives must be aligned with the business Strategy.

A clear process of Governance.And organization must be Defined in the divisions.

Tools enable access to knowledge and must

be simple and accessible to all

The knowledge sharing culture must be aligned

with company programs including Leader for

Tomorrow and Division Performance initiatives

Knowledge Management Framework in Lafarge

Knowledge Management Challenges

1. Return on Investment

2. Divisional Organization

3. Clear understanding of the concept of knowledge sharing

Issue N°3: Valuing Knowledge Management

Valuing knowledge management is obtaining tangible results with intangible resources.

Start small and gain results to attract internal customers Story telling: The Langkawi Case

Valuing knowledge management is solving day-to-day issues. The example of the Corporate Directory Beyond tools…the real implementation challenge is not to get the knowledge

base, hardware and software in place, but to encourage their use (Orlikowski view) (Volumes of data are growing at a rate of 100% per year).

Valuing knowledge management is developing a knowledge sharing culture

Merger with Blue Circle Focus of knowledge management on tools is only the first step

Conclusion

Lesson 1: Focus on Human Beings and Corporate Culture ! the essence of an effective Knowledge Management Structure is advertising,

marketing, packaging, incentives, big travel budgets, and the psychodynamics of knowledge management. The answer turns out to lie more with psychology and marketing…than with bits and bytes (Peters, 1993).

Lesson 2: Valuing KM is based on tangible and intangible results keep track of people who ‘know the recipe’, and nurture the technology and

culture that will get them talking ROI measurement implies to link KM program to Corporate Performance

Program

Evolution of the KM Strategy in Lafarge according to our Framework

CULTUREStep 4

STRATEGYStep 1

ORGANISATIONStep 3

TECHNOLOGYStep 2

Future Research

Focus on Knowledge Management Performance Enablers (Choi and Lee, 2003): collaboration, trust…

Paper on the use of StoryTelling in Information Systems Test the StoryTelling approach in Lafarge

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION !