knowledge management and organizational learning

LOGO

Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning

Group Members:

Handan GÜNDOĞANÇağdaş MUTLU

CE 726

OUTLINE

Introduction Definitions Knowledge Management Organizational Learning Drivers Applications in UK, US and TR Barriers Models Developed Conclusion Further Studies

To define the knowledge,

Wisdom

Knowledge

Information

Data

Definitions

DATA represents Facts, Observations, Values of Results, Quantitave, Has not been processed,

It is obtained from Observations (input).

Definitions

INFORMATION relates to, structured data meaningful data describe a particular situation or condition

It gives us definitions. (what,who,when,where)

Definitions

KNOWLEDGE consists of

know-how, truths, perpectives, concepts, judgements, methodologies,

It is about action and decision-making capability.

Types of Knowledge

Tacit Knowledge (informal or soft)-knowing how

• obtained from experience• stored in people’s head• difficult to document• difficult to communicate or share with other people

Explicit Knowledge (formal or hard)-knowing that

• explained and recorded• easily documented and transferred• physically stored in either paper or electronic format

Knowledge Management

KM can be defined as a systematic process that creates, captures, shares, and analyzes knowledge in ways that directly improve performance. It is about helping people to communicate and share information. (Parlby, D. 1998)

The aim of Knowledge Management is to support Organizational Learning (Lehner and Maier, 2000)

Central concept of KM

Putting individuals in touch with one another to share their tacit knowledge.

Transforming individuals’ tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge, which can be used by the entire organization.

So, Knowledge Management can be interpreted as the ability to get the right information to the right people at the right time, and in the right place.

Four Processes of Knowledge Management

Creating of knowledge

Distributing knowledge

Sharing knowledge

Capturing and Codifying knowledge

Information Technology

IT is the general term that specifies computer-based tools used to gather, code, process, store, transfer and apply data between machines, people and organizations.

Laudon and Laudon (1998) classify information systems for knowledge management into four main categories;

Why Knowledge Management?

It creates value, and gain and sustain competitive advantage.

Saves money by not reinventing the wheel for each new project.

Reduces costs by decreasing and achieving economies of scale in obtaining information from external providers.

Increases productivity by making knowledge avaible more quickly and easily.

Provides workers with a more democratic place to work by allowing everyone access to knowledge.

Learning faster to stay competitive.

Organizational Learning

Dodgson (1993) explains OL as • the way firms build,• supplement, • organize knowledge,• routines around their activities, • within their cultures, • adapt and develop organizational efficiency by

improving the use of the broad skills of their workforces.


Kullunga (2001) defined OL as encouraging a learning curve within an organization such that employees at all levels, individually and collectively, continually increase their capacity to improve their level of performance.

From these definitions, OL can be summarized as the set of actions to acquire, share and interpret knowledge among the members whose main objective is to increase company performance through improved quality of decision-making in the organization.


The most important point is, the existence of a knowledge management

infrastructure within the organization whose mandate is to identify, analyze, manage, maintain and disseminate knowledge to appropriate individuals within the organization and externally to others (Liebowitz et al., 1999). This can be only be achieved through the proper combination of relevant systems and skills that are influential in the learning process of an organization.

According to Peter Senge, five learning skills are;

Levels of Learning

Jeffries et al. (2003) developed a perspective by defining the levels of OL as three phases beginning at the individual level by interpreting and reflection, maturing at group level by integration and conceptualization and finally reaching the organization level by institutionalizing and experimentation.

Individual Learning

Group/Team Learning


Levels of Learning

Individual Learning is the foundation for the existence of organization’s learning and it should be enhanced to lead to more effective OL.

Group/Team Learning is an inseparable step of OL

since teams provide new approaches to the learning process, cause fundamental organizational changes by functioning as a bridge between the individuals and the organization (Marquardt,1996).

Organizational Learning requires the crucial step of the transformation of individual learning into OL.

So, OL necessitates four main events defined by Crossan et al.’s (1990),

The preconscious recognition of the possibilities inherent in a personal experience

İntepreting, the explanation of an idea to oneself and to others.

İntegrating, the developing of a shared understanding and coordinated action among individuals.

İnstitutionalizing, the process of ensuring that actions are made routine.

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Types of Learning

Single-loop learning involves an organization to respond to changes in its environment by detecting errors and correcting them, but maintaning its existing organizational norms.

Double –loop learning, on the other hand, involves the revision of organizational culture, assumptions, guidelines, objectives, strategies and structure of an organization. It is a process of creative renewal and rediscovery of an organization to remain competitive (Senge 1990).

Organizational Transformation

As Huber(1991) states, organizations whose structures, processes and technologies are not well suited to deal with the increasing enironmental complexity and knowledge are unlikely to survive. Around the shared vision and culture, organization should develop new strategies and structures so as to become a learning organization (Marquardt, 1996). For an organization,

• Vision• Culture• Structure• Strategy

Organizations

Vision: The vision of the organization is represented by the commitment for a certain goal, direction or hope for the future of the organization. According to Marquardt(1996), the first and the most important step in becoming a learning organization is to build a solid foundation of shared vision about learning.

Culture: Walsh and Ungson (1991) define culture as the conscious patterns of assumptions, values, and beliefs shared by a collective (cited in Berthon et al., 2001). Culture acts as a kind of knowledge filter; it specifies what information is of value,influences the interpretation of information and coordinates collective action taking (Weick, 1994 cited in Berthon et al., 2001).

Organizations

Structure: The key charasteristic of the structure of the organization is that, it links the various elements of the organization through the transformation of information. As emphasized by Salaman and Butler (1994), the organizational structures surrounding a project appear to centrally influence a project’s tendency to perform learning activities and to contribute to the knowledge of the permanent organization (cited in Kasvi et al., 2003).

Strategy: Identification, capture and transfer of knowledge within the firm are expected to be in alignment with the organization’s strategic objectives. Strategy influences learning by providing a boundary to decision-making and a context for the perception and interpretation of the environment.

Organizational Learning Processes

Knowledge Acquisition

Information Distribution

Information Interpretation

Organizational Memory

Organizational Learning ProcessesKnowledge Acquisition

External monitoring the environment

Internal information systems manage and retrieve information research development education training patent watching

Organizational Learning ProcessesInformation Distribution

Informal Tacit know-how Letters Memos Conversations Stories by employees

Formal Seminar Reports Information systems

Organizational Learning ProcessesInformation Interpretation

Huber (1991) states that individuals and groups have prior belief structures that shape their interpretation of information and thus the formation of meaning.

So, to share the information firstly, it should be interpreted.

Organizational Learning ProcessesOrganizational Memory

Hard information Data Intranet/internet systems Warehousing

Soft information Experiences Tacit know-how List of contacts

Drivers for KM and OL in Construction Industry

A learning organization is skilled at creating, acquiring, sharing, and applying knowledge, and embracing (fostering) change and innovation at all levels, resulting in optimum performance and maximum competitive advantage.


To share valuable tacit knowledgeTo develop new productsTo become more innovativeTo increase client satisfaction(faster

response etc.)To eliminate reworks


To disseminate (spread) best practicesTo encourage continuous improvementTo improve business performance (better bid

preparation skills etc.)To enable employees to understand and

apply knowledge to different scenarios

(Cont’d)

Situation in UK in Terms of KM and OL Applications

40% of construction organizations have KM strategy.41% plan to have a strategy within one year.90.5% use intranet to support KM activities.A number of public funded researches investigate

how KM could be utilized in construction sector.Also, universities collaborate, with the industry in

numerous other projects.

Carrillo,2006

Situation in US in Terms of KM and OL Applications

Research on 30 construction organizations;50% of the companies utilize an “ad hoc” process to

capture lessons learned.50% do not employ communities of practice (CoP).37% do not have a software to support KM activities.67% has a reactive attitude towards KM.

Carrillo,2006

Situation in Turkey in Terms of KM and OL Applications

Kıvrak, Arslan, Dikmen, Birgönül, 2006

Research on 8 leading construction companies;TCA members5 of them listed in top 225 ENR list in 2005Ages range from 41 to 53Total revenues in 2005 range from 135 to 895 M $



Capturing Knowledge;6 companies who do not have a KM strategy consider

41-60% of the knowledge as tacit.Companies who have a KM strategy considers 20% of

knowledge as tacit.Colleagues, company’s experience, personal

experience, documentation and team meetings are seen as the major knowledge sources.

Internet is not considered as a major knowledge source.



Storing Knowledge;5 companies evaluate projects after completion.2 of them stores these evaluations digitally.Cost control and bid preperation data are recorded

digitally and reused when required.6 companies do not have a database to combine all

documents and records.Data stored in; reports, computer files, personal

archives and heads of individuals



Reuising and Sharing Knowledge;On-the-job training, intranet, meetings and face to

face interactions and e-mail are the major means to share knowledge.

Companies generally rely on the individuals experiences and use stored data in emergency cases.

Knowledge Management Strategies;2 companies have KM strategies and 2 of them plan

to implement a strategy in the future.


Özorhon, Dikmen, Birgönül, 2005

Research on 8 construction companies;Learning from other companies experiencesMonitoring competitors performance & bid pricesStrategies of competitorsUse of web to learn practices of foreign companiesLearning from foreign joint venture partners

• Quality• Health and Safety Assurance

Disagreement whether practices of companies from other industries can be useful or not



Research on 8 construction companies;Learning from external sources;Management consultancy firmsUniversitiesForeign organizations (World Bank, etc.)Professional associations (TCA, etc.)Training consultancy firmsGovernmental bodies (Chamber of Civil Engineers...)



Shares of knowledge sources in organizational memory

Composition of organizational memory in terms of knowledge type

Barriers to KM and OL Implementations



A business development manager of Company E indicated that;...experience gained through aproject cannot be transferredto another engineer via paper;new employees cannot alwaysshow the same performance by reviewing the previous experiences of their pioneers...

Difficulties in measuring the value added

Focus on projects instead of organizations

Traditions and conservative company culture

Cultural differences due geographical diversity

Instable workforce (high employee turnover)


Chinowsky, 2007

Inappropriate IT Infrastructure

Insufficient time

Insufficient funding

Lack of executive support

Lack of standard work processes


Chinowsky, 2007

- US based engineering design company;# of employees: 6100Annual Revenue (2004): 720.5 $ MENR Ranking (2004): 12KM activites since 1997Main focus on people since 1999

• Knowledge communities• Knowledge bases

Major investments on IT infrastructure Increase in winning projects attributed to KM and OL

A Case Study on KM and OL Practices

Carrillo, 2006

To assist organizations in implementing KM and to measure their learning skills, several models are developed• Learning organization maturity model(1)

• STEPS Model(2)

• LEONARDO(1)

• Knowledge Platform for Contractors(3)

Models Developed

1) Chinowsky, Molenaar, Realph, 20072) Chinowsky, Carrillo, 20073) Kıvrak, Arslan, Dikmen, Birgönül, 2008

A web-based system to capture data & reuse in future

Tacit Knowledge

Knowledge Platform for Contractors


face to faceinteractions

coaching andmentoring

brainstorming communities ofpractice

Explicit Knowledge

documents reports standards specifications

Conclusions

Mixed awareness of knowledge and KM Increasing importanceTransformation from KM to OL should be done in time.Continuous improvement and personal advancement

must become fundamental to achieve OL. Inefficient KM is widespread in TR, especially due to

the lack of KM strategy. In TR, organizational memory mainly depends on own

experiences rather than other companies or external sources.

Researches in this topic have the risk to include bias.

Further Studies

STEPS Model helps organizations to implement KM

Chinowsky, Carrillo 2007

Further Studies

Learning Organization Maturity Model defines 5 levels to achieve a learning organization

Chinowsky, Molenaar, Realph, 2007

References

1. Özorhon, B., Dikmen, İ., and Birgönül, T. (2005). “Organizational memory formation and its use in construction.” Building Research & Information, 33(1), 67-79.

2. Carrillo, P., and Chinowsky, P. (2006). “Exploiting knowledge management: the engineering and construction perspective.” Journal of Management in Engineering, 22(1), 2-10.

3. Chinowsky, P., and Carrillo, P. (2007). “Knowledge management to learning organization connection.” Journal of Management in Engineering, 23(3), 122-130.

4. Chinowsky, P., Molenaar, K., and Realph, A. (2007). “Learning organizations in construction.” Journal of Management in Engineering, 23(1), 27-34.

5. Kıvrak, S., Gökhan, A., Dikmen, İ., and Birgönül, T. (2008). “Capturing knowledge in construction projects: knowledge platform for contractors.” Journal of Management in Engineering, 24(2), 87-95.

6. Knowledge Management Strategy For Construction: Key I.T. And Contextual Issues,Patricia M. Carrillo, Chimay J. Anumba, John M. Kamara,

7. http://www.adb.org/documents/studies/auditing-lessons architecture/ala2.asp

http://www.adb.org/documents/studies/auditing-lessons%20architecture/ala2.asp

knowledge management and organizational learning

Documents

knowledge avaible

aim of knowledge management

individuals tacit knowledge

right information

right people

organizational learning

organizational learningdodgson

organizational efficiency