Information And Knowledge Management

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

There is no one answer to the question. O’Dell and Hubert state that practically knowledge is information in action (2011, 2). In business, knowledge is what employees know about their customers, processes, mistakes, successes and one another (O’Dell & Hurbert, 2011).

1.2 Other definitions of knowledge and knowledge management (KM):

Knowledge management is about putting processes in place that will allow the right knowledge to get to the right people at the right time (O’Dell & Hurbert, 2011, 3).

According to Sandrock (2008, p. 8) knowledge management definition depends on the business strategy of an organisation. This is in agreement with other sources (Hansen et al, 1999, p. 110).

Successfully implemented KM should: (O’Dell & Hurbert, 2011,2).

Connect employees to one another.

Connect employees to knowledge assets

Connect those with experience and know-how with those who need it.

Hansen, Nohria and Tierney (1999) identified two main strategies to implement a KM initiative - the codification or technology-centric strategy and the personalisation or process centric strategy.

2. Hansen, Nohria and Tierney(1999) codification and personalisation strategies

2.1 The codification or technology-centric

The codification strategy is built around information and technology. Knowledge is codified, stored in database systems and repositories and reused. "Knowledge is codified using "people-to-document" approach: it is extracted from a person who developed it, made independent of that person, and reused for various purposes" (Hansen et al., 1999, p. 108). Davenport and Prusak(1998, p. 68) agrees with this definition.

Hansen at al. (1999) gives an illustration of the codification strategy using with a case study of two consulting companies, Anderson Consulting and Ernst & Young, because of the nature of their business strategy which is to focus mainly on implementation projects rather than on purely innovative projects (Hansen et al., 1999, p. 108). Hansen et al. state that the codification strategy allow employees or people to use information stored in the computer systems without having to consult with the person who originally developed it. They illustrate the use by giving an example of an Ernst & Young employee, Love, who was preparing a bid for a big manufacturing company that needed an enterprise resource system. He searched the company’s electronic Knowledge repository and found documents with previously developed solutions with enough information that helped him close the deal (Hansen et al., 1999, p. 108).

Stephen Denning (1998), a former CKO(Chief Knowledge Officer), of the world bank supports Hansen et al’ ways of sharing knowledge – he calls his strategies the "collection dimension" and the "connecting dimension". The collection dimension is the same as Hansen et al.’s codification strategy; it is described as "the capturing and disseminating of know-how through information and communication technologies aimed at codifying, storing and retrieving content, which in principle is continuously updated through computer networks" (Denning, 1998, p. 10). Natarajan and Shekhar (2000) also have two models that comply with the other models above, the "transformation model(codification)" and "the independent model(personalisation)". Codification deals with the sharing of explicit knowledge.

2.2 The personalisation Strategy

The personalisation strategy focuses on sharing tacit knowledge by developing networks for linking people. The strategy does not require a big IT infrastructure support. Hansen et al. (1999, p. 110) states personalisation strategy focuses on knowledge sharing through dialogue between individuals. The strategy focuses on "Knowledge that has not been codified—and probably couldn’t be—is transferred in brainstorming sessions and one-on-one conversations" (Hansen et al., 1999, p. 108).

The strategy is in agreement with various other authors (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995; Nonaka & Toyama, 2003; Zack and Michael, 1996). The personalisation strategies are mainly used in environments where the organisations products and services require product line skills and expertise and a good understanding of the business industry (Hansen et al., 1999, p. 108). Organisations where their people or employees rely on tacit knowledge to do business will be more compatible with the personalisation approach.

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2.3 The nature and characteristics of tacit and explicit knowledge

There are two types or dimensions of knowledge, explicit and tacit knowledge. "Explicit knowledge (also known as formal or codified knowledge) comes in a form of documents, formulas, contracts, process diagrams, manuals, and so on" and "tacit knowledge (also known as informal or uncodified knowledge), by contrast, is what you know or believe from experience, it can be found in interactions with employees and customers" (O’Dell & Hurbert, 2011, 3; Nonaka and Kanno ,1998).

The organisation that I work for is part of government. The organisation is rich in both tacit and explicit knowledge. It is because of this fact that it will be difficult for the organisation to look at only one of the strategies mentioned by Hansen, Nohria and Tierney (1999) to implement KM.

Tax and Vat collection is the core of the organisation’s business. There are a lot of people in the organisation who have a vast amount of experience and expertise in terms of our tax, vat regulations and policies. Most of these experiences are not documented hence they will need to be transferred from senior employees through mentoring and hands on training. There are certain enquiries and request about tax and vat from the public that are not documented and cannot be documented as part of the tax or vat regulations but are required for the day to day running of the business. The call centre agents transfer such knowledge to one another through personal sharing and asking for assistance from each other, this will call for the organisation to implement and support the personalisation strategy. Hansen, Nohria and Tierney, (1999) say organisation that rely on people sharing information through experiences (tacit knowledge) will be more suitable for the personalisation strategy.

The organisation has also invested in a lot of information and technology (IT) system to support the business. Some of these systems are legacy systems with no documentation that technical people can use to support them. The organisation will need to rely on the personalisation strategy to pass tacit knowledge from the more experienced and senior staff to new or junior staff. Also there are a lot for new of new and cutting edge systems that the organisation has implemented. These systems require specialised skills and expertise to implement and support them. Employees who work in these environment transfer knowledge to each other by sharing they experience through dialog and asking each other questions. This is done over video conferences and other digital media. New and junior staff is assigned a mentor that personally share their experiences with them. Hansen, Nohria and Tierney, (1999) state that organisations that have employees with specialised expertise and skill set acquired through experience needs to implement the personalisation strategy.

The organisation also uses very complex and advanced information and technology system to meet the business strategy and needs. These systems include multiple large document repository systems across multiple different sites in South Africa. The employees uses these system to search and retrieve customer information, this is explicit knowledge. It gives them a competitive advantage to have all customer background history and personal details when handling enquiries. This is why it will be very critical for the organisation to support the codification strategy. The organisation has spent a lot of money implementing systems with readily available documentations to service our customers.

The organisation also has a lot of documents on tax and vat regulations that are accessible to both our employees and customers via IT retrieval systems. The regulations and acts are well documented, the organisation will need to employ a codification strategy to manage the sharing this knowledge.

The organisation will have to apply both codification and personalisation approach to implement KM because of the importance and nature of both our tacit and explicit knowledge.

2.4 Limitations of exclusively focusing on either approach

According to Hansen et al., the best strategy to use for KM implementation is to combine both codification and personalisation strategies. Depending on the business strategy, an organisation applies a 20-80 split between codification and personalisation. That means they apply 80% of their knowledge sharing to one strategy and 20% to the other strategy (Hansen et al, 1999, p. 112). They say organisations that tries to implement both strategies excellently risk failing on both. This is supported by Denning (1998); he states that organisation that only focuses on personalisation with little or no codification strategy will not be effective.

Focussing on one strategy for example codification will not have all the information and knowledge that the consultant could use to complete their task (Hansen et al., 1999, p. 113). Hansen et al uses an example of a KM implementation by an organisation, Bahn, the executives implemented a codification strategy only, that did not work because not all the required information was captured. There are other companies that had to scrap their investment in codification strategies because people could not use the without consulting the people who created the document task (Hansen et al., 1999, p. 113).

My organisation because of the nature of business that the different departments conduct cannot afford to implement one of the strategies exclusively. The organisation’s business includes a lot of documentation that needs to be stored and retrieved for use by both customers and employees. This will require codification strategy to be implemented. The complexity of some of the tax and vat regulations documents that the organisation stores needs to be explained via dialog for people using it for the first time to make sense of it.

The organisation also hires a lot of external consultant like Accenture to implement and support the system, the consultants come with skills and experiences that are not documented task (Hansen et al., 1999, p. 108). The organisation will have to implement a strategy that will support the transfer of skills and expertise from the consultants to internal employees through meetings, workshops and mentoring.

2.5 People/Corporate Culture

It is important to take the culture of the organisation into consideration when implementing KM strategies (Sandrock, 1998, p. 11). She states that culture and sub-cultures can determine what kind of knowledge is worth managing. Culture can also defines what information can be shared or not, to who and by who, and who should hold on to information. It influences social interaction and the use of knowledge in particular situations. It also shapes the process by which new knowledge is created and shared within an organisation (Sandrock, 1998, p. 11).

Organisational culture can affect human behaviour as in this example, team members can be scared to share their experiences like mistakes because of how that business unit reacts to someone making mistakes (Sandrock, 1998, p. 12).

Below are four cultural differences named by Hofstede(2001) that will influence how people behave in an organisation.

Power distance – in organisation where power distance is small, there is commutation between parties and information flows easily. In a large power distance organisation there is a wide distance between your managers and subordinates, knowledge sharing is related to power. Sharing of information must be in a formal setup like a meeting or room.

Individualism verses collectivism – In individualistic organisations everyone looks after him or herself, and in collective organisation people are integrated. In an individualistic organisation people want individual recognition and want compensation to share their knowledge. And in a collective culture people share their knowledge freely.

Masculine And Feminine Cultural traits – This deals with masculine and feminine values and behaviour. In masculine organisations, men are expected to be tough and successful and women are more concerned with having a good quality life. In Feminine organisations there is sharing of information. In masculine organisation people want to share their success and not their mistakes.

The power distance in my organisation is small; most managers have got an open door policy. Employees can walk into a manager’s office and engage in a discussion with a manager at any time. This allows knowledge to flow freely between employees of any level – there is a need for the personalisation strategy. However most senior managers prefer to communicate via the intranet websites, email and blogs – there is also a need for good codification systems.

The organisation is also very much individualistic when it comes to staff members; this is mainly because of the financial performance bonus is linked to the employees’ contribution. People want to hold on to their knowledge so that they can present them as theirs during performance appraisal. The organisation has included documentation and keeping document repository updated as part of the key performance indicators. This forces individuals to share their knowledge through codification strategy.

2.6 KM processes

Snowden (2000a) state that "knowledge can be viewed as a thing or process." KM process defines how knowledge should flow.

When knowledge is viewed as a process, a designer for knowledge management implementation must take into account the four processes:

Creating knowledge

People create knowledge everyday in different ways; experiments, creative implementation plan for new customers, and products enhancements, without even knowing they are doing it(O’Dell and Hubert, 2011, p. 29).

Finding and accessing knowledge

" This is an act of passing the best knowledge assets or expert from one to one or one to many" (O’Dell and Hubert, 2011, p. 29).

Sense-making;

In this process knowledge is evaluated for relevance, usability and accurancy.

Sharing knowledge

This process deals with exposing or sharing the knowledge to others.

Knowledge management strives to enhance organisation’s already existing processes that help people create, find, make sense of and share knowledge (Alexander et al. (1977, p. 3).

2.7 Technology

"Knowledge-management technologies include any tool that assists people with the processes of creating, finding, sharing, and making sense of knowledge" (Ruggles 1997).

The level and investments in information technology depends on the KM strategy that a company is going to adopt. Codification strategy requires heavy use of IT systems whereas the personalisation strategy uses much less IT systems (Hansen et al., 1999, p. 114). Codification strategy is very expensive as it will require an implementation of very complex electronic repository systems. Many organisations like Ernst & Young have spent millions of US dollars on implementing IT systems and people to support those strategies (Hansen et al., 1999, p. 114).

KM technologies are presented by the associating them to a knowledge with a knowledge process like creation, storage, retrieval, transfer and application. Alavi and Tiwana(2003) for example associate e-learning as a technology for knowledge creation and Nonaks et al. (2001) associate technologies like group conferencing and groupware as creation of knowledge at a group level.

My organisation has invested a lot of money on IT systems. The bulk of the business is run through IT systems. These are systems that are used for the storage and retrieval of knowledge. The systems that have been implemented can be used to support both codified and personalisation strategies. The system e-filing, where customers go online to file their tax returns, system is one example of a system in the organisation that can support the implementation of a codification strategy. The organisation has also invested a lot of money in a document repository system. The system is used to store millions of documents including; policy and procedure documents, clients information document (tax payer), and systems documentation documents.

The organisations also make use of web conference systems to hold meetings and share information. It also has email and mobile systems that it uses to share knowledge. There is also internet and intranet in the organisation that is used to share knowledge.

2.8 Stragegy,

Shawn Callahan state that "Knowledge strategies are often inflexible and are unable to cope with the emergent properties that characterise the complex and dynamic environments of the ‘knowledge edge’". Mintzberg, Ahlstrand and Lampel (1998, p.9) states strategy is a combination of actions that are that are meant to achieve an anticipated business outcome and the actions that emerge from activities undertaken within an organisation.

Zack (1999, p125) states the research he did with over 25 organisations shows that the most important element for guiding KM initiatives is a firm business strategy. He states that in practice executives has ignored the link between KM and business strategy (Pring, 1998, p. 80-89). Organisations need to have a clearly defined business strategy in order to come up with a KM strategy.

Sandrock (2008, p. 9) highlights five high level business strategic choices that companies make:

Commodity – Strives to be the lowest cost producer. Prices are set by the market, for example mining and agriculture.

Product developer – Strives to be different from competitors, for example electronics. Specialise in product development and marketing knowledge.

Customer Relation Custodian – operate in a well defines niche march, example call centre. Most important knowledge is customer and stakeholder knowledge.

Project Organisation – Operate project to project, for example construction. Important knowledge is project management technique.

Service Deliver – Operate based on a mandate, for example government agencies. They are procedural and service delivery driven.

She states that organisations need to choose one strategy from the list above that closely matches their business strategy; this choice will determine the appropriateness of the KM strategy. After understanding or identifying the strategy, executives or KM implementers need to do the following to come up with the KM implementation strategy :(Sandrock, 2008, p10)

Establish the status Quo – Organisations or KMO must run knowledge management diagnostic surveys to establish what they already have and can use in a KM strategy. This will help KMO from implementing strategies for something that already exists.

Knowledge management strategy – It is very crucial for the knowledge management strategy to support the business strategy. This is in agreement with other authors (Zack, 1999; O’Dell & Hurbert, 2011, 3; Tiwana(2000, p. 103).

Identifying core competencies

My organisation delivers services for the government. According to (Sandrock, 2008, p10) my organisation’s business strategy is service delivery. The organisation strategy is clear; collect a set target of tax revenue from all tax payers.

In order to meet our business strategy consistently, the organisations hires the best employees and needs to apply both forms of strategies, codification and personalisation, to ensure that successes and failures are shared and everyone learns from them. It has a big IT technical team and project managers.