chapter 5 knowledge transfer. knowledge transfer how can an organization transfer knowledge...
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Knowledge Transfer
How can an organization transfer knowledge effectively? Hire smart people Let them talk to one another
How does knowledge transfer? Knowledge Transfer Dilemmas
Looking nearby only, Larger corporations
Strategies of Knowledge Transfer MCC vs Sematech
MCC tried liaisons, assignees, workshops, training, technical reports, third-party licenses, production and support of products, and many other techniques FAILED
Sematech success due to sponsors (assignees) who come to participate in research
Water Cooler Discussion
Place of knowledge transfer
IBM Chairman, John Akers Stay away from water coolers, get back to work
Water cooler discussion – “hit-or-miss”
Talk Rooms
Japanese Pharmacy Company – Dai-Ichi 20 Minute Talks With Co-Workers After hours get togethers Hardly use email to communicate Prefer face-to-face
“When you need to transfer knowledge, the method must always suit the culture.”
Knowledge Fairs
Informal & unstructured gathering of co-workers Allows for knowledge transfer, co-workers to
interact and meet one another Companies: Ernst & Young, CSIRO
Versus Structured Corporate Seminars Tightly woven schedules, no chance for
interaction among co-workers
Other Strategies
Mentorship program Bringing together experienced employees with
less experienced employees Database of co-workers
Who is willing to meet with what expertise Videoconferencing System
Link people with knowledge to who need it
Knowledge Transfer Friction
Friction Possible Solutions
Lack of Trust Build relationships and trust through face-to-face meetings
Different cultures & vocabularies Create common ground through education, discussion, teaming,
job rotation
Lack of time & meeting places Establish times and places for knowledge transfers
Status and rewards go to knowledge owners
Evaluate performance and provide incentives based on
sharing
Direct Contact
Contracting firm for Boston Harbor Tunnel project Overseen similar project in New Zealand Tried to transfer the tacit knowledge explicitly via
email, phone, memorandums Unsuccessful Engineers gathered, face-to-face interaction and
transfer of knowledge Success
“In some cases, there’s no substitute for direct contact”
The Status of the Knower
Be cautious that successful knowledge transfer can depend heavily on who it is coming from
People may judge by reputation Case: CEO (Market Conditions Malaysia)
Librarian, Senior VP
Reflect - Strategies of Knowledge Transfer Try to focus more on the human aspect of
knowledge transfer
Don’t confine knowledge transfer to email, improved access, communication, document repositories, etc
Knowledge Oriented Personnel Planning managers, business analysts,
design & manufacturing engineers, marketing professionals, secretaries, clerks Create, share, search out, and use knowledge
Knowledge management is everyone’s job
Knowledge Management Positions Growth in Knowledge management jobs
Andersen Consulting – 200 KM Jobs Knowledge integrators – expert in one domain Knowledge administrators – capturing, storing,
maintaining knowledge that others produce Ernst & Young, McKinsey, IBM ~ 200 KM Jobs Coca-Cola – 40 KM Jobs Hewlett-Packard – 20-30 KM Jobs
Managers of Knowledge Projects Functions:
Developing project objectives Assembling & managing teams Determining & managing customer expectations Monitoring project budgets & schedules Identifying & resolving project problems
Comfortable with technology Web-accessed databases
Should speak the common language & understand values
Managers of Knowledge Projects “A little humility goes a long way when you’re
managing a knowledge project.”
Be humble or knowledge may be withheld
Chief Knowledge Officer
Function: “evangelize” for knowledge and learning from it Design, implement, oversee firms knowledge infrastructure Manage relationships with external providers of information
& knowledge (negotiate prices) Provide critical input to the process of knowledge creation Design / implement a firm’s knowledge codification
approaches Measure and manage value of knowledge Manage the knowledge managers Lead the development of knowledge strategy
Chief Knowledge Officer
Three most important roles of a CKO: Building a knowledge culture
Long term plan, hinge on whom you hire, educate Creating a knowledge management infrastructure
Managers, databases, knowledge bases, various applications
Making it all pay off economically Blend of technical, human, financial skills
How To Implement CKO?
Implement with HR / IS Functions By implementing with HR / IS one may dilute the
importance of knowledge
Stand-alone role Senior level executive position Position is important & complex More desirable Shows importance of
knowledge
Review: KM Positions
Line workers
Knowledge Management Workers
Knowledge Management Managers
Chief Knowledge Officer
Technologies For KM Case in Point: Hewlett-Packard
Electronic Sales Partner (ESP) Hundreds of thousands of documents to help sales force White papers, presentations, technical specs, etc Readily available to all with access to the intranet Anyone within HP can submit to ESP
Reviewed by a ESP team to determine if appropriate Based on how system is being used, being called a
success – “most successful implementation of software I have seen in twenty years.” –HP Managers
Only problem: becoming difficult to navigate with too many documents
Technologies for KM
Case in Point: Hewlett-Packard “Connex” – Web-based system to connect HP
employees with experts within the company IE: electrical engineer that is expert in ISDN, lives in
Germany
Difficulty: Scientists don’t like to be connotated as “expert” and they don’t want to post a lot of info
Artificial Intelligence
Case in Point: McDonnell Douglas Developed computerized expert system to scan
aircraft approaching a runway Humans could intuitively determine what a good
landing looked like Attempted to put this into a computer After considerable expenses, the system was
found to be only 80% – 85% accurate (compared to a 2 second human glance)
Broad Knowledge Repositories Lotus Notes
Lotus Notes Programmers, Lotus Domino Web Server, Education (How to use Notes)
Web Technology HTML publishing tools, web server, relational
database system, search engines, an approach to managing the knowledge, some education
Some use both technologies
Focused Knowledge Environments Expert Systems
Helps enable the knowledge of one or a few experts used by a broader group of workers who need the knowledge
Constraint Based Systems Suited for situations where there are high levels of
data but less quantitative data Capture and model the constraints that govern
complex decision making
Real-Time Knowledge Systems Case Based Reasoning (CBR) systems
Branch of AI found in the customer support and service process in firms
Leading vendor: Inference Corp Works best when there are a few experts who
construct & maintain the ‘cases’ Must also have a domain expert – decide on
when a new case should be created, when an old one has become obsolete and whether a submitted case is valid
Real-Time Knowledge Systems SoultionBuilder
Built by Primus Corporation for the Customer Support Consortium
Breaking down a problem or situation into its knowledge components
Long-Term Analysis Systems
Neural Networks Statistically oriented tool that uses data to classify
cases into one category or the other Systems that learn Need a very knowledgeable user – at least initially Problem – Difficult to explain why it did what it did Also used along with other statistical analysis
tools in data mining
What Technologies can & can not do Technology alone
Won’t make a person with expertise share it Won’t make an employee who does not seek knowledge to start
using a knowledge base Won’t create learning organization, a meritocracy, or a
knowledge-creating company Technology not useful when it comes to knowledge creation itself
– still a job for individuals or groups & their brains However,
Technology can help in expanding access & helping in getting the right knowledge to the right people
Presence of knowledge technologies may also positively impact the culture of the organization itself
Key Points
Studied 31 projects in 20 different companies to draw conclusions
None an optimal model Million dollar question – Is it really
KNOWLEDGE being managed? Most fall short of knowledge based
organizational transform
Types of KM Projects
Self funding projects Company funded projects Hybrid projects Centralized Coordination Decentralized projects
Common Characteristics
Defined Objectives Dedicated champion for the project Specific financial and human resources
committed to the project Distinction between knowledge and
information
Objectives Shared
Create knowledge repositories Improve knowledge access Improve knowledge culture & environment
Knowledge Repositories
Three basic types External knowledge (e.g. competitive
intelligence) Structured internal knowledge (e.g. product
oriented marketing materials and methods, research reports)
Informal internal knowledge (e.g. discussion databases)
Knowledge Repositories
External Knowledge E.g. Automobile company
GrapeVINE
Structured internal knowledge E.g. Hewlett-Packard
Electronic Sales Partner
Informal internal knowledge E.g. Hewlett-Packard
Trainer’s Trading Post
Knowledge Access & Transfer Objective: Finding the right person with the
required knowledge and transferring it to the person who needs it Knowledge Repository = Library Knowledge Access = Yellow Pages
Knowledge Access & Transfer Implementation Strategies
Build & manage expert networks a.k.a maps of knowledge
Consolidating and categorizing knowledge Microsoft’s SPUD project
Tacit knowledge transfer BP’s Virtual Teamwork Project
Human Communication Sematech
Knowledge Environment
Measure/ improve the value of knowledge capital
Building awareness and cultural receptivity Changing behavior when it comes to
knowledge Improving the KM process itself
Reality
Most projects examined a combination of one or more of the types mentioned
Would expect KM projects working with more than one focus more likely to succeed
Drawbacks Absence of clear demarcations of project types and
fuzziness of project objectives may cause measurement problems
Prioritizing different aspects of a hybrid project becomes difficult
Linking knowledge and financial gains is difficult at times
Success in KM Projects ~Attributes to define success~ Growth in
Resources attached to the project Volume of knowledge content & usage
Project sustains beyond individuals involved Comfort level throughout the organization
with KM Some evidence of financial return either to
the project itself or to some unit of the organization
Factors leading to project success Knowledge oriented culture Technical & organizational infrastructure Senior management support Link to economics & industry value Modicum of process orientation Clarity of vision & language Non trivial motivational aids Some level of knowledge structure Multiple channels for knowledge transfer
Common Sense about KM
Place to start is with high value knowledge Start with focused pilot project & let demand
drive additional initiatives Work along multiple fronts at once Don’t put off what gives you too much trouble
until it’s too late Get help throughout the organization quickly
Getting started in KM
Start small, achieve something and then harp about it
Start with a recognized business problem that involves knowledge
Consider the importance of the specific knowledge domain to the firm
Do not pick a domain that is under your control Knowledge is too complex a phenomenon to entrust
to narrowly targeted change programs
Leveraging Existing Approaches Most existing projects have better
management of what the organization knows as a key component
Already takes into consideration existing organizational issues
Leading with Technology
Most firms start KM in the domain of technology
Should not implement IT just for the sake of KM
Would be most likely to succeed in a technology oriented organization E.g. Andersen Consulting
Leading with Quality/ Reengineering/ Best Practices Build KM on the quality/ reengineering efforts
of a company Should only be used as a springboard to
other forms of KM Could prove problematic if considered the
ONLY form of knowledge worth collecting and sharing
Leading with Organizational Learning Focus on organizational learning ideal for
start Rarely ever done
Problem: World of organizational learning does little to
structure knowledge, to capture & leverage it
Leading with Decision Making Knowledge proves useful to organizations
because of the ability to improve decisions and actions taken on the basis of this knowledge
‘Who knows what when’ Tricky business
Difficulty in linking specific knowledge to specific decisions
Politics
Leading with accounting
Not recommended as a starting place for managing knowledge
Accounting systems and practices unlikely to change Sisyphian cause
KM Pitfalls
If we build it…… Let’s put the Personnel Manual online None dare call it knowledge Every man a knowledge manager Justification by faith Restricted Access Bottoms Up!