Knowledge Management
Infrastructure Approach
Knowledge Worker
Knowledge Technology
Knowledge Culture
Knowledge Infrastructure
• KM is a key component in an organization’s ability to create a
competitive advantage.
• In order to ensure the success of bringing in knowledge
management, it is crucial to be able to acquire the key enablers by
which it will be possible to effectively utilize an organization’s limited
resources, reduce the use of manpower, material, and time, and also
be able to achieve the expected results.
• Therefore management need to be clear of the factors that will
influence km, which are known as km enablers or km infrastructure
KM infrastructure definition
• Ho C. (2009) defined “ Knowledge infrastructure as critical factors that put
km concepts into practice in order to achieve km effectiveness” .
• The explicitly develop and design an appropriate km infrastructure is
needed of strategic significance.
• They also noticed that km infrastructure should be an integral
consideration for any business wishing to fully embrace km.
• Through the KM infrastructure the organization’s knowledge can grow
concurrently and systematically. Since the KM infrastructure (enablers)
form a system that can stimulate group members to advance in the growth
of knowledge, to break through the barriers, and to encourage sharing
among members regarding their knowledge and experiences.
List of KM infrastructure : The most important enablers of
km initiatives are listed below;
1. A knowledge- friendly culture.
2. Clear purpose and language.
3. long term and effective motivational practices.
4. Multiple channels for knowledge transfer.
5. Environment
6. Knowledge people
7. Management support.
8. Knowledge system
9. Flexible knowledge structure .
10. Knowledge technology
•Note : For the purpose of this chapter
we will understand only the k. Worker,
K. technology, and k. culture as the
most important key factors to km
initiative
Knowledge Worker
• The growing importance of
knowledge to the workplace is
stimulating the transformation of
both the character of the work
activities people undertake, and the
nature of organizations, which has
been turned topsy-turvy by a shift
from manual work to knowledge
work.
Waves of human socio-economic
development
• The first wave was the agricultural age with wealth defined as
ownership of land;
• The second wave was the industrial age with wealth - based on
ownership of capital.
• The third wave is termed as the knowledge age, in which wealth is
based upon the ownership of knowledge and the ability to use that
knowledge to create or improve goods and services,
The Characteristics of Manual and Knowledge
Work
Manual work
Material – based
Overt behaviors
High
Direct & immediate
Concentrated
Position and politics
Liner \ parallel (quantitative
)
Others
Worker
management
Characteristics
Work- base
Working
visibility
Linkage to result
Knowledge
Balance of Power
Nature of work
Source of standard
Focus of control
Locus of control
Knowledge work
Information – based
Covert behaviors
low
Indirect & Delayed
Distributed
Politics and profession
Non –liner – parallel
(qualitative )
Worker
work
worker
• As we noticed, the new pattern of work increased the knowledge
intensity of work through creating a greater need of intellectual skills,
resulting in producing an enormous expansion in number of k
workers.
• Knowledge workers are rapidly becoming the largest group in the
work force of every developed country. They may already compose
60% of the American workers, which mean that they are becoming
the most valuable assets of the 21st century, and also they will be the
root of the knowledge economy as it appear in the following figure
Knowledge Workers as a base of Knowledge economy
Knowledge Economy
• Therefore the central challenge for developed countries is
no longer to make the manual work more productive; it
will be to make knowledge workers more productive
(Drucker 1999).
Knowledge Worker Definition
• The term knowledge worker was first coined by Peter Drucker (1959)
as "one who works primarily with information or one who develops
and uses knowledge in the workplace”,
• It is also defined as “ somebody who puts to work what he has
learned in systematic education, rather than the man who puts to
work manual skill or muscle”.
• Although the growing importance of knowledge workers, there is no
agreement on neither the definition of that term, nor the description
of their characteristics which have been much debates among
authors and academicism.
• Two main approaches of defining the knowledge workers
are developed.
The first approach: According this approach ;knowledge work is specific and knowledge worker is
defined as “someone whose work is primary intellectual, creative, and non-routine
in nature, and it involves both the utilization and creation of knowledge" .
Knowledge workers then are required to be highly creative and make extensive use
of knowledge in their day to day work. They are also required to possess specific
competencies, knowledge, and skills, by which they work with their mind rather
than their hands.
Align with this approach Reich (2000) define knowledge workers as " the creators
of the stream of information that makes up the postindustrial, post-service, global
economy
• Based on this approach an enormous range of occupations can be
classified as knowledge worker; lawyers, consultants , IT and software
designers ,advertising executives, Scientists and engineers , architects
and accountants .While communication worker and production
worker are not as a knowledge worker .
• The problem with this approach is that the definition of knowledge
workers is still vague and does not represent a clear or a distinct
occupational category .
• The second approach:• According to this approach any work is a knowledge work to some
extent and most types of works involve the development and use of
tacit knowledge .This idea is supported by the result of Beaumont and
Hunter’s study (2000), as they found that knowledge is created at all
levels within organization. According to this approach the bus-driving
become as a knowledge work .
• In an attempt to overcome such a problem ,Ramirez and Strudel (2008) developed
the knowledge work framework to measure the knowledge work as a collection of
tasks that compose the job; according to them knowledge work is a continuum that
extends, theoretically from 0 to 100 per cent knowledge work. by which we can
measure the knowledgeable of any work. They developed eight dimensions for the
knowledge work;
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Autonomy
Structure
Tangibility
Knowledge
Creativity & innovation
Complexity
Routine & repetitiveness
Physical effort
Knowledge Worker Skills
• that there are three types of required skills and competences related
to the knowledge workers ;
• First;
• The professional and technical core competences; (acquired through
education , professional or technical qualification , training and
experience and reflect personal attributes, preferences , and
background)
• It is essential that any knowledge worker is able to maintain and
develop the occupational competences which is termed " cognitive
knowledge " or know- what .
• Second;
• The organizational skills; which is required to apply professional or
technical competencies effectively and include communication, negotiation
and persuasion. In addition to the ability to learn and absorb, effectively,
all aspects of the organization's business which is called the "advanced
skills" or " know- how“.
• Third;
• The KM enabling skills; which is related to plan and implement KM
approaches as understanding the km process and change management .In
addition to there is a need to an information- literacy skills which is
defined as the ability to know when information is needed and then
having the skill to identify, locate, evaluate, organize, and effectively use
that information.
Responsibilities of the CKO
• Maximize returns on investment in
knowledge — people, processes, and
technology
• Share best practices and reinforce benefits
of knowledge sharing among employees
• Promote company innovations and
commercialization of new ideas
• Minimize knowledge loss at all levels of the
business at all levels of the business
20
Managing Knowledge Worker
• According to the literature, there is a debate regarding if
• knowledge workers require to be managed differently from
other types of workers or not.
• There is a wide accepted knowledge workers represent a distinctive and
important part of the workforce .
• Thus they require a form of management different from that used for the other
workers .
• Align with this approach knowledge workers are described as a “free workers” ;
they are not able to exercise greater control over their working arrangement as
the traditional employees . They need then for "SOFT HRM"
• As a result the knowledge workers must have some specific system to enhance
their own knowledge.
• On the other hand , some authors criticized that distinctiveness
perspective of knowledge worker, and suggested that all worker
should be regarded as knowledge workers since the knowledge of all
workers is important to organizational performance , also this
perspective argued that organization that utilize such an approach
and treat k workers as a special and distinctive will face a number of
risks ; development the resentment ( anger) among workers , as a
result the workers will have a low level of loyalty and commitment to
their organization, which may lead to less willing to share their
knowledge , Actually the overcoming of this problem is HRM’s role.
• The most effective ways to facilitate the work of knowledge workers are;
recruitment and selection, which is important not only to ensure that
people with appropriate skills and knowledge are recruited, but also that
the people recruited have a willingness to share their knowledge
appropriately and that the attitudes and behaviors of new recruits are
compatible with the existing organizational culture.
• Rewarding and incentive program also are important to the knowledge
worker which make them more satisfied and motivated.
• Also ; Flextime is critical issue that allows them to decide when to work,
when to quit, and so forth.
• The educational training is the key factor for the successful workers .
• One of the most important issue of knowledge worker management
is the problem of knowledge workers retention which is related to a
high turnover rate by which the tacit knowledge will leave the
organization.
• Keeping into consideration that organizations will lose its competitive
advantages if they replace knowledge workers or limit the scope of
their activities , as evident by the loss of over 450,000 jobs in the USA
during the first six months after September 11 ,2001 since a million
IT-related jobs are being outsourced to outside the USA which had a
negative effect on many industries as the airline industries (Smith and
Rupp 2004).
• The best ways to deal with the turn over problem is to create high
level of organizational loyalty.
• There are two types of loyalty;
1. The instrumental-based loyalty which based on the financial and
institutional strategy
2. The identification-based loyalty which is based on the
communication -based strategy.
The End