Visit the Eagles blog to view a reminder of what happened last week during the workshop. You can see some pictures and some of the diagrams that each group made to represent their organization.
Wednesday 28 January 2009
Knowledge Management
Is there a definition?
So, what is knowledge management? I came to the conclusion that there is no exact definition for this term. I started looking at the internet and found a lot of definitions but no one was quite the same with the any other. In my opinion, when it comes to knowledge management it is not so important to give a definition to it but what is important is the essence of it. During the workshop in knoledge management class an interesting exercise took place to enforce my belief that the definition is not so important but what matters is understanding the essence of knowledge management. The exercise required each group in the class to write a statement within 10 words stating what they believe knowledge management is about. Nobody had the same statement or even a similar one but everybody had keywors like experience, decission-making, benefit, advantage, etc. My point is, an absolut definition for knowledge management is not needed, what really matters is understanding what knowledge management is about, how and where it can be used and what advantages can it produce.
Here you can see some definitions for knowledge management but I would like to share a definition I came across with while reading the preface from the Knowledge Management Handbook (Jay Liebowtz, 1999). According to Jay Liebowitz, knowledge management is all about getting value out of an organization's/company's/firm's/etc intangible assets. I find this statement true and I support it because knowledge is the most important asset in a company and knowledge management is the means by which this asset can be utilized.
The opposing views
This is the other side of the coin. Some people do not believe in knowledge management. Wilson, T.D. (2002) believes that, knowledge management does not really excist but he describes it as an 'umbrella' term for processes that are not focused with managing knowledge but rather with managing work practices. To be honest, Wilson's paper got me thinking if knowledge management is indeed nonsense. To some extend he might be right and he does display some convincing points. I believe that knowledge management does exist but what might be making it look like nonsense is the fact that it is such a hard concept to perceive. It would be a great mistake to believe that knowledge management is only about using information management tools (Richard McDermott, 1999). Tools are only part of knowledge management but without human interaction knowledge management is almost impssible .
Moreover, what is not mentioned so often and I was quite surprise when I came across with it since I never thought about it is the 'dark side' of knowledge management (Steven Alter, 200x). This is not an opposing view to knowledge management but it is a different view as to how knowledge management can be used in a negative way. According to Alter knowledge management can be used to distore, supress and misappropriate knowledge. A lot of examples are mentioned by Alter but I would like to mention one from my own personal experience. While I was working for an organization in Cyprus I was part of an IT support team. A lot of times we were collecting virus infected pcs and a lot of times we found out that those computers were used to access inappropriate websites and most probably that was how they got infected with viruses but while filling our reports we did not mention this to keep our colleques out of trouble so this could be an example of supressing knowledge by making use of the dark side of knowledge management as Steven Alter calls it.
Hard-track and Soft-track knowledge management
I wouldn't like to go on too much about the definitions and concepts of knowledge management as more or less now we have a general picture of what is knowledge management and what are it's targets. I would like to mention something that I think has not been mentioned by my fellow students, at least as far as I know. There are two schools of thought for knowledge management. These groups are the soft-track and the hard-track groups. (Gao Fei, Meng Li, Steve Clarke, 2008)
The hard-track group perceive knowledge management as the method trhough which knowledge is created primarly by pulling out information from data. In conclusion, for the hard-track group, knowledge management is a tool that can be used to create knowledge and make some kind of profit out of it and this process is strongly affiliated with IT.
The soft-track group on the other hand, considers knowledge management to be anthropocentric and it is a means of providing a framework that favors the creation, sharing and application of knowledge.
Of course, not everybody supports the two groups theory. For example, some believe that eventhough IT gave birth to knowledge management, it cannot deliver it (Richard McDermott, 1999) since they believe that knowledge is not shared/expanded/created by electronic systems but by connecting people.
I believe the truth is somewhere in the middle. It is true that by using computer systems only it might not be possible to achieve the targets of knowledge management but maybe having a mixture of the soft-track and hard-track groups by using both IT systems and more anthropocentric approaches together is the best way to follow.
Knowledge Management trhough personal experience
Eventhough, I do not have that much experience in the industry I have worked for some lage organizations in my home country. Knowledge management is not a very popular term in Cyprus but some kind of knowledge management excisted at least at some of the organizations I worked for. For example, at a bank I worked for whenever someone was geting a promotion or was moved to a different department before leaving the office he/she would spend a few days working along-side with their replacements to help them get familiar with their duties. The same happened to me when I first got there. My job was mainly to get reports send from other users into the system and then file those reports into a database. I had no knowledge how to do that or what each code was suppose to mean and how to file each report according to the code. But by the end of the week by having the knowledge and personal experience of my colleaques I was able to sort out all the incoming reports without any help. Another example from a different organization is the usage of Lotus notes as a knowledge management tool. Everybody had Lotus notes installed on their computers and they could use the software not only to send e-mails but they could use it to store data in a database of phone numbers that was shared throughout the organization, find addresses and office numbers through another database to reach their colleaques and even use it to report any problems they had to the help desk.
Final thoughts
At the time back then I never realized it but now I see that without knowing I had some knowledge management experience and it is easy to see that knowledge management really made life easier for us the employees and allowed the organizations to run smoothly which at the end of the day, I think that is what knowledge management is all about.
References
Gao Fei, Meng Li, Steve Clarke. (2008). Knowledge, Management and Knowledge Management in business operations
Jay Liebowitz. (1999). Knowledge Management Handbook
Steven Alter. (2006). Goals and Tactics on the Dark Side of Knowledge Management
Richard McDermott. (1999). Why Information Technology Inspired But Cannot Deliver Knowledge Management.
Wilson, T.D. (2002) "The nonsense of 'knowledge management'" Information Research, 8(1), paper no. 144 [Available at http://InformationR.net/ir/8-1/paper144.html]
So, what is knowledge management? I came to the conclusion that there is no exact definition for this term. I started looking at the internet and found a lot of definitions but no one was quite the same with the any other. In my opinion, when it comes to knowledge management it is not so important to give a definition to it but what is important is the essence of it. During the workshop in knoledge management class an interesting exercise took place to enforce my belief that the definition is not so important but what matters is understanding the essence of knowledge management. The exercise required each group in the class to write a statement within 10 words stating what they believe knowledge management is about. Nobody had the same statement or even a similar one but everybody had keywors like experience, decission-making, benefit, advantage, etc. My point is, an absolut definition for knowledge management is not needed, what really matters is understanding what knowledge management is about, how and where it can be used and what advantages can it produce.
Here you can see some definitions for knowledge management but I would like to share a definition I came across with while reading the preface from the Knowledge Management Handbook (Jay Liebowtz, 1999). According to Jay Liebowitz, knowledge management is all about getting value out of an organization's/company's/firm's/etc intangible assets. I find this statement true and I support it because knowledge is the most important asset in a company and knowledge management is the means by which this asset can be utilized.
The opposing views
This is the other side of the coin. Some people do not believe in knowledge management. Wilson, T.D. (2002) believes that, knowledge management does not really excist but he describes it as an 'umbrella' term for processes that are not focused with managing knowledge but rather with managing work practices. To be honest, Wilson's paper got me thinking if knowledge management is indeed nonsense. To some extend he might be right and he does display some convincing points. I believe that knowledge management does exist but what might be making it look like nonsense is the fact that it is such a hard concept to perceive. It would be a great mistake to believe that knowledge management is only about using information management tools (Richard McDermott, 1999). Tools are only part of knowledge management but without human interaction knowledge management is almost impssible .
Moreover, what is not mentioned so often and I was quite surprise when I came across with it since I never thought about it is the 'dark side' of knowledge management (Steven Alter, 200x). This is not an opposing view to knowledge management but it is a different view as to how knowledge management can be used in a negative way. According to Alter knowledge management can be used to distore, supress and misappropriate knowledge. A lot of examples are mentioned by Alter but I would like to mention one from my own personal experience. While I was working for an organization in Cyprus I was part of an IT support team. A lot of times we were collecting virus infected pcs and a lot of times we found out that those computers were used to access inappropriate websites and most probably that was how they got infected with viruses but while filling our reports we did not mention this to keep our colleques out of trouble so this could be an example of supressing knowledge by making use of the dark side of knowledge management as Steven Alter calls it.
Hard-track and Soft-track knowledge management
I wouldn't like to go on too much about the definitions and concepts of knowledge management as more or less now we have a general picture of what is knowledge management and what are it's targets. I would like to mention something that I think has not been mentioned by my fellow students, at least as far as I know. There are two schools of thought for knowledge management. These groups are the soft-track and the hard-track groups. (Gao Fei, Meng Li, Steve Clarke, 2008)
The hard-track group perceive knowledge management as the method trhough which knowledge is created primarly by pulling out information from data. In conclusion, for the hard-track group, knowledge management is a tool that can be used to create knowledge and make some kind of profit out of it and this process is strongly affiliated with IT.
The soft-track group on the other hand, considers knowledge management to be anthropocentric and it is a means of providing a framework that favors the creation, sharing and application of knowledge.
Of course, not everybody supports the two groups theory. For example, some believe that eventhough IT gave birth to knowledge management, it cannot deliver it (Richard McDermott, 1999) since they believe that knowledge is not shared/expanded/created by electronic systems but by connecting people.
I believe the truth is somewhere in the middle. It is true that by using computer systems only it might not be possible to achieve the targets of knowledge management but maybe having a mixture of the soft-track and hard-track groups by using both IT systems and more anthropocentric approaches together is the best way to follow.
Knowledge Management trhough personal experience
Eventhough, I do not have that much experience in the industry I have worked for some lage organizations in my home country. Knowledge management is not a very popular term in Cyprus but some kind of knowledge management excisted at least at some of the organizations I worked for. For example, at a bank I worked for whenever someone was geting a promotion or was moved to a different department before leaving the office he/she would spend a few days working along-side with their replacements to help them get familiar with their duties. The same happened to me when I first got there. My job was mainly to get reports send from other users into the system and then file those reports into a database. I had no knowledge how to do that or what each code was suppose to mean and how to file each report according to the code. But by the end of the week by having the knowledge and personal experience of my colleaques I was able to sort out all the incoming reports without any help. Another example from a different organization is the usage of Lotus notes as a knowledge management tool. Everybody had Lotus notes installed on their computers and they could use the software not only to send e-mails but they could use it to store data in a database of phone numbers that was shared throughout the organization, find addresses and office numbers through another database to reach their colleaques and even use it to report any problems they had to the help desk.
Final thoughts
At the time back then I never realized it but now I see that without knowing I had some knowledge management experience and it is easy to see that knowledge management really made life easier for us the employees and allowed the organizations to run smoothly which at the end of the day, I think that is what knowledge management is all about.
References
Gao Fei, Meng Li, Steve Clarke. (2008). Knowledge, Management and Knowledge Management in business operations
Jay Liebowitz. (1999). Knowledge Management Handbook
Steven Alter. (2006). Goals and Tactics on the Dark Side of Knowledge Management
Richard McDermott. (1999). Why Information Technology Inspired But Cannot Deliver Knowledge Management.
Wilson, T.D. (2002) "The nonsense of 'knowledge management'" Information Research, 8(1), paper no. 144 [Available at http://InformationR.net/ir/8-1/paper144.html]
Tuesday 27 January 2009
Communities of Practice and organizations
Communities of practice and organizations are two completely different things but I believe there is a relationship between them. First I will try to give simple definitions to what a community of practice and what an organization is and then through a personal experience example present how CoPs and organizations can be related.
Communities of practice
Communities of practice was a new term for me. What does it mean? According to D. Nicolini, S. Gherardi and D. Yanow (2003) communities of practice are communities, named or unnamed, formal or informal formed by people with similar interests and they are fundamental for learning.
In simple words, I would say that, a community of practice is formed when a group of people with similar interests, backgrounds, knowledge and passion are gathered together and share all those elements to come up with new ideas, solutions, etc.
According to Etienne Wenger (2004) a community of practice has 3 characteristics.
Thinking Greek
By tracing the roots of the word organization you can see that it comes from the Greek word 'όργανο' (organo) which means tool. Having this in mind it's easy to see the essence of the word organization. Individuals, groups, teams working together as an entity or a ‘tool’ to achieve a goal.While searching the internet for the definition and concept of organization I came across a document by Dr. H. Eugene Baker III. In one of the slides used by Dr. Baker (2008) a diagram is used showing which the various elements of an organization are. I believe that this diagram can help us understand which the most important aspects of an organization. The mentioned elements are size, culture, technology, environment, goals & strategies, and structure. If you think about an organization, I believe that the aforementioned elements (or at least some of them) will come up naturally while trying to characterize the organization. For example, if you think about Microsoft, you are going to think about a large organization, computer software, money, power, etc. All these characteristics can be embodied in the organization elements (size, culture, technology, etc)
Can Communities of Practice exist within organizations?
After giving some broad explanation to what a community of practice and what an organization are the question is, is there a relation between them? Even though they are two completely different things, I believe that a community of practice can exist within an organization as (wenger website ref) E. Wenger points out a lot of organizations recognize the usefulness of CoPs and have embraced the concept. Furthermore, from my own experience I can give an example of how a CoP can exist in an organization. While working for a bank as a summer intern with some more interns that were studying at the same school as me without even knowing we had create our own CoP. On our first day we were introduced to the organization and we had a briefing on how the organization works, what were the goals and what were our roles in the organization. We were split up in two groups but more or less we all had the same duties which included user support, data entry and repairing/setting-up computers. Every day during our brake we would meet at a café next to our building and we shared our experiences and knowledge and that made life easier for all of us as when we were back at our offices when we came across problems that someone else had faced before we already knew what to do. No one of us knew the term community of practice back then and as E. Wenger (2004) points out a lot of CoPs in organizations are spontaneous and not formal and so was the case with our CoP. Through this small CoP the individual members benefited because we acquired new knowledge and we could be more efficient in our job but, naturally the organization also benefited from this because as we were working faster and more efficiently
In conclusion, for me, it is amazing now looking back to those days and see that what was going on was not simply a chat over coffee but something far more than that. CoPs in organizations are very common in my opinion, especially informal CoPs, as all the time people interact to share experiences and knowledge and help each other.
References
Nicolini, D., S. Gherardi, and D. Yanow. 2003. Knowing in Organizations: A Practice-based Approach. M.E. Sharpe.
Banner, D.K. and T.E., Gagné. 1995. Designing Effective Organizations: Traditional & Transformational Views. SAGE.
Wenger, E. 2004. Communities of practice a brief introduction. http://www.ewenger.com/theory/
(accessed January 30, 2009).
Organization. 2009. http://www.answers.com/organization (accessed January 24, 2009).
Baker, H.E. (2008). Organizations and organization theory. http://www.unf.edu/%7Egbaker/Man4201/Chapt001a.PDF (accessed January 28, 2009).
.
Communities of practice
Communities of practice was a new term for me. What does it mean? According to D. Nicolini, S. Gherardi and D. Yanow (2003) communities of practice are communities, named or unnamed, formal or informal formed by people with similar interests and they are fundamental for learning.
In simple words, I would say that, a community of practice is formed when a group of people with similar interests, backgrounds, knowledge and passion are gathered together and share all those elements to come up with new ideas, solutions, etc.
According to Etienne Wenger (2004) a community of practice has 3 characteristics.
- The domain
- The community
- The practice
To remember these characteristics, I think of them as 'WWI' (who, what & Interaction). Who for who are forming this domain (for example doctors, engineers, colleagues). Interaction to describe the relationship between the members of the CoP and What for what is the practice (engineering, medical, etc.). This is just a method I use, you might find that it does not work for you but if you find it useful you are welcome to use it.
Organization
In the dictionary according to http://www.answers.com (2009) the word organization has various definitions, but all the definitions share the same essence which led me to perceive the term organization as individual or grouped resources (human & not human) working together and/or individually to contribute into performing a task/goal/target/particular purpose. Moreover, D.K. Banner and T. E. Gagné (1995) believe that all organizations no matter of their size or nature include some common characteristics as boundaries, social interaction, culture, activity systems and goals.
Thinking Greek
By tracing the roots of the word organization you can see that it comes from the Greek word 'όργανο' (organo) which means tool. Having this in mind it's easy to see the essence of the word organization. Individuals, groups, teams working together as an entity or a ‘tool’ to achieve a goal.While searching the internet for the definition and concept of organization I came across a document by Dr. H. Eugene Baker III. In one of the slides used by Dr. Baker (2008) a diagram is used showing which the various elements of an organization are. I believe that this diagram can help us understand which the most important aspects of an organization. The mentioned elements are size, culture, technology, environment, goals & strategies, and structure. If you think about an organization, I believe that the aforementioned elements (or at least some of them) will come up naturally while trying to characterize the organization. For example, if you think about Microsoft, you are going to think about a large organization, computer software, money, power, etc. All these characteristics can be embodied in the organization elements (size, culture, technology, etc)
Can Communities of Practice exist within organizations?
After giving some broad explanation to what a community of practice and what an organization are the question is, is there a relation between them? Even though they are two completely different things, I believe that a community of practice can exist within an organization as (wenger website ref) E. Wenger points out a lot of organizations recognize the usefulness of CoPs and have embraced the concept. Furthermore, from my own experience I can give an example of how a CoP can exist in an organization. While working for a bank as a summer intern with some more interns that were studying at the same school as me without even knowing we had create our own CoP. On our first day we were introduced to the organization and we had a briefing on how the organization works, what were the goals and what were our roles in the organization. We were split up in two groups but more or less we all had the same duties which included user support, data entry and repairing/setting-up computers. Every day during our brake we would meet at a café next to our building and we shared our experiences and knowledge and that made life easier for all of us as when we were back at our offices when we came across problems that someone else had faced before we already knew what to do. No one of us knew the term community of practice back then and as E. Wenger (2004) points out a lot of CoPs in organizations are spontaneous and not formal and so was the case with our CoP. Through this small CoP the individual members benefited because we acquired new knowledge and we could be more efficient in our job but, naturally the organization also benefited from this because as we were working faster and more efficiently
In conclusion, for me, it is amazing now looking back to those days and see that what was going on was not simply a chat over coffee but something far more than that. CoPs in organizations are very common in my opinion, especially informal CoPs, as all the time people interact to share experiences and knowledge and help each other.
References
Nicolini, D., S. Gherardi, and D. Yanow. 2003. Knowing in Organizations: A Practice-based Approach. M.E. Sharpe.
Banner, D.K. and T.E., Gagné. 1995. Designing Effective Organizations: Traditional & Transformational Views. SAGE.
Wenger, E. 2004. Communities of practice a brief introduction. http://www.ewenger.com/theory/
(accessed January 30, 2009).
Organization. 2009. http://www.answers.com/organization (accessed January 24, 2009).
Baker, H.E. (2008). Organizations and organization theory. http://www.unf.edu/%7Egbaker/Man4201/Chapt001a.PDF (accessed January 28, 2009).
.
Wednesday 21 January 2009
organizations and strategies
Last week during class we were asked to do a litle research for organizations and strategies. Two terms that might sound familiar to everybody but do we really know the meaning of these two words? In the following article the term strategy and it's difference from tactics are explained.
Strategy
The term strategy is another term that we hear all and maybe use often. The simplest d efinition for strategy is 'a long term plan to accomplish a goal'. Just like organization, strategy is also a Greek word. It's two words actually, 'στρατός' and 'άγω' (stratos & ago) . These two words mean military and conduct/lead. We can see that even so many years ago in ancient Greece strategy was as important as it is today to the military.
Nowadays, strategies are not only used by military during battles but it is a common term in sports, games, business and organizations. The four most common ways people use strategies are stressed by Henry Mintzber (in his book 'The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning').
Strategy vs Tactics
A lot of times people confuse the two terms. It is true that they seem to have the same meaning but they don't. In contrast with strategy, a tactic is coming up with a way to reach an immediate or short-term target. Tactics can help fullfil a strategy.
Famous quotes
'The right strategy makes any tactic work better. The right strategy puts less pressure on executing
your tactics perfectly.
Here's the obligatory January skiing analogy: Carving your turns better is a tactic. Choosing the right
ski area in the first place is a strategy. Everyone skis better in Utah, it turns out.'
Click HERE to view the complete post on Seth's blog.
Strategy
Nowadays, strategies are not only used by military during battles but it is a common term in sports, games, business and organizations. The four most common ways people use strategies are stressed by Henry Mintzber (in his book
- Strategy is a plan, a "how," a means of getting from here to there.
- Strategy is perspective, that is, vision and direction.
- Strategy is position; that is, it reflects decisions to offer particular products or services in particular markets.
- Strategy is a pattern in actions over time; for example, a company that regularly markets very expensive products is using a "high end" strategy.
Strategy vs Tactics
A lot of times people confuse the two terms. It is true that they seem to have the same meaning but they don't. In contrast with strategy, a tactic is coming up with a way to reach an immediate or short-term target. Tactics can help fullfil a strategy.
Famous quotes
- Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before defeat.
- Sun Tzu (Chinese General, circa 500 BC) - Tactics mean doing what you can with what you have
-Saul Alinsky
'The right strategy makes any tactic work better. The right strategy puts less pressure on executing
your tactics perfectly.
Here's the obligatory January skiing analogy: Carving your turns better is a tactic. Choosing the right
ski area in the first place is a strategy. Everyone skis better in Utah, it turns out.'
Click HERE to view the complete post on Seth's blog.
Friday 16 January 2009
first entry
Hi everybody. This is the first entry in my blog. I am Christos and I am a post-graduate student at the moment. I will be using this blog to post (what I hope will be) interesting stuff so stay tuned and check back for updates. Please feel free to become a follower of the blog and leave your comments!
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