KNOWLEDGE ACQUISITION AND PROCESSING
2.8 ORGANISATIONAL KNOWLEDGE CREATION
Knowledge is an important element in the world of business and the ability to distribute and duplicate knowledge across a range of people is the key to its value in organizations.
It can reduce time taken to learn new competencies and insights, and save significant costs in lost opportunities. People develop knowledge as an ongoing process through their work.
Knowledge evolves as it is reshaped through encounters with new events, information or other people. It may reside within an individual as personalized knowledge, be accessible through others, or stored as a retrievable artifact. Artifacts derived from knowledge creation are facts, concepts, processes, procedures, and principles. These, in turn, are used to help create knowledge in others and are valuable mechanisms for sharing the outcome of knowledge creation.
Organizational knowledge relies on collective and individual contributions. It evolves as others review, use and learn from the original knowledge sources. Organizations are increasingly regarding knowledge creation and innovation as core business, as more people spend most of their work time creating and innovating. In projects, meetings and think-tanks, their individual knowledge becomes a part of a collective activity that seeks to build a bank of knowledge for use by the organization. Figure 1.4 illustrates the five stages of organizational knowledge development: knowledge sourcing, knowledge abstraction, knowledge conversion, knowledge diffusion, and knowledge development and refinement.
The process of knowledge development is dynamic and responsive, drawing cues and feedback from a range of sources throughout the stages. This feedback may influence subsequent knowledge construction as it provides further cues and information which are considered and evaluated. Let us see the detailed account of the phases of knowledge creation.
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Figure 1.4 Phases of organizational knowledge creation 2.8.1 Knowledge sourcing
The identification of knowledge gap between what is known and what needs to be known is often the stimulus for the knowledge creation process. In response to the identification of a knowledge gap, the organization commonly reviews existing sources of guidance held by individuals or other organizational resources. This process of drawing together as many informed knowledge sources as possible is called knowledge sourcing.
Sources to be tapped might include specialized and prior knowledge held by individuals within the organization, expert guidance from people such as consultants, organizational record or the firm’s intranet. Learning from previous experience is a significant source of guidance, particularly where the problem under investigation has significant resourcing implications.
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Knowledge sourcing is an important stage of knowledge creation. The richness and accessibility of the available and known sources greatly influence the outcomes. For example, if an organization wanted to introduce a new customer promotional scheme, it might seek the appropriate sources of guidance from the following:
• Customer feedback
• Marketing expert’s opinion
• Previous promo schemes data and their success and failures
• Available secondary data
• ]Lessons from competitors similar schemes
• Contributions from employees concerned with such schemes Sources of organizational knowledge
Following are the few sources of knowledge which are crucial for any organization gain strategic competence.
Customer knowledge
In virtually every survey, customer knowledge tops the list as an organization’s most vital knowledge. Yet most organizations do not know as much about their customers as they think they do, nor do they integrate their various sources of customer knowledge that the organization already has. Appropriate feedback system may be created to get this valuable source of knowledge.
Knowledge in process
Normally in an organization an ad hoc activity gradually evolves into a process, that in many cases is automated and hence knowledge is embedded in a procedure or computer program. Generally, the generic high-level activities involve gathering and processing of information which is communicated with other people. This is a vital meta-knowledge that can help an organization to be more effective.
Knowledge in people
It is said that 90% organizational knowledge is in its people who is valuable and when it is shared, it becomes even more valuable to the organization as a whole. An important part of KM is therefore about creating an environment and culture in which this knowledge is facilitated to be accumulated and people are encouraged to share their knowledge with each other.
Organizational memory
Many organizations do not know what they already know. Knowledge gained is not recorded for use at another time or place. Effective knowledge programs will therefore put
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significant emphasis on capturing knowledge from every day work and from assignments.Decision diaries, reflection time at meetings and After Action Reviews (ARRs) are commonly adapted tools for this purpose. An ARR, for example, is a technique first developed in the US Army to capture lessons from battle field engagements, while they are still fresh in people’s minds which may be used for future. In this way, an organization can also conduct formal post-assignment reviews to derive lessons and put the knowledge gained into an accessible form for future assignments. Another useful technique is that of ‘knowledge refining’ with which a series of memos, e-mails or meeting minutes are collected for their relevant and reusable content, which is put into an evolving and structured knowledge base.
Knowledge relationships
This is concerned with depth of personal knowledge arising out of relationship of two people who worked together for a long time and know one another’s approach with regard to what to do and what not to do in situations. When firms reorganize, this knowledge is lost. With the growing need for collaboration with external partners and agencies, organizations need to do more to capture this knowledge and provide forums where these relationships cab be strengthened.
2.8.2 Knowledge abstraction
After analyzing the sources of knowledge, the general principles and concepts are generated to guide the construction of the new knowledge. This process is called knowledge abstraction. Knowledge abstraction helps to frame the insights gained from knowledge sourcing and to extrapolate new knowledge from the basic guidelines and issues that have emerged. Where the knowledge seekers are highly expert, they will rely heavily on their own knowledge, with other sources simply validating or enriching that knowledge. Less experienced seekers will rely more heavily on external sources.
Think back to the customer promo schemes mentioned before. The target population might be clarified, some approaches ruled out, and some broad principles confirmed. The abstraction of the various sources reduces the complexity of the factors to be considered, and enables the ideas to be converted into outcomes using a sound framework.
The process of abstraction can take a long time – particularly if the knowledge involved is politically sensitive, complex or involves working through group consensus (committees).
Unfortunately, many organizations do not provide sufficient to reflect and weigh the various sources before abstraction. Failure to carefully build some clear frameworks to guide the knowledge creation process can lead to faulty reasoning and poor outcomes. Knowledge workers need to recognize the importance of reflection and consideration in the knowledge creation process.
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2.8.3 Knowledge conversion
From abstract foundations, knowledge converts into various forms of useful applications that can be tested and shared with others. Knowledge conversion describes the phase during which the various ideas and principles are refined into specific outcomes. Knowledge can be either codified or embodied. Codified knowledge is knowledge that can be recorded and accessed by others as required. It can be developed into artifacts, such as models, equations and guidelines. Embodied knowledge is the tacit knowledge of individuals. It can be shared through stories, metaphors or personal advice as required. Embodied knowledge is more difficult to access without ongoing engagement with the knowledge creators.
Codified knowledge relating to the customer marketing scheme might be in the form of a marketing plan and implementation guidelines, whereas the embodied knowledge would be drawn from the guidelines and insights of the project leaders and experts. Many organizations typically rely on both the forms of knowledge conversion when creating new knowledge.
2.8.4 Knowledge diffusion
Knowledge diffusion is the spread of knowledge once it is codified or embodied. In organizational settings, diffusion can occur through communication media such as newsletters, the Intranet, meetings, seminars etc., modeling of new practices, and demonstrations or coaching in specialized procedures. The success of knowledge diffusion depends on the level of previous knowledge held by the audience and the effectiveness of the channels available to share the knowledge. Diffusion occurs best when the recipients can understand and integrate the insights into their own mental constructs. Embodied knowledge, which draws on significant expertise, learning and experience, may be harder to transfer to others.
Using the same example, the promotion of new promotional scheme might be disseminated in various ways via the Intranet, published guidelines and presentations relating to the scheme, and so on. The main goal is to share the knowledge with those who will most benefit. A forum of all employees in an organization, for example, is of little value to those who are not directly involved in the new scheme.
2.8.5 Knowledge development and refinement
Knowledge is regularly reshaped and further tested through additional experience and feedback. This revolutionary process of knowledge development and refinement is one of the key features of knowledge management, ensuring the knowledge remains current and useful. However, this also place more challenges on organizations that seek to capture and hold knowledge for use by others; such organizations need to ensure that the created knowledge is constantly reviewed and updated to reflect any new understanding that has
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been acquired. Consider the promotional scheme again. A pilot study of the scheme may reveal some significant issues relating to the created process. The pilot study thus generates new knowledge to be converted and diffused.SUMMARY
Knowledge is regarded as valuable commodity that is embedded in products, and in the tacit knowledge of highly mobile employees. The acquisition, creation, processing and dissemination of knowledge have become important for competitiveness in an organization.
There are different kinds of knowledge that can usefully be distinguished. Know-what, or knowledge about facts, is nowadays diminishing in relevance. Know-why is knowledge about the natural world, society, and the human mind. Know-who refers to the world of social relations and is knowledge of who knows what and who can do what.
Knowing key people is sometimes more important to innovation than knowing scientific principles. Know-where and know-when are becoming increasingly important in a flexible and dynamic economy. Know-how refers to skills, the ability to do things on a practical level.
Organizational knowledge is the collective sum of human-centered assets, intellectual property assets, infrastructure assets, and market assets. It is processed information embedded in routines and processes that enable action. It is also knowledge captured by the organization system’s processes, products, rules and culture.
Tacit and explicit knowledge are the two components of organizational knowledge.
Tacit knowledge refers to the personal knowledge embedded in individual experience and involves intangible factors, such as personal beliefs, perspective, and the value system.
Explicit knowledge refers to the contents that has been captured in some tangible form and can be articulated into formal language, including grammatical statements (words and numbers), mathematical expressions, specifications, manuals, etc. Knowledge creation is a spiraling process of interactions between explicit and tacit knowledge.
Knowledge is an important element in the world of business and the ability to distribute and duplicate knowledge across a range of people is the key to its value in organizations.
There is a need to understand the different phases of organizational knowledge creation and to recognize that each phase is influenced by the access to sources of guidance, and the encouragement to disseminate knowledge to others
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