KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT
Frankfurt FFFM
MARCH- 2008, SEPT.- 2009,
MARCH- 2013
Prof.Dr. Irene Martín-Rubio
1
KM - OUTLINE

Definitions



Knowledge A corporate Asset




Socialization, Internalization, Combination and Articulation

From Metaphor to Model
From Chaos to Concept
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT







Corporate Size & Knowledge Management
Tacit vs. Explicit Knowledge
The Spiral of Knowledge


Data, Information, Knowledge
Knowledge components
KNOWLEDGE GENERATION
KNOWLEDGE COORDINATION
KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER
KNOWLEDGE USE
CKO vs. Knowledge Broker
Innovation: Invent + Commercialization
Protection explicit knowledge- Patent market
2
DEFINITIONS



DATA
INFORMATION
KNOWLEDGE

COMPONENTES
3
DATA





DISCRETE, OBJECTIVE FACTS ABOUT EVENTS
STRUCTURE RECORDS OF TRANSACTIONS
TOO MUCH DATA CAN MAKE IT HARDER TO IDENTIFY AND MAKE SENSE OF
THE DATA THAT MATTERS.
DATA DESCRIBES ONLY A PART OF WHAT HAPPENED; IT PROVIDES NO
MEANING, NO JUDDGEMENT OR INTERPRETATION
MODERN ORGANIZATIONS STORE DATA IN SOME SORT OF TECHNOLOGY
SYSTEM




CENTRALIZED
OR
DECENTRALICED
DATA MANAGEMENT

SPEED, COST AND CAPACITY




RELEVANCE AND CLARITY


How much does it cost to capture or retrieve a piece of data?
How quickly can we get it into the system or call it up?
How much will the system hold?
Do we have access to it when we need it? Is it what we need? Can we make sense out of it?
DATA IS THE RAW MATERIAL FOR DECISION MAKING, BUT IT CANNOT TELL
YOU WHAT TO DO.
4
INFORMATION


IT IS A MESSAGE
IT IS DATA ENDOWED WITH RELEVANCE AND
PURPOSE. IT HAS MEANING.
INFORMATIOIN
SENDER

RECEIVEER
INFORM: “GIVE SHAPE TO”

INFORMATION IS MEANT TO SHAPE THE PERSON
WHO GETS IT, TO MAKE SOME DIFFERENCE IN HIS
OUTLOOK OR INSIGHT.
5
INFORMATION

IT MOVES AROUND
ORGANIZATIONS THROUGH


HARD NETWORKS: wires, satellite
dishes, post offices, addresses,
electronic mailboxes, delivery vans
SOFT NETWORKS: it is less formal and
visible. Ex. Someone handing you a note
or a copy of article marked “FYI”
6
INFORMATION

DATA BECOMENS INFORMATION
WHEN ITS CREATOR PROCESS BY:





CONTEXTUALIZED: PURPOSE
CATEGORIZED: KEY COMPONENTS,
UNITS OF ANALYSIS
CALCULATED
CORRECTED
CONDENSED: SUMMARIZE
7
KNOWLEDGE


COMPLEX CONCEPT, MANY PHILOSOFICAL &
EPISTOMOLOGICAL DEFINITIONS
WORKING DEFINITION, PRAGMATIC DESCRIPTION



Knowledge is a fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual
information and expert insight that provides a framework for
evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information.
In organizations, if often becomes embedded not only in documents
or repositories but also in organizational routines, processes,
practices and norms.
Depending on how scientifist track it, knowledge can be
seen as


PROCESS: (ORGANIZATIONAL LEARNING)
STOCK: (KNOWLEDGE)
8
KNOWLEDGE

Knowledge derives from information as information
derives from data, by this transformations.





COMPARISON of this information to other situations
CONSEQUENCES of the information for decision and actions
CONNECTIONS
CONVERSATION: What do other people think about this
information
These knowledeg-creating activities take place within
and between humans.


While we find data in records, and information in messages,
we obtain knowledge from individuals or groups of knowers,
or sometimes in organizational routines.
It is delivered through structured media such as books and
documents, and person-to-person.
9
KNOWLEDGE - COMPONENTS

EXPERIENCE




GROUND TRUTH



It means knowing what really works and what doesn’t, on the ground, rather than from the heights of theory or
generalization.
Knowledge of the everyday, complex, often messy reality of work is generally more valuable than theories about it.
COMPLEXITY




Knowledge develops over time, through experience that includes what we absorb from courses, books, and mentors as
well as informal learning.
It provides a historical perspective from which to view and understand new situations and events.
Knowlege born of experience recognizes familiar patterns and can make connections between what is happening now
and before.
Knowledge is not a rigid structure that excludes what doesn’t fit, it can deal with Certainty and clarity often come at the
price of ignoring essential factors (Being both certain and wrong is a common occurrence).
In a dynamic, competitive, changing environment, ullusions of accuracy are short-lived, they live to nonadaptive-action
Fuzzy logic.
JUDGMENT
Knowlegde contains judgment. Not only can it judge new situations and information in light of what is already known, it judges
and refines itself in response to new situations.

RULES OF THUMB: Heuristics



They are shortcuts to solutions to new problems that resemble problems previously solved. They are efficent guides to
complex situations.
AS veterans drivers of cars, rapidly accomplishing a series of complex actions without having to thing about them, as a
beginner would The veteran driver develops an INTUITIVE sense of what to expect on the road.
VALUES AND BELIEFS


They determine what the knower see, absorbs, and concludes from his observations.
Ex. : Someone who values the bustle of urban life may find energy and variety in a crowded city street.


10
Someone who prefers rural quiet may see only chaos and danger in the same scene.
A publishing executive who values risk and change may see a new opportunity in the same on-line technology than a competitor views
as a threat to traditional successful print products.
KNOWLEDGE
Nonaka & Takeuchi:
KNOWLEDGE, UNLIKE INFORMATION IS
ABOUT BELIEFS AND COMMITMENT.

THE POWER OF KNOWLEDGE TO
ORGANIZE, SELEC, LEARN AND JUDGE
COMES FROM VALUES AND BELIEFS AS
MUCH AS, AND PROBABLY MORE THAN,
FROM INFORMATION AND LOGIC.
11
DATA, INFORMATION,
KNOWLEDGE






SIGN
+ sintaxis
DATA
INFORMATION
KNOWLEDGE
ACTION
COMPETENCE
+
PROCESS
+ EXPERIENCE, VALUES
+ WILL MANAGEMENT
+PROPER +
OUTSTANDING ACTION
12
KNOWLEDGE
A CORPORATE ASSET
CORPORATE SIZE &
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
TACIT KNOWLEDGE VS. EXPLICIT K.
13
KNOWLEDGE AS A
CORPORATE ASSET

Knowledge is not new.



Studies have shown that managers get two-thirds of their information and
knowledge from face-to-face meetings or phone converstations.
Only one-third comes from documents
Explicitic recognizing knowledge as a corporate asset is new.

INVEST, MANAGE, GET VALUE FROM IT

KNOWLEDGE can provide a sustainable advantage. It generates new
leves of quality, creativity or efficiency.

Unlike material assets, which decrease as they are used, knowledge
assets increase with use:


Ideas breed ideas, and shared knowledge stays with the giver while it enriches
the receiver.
Only knowledge resources have unlimited potential for growth


In a world with physical limits, it is the discovery of big idea together with the
discovery of millions of little ideas that makes persistent economic growth possible.
14
Ideas are the cues that let us to combine limited physical resources in arrangements
that are ever more valuable.
CORPORATE SIZE AND KM

In a small, localized company

a manager probably knows who has the experience in a particular
aspect of the business and can walk across the hall and talk to him.

The maximum size of an organization in which people know
one another well enough to have a reliable grasp of collective
organizational knowledge is 200-300 people

The stock of knowledge in a global enterprise with scattered
offices and plants and a complex mix of products and functions
is vast, but “How do you find what you need?

COMPUTER NETWORKS AND KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE
This new information technology is only the pipeline and storage system for
knwoelde exchange, it can not guarantee or even promote knowledge
generation or knowledge sharing

CORPORATE CULTURE for knowledge sharing

15
A CASE: BRIHIS PETROLEUM’S VIRTUAL TEAMWORK PROGRAM
TACIT VS. EXPLICIT KNOWLEDGE


EXPLICIT K.: It is formal and systematic. For this reason,
it can be easily communicated and shared, in product
specificaions or a scientific formula or a computer
program.
TACIT K.: It is highly personal. It is hard to personalize
and, therefore, difficult to communicate to others.




“We can know more than we can tell”
It is deeply rooted in action in an individual’s commitment to a
specific context –a craft or profession, a particular technology or
product market, or the activities of a work group or team.
Constis partly of technical skills: informal, hard-to-pin skills
captured in the term “know how”, but unable to articulate the
scientific or technical principles behind what he knows.
It has a cognitive dimension: Mental models, beliefs taked from
granted, and therefore cannot easily articulaate them.

This implicit models profoundly shape how we perceive the world16
around us.
THE SPIRAL OF
KNOWLEDGE
17
THE SPIRAL OF
KNOWLEDGE



SPIRAL OF KNOWLEDGE
FROM METAPHOR TO MODEL
FROM CHAOS TO CONCEPT
18
SPIRAL OF KNOWLEDGE
INDIVIDUAL
COLLECTIVE
TACIT
KNOWLEDGE
INTERNALIZATION
SOCIALIZATION
EXPLICIT
ARTICULATION
COMBINATION
KNOWLEDGE
19
SPIRAL OF KNOWLEDGE


4 fasic patterns for creating
knowledge:
From tacit to tacit: SOCIALIZATION
1.
2.
3.
From explicit to explicit: ARTICULATION
From tacit to explicit: COMBINATION
From Explicit to tacit:
INTERNALIZATION
20
SPIRAL OF KNOWLEDGE
1.
FROM TACIT TO TACIT
Sometimes, one individual shares tacit knowledge
directly with another.
SOCIALIZATION:The apprentice learns the
master’s skills.
Example: When an apprentice in an Hotel baker
learn tacit skills through observation, imitation
and practice.
Because their knowledge never becomes explicit, it
cannot easily be leveraged by the organization as a
whole.
21
SPIRAL OF KNOWLEDGE
2. FROM TACIT TO EXPLICIT
ARTICULATION
The individual is able to articulate the
foundations of his tacit knowledge
Ex: The apprentices translates these
secrets into explicit knowledge that he
can communicate to her team
members and others at the company.
22
SPIRAL OF KNOWLEDGE
3. FROM EXPLICIT TO EXPLICIT
An individual can also combine discrete
pieces of explicit knowledge into a new
whole: COMBINATION
Example: The team standardizes this
knowledge, putting it together in a new
product, or into a manual.
23
SPIRAL OF KNOWLEDGE
4. FROM EXPLICIT TO TACIT
INTERNALIZATION
As new explicit knowledge is shared through an
organization, other employees begin to internalize it
– that is, they use it to broaden, extend and reframe
their own tacit knowledge.
Example: Through the experience of creating a new
product, the apprentices and his team members
enrich their own tacit knowledge base. In particular,
they come to understand in an extremely intuitive
way that products like the home bread-making
machine can provide genuine quality.
24
SPIRAL OF KNOWLEDGE
ARTICULATION
COMBINATION
SOCIALIZATION
INTERNALIZATION
25
From Metaphor to Model

To convert tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge means finding a
way to express the inexpresible.

Tool: the store of figurative language and symbolism that anybody cand
draw from to articulate their intuitions and insights.

METAPHORS: Distintive method of perception




ANALOGY



It is a way for individuals grounded in different contexts and with different experiences
to understand something intuitively through the use of imaginations and symbols
People put together what they know in new ways and begin to express what they know
but can not yet say.
Metaphors merges two different and distant areas of experience ito a single, inclusive
image or symbol “Two ideas in one phrasse”
Whereas metaphor is mostly driven by intuition and links images that a t first glance
seem remote from each other,analogy is a more structured process of reconciling
contradictions and making distinctions.
Analogy is an intermediate step betweem pure imagination and logical thinking.
MODEL


The last step is to create a Model.
In the model, contradictions get resolved and concepts become transferable throug
consistent and systematic logic.
26
FROM CHAOS TO CONCEPT





The confusion created by the inevitable
discrepancies in meaning that occur in any
organization might seen like a problem.
In fact, it can be a rich source of new knowledge
–if a company knows how to manage it.
The key to doing so is continuously challenging
employees to reexamine what they take for
granted.
Ambiguity can prove extremely useful as a source
of alternative meanings, a fresh way to think
about things, a nes sense of direction.
New knowledge is born in chaos.
27
FROM CHAOS TO CONCEPT

Orient this chaos: VISION AND PURPOSE

What are we try to learn? What do we need to know? Where should we
be going? Who are we?


Vision of senior managers
As team leaders, middle managers are the intersection of the vertical and
horizontal flows of information in the company.


They serve as a bridge between the visionary ideals of the top and the often
chaotic market reality of those of the front line of the business
Middle managers syntesized the tacit knowledge of both frontline
employees and senior executives, made it explicit, and incorporated
it into new technologies and products
.
In this respect, they are the true “knowledge engineers” of the knowledgecreating company.
28
KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT
Knowledge Generation
Knowledge Codification &
Coordination
Knowledge Transfer
Knowledge Use
CKO vs. Knowledge Brokers
29
KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT






KNOWLEDGE GENERATION
KNOWLEDGE CODIFICATION AND
COORDINATION
KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER
KNOWLEDGE USE
CKO: Chief Knowledge Officer
Knowledge Brokers
30
KNOWLEDGE GENERATION
SPECIFIC ACTIVITIES AND INITIATIVES FIRMS UNDERTAKE TO INCREASE THEIR
STOKC OF CORPORATE KNOWLEDGE:

ACQUISITION:



PURCHASE ANOTHER FIRM WITH THE KNOWLEDGE
HIRE PEOPLE WITH THE KNOWLEDGE,
RENTAL (SUPPORT AN UNIVERSITY)


DEDICATED RESOURCES

STABLISH UNITS OR GROUPS SPECIFICALLY FOR THE PURPOSE



It brings together people with different perspectives to work on a problemor project, forcing
them to come up with a joint answer.
It introduces complexity and even conflict to create new knowledge: CREATIVE CHAOS
ADAPTATION




R&D Dpt.
FUSION


!!! RETAIN THE KNOWLEDGE
“Adapt or die”: Instill a sense of crisis before it exists
The crisis in the environment act as catalysts for knowledge generation
Employees who are willing and able to learn new things are vital to an adapting company
KNOWLEDGE NETWORKING


Communities of knowers, brought together by common interests, usually talk together in
person, on the telephone, and via e-mail and groupware to share expertise and solve
problems together.
31
When networks of this kind share enough knowledge in common to be able to communicate
and colloborate effectively, their ongoing conversation often generates new knowledge
within firms.
KNOWLEDGE CODIFICATION &
COORDINATION
The aim of codification is to put organizational knowledge into a form that
makes it accesible to those who need it (explicit, portable and easy to
unerstand).
The codification process for the richest tacit knowledge in organizations is
generally limited to locating someone with the knowledge, pointing the
seeker to it, and encouraging them to interact.
MAP OF KNOWLEDGE goes beyond conventional department boundaries.
That means that can lead to political tensions in the organization
EXPERT SYSTEMS represents an explicit attepmt to capture or imitate
human knowledge by transferring it to a formalized rules-based system.
But,even with advances in fuzzy logic, computers are not yet well suited to
ambiguous and intuitive operations where the rules, if they exist at all, are
much harder to define.
EMBEDDED KNOWLEDGE:
Some knowledge that is quite complex and initially tacit can be
externalized and embedded in a company’s products or services.
32
KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER
Spontaneous, unstructured knowledge transfer is vital
to a firm’s success.
Although the term “KM” implies formalizzed
transfer,one of its essential elements is developing
specific strategies to encourages such spontaneous
exchanges.
METHODS FOR KNOWLEDGE SHARING should suit
the organizational (and national) culture
TRANSFER= TRANSMISSION+ABSORPTION
33
KNOWLEDGE USE


KNOWING IS NOT THE SAME AS DOING.
Transmission and Absorption have no
useful value



if the knowlede does not lead to some change
in behavior,
or the development of some idea that leads to
new behavior
Resistance to change is powerful, even in
the face of indisputable objective evidence
that a particular change makes sense.
34
CKO:Chief Knowledge Officers
CLO Chief Learning Officers
Director of Intellectual Capital


Senior Management Roles on the level of Chief Information Officers,
heads of the human resource organization and other funcitional and
business unit leaders.
Responsibilities


Building a knowledge culture: education, incentive programs and
management example
Creating a knowledge management infrastructure




Workstations,networks, dabases, search engines,deskt-publishing tools, Webbased intranet
Human resources issues
Deveolopment and maintenancce of knowledge bases in different functions
and departments.
Making it all pay off economically


Figures and stories, about how knowledge sharing increase sales, are the
weapons to justify budget
Intellectual capital report
35
NASA KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT AND CKO

Ex.: NASA:
http://www.nasa.gov/offices/oce/appel/h
ome/index.html
NASA’s Knowledge Imperative
By Ed Hoffman
“Like all large, knowledge-intensive organizations, NASA faces continuous challenges identifying,
capturing, and sharing what it knows effectively.
Knowledge is the coin of the realm at NASA. Need to understand something about engine cutoff
sensors, the physiological impact of extended stays in low-Earth orbit, or how to drive a rover on Mars?
That kind of specialized expertise.”
… I will remain the director of the Academy of Program/Project and Engineering Leadership as I assume the
responsibilities of serving as NASA’s first CKO. This is a logical extension of the knowledge services
the Academy began providing over a decade ago. I look forward to engaging deeply with the
community of dedicated professionals that gathered in February to ensure that our technical workforce
has the knowledge it needs to achieve mission success. As always, please feel free to contact me if
you would like to share thoughts or ideas”
36
KNOWLEGE BROKER
Knowledge brokers: bridging the gap: data-information-knowledge- competence
intermediary activity that takes place between and within the spheres of science, policy and civil society
in order to bridge the research‐to‐practice gap

They are not inside the organization as CKO, they are intermiediaries.
Brokerage roles
The roles of individuals/groups/organisation performing KB could be quite divergent. With
reference to a knowledge broker typology framework (Gould & Fernandez 199414) the brokers’
roles could be categorised as ‘representatives’, ‘gatekeepers’, ‘liaison brokers’, ‘coordinators’, or
‘itinerant brokers’ – according to which domain they belong to.
In the ‘co‐ordinator’ framework all the actors including the broker and the source of knowledge
are in the same group.

In the ‘itinerant broker’ type the broker mediates between actors in the same group, but the
broker is not part of this group.

The ‘gatekeeper’ screen external knowledge to distribute it within their own group.

‘Representative’ role is given if a group delegates the brokering role of external knowledge to

someone in the group.

‘Liaison’ is when they knowledge is brokered across different groups, neither of which the

brokers are members of.


oadHP_March2012.pdf
37
The Rise of the Knowledge
Broker

http://scx.sagepub.com/content/32/1/118.abstract
“Knowledge brokers are people or organizations that move knowledge around and create
connections between researchers and their various audiences. This commentary reviews
some of the literature on knowledge brokering and lays out some thoughts on how to
analyze and theorize this practice. Discussing the invisibility and interstitiality of knowledge
brokers, the author argues that social scientists need to analyze more thoroughly their
practices, the brokering devices they use, and the benefits and drawbacks of their double
peripherality. The author also argues that knowledge brokers do not only move knowledge,
but they also produce a new kind of knowledge: brokered knowledge.” (Meyer,M, 2010)


http://www.knowledgebrokersforum.org/
http://www.foodlinkscommunity.net/fileadmin/documents/Commoncontents/publications/D2.1_Synthesis_report_DRAFT_uploadHP_M
arch2012.pdf
38
INNOVATION

Innovation
Invent + Commercialization
Commercialization: patent, technology
->Knowledge Brokers

Open innovation:

the use of purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge to accelerate
internal innovation and to expand the markets for external use of
innovation, respectively”. (Chesbrought 2003)
Geographical Clusters
39
CLUSTERS – open innovation

FIRMS & LOCATION
GEOGRAPHICALLY CONCENTRATED
NETWORKS WHERE NEW KNOWLEDGE
IS CREATED AND ORGANIZATIONAL
LEARNING DEVELOPED
Ex: http://www.kompetenznetze.de/initiative

40
TECHNOLOGY, PATENT MARKET –
Protection explicit knowledge

“Just as it is often said that patent
information is a gold mine of
technology, it would be helpful if
people wanting to use patents had
a map of what is where”
http://www.wipo.int/freepublications/en/intproperty/834/wipo_pub_834_ch9.pdf
Law for Intellectual property –history
http://www.wipo.int/freepublications/en/intproperty/834/wipo_pub_834_ch10.pdf
41
THANK YOU FOR YOUR
ATENTION.
Suggestions?
Ideas? Questions?
42