organizational learning

Readings 16-18 ReviewShawn LovelandSIRLS Graduate Student Data

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Knowledge

Wisdom

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Presentation Format

Summary presentation (quick) New highlights presented in each article

Analysis of crosscutting themes

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Articles

16) Organizational Learning and Communities-of-Practice: towards a unified view of working, learning, and innovation (Brown, J)

17) Organizing Knowledge (Brown, J)

18) Capturing Value from Knowledge Assets: the new economy, markets, for know-how, and intangible assets (Teece, D)

Organizational Learning…

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Practice Vs. Official

Workplace practices differ from the official method. Compensation, education, training, and technology focus on

the official way of doing the job, not the actual way it is done. Conflict arises when the two methods are not in sync.

Organizations over define the processes as silos or islands of activity. Most practices use informal-horizontal “communities of

practice” to work and share knowledge. Communities of practice attempt to bridge the abstract view

and reality.


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The Changing Work Environment

A company’s desire to “down skill” jobs: Reduced information flow to employees. Highly structured job and process flow.

Results in: More skills are needed from employees. Overly structured job causes employees to improvise more. Employees must bridge the gap between what is provided and

what is needed.


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Communities Of Practice

Evolve from, and around, unofficial practices rather than official practices within organizations.

Spontaneous forms of organization, that emerge and develop as forums for learning around actual practices in organizations. . They are critical for learning and innovation. They adapt in order to traverse the limitations of the formal

organization.


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Differences Between Communities Of Practice And

Groups Or Teams Communities of practice are not created in a top-down fashion.

Groups and teams are created top-down.

Organizations are facilitators of communities of practice - providing support that corresponds to the actual needs of the community. Groups and teams abstract expectations of the organization.

Communities need to be left to organize autonomously in terms of their formation and development if spontaneous organizational innovation and learning is to be encouraged. Groups and teams are formally created by the organization.


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Main Paper Take Away

Organizations need to build processes on how things are done and not how they want them to be. Changing processes to how the organization wants them to

be, must take into account how they will be done. (A.K.A. Game Theory).

Communities of practice development must be encouraged and nurtured. It should not be controlled or manipulated. It is a delicate

balancing act.


Organizing Knowledge

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Knowledge

Property of individuals. Organizational knowledge.

Held collectively in communities of practice.

Consists of: “Know-what”- explicit knowledge of what to do. “Know-how” – ability to put “know-what” into practice.

Good managers foster knowledge development just as traditional capital is fostered.


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Changes In Business

New culture, processes, and technology are being developed to create a web of knowledge a user can participate in. Breaks down traditional islands of knowledge.

Employees are developing “communities of practice.” Most organizations have webs of communities of practice. Communities of practice are still imperfect because they have

a limited perspective.


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Improving Communities Of Practice

Having a diverse set of communities. Members within a community with different beliefs,

perspectives, and spanning across multiple organizations. Multiple communities with different beliefs, perspectives, and

spanning across multiple organizations.

Understanding different communities have different standards and goals. Best practices of one community may not be applicable to

another.


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Information Flow

Information flows differently within a community of practice than it does between them.

Organizations often underestimate the challenge of reusing knowledge that was developed else ware.

Leakiness. Often times information can be leaked out through one

community and then back into the company through another community easier than it can be transferred from one community to another.

Causes problems protecting the company’s intellectual property.


15

Knowledge Management Players

Translators: translates information between communities.

Knowledge brokers: facilitates the exchange of information between communities.

Boundary object: physical object, technology, or technique that act as a gateway between two knowledge depositories.


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The value knowledge plays within an organization is often overlooked. Both internally and externally.

All organizations are knowledge organizations and knowledge creation is a critical part of organizations do. Communities of practice plan an important role.


Capturing Value From Knowledge Assets…

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Key Points

Knowledge assets are created and exploited globally now more than ever before.

The strategic benefits of knowledge management. Seizing opportunities by identifying and combining

complementary knowledge assets. Recognizing and correcting strategic errors utilizing KM for

better situational awareness. Adapt to changing business conditions.


19

First Mover Advantages

Imbeds proprietary knowledge into the product. Interface and user standards.

Customer builds a knowledge base and spends capital in the first product. Increases switching costs.

High initial development costs can be recouped before the next entrant into the market. R&D head start.

Understanding of the market is gained. Head start in creating knowledge about the market and customer.


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First Mover Disadvantages

Competitors can glean knowledge. Learn form the first movers products. Hire first mover knowledge employees. Private IP becomes public IP.

Decrease switching costs. Band together to create open standards. IT and communications technologies.

Allow smaller firms to become more specialized. When banded together they can complete against larger companies.

Reduce production and channel costs and increase efficiencies.


21

Fusion

Today. The complexities of products are increasing. New products are rarely stand-alone.

Tomorrow. Design reuse is important. IP will become even more valuable.

Sold and licensed just like any other organizational capital. An integrated supply chain will be more important.

Suppliers will be both suppliers and competitors. The focus will not just be on the creation on knowledge.

On the deployment and use of knowledge.


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The demands of organizing knowledge are a critical but can be easily overlooked when explaining why firms exist, what they do, and how innovation occurs.

The essence of a firm is its ability to create, transfer, assemble, integrate, and exploit knowledge assets.


Analysis

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Crosscutting Themes

The rules of business are changing. Knowledge management is critical to the survival of organizations in the new information economy.

Knowledge is an international commodity. Barriers of transferring knowledge are being broken down. Knowledge is exchanged between companies more readily

today than every before. Outsourcing, supply chain, licensing, sold.

Analysis

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Crosscutting Themes

Knowledge must be managed just like any other business capital. Protected, used, and grown. Becomes obsolete. Some tend to hoard it.

Different than traditional capital. Value grows with use. Used simultaneously by different users. Quickly transferred locally, nationally, and internationally.

Analysis

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Crosscutting Themes

Knowledge flow requires business culture and processes. If you build it, they will not come. Information flows differently based on community and culture.

Traditional hierarchy vs. Communities of practice. Communities of practice A vs. Communities of practice B. Internal vs. External of the company. US vs. Japan.

Analysis

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Organizational Knowledge

Organizational knowledge provides a company with a synergistic advantage that is difficult to duplicate. A new way to measure the value of a company. Knowledge firms have a market premium that outweighs conventional

assets and market evaluation.

Organizational knowledge allows a company to use and reuse organization knowledge multiplying the value of the knowledge.

Analysis

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Good way to share knowledge. Supports the real needs of the people doing the work

and not the abstract expectations of the organization’s management.

Adapt quickly to changes in the work environment and needs of the participants.

Requires support and autonomy from the organization.

Analysis

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Beneficial to a large company because to can cut across politics, departments, company “group think”. However, communities of practice can be blinded by their

limited perspective and “community of practice group think”.

Can include resources outside the organization. Most organizations have communities of practice that

are overlapping and are independent for the official organizational structure.

Analysis

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Critique

Analysis

Organizational Learning… Readability: very poor Value: interesting concepts, however, the value was lost because of the readability Use of examples: below average

Organizing Knowledge Readability: average Value: Interesting perspective on the value of knowledge Use of examples: average

Capturing Value From Knowledge Assets… Readability: average Value: Interesting perspective on knowledge, but nothing new Use of examples: average

31

Capturing “Shop Floor” Knowledge

Difficulties capturing “shop floor” knowledge: Lower education level Inadequate IT infrastructure Lack of time to document tactic knowledge Lack of a sharing forum Poor visibility of shop floor knowledge Lack of value an employees places on their input to process Lack of management focus Difference in terminology between managers and line

employees

Khanna, Amit. Mitra, Debanik. Gupta, Avneesh “How shop-floor employees drive innovation at Tata Steel”, KM Review. 8.3 (July/August 2005)

Analysis

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Models Of KM

Enables and constraints Model 1 Model 2

Business and technology strategy

Predefinition of outcomes Changing world

Organizational control Control and consistency Self-control and creativity

Information sharing culture Based on contracts Based on trust

Knowledge representation Static and prespecified Dynamic and improvised

Organizational structure Vertical Horizontal

Managerial command and control For achieving compliance For achieving commitment

Economic returns Decreasing returns Increasing returns

Perspective Downskilling Knowledge optimization and growth

Example Car assembly line(bank teller workflow)

Jazz band(product development)

Model 1 Model 2

•Malhotra, Yogesh. “Why Knowledge Management Systems Fail? Enablers and Constraints of Knowledge Management in Human Enterprises”, American Society of Information Science and Technology, Monograph Series. (2004)

Analysis

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Additional Information

Organizational Learning … http://www.knowledge-portal.com/knowledge_and_innovation/the_role_of_communities_of_practice.htm

Organizing Knowledge http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~i385q/archive/kiehne_t/INF385Q-intranets-040325.ppt http://www.razak.com/kmi/corporate.shtml

Capturing Value from Knowledge Assets… http://www.providersedge.com/docs/km_articles/Knowledge_Strategy_-_Aligning_K-Programs_to_Business_Strategy.pdf

Analysis

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Additional Resources

Malhotra, Yogesh. “Why Knowledge Management Systems Fail? Enablers and Constraints of Knowledge Management in Human Enterprises”, American Society of Information Science and Technology, Monograph Series. (2004)

Khanna, Amit. Mitra, Debanik. Gupta, Avneesh “How shop-floor employees drive innovation at Tata Steel”, KM Review. 8.3 (July/August 2005)

Gallivan, Michael J.; Spitler, Valerie K.; Koufaris, Marios. “Does Information Technology Training Really Matter? A Social Information Processing Analysis of Coworkers’ Influence on IT Usage in the Workplace” Journal of Management Information Systems. 22.1 (Summer 2005)

Analysis

Questions

organizational learning

Education

knowledge organizations

organizational knowledge

teams communities of

knowledge development

knowledge assets

community of practice

knowledge creation

knowledge brokers