A process view of knowledge management:
it ain’t what you do, it’s the way that you do it
11th European Conference on Knowledge Management
Universidade Lusíada de Vila Nova de Famalicão
Famalicão, Portugal, 2-3 September 2010
Professor John S. Edwards
Overview
Many organisations still find knowledge management a bit of a
struggle
Need to think (more) about process
What process thinking means
Where we (you?) might go from here
11th European Conference on Knowledge Management
Famalicão, Portugal, 2-3 September 2010
KM is like learning to drive
There’s a big difference between:
Doing the theory test
Sitting in the front passenger seat while someone else drives
Actually driving the car yourself
“Driving” KM
General awareness is one thing…
…understanding is quite another
A commonly heard cry is that “we know about knowledge
management as a concept, but how do we do it?”
Doing KM isn’t easy
Over the past ten years or so, our research teams at Aston have
seen:
 Organisations where KM has been successful
 Organisations where an ongoing KM initiative has had little
or no impact
 Organisations where KM has gone well for a time and then
stopped
 Organisations where KM can’t get started
“The Problem”
Managers seem to be happy about the basic principles of KM in
isolation
But they have trouble in applying the ideas to their own
organisation
Workforce may also have difficulty in doing what the KM
recommendations suggest that they should
Why is it difficult?
Not really much disagreement about “good KM”, at least in
general terms
The fatal mistake is to treat KM as if it were a game of chess,
where thinking of a move is the same as doing it…
…rather than a game of tennis, where doing it is what makes it
difficult!
NEED TO THINK PROCESS!
11th European Conference on Knowledge Management
Famalicão, Portugal, 2-3 September 2010
What do processes do?
They flow
They do things for people
They cut across organisational boundaries
They make you think about the demand for knowledge, not just
the supply of it
11th European Conference on Knowledge Management
Famalicão, Portugal, 2-3 September 2010
People, processes and technology
Directories,
Communities
of Practice
PEOPLE
Help design and
then operate
Provides
support for
Help design
and then use
Repositories,
Knowledgebased
Systems
TECHNOLOGY
Define the roles of,
and knowledge
needed by
PROCESSES
Makes
possible new
kinds of
Determine the
need for
New ways to
work, build in
what you
want to
achieve
KM History so far
Some say there have been two generations:
First generation KM – emphasis on Technology
Second generation KM – emphasis on People
…perhaps it’s time for more emphasis on Process?
Others, like Mouritsen and Larsen (2005) that there have been
two waves:
The first, knowledge in individuals
The second, knowledge as intellectual capital
The second includes much more focus on process
11th European Conference on Knowledge Management
Famalicão, Portugal, 2-3 September 2010
What do we need to be able to do to
processes?
Identify processes
Design/plan processes
Implement processes
Facilitate processes
Monitor processes
Analyse processes
Mend processes
Retire processes
11th European Conference on Knowledge Management
Famalicão, Portugal, 2-3 September 2010
Or, as a diagram
Identify
Analyse
Monitor
Design
Facilitate
Mend
Retire
Implement
11th European Conference on Knowledge Management
Famalicão, Portugal, 2-3 September 2010
Changing a Process can be especially risky…
Let’s watch some videos
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUvagsM
176o
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msXKYg
TCDec
11th European Conference on Knowledge Management
Famalicão, Portugal, 2-3 September 2010
Knowledge management (KM) and risk
management (RM)
Risk management has increased priority/visibility at present
Global financial crisis
Natural disasters (global warming, pandemics)
Increased fear of terrorism
Recently we have been working on KM and RM, two sectors we
have been researching being financial services (Eduardo
Rodriguez) and health care (Athina Anthropopoulou)
Biggest similarity – silo mentality
In hospitals, risk communication
has to go up the silos and “over
the top”
They say they cannot cut across
at lower levels as no-one has the
boundary spanning knowledge
In financial services, it seems
different departments simply do
not talk to each other, although it
seems likely that they could
understand one another
Middle managers in both cases
focus “down” more than “up”
Board
Dept
Dept
Dept
Processes cut across silos
Despite what they say, especially in hospitals, those involved in
“adjacent” or connecting activities within a process must be able
to share knowledge
This doesn’t mean they have to have completely the same
knowledge
It does mean they must have enough common knowledge to
communicate where their responsibilities overlap
This requires that someone must oversee this communication
(may be management, leadership or just facilitation)
May be a need for better ba
11th European Conference on Knowledge Management
Famalicão, Portugal, 2-3 September 2010
Another non-process failure
A manufacturing company who thought that better IT support was
the answer to a lack of knowledge sharing, but only the IT people
wanted to share knowledge in this way
11th European Conference on Knowledge Management
Famalicão, Portugal, 2-3 September 2010
Process successes
Bou and Sauquet (2004) – documenting the process of helping
the unemployed to find a job; a proper process view with an
awareness of knowledge led to very different documentation
Spies et al (2005) – implementing an intelligent search engine in
Allianz required close attention to what the searchers did with it,
and this was different between different departments
Apostolou et al (2007) – implementing a system in a management
consultancy using what they called a “KM-enabled business
process”
Barcelo-Venezuela et al (2008) – stress the importance of core
processes; what the business – a university in their case –
actually does
11th European Conference on Knowledge Management
Famalicão, Portugal, 2-3 September 2010
And one of my own…
Public transport timetabling information – they thought they
needed a “knowledge base” – a codified system
But a study from a process viewpoint revealed that codification
would be solving the wrong problem
The major knowledge sharing issues were only about new staff
So the best approach to take was one of improving the induction
process
11th European Conference on Knowledge Management
Famalicão, Portugal, 2-3 September 2010
Key themes to watch for
Breaking the silos
Leadership and roles
Someone has to have the overview as a process
How does this relate to knowledge champions or CKOs,
CIOs?
Learning – must be in the context of the activities that the task
involves
Managing risk/uncertainty
11th European Conference on Knowledge Management
Famalicão, Portugal, 2-3 September 2010
Do…and Don’t…
Do:
Lead from the top
Make sure to cut across boundaries
Think in terms of an ongoing KM activity, not a “project” that is
done and finished
Don’t:
Go against the organization’s culture
Expect people (or systems) to change overnight
Ignore the exceptions to the process
References
Apostolou D, Abecker A and Mentzas G (2007) Harmonising codification and socialisation in
knowledge management. Knowledge Management Research & Practice 5(4), 271-285.
Barcelo-Valenzuela M, Sanchez-Schmitz G, Perez-Soltero A, Martín Rubio F and Palma J
(2008) Defining the problem: key element for the success of knowledge management.
Knowledge Management Research & Practice 6(4), 322-333.
Bou E and Sauquet A (2004) Reflecting on quality practices through knowledge management
theory: uncovering grey zones and new possibilities of process manuals, flowcharts and
procedures. Knowledge Management Research & Practice 2(1), 35-47.
Maier R and Remus U (2003) Implementing process-oriented knowledge management
strategies. Journal of Knowledge Management 7(4), 62-74.
Mouritsen J and Larsen HT (2005) The 2nd wave of knowledge management: The
management control of knowledge resources through intellectual capital information.
Management Accounting Research 16(3), 371-394.
Spies M, Clayton AJ and Noormohammadian M (2005) Knowledge management in a
decentralized global financial services provider: a case study with Allianz Group. Knowledge
Management Research & Practice 3(1), 24-36.
11th European Conference on Knowledge Management
Famalicão, Portugal, 2-3 September 2010