draft ekm chapter (25!3!2012)

7/28/2019 Draft Ekm Chapter (25!3!2012)

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AGENCY EFFECTIVENESS HANDBOOK

April 2012

CHAPTER 3

Effective Knowledge Management

(DRAFT)


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Table of Contents

1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................................... 6

2. CONCEPTS ............................................................................................................................................ 8

2.1. Knowledge ................................................................................................................................... 8

2.1.1. Tacit vs. Explicit Knowledge............................................................................................ 10

2.1.2. Individual vs. Collective Knowledge ............................................................................... 11

2.2. Knowledge Management .......................................................................................................... 12

3. OBJECTIVES ....................................................................................................................................... 14

4. IMPLEMENTATION............................................................................................................................. 17

4.1. Codification vs. Personalization............................................................................................... 18

4.1.1. Codification ....................................................................................................................... 18

4.1.2. Personalization .................................................................................................................. 22

4.1.3. Computer Based Technology ........................................................................................... 23

4.1.4. Knowledge Maps ............................................................................................................... 26

4.1.4.1. Concept and Elements................................................................................................. 26

4.1.4.2. Purpose of Knowledge Maps ...................................................................................... 27

4.1.4.3. Advantages of Knowledge Maps................................................................................. 28

4.1.4.4. Disadvantages of Knowledge Maps ............................................................................ 28

4.1.4.5. Quality dimensions of Knowledge maps ..................................................................... 29

4.1.5. The OFT Example............................................................................................................. 30

4.1.6. Risk Management ............................................................................................................. 31

4.1.7. Difference Between Database Subsystem and Knowledge Management Systems ...... 37

4.2. Whos in Charge ....................................................................................................................... 38

4.2.1. Profile of Knowledge Managers....................................................................................... 38

4.2.2. The Abilities and Roles of Knowledge Managers........................................................... 40

4.2.3. The Practice in the Competition Agencies ...................................................................... 41

4.3. Challenges.................................................................................................................................. 42

4.3.1. Managing Knowledge Nature of Knowledge ........................................................... 43


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4.3.2. Knowledge Management and Culture ............................................................................ 44

4.3.3. Knowledge Management and Knowledge Creation....................................................... 46

4.3.4. Knowledge Management and Change............................................................................. 47

4.3.5. Knowledge Storage and Retrieval ................................................................................... 47

4.3.6.

Privacy Concerns for Knowledge Management............................................................. 48

4.3.7. The Five Building Blocks.................................................................................................. 49

5. KNOWLEDGE COLLECTION:HOW TO COLLECT THE KNOWLEDGE ............................................. 50

5.1. Knowledge Collection from New Staff.................................................................................... 50

5.2. Knowledge Collection from the Actual Staff.......................................................................... 51

5.3. Knowledge Collection from the Departing Staff.................................................................... 55

6. CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................................... 57


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Table of Figures

Figure 1: If KM system has been in place in your organisation for more than one year, what are the major

returns on investment you can see?................................ ............................................................................. 16

Figure 2 : Are practices for storing KM resources in place? ...................................................................... 21

Figure 3 : Does your agency have a network that is designed to support sharing knowledge between

employees?.................................................................................................................................................. 25

Figure 4 : Does your agency have a map of existing knowledge or KM data base? .................................. 30

Figure 5: Illustration of the risk management process according to the Standards Australian International

.................................................................................................................................................................... 32

Figure 6 : Please identify the methods used by your agency to capture internal knowledge resource? ..... 54

Figure 7 : Does your agency have an organisational-wide active, ongoing KM system or elements of such

a system, to preserve institutional memory for future use? ........................................................................ 58

Table of Tables

Table 1: Use of the explicit and tacit knowledge in the workplace ............................................................ 10

Table 2 : Disadvantages of knowledge maps .............................................................................................. 28

Table 3 : Selection of Risks in the Knowledge Management Environment ............................................... 33

Table 4 : Selection of Security and Controls in the Knowledge Management Environment ..................... 35


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1. INTRODUCTIONDuring the 2009 ICN Zurich Annual Conference, the Agency Effectiveness Working Group

(AEWG) embarked on the preparation ofThe Competition Agency Practice Manual (Manual),

comprising six chapters for which each chapter will be considered a distinct Project The first

chapter, on Strategic Planning and Prioritization, was completed in [year]. The second chapter,

on Effective Project Delivery, and this chapter, on Effective Knowledge Management, will be

submitted to the 2012 ICN annual conference.

The Egyptian Competition Authority (ECA) was chosen by the AEWG together with the Fiscala

Nacional Econmica of Chile (FNE) to be Project Leaders to develop a chapter on Effective

Knowledge Management (EKM) that will be submitted at the ICN annual conference in Brazil

in 2012.

The main purpose of this project on EKM is to explore, examine and expose, in an orderly

manner, the different approaches with which institutional knowledge is handled by competition

agencies, especially the existing practices they implement for the management and thechallenges faced on this theme.

This chapter serves as a guide to a variety of activities, processes, and technologies necessary to

support an EKM system that will assist different competition agencies, according to their needs

and resources. The chapter will help agencies manage their knowledge assets in order to improve

performance.

The project was implemented in two phases; the first phase was primarily regarding gathering

information from the different agencies concerning their knowledge management (KM) systems

based on the Questionnaire to which twenty-four agencies from twenty-three jurisdictions havesubmitted their answers. Such a questionnaire was crucial and essential in the EKM project due

to the fact that the topic of KM is very vague and very difficult to define a set of best practices of

KM and its associated processes due to the recognition that there is a wide variety of distinctions

across jurisdiction. The second phase was regarding the means of applying KM systems using in-

depth analysis of the gathered answers, provided by the agencies, in addition to the detailed

interviews conducted with the informants.

In order to gather the necessary information from ICN members to help define and understand

the means of applying KM within their agencies, the Project Leaders have worked on a

comprehensive questionnaire that has been submitted to ICN members. This questionnaire willhelp the AEWG better understand how KM is perceived and defined by different competition

agencies, what are the necessary effective elements that constitute a strong KM system and

therefore making competition agencies more efficient.

The Project Leaders worked on drafting the Questionnaire, which was submitted for revision to

some of the more experienced agencies such as The UK Office of Fair Trading (OFT), the US


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Department of Justice (DOJ), the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the Bundeskartellamt,

and the Turkish Competition Authority (Rekabet Kurumu).

The Questionnaire included 54 questions regarding general information about the agencies,

defining KM in supporting concepts, descriptive situations, KM system, knowledge codification,

KM practices, recruitment process and new staff and ways to increase organizational knowledge.

Some important elements were taken into account regarding the agencies; such as the scope of

agencies enforcement activities (58.3% of the agencies are solely specialized in competition

enforcement while 16.7% of the agencies enforce competition and consumer protection

regulations), age of agencies (82.6% of the agencies are considered to be mature which are 11

years old or older), and agency size (most of the agencies were considered to be medium sized).

It was noted that the questionnaire was targeting the agencies that have their KM system adopted

for more than 5 years. Nevertheless, most of the agencies do not have a transparent KM strategy

within the organization and for the few responding agencies, who answered positively to the

question related to having a transparent KM strategy, have a set of processes and an electronicsystem rather than a strategy properly defined.

With regards to having an EKM system, 48% of the responding agencies stated that to some

extent they believe they have an EKM system. Most of the agencies that dont implement a KM

system dont even have elements of a system nor the plans to implement one in the future.

Below the chapter will provide further details on defining KM, implementing an EKM system

and most importantly the benefits of KM in an efficient organization.


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2.CONCEPTSA number of projects have made significant progress toward the goal of discovering what

knowledge and KM essentially mean. One of the key first steps to understand is that KM is a

broad, multi-dimensional domain covering most aspects of an organizations framework. In

order to understand what KM is, it is essential to start by defining one key aspect What is

knowledge?1

2.1. Knowledge

Knowledge is a valuable substance, and is generally seen as one of the most important assets in

organizations that should be carefully managed. When used over time, the significance of

knowledge increases rather than decreases which forces KM to face a significant challenge.

Knowledge from this perspective is what our human communities have accumulated over time to

understand the world and act effectively in it2. Knowledge, or know-how, involves the process of

learning, understanding, and applying information3.

According to Russel Ackoff, a systems theorist and professor of organizational change, the

content of the human mind can be classified into five categories4:

- Data: symbols. It simply exists and has no significance beyond its existence. It can existin any form. Useable or not. It does not have meaning of itself.

1

European Committee for Standardization, European Guide to Good Practice in Knowledge Management, Part 1:Knowledge Management Framework, 2004, p. 6.2 Etienne WENGER, Knowledge Management as a Doughnut: Shaping Your Knowledge Strategy Through

Communities of Practice,Ivey Business Journal, January/February 2004.3 Christine SOO, Timothy DEVINNEY, David MIDGLEY and Anne DEERING, Knowledge Management:

Philosophy, Processes and Pitfalls, California Management Review, Vol. 44, No. 4, Summer 2002.4 Gene BELLINGER, Durval CASTRO and Anthony MILLS, Data, Information, Knowledge, and Wisdom.

Available at:http://www.systems-thinking.org/dikw/dikw.htm

What is knowledge?

Knowledge is the combination of data and information, to which is

added expert opinion, skills, and experience, to result in a valuable

asset, which can be used to aid decision making process. Knowledgemay be explicit and/or tacit, individual and/or collective.
http://www.systems-thinking.org/dikw/dikw.htmhttp://www.systems-thinking.org/dikw/dikw.htmhttp://www.systems-thinking.org/dikw/dikw.htmhttp://www.systems-thinking.org/dikw/dikw.htm


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- Information: data that are processed to be useful; provides answers to who, what,where, and when questions. Information is data that has been given meaning by way

of relational connection.

- Knowledge: application of data and information; answers how questions. Knowledgeis the appropriate collection of information. When someone memorizes information, then

one has amassed knowledge.

- Understanding: appreciation of why. It is the process where we can take knowledgeand synthesize new knowledge from the previously held knowledge.

- Wisdom: evaluated understanding. It beckons to give understanding about which therehas previously been no understanding.

Ackoff indicates that the first four categories relate to the past; they deal with what has been or

what is known. Only the fifth category, wisdom, deals with the future because it incorporates

vision and design. With wisdom people can create the future rather than grasp the present and

past. But achieving wisdom isnt easy; people must move successively through the other

categories.

Knowledge is different from information and sharing; it requires a different set of concepts and

tools. Six characteristics of knowledge distinguish it from information5:

- Knowledge is a human act.- Knowledge is the residue of thinking.- Knowledge is created in the present moment.- Knowledge belongs to communities.- Knowledge circulates through communities in many ways.- New knowledge is created at the boundaries of old.

Knowledge may be broadly classed into several categories; mainly explicit and/or tacit

knowledge, individual and/or collective knowledge. The tacit knowledge approach emphasizes

understanding the kinds of knowledge that individuals in an organization have, moving people to

transfer knowledge within an organization, and managing key individuals as knowledge creators

and carriers. By contrast, the explicit knowledge approach emphasizes processes for articulating

knowledge held by individuals, the design of organizational approaches for creating new

5Richard McDERMOTT, Why Information Technology Inspired But Cannot Deliver Knowledge Management,

California Management Review, Vol. 41, No. 4, Summer 1999, p. 105.


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knowledge, and the development of systems (including information systems) to disseminate

articulated knowledge within an organization6.

2.1.1. Tacit vs. Explicit KnowledgeThe tacit dimension of knowledge is comprised of both cognitive and technical elements. The

cognitive element refers to an individuals mental models consisting of mental maps, beliefs,paradigms, and view-points. The technical component consists of concrete know-how, crafts,

and skills that apply to a specific context7. Tacit knowledge is not easily shared, it involves

learning and skill. Tacit knowledge, in particular, is lost through outsourcing, downsizing,

mergers and terminations. Tacit knowledge has been described as know-how - as opposed to

know-what.

The explicit dimension of knowledge is articulated, codified, and communicated in symbolic

form and/or natural language8. Examples of explicit or codified knowledge could include

documents, books, manuals, process diagrams, mathematical expressions and specifications.

Explicit knowledge is easily captured, stored, and transmitted using modern technology (for

example, transmitted electronically, stored in a database or computer processed). Explicit

knowledge has been described as know-what as opposed to know-how.

Table 1: Use of the explicit and tacit knowledge in the workplace9

6 Ron SANCHEZ, Tacit Knowledge versus Explicit Knowledge, Approaches to Knowledge Management

Practice. Available at:http://www.knowledgeboard.com/download/3512/Tacit-vs-Explicit.pdf7 Maryam ALAVI, John and Lucy COOK, Knowledge Management and Knowledge Management Systems:

Conceptual Foundations and Research Issues,MIS Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 1, March 2001, p. 110.8Ibid.9 Elizabeth SMITH, The Role of Tacit and Explicit Knowledge in The Workplace, Journal of Knowledge

Management, Vol. 5, No. 4, 2001, p. 314.

Tacit Knowledge Explicit Knowledge

Practical, action-oriented

knowledge or know-how based

on practice, acquired by personal

experience, seldom expressed

openly, often resembles intuition.

Academic knowledge or know-

what that is described in formal

language, print or electronic

media, often based on established

work processes, use people-to-

documents approach.

At the organizational level, ones tacit experience cannot be

transferred into organizational knowledge without being integrated

into organizational routines.
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2.1.2. Individual vs. Collective KnowledgeKnowledge can also be viewed as existing in the individual or the collective. It would not make

sense to consider both as two entirely separate, distinct processes. The knowledge of an

organization and of an individual can cross-fertilize, and they can reciprocally support each

other's development.

When organizations merge, downsize, reorganize, or undergo organizational culture changes,

priceless knowledge is lost or buried under new information. Employees who leave take their

valuable knowledge, resources, skills and experiences with them. Those who stay may be

assigned new jobs and never use their wealth of accumulated knowledge. Unless managers

recognize the improvisations and inventive ways in which people get things done, individual

knowledge, in particular, will be lost.

Since individual knowledge is inevitable in any organization, KM should be an important asset

to any efficient organization in order to never be deprived of essential knowledge.

Knowledge Maturation Cycle10

:

Stage 1: Discovered Knowledge occurs when an idea, need or possibility leads to knowledge

creation. At this stage knowledge is tacit. A KM system can provide an important service by

providing an e-workspace within which a knowledge discoverer can begin to organize the ideas.

Stage 2: Codified Knowledge. The discovered knowledge is translated into a physical form that

helps it survive and become useful.

Stage 3: Migratory Knowledge. When knowledge is codified, it gains mobility. This means that

knowledge takes its own identity and is no longer attached to its originator or owner.

Stage 4: Invisible Knowledge. As knowledge spreads, it begins to be viewed as commonplace

and is viewed as a public good.

10 Suzie ALLARD, Knowledge Creation, in Handbook on Knowledge Management, Part 1: Knowledge

Matters, Springer Science and Business Media B.V., 2004, pp. 370-371.


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2.2. Knowledge ManagementWhat is KM? How can organizations sustain knowledge to improve individuals and teams within

the organization? KM, like knowledge itself, cannot be defined in one single definition. KM has

multiple dimensions. It is viewed differently in different fields of endeavors. However, most

organizations view KM today as a competitive and unique tool to stay profitable and to ensure

the growth and development of their employees.

Needs for expertise and operational understanding have been important since the battle for

organizational survival first started. Concepts and practices evolved through the 1990s as

managements in the postindustrial era not only realized that knowledge was perhaps the critical

resource, rather than land, machines, or capital; but also that their organizations generally

managed poorly11

. Intellectually, broad, present-day KM has many origins. One comes from

abstract philosophical thinking. Another comes from concrete concerns for requirements of

expertise in the workplace. Others come from perspectives of educators and business leaders.

Recent perspectives come from efforts to explain economic driving forces in the knowledge

era and the 20th Century efforts to increase effectiveness.

Managers concerned with implementing KM in their organizations today face a number of

challenges in developing sound methods for this still emerging area of management practice.

Capturing knowledge buried in people and in organizations are the fundamental building blocks

of KM implementation. The knowledge of an organization is stored in the minds of its

workforce. This workforce has to be motivated and empowered to contribute their best in

fulfilling the mission and vision of the organization. It should be recognized that the immediate

purpose of KM is not to improve either worker effectiveness or an organization's bottom line. Its

purpose is to enhance knowledge processing. The goal of KM is to build and exploit intellectual

capital effectively and gainfully.

KM as a new managerial practice and as an academic research topic has been slightly introduced

into the public sector literature. Using more private sector instruments might be in conflict with

the values of the public sector, for instance, the benefit of bureaucratic organizational forms for

11Michael EARL, Knowledge Management Strategies: Toward a Taxonomy, Journal of Management Information

Systems, Vol. 18, No. 1, Summer 2001, p. 215.

Knowledge management is to to identify, manage, and value items that the

organization knows or could know: skills and experience of people, archives,

documents, relations with clients, suppliers and other persons and materials

often contained in electronic databases.


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public organizations. Therefore, there is a need to study and develop distinctive organization

design principles for public sector organizations. Furthermore, there is not just one

organizational design approach to public sector organizations because there is no single type of

public sector organization. Public Sector organizations differ from private sector organizations in

the ambiguity of goals, the difference in environment, and the difference in political influences12

.

Public agencies are increasingly being expected to deliver more services with fewer resources.Improved KM is essential to governmental agencies at the national, regional or local levels,

because governmental organizations are basically knowledge-based organizations. With

initiatives like e-governance and online knowledge portals, public sector agencies now have to

manage their knowledge more effectively. It may be possible that public sector employees may

also have values and motives that are different from private sector employees; this is another

reason why KM programs need to be designed for the public sector rather than adopted from

private sector models.

Although the design of public sector organizations has been studied for several decades, it

remains a controversial issue. The relatively high importance of values such as honesty, fairness,and equity compared to more economic and parsimonious values, such as cost control and goal

orientation, demands a fundamentally different design.

Indeed, one of the main challenges for having an EKM system according to the agencies is the

lack of resources, which clarifies the particularity of implementing a KM system in public sector

organizations such as the competition agencies.

96% of the responding competition agencies agreed that KM comprises storing, sharing,

disseminating and applying knowledge within the agency to achieve its objectives and a set of

activities, processes and technologies that support the collection, management and publication ofinformation in any form but mainly through digital content (e.g. documents, multimedia files or

any other file type). Normally, it has two components: a repository and a platform supporting

the workflow of organizations staff in charge of feeding information into the repository ; are the

elements that best describe what KM is.

12 Annick WILLEM and Marc BUELENS, Knowledge Sharing in Public Sector Organizations: The effect of

Organizational Characteristic on Interdepartmental Knowledge Sharing, Journal of Public Administration Research

and Theory, Vol. 17, No. 4, October 2007.


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3.OBJECTIVESIn the light of the aforementioned distinction, public sector organizations are different from

private sector organizations in the ambiguity and vagueness of goals, the difference in

environment, and the difference in political influences. Such differences will always have an

impact on the application of an identified KM system carrying concrete objectives.

All organizations want to foster innovation and have better decision making skills. KM is a key

tool to obtain this. The primary objective of any KM program is to support the achievement of

strategic objectives. In other words, the "starting-point" for KM is to understand what the

organization's objectives are.

KM is considered a strategic commitment to improve the organizations effectiveness and its

opportunity enhancement. Hence, the goal of KM as a process is to improve the organizations

ability to function more efficiently. KM must be an enabler to achieve strategic objectives.

Knowledge strategy must evolve from the organizations strategy and again contribute to

achieving its goals.

Knowledge strategies and KM initiatives that are "stand-alone" and not linked to an

organizations strategy are not likely to succeed. The key to define and implement a knowledge

strategy that will lead to achievement of the organizations goals is to identify knowledge

capabilities critical to the organizations efficiency, define and implement initiatives to bridge

the gaps, and measure the organizations goals.

Most KM projects have one of three aims13

:

- To make knowledge visible and show the role of knowledge in an organization (e.g.through maps, yellow pages, tools);

- To develop a knowledge-intensive culture by encouraging and aggregating behaviorssuch as knowledge sharing and proactively seeking and offering knowledge; and

- To build a knowledge infrastructure, for example via a web of connections among thestaff offering space, time, tools and encouraging them to interact and collaborate.

Since KM has an evolving nature, the most developed and mature projects are still considered

unfinished. Managers try to design KM projects to reach the goals and objectives they are

seeking and have reached the said objectives with very little results. Most KM projects havesimilar objectives, which mainly focus on knowledge as opposed to data and information.

There are four general types of objectives that arise from most KM projects14

:

13 Thomas DAVENPORT and Lawrence PRUSAK, Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They

Know, Harvard Business School Press, Cambridge, 1998.


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- Create knowledge repositories:Most management approaches have been treating KM as a distinct entity from the people who

create and use it. The main goal is to gather knowledge connected to the management such as

memos, reports, presentations, and articles and store them in a repository where they can be

retrieved and found easily.

Structured repository projects usually store both knowledge and information. They mostly

comprise document based information that represents knowledge to some. However, these

repositories do not store data.

- Improve knowledge Access:Some KM projects have objectives that provide access to knowledge and facilitate its transfer

among staff. By delivering relevant information, when needed, through structure, search,

subscription, syndication and support, a KM environment can provide the basis for making good

decisions. The difficulty of such projects lies in the process of finding the person with the

knowledge one needs and then successfully transferring it from that person to another. Such

projects differ from one organization to another based on the nature of the field it is specialized

in. Some companies use a database and Web interface to store the knowledge and personal

profiles. The database provides a means of undertaking a balance between the staffs educational

and training objectives against current and projected job requirements15

.

There are other projects that have a more proactive approach to improving knowledge access and

transfer. They mainly focus on the communication of knowledge among staff members who

would not in any other case work together.

- Enhance Knowledge Environment:This third type of objective aims at establishing an environment that would encourage more

effective knowledge creation, transfer and use. Some managers apply KM projects that try to

build awareness and cultural receptivity to knowledge, techniques that try to change behavior

relating to knowledge, and tools that attempt to help improve the KM process. Some companies

have tried to change the organizational norms and values related to knowledge and have exerted

high-level of efforts. Other companies have made the behavior of their staff regarding knowledge

matters a specific target in their KM projects.

-Manage knowledge as an Asset:

14Thomas DAVENPORT, David DE LONG and Michael BEERS, Successful Knowledge Management Projects,

Sloan Management Review, Vol. 39, No. 2.15Ibid.


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According to some KM projects, knowledge is treated as an asset and managers consider it like

any other asset on the organizations balance sheet, which will help make the organization focus

on how to increase or decrease its effective use of knowledge assets over time. Some knowledge

assets need to be better managed to improve their return.

Figure 1: If KM system has been in place in your organisation for more than one year, what are the

major returns on investment you can see?

(The sum taken into consideration is the number of answers (choices), and not the number of responded

agencies)

Most of the organizations that have KM system acknowledged that it led to more efficiency in

terms of less duplication of work, followed by notably better performance, enhancing new staffs

capabilities, and better quality of decisions16

.

16Most of the agencies didnt classify the objectives as requested in the question. Therefore, the chart only clarifies

how many times the objective was mentioned by the different agencies.

0%

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15%

20%

25%

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(c)B

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4.IMPLEMENTATIONThe KM framework is very important for the organizations that intend to implement a KM

system. It will become guidelines in order to avoid the errors and gain other benefits in terms of

time and effort as well as cost involvement. KM tools have played major roles in supporting the

KM system that consists of knowledge finding, knowledge creation, knowledge packaging and

knowledge use.

KM includes management of knowledge and management of the processes for creating,

organizing, transferring and sharing knowledge throughout the organization. The process is

concerned with: capturing an organizations know-how and know-what through creation,

collection, storage, distribution, and application. Management has to collect all of an

organizations data into a single coherent real-time database and then to connect workers across

the organization, and to others outside the organization, in ways that enhance communication

volume, timelines, and precision. Key elements in the determination of the strategy include

organizational size and knowledge specificity.

Most long-lived world-class companies offer some factors as representative of long-term highly

successful organizations17

:

- Continuous striving to improve themselves and doing better tomorrow than what they didtoday, always remaining sensitive to their customers and their environment.

- Not focusing on profitability alone, but balancing their efforts to include employeequality of life, community relations, environmental concerns, customer satisfaction and

stakeholder return.

- A willingness to take risks with an insistence that they be prudent and have an overallbalanced risk portfolio. In general, they were financially conservative.

- A strong feeling about their core ideology, changing it seldom, if ever. Their core valuesform a solid foundation and, while each organization's individual values were unique,

once created, they were not allowed to drift with the fashions of the day. This core value

molded their culture, and created a strong sense of identity.

- Relative to their employees, these organizations demanded a strong "fit" with theirculture and their standards. Thus, employees either felt the organization was a great place

to work and flourished or they were likely short-term. At the same time, they weretolerant of individuals on the margins who experimented and tested for possibilities.

There are several examples of KM systems, including18

:

17 David BENNET and Alex BENNET, The Rise of the Knowledge Organization, inHandbook on Knowledge

Management, Part 1: Knowledge Matters, Springer Science and Business Media B.V., 2004, p .10.


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- Retrieval engines.- Content management.- Document and records management.- Learning systems.- Automatic classification systems such as neural networks, linguistic, or semantic

processing systems.

- Intelligent technologies including, intelligent agents, regression and correlation, expertsystems, case-based reasoning, data and text mining, and rule based systems.

- Communication systems including email and discussion forums.- Archiving.

This section will focus on a few of these methods and the challenges of implementing an EKMsystem in an organization, to help achieve a long-term highly successful organization. We will

discuss the integration of the knowledge field that comes to define the organization as an

operating entity.

4.1. Codification vs. PersonalizationOne of the main challenges in managing an organization's knowledge is transferring knowledge

from its source to where it is needed. Given the growing perception of importance of intellectual

resources, it is not surprising that organizations have begun to engage in a wide range of

strategies to create, store, integrate, tailor, transfer, and make available the right knowledge tothe right people at the right time. These strategies generally fall into one of two categories:

codification or personalization.

4.1.1. CodificationOne of the key research topics in KM nowadays is codification strategies for capturing and

sharing knowledge within organizations. An organization must focus on the following before

codification:

18Rodger JAMIESON and Meliha HANDZIC, A framework for Security, Control and Assurance of Knowledge

Management Systems, inHandbook on Knowledge Management, Part 1: Knowledge Matters, Springer Science

and Business Media B.V., 2004, p. 479.


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A codification strategy calls for a high codification infrastructure, which results in more

knowledge reuse via person-to-document exchange. Systems aimed at codification might

include such technologies as intranets, data warehousing, knowledge repositories, decision

support tools, and groupware19

. Without codification, the ability to allow explicit knowledge

transfer is severely limited. Without a clear focus on what the KM system is to deliver, many

organizations charge down the path of storing everything within the KM system. The end result

is often information overload. In an overload state, people start to avoid using the system, which

then creates the same negative impact as the underutilization.

Many organizations have recognized a strong relationship between information technology andculture, using technology to support people in achieving organizational objectives. They also

have found information technology highly effective in creating a competitive advantage.

Achieving this goal not only requires selecting and adapting technology to an individual

organization's needs, but also a carefully designed process that brings technology into the culture

in a manner that the workforce finds acceptable and motivates them to make the necessary

cultural changes to successfully imbed workflow adaptations20

.

Effective performance and growth in knowledge-intensive organizations requires integrating and

sharing highly distributed knowledge. Although tacit knowledge develops naturally as a by-

product of action, it is more easily exchanged, distributed, or combined among communities ofpractice by being made explicit.

New technologies and tools have emerged in recent years that are of great importance for KM,

organizational learning, and knowledge-building purposes. They provide communication

facilities with new-style opportunities for organizational learning and collaborative knowledge

building, because they facilitate and support a specific form of interplay between individual and

social knowledge processes.

19 Timothy KEYWORTH and Dorothy LEIDNER, Organizational Culture as a Knowledge Resource, in

Handbook on Knowledge Management, Part 1: Knowledge Matters, Springer Science and Business Media B.V.,

2004.20David BENNET and Alex BENNET, The Rise of the Knowledge Organization, inHandbook on Knowledge

Management, Part 1: Knowledge Matters, Springer Science and Business Media B.V., 2004, p. 13.

What organizational goals will the codified knowledge serve?

What knowledge exists in the organization that can address these

goals? How useful is the existing knowledge for codification?

How would someone codify knowledge?

Aspects of codification: creation of messages, creation of

models, language development


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There is a first, largely acknowledged, aspect of codification which deals with the transformation

of knowledge into information. In this sense, codification is a process ofcreation of messages,

expressing pre-existing knowledge, which can then be processed as information.

There is a second aspect, however, largely ignored in the literature, which deals with knowledgecreation: codification is a process which typically involves the creation of models, since

modeling knowledge is a prerequisite for transforming this knowledge into information. In this

sense, codification is a central method for producing knowledge. The existence of this second

aspect means that codification cannot be considered as a simple transfer or translation operation.

There is always an aspect of creation. Codification typically entails fundamental transformations

in the way knowledge is organized, so the codified knowledge-base cannot exactly cover the

tacit knowledge-base for which it tries to substitute. Thus, because it involves creation,

codification is an irreversible process: once knowledge is transformed into information, it is not

possible to return to the original tacit state.

Codification depends then, not only on the creation of messages and models, but also on the

development of some infrastructure. Infrastructural development consists largely oflanguage

development. Different types of knowledge demand different types of languages -- music,

mathematics, expert systems, novels, all have different languages associated with their

codification. Some languages are "generic" and can express a variety of types of knowledge (for

instance, it is possible to some degree to write mathematical problems in natural language); some

are very specialized. These languages must be developed before any messages can be written.

When knowledge is being codified, the individual whose knowledge is being codified may need

to trust the system, such that the coded knowledge is stored as it is meant to be, and that it will beprotected from those who should not have access to it. This can be an issue to not only the

individuals within the organization, but it can also be a concern for individuals outside the

organization (e.g., clients of that organization). Furthermore, the individual may need to trust the

organization that the organization will use the knowledge properly.

Only 35% of the responding agencies have a clear strategy for storing their knowledge assets,

while 25% answered that employees generally understand what needs to be stored and how to

get resources from their possession into storage (repositories). This process is well-defined for

most resource types: 35% stated that storage practices are well-defined for some critical

resources, but not for all, and 15% stated that storage practices are well-defined for physicalresources but not for digital resources.


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Figure 2 : Are practices for storing KM resources in place?

With regards to where the resources are captured, all the respondents stated that physical

resources are stored in organization-level repository archives, 80% said that digital resources are

stored in an enterprise-level repository (e.g., cloud storage), and 10% stated that they capture

most resources on personal computers, but they do not have an organized way or central

repository to store electronic resources long-term.

The purpose of retaining knowledge is to prevent the loss of knowledge. The first step to

retaining knowledge is to determine which knowledge should be retained. Knowledge that has

little or no value should not be retained. Attempting to retain all knowledge is a problem; the

accumulation of too much information can make decisions difficult since finding useful

information is difficult. Additionally organizations must be careful not to duplicate knowledge

retention efforts. In case a knowledge asset is already being retained, attempting to define new

ways to retain that knowledge is a wasted effort, unless there are problems with the way that

knowledge was retained.

The second step of the retention process requires an organization to determine how long the

knowledge must be retained. If possible, the organization should determine at what time the

knowledge will no longer be useful to the organization.

35%

75%

35%

15%

65%

25%

65%

85%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

a) We have a clear

strategy for storing our

knowledge assets

b) Employees generally

understand what needs

to be stored and how to

get resources from their

possession into storage(repositories). This

process is well-defined

for most resource types

c) Storage practices are

well-defined for some

critical resources, but

not for all

d) Storage practices are

well-defined for physical

resources but not for

digital resources

Yes No


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In most cases, knowledge should be retained until there is no possible benefit from the

knowledge. Retaining knowledge past its useful lifetime will result in the unnecessary cost of

storage of that knowledge.

Half of the agencies have defined retention periods for most resource types when it comes to

how they preserve resources over time for different types of resources and formats, and 55%

have a mix of preservation practices, depending on whether the resource is in electronic orphysical format. The same retention rules do not apply across formats for similar resources such

as, for instance, a research report in paper or electronic format, 20% only have a physical

resources are retained based on document type or content, but electronic resources are usually

retained based on criteria other than document type or content.

4.1.2. PersonalizationIn contrast, the focus on thepersonalization strategy is to build social networks or communities

of practice to facilitate the transfer of tacit knowledge among individuals and groups.

Knowledge workers in any organization have a wealth of insights that are available to their

organization to address the difficult issues the organization is facing. Drawing out those insights

requires bringing knowledge workers together in meetings that are expressly designed to take

advantage of collective knowledge.

Communities of practice are an emerging, unstructured organizational form that many believe

will help companies to truly leverage what they know. Communities of practice appear to have

the potential to galvanize knowledge sharing, learning, and change thereby improving a

company's performance and making it more competitive.

Communities of practice are broadly defined as a group of people with a common interest who

work together informally in a responsible, independent fashion to promote learning, solve

problems, or develop new ideas21

.

A major problem with communities of practice is that their organic and informal nature makes

them highly resistant to management supervision and involvement in their activities.

Communities of practice are therefore controversial because there is no clear role for

management in them. Communities of practice are most often confused with teams. But unlike

21 John STORCK and Thomas HILL, Knowledge Diffusion Through Strategic Communities, Sloan

Management Review, Vol. 41, No. 2, 2000. Etienne WENGER and William SNYDER, Communities of Practice:

The Organizational Frontier,Harvard Business Review, Vol. 78, No. 1, 2000.


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teams, they are typically voluntary and unstructured groups with membership that cuts across

internal and/or external organizational boundaries22

.

There are three principles about work in modern organizations that are shaping our

understanding of the role of communities of practice in KM23

:

- Processes don't do the work, people do. Behind the official work processes are the real-world practices that actually get things done. "The real genius of organizations is theinformal, impromptu, often inspired ways that real people solve real problems in ways

that formal processes can't anticipate."

- Learning and work are both social activities. "The more you explore real work, the moreyou appreciate the power of tacit knowledge i.e., intuition, judgment and common sense."

In groups, this knowledge exists in the practices and relationships that emerge from

working together over time, i.e., the social fabric of the community.

- Organizations are webs of participation. At the core of the modem company isparticipation. And at the heart of participation is the heart and spirit of the knowledge

worker. Only workers who choose to opt in can create a winning company. "When a

company acknowledges the power of community and adopts the elegantly minimal

processes that allow communities to emerge, it is taking a giant step towards the 21

century."

4.1.3. Computer Based TechnologyThe study of computer-based technology (CBT) in organizations proceeds under a variety ofnames such as information systems, information technology, information and communication

technology, computer information systems, management information systems, information

management, business computing systems, and so forth. CBT is fundamentally concerned with

digital means for representing and processing knowledge of several types including:

- Descriptive knowledge, in its various gradations from data and information at the low endto problem solutions, designs, and decisions at the high end

- Procedural knowledge, specifying the steps for performing some task- Reasoning knowledge, specifying what conclusion is valid when a particular situation

exists

22 Heather SMITH and James MCKEEN, Creating and Facilitating Communities of Practice, inHandbook on

Knowledge Management, Part 1: Knowledge Matters, Springer Science and Business Media B.V., 2004, p. 396. 23John BROWN and Estelle GRAY, The People Are the Company, Fast Company, October 31st 1995. Available

at:http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/01/people.html
http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/01/people.htmlhttp://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/01/people.htmlhttp://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/01/people.htmlhttp://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/01/people.html


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CBT has transformed the ways in which both individuals and organizations accomplish

knowledge work. It has done so by amplifying, complementing, leveraging, and in some eases

improving on innate human knowledge handling capabilities. With the use of CBT "firms can

capture and reproduce the tacit knowledge of their workers, to be reused at different times and in

different locations, through different media to create solutions more efficiently. In turn, this

allows more time for individuals to use their intuitive strengths, defining and solving problems

more creatively"24

.

Codification of knowledge can reduce the costs of knowledge acquisition. In a general sense,

codification reduces the costs and improves the reliability of information storage and

recall. Codified knowledge is easy to reproduce, and thus there can be many copies of it. This

will make it relatively easy to find, and easy to transport. All of this implies that codification can

reduce the costs of knowledge acquisition by those who are interested in the knowledge that has

been codified. Through codification, knowledge is becoming more like a commodity. It can be

more precisely described and specified in terms of content and intellectual properties, and this

reduces uncertainties and information asymmetries in any transaction involving knowledge.

Knowledge becomes transferable independently of the transfer of other things, such as people, in

which the knowledge is embedded. This facilitates market transactions in knowledge that are

difficult to enact when knowledge is tacit25

.

24 Clyde HOLSAPPLE, Knowledge and Its Attributes, in Handbook on Knowledge Management, Part 1:

Knowledge Matters, Springer Science and Business Media B.V., 2004, pp.173-174.25 Robin COWAN and Dominique FORAY, The Economics of Codification and the Diffusion of Knowledge,

Industrial and Corporate Change, Oxford Journals, Vol. 6, No. 3, 1997.


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Figure 3 : Does your agency have a network that is designed to support sharing knowledge between

employees?

The majority of the agencies have a network that is designed to support sharing knowledge

between employees. The following are examples of such networks:

- Intranets.- Electronic document management and Document flow system: all the case documents are

entered and registered.

- Installing applications, such as I-Base, an investigative application based on MS SQLdatabase, where the employees store, retrieve and share large volumes of disparate data

within an investigation. Also for merger control, IBM Lotus Notes integrated with the

agencys email system (Ireland).

- Shared folders.- Romania:

o Video Conference-System Aethra, videophones, RADVISION desktop clientso Email Server accounts organized by specific groups.o Automated scheduled emails addressed specifically to the right groups.o Communication is secured by a secure architecture of the network.o A real time sharing and chat application: Outlook messenger

90%

10%

Yes No


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o A dedicated Document Management application for document streaming is usedo A VNC projector for multicast sessions in the network is available

- OFT (UK): network of know-how liaison officers (KLOs): helps the central know-howteam in gathering knowledge contributions for the float/intranet pages.

4.1.4. Knowledge Maps4.1.4.1.Concept and Elements

A major weakness of the KM domain is the apparent lack of genuinely new and effective

installments and methods for improving the way individuals, teams, and organizations create,

share and apply knowledge (in the sense of the know-how, know-what, know-who, and know-

why that individuals use to solve problems).

A knowledge map allows an organization to fully leverage the existing expertise resident in the

company, as well as identify barriers and constraints to fulfilling strategic goals and objectives. It

is constructing a roadmap to locate the information needed to make the best use of resources,

independent of source or form.

A knowledge map describes what knowledge is used in a process, and how it flows around the

process. It is the basis for determining knowledge commonality, or areas where similar

knowledge is used across multiple processes. Fundamentally, a process knowledge map contains

information about the organizations knowledge. It describes who has what knowledge (tacit),

where the knowledge resides (infrastructure), and how the knowledge is transferred or

disseminated (social).

The intellectual environment that is mapped through this tool is mostly made up of referenced

expertise, documented experiences, and extracted and formalized processes or procedures. It

contains heuristic knowledge (know-how) in the form of people (experts), processes (e.g.,

complex workflows), and applications; rationales or experiences (know-why) in the form of

lessons learned or project debriefings; and factual knowledge (know-what) in the form of

A knowledge map should assist an individual employee, a team,

or an organizational unit in understanding and using the

knowledge available in an organizational setting.


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27

documents or database entries which in turn can be linked to authors who can be asked for

advice, assistance, or a clarification of their documented findings26

.

The technology that enables this kind of tool is intranet-based software solutions. We shall see

that the technological implementation is only half of the challenge of developing and using

knowledge maps in organizational KM. The other even more challenging task consists of

gathering the right reference information and combining it in a framework to which everybodycan relate.

A knowledge map generally consists of two parts: a ground layer that represents the context for

the mapping, and the individual elements that are mapped within this context. There are various

types of knowledge maps that can be used in a corporate context27

:

- Knowledge source maps - structure a population of organization experts along relevantsearch criteria, such as their domains of expertise, proximity or seniority.

- Knowledge development maps - These diagrams can be used to depict the necessarystages to develop a certain competence, either individually, as a team, or as an

organizational entity. These maps can serve as visualized learning or development

roadmaps that provide a common vision for organizational learning.

- Knowledge Structure Maps - These maps outline the global architecture of a knowledgedomain and how its parts relate to one another. This type of knowledge map assists the

manager in comprehending and interpreting an expert domain.

- Knowledge Application Maps These maps show which type of knowledge has to beapplied at a certain process stage or in a specific business situation. Usually, these maps

also provide pointers to locate that specific knowledge (documents, databases).

- Knowledge Development Maps these diagrams can be used to depict the necessarystages to develop a certain competence, either individually, as a team, or as an

organizational entity. These maps can serve as visualized learning or development

roadmaps that provide a common corporate vision for organizational learning.

4.1.4.2. Purpose of Knowledge Maps28

26 Martin EPPLER, Making Knowledge Visible through Knowledge Maps: Concepts, Elements, Cases, in


2004, p. 190.27Ibid., pp. 192-193.28Ibid., p.199.


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- They increase the visibility of knowledge sources and hence facilitate and accelerate theprocess of locating relevant expertise or experience.

- They improve the evaluation of intellectual assets (and liabilities) in an organization.- They assist employees in interpreting and evaluating knowledge domains.- They connect processes with knowledge sources (and thus go beyond the mere

documentation of a process as found in most quality manuals).

- They sketch the necessary steps for knowledge development in a certain area.

4.1.4.3. Advantages of Knowledge Maps

- Organizational knowledge assets become visible for all employees that have access to theIntranet, provide a systematic context for the retrieval of reference information.

- They can connect experts with each other, or help novices identify experts quickly.- They can speed up information seeking process and facilitate systematic knowledge

development since they connect insights with tasks and problems.

- Potential to make implicit knowledge explicit through the use of visual metaphors andsymbols.

- Leads to better decision-making and problem solving.

4.1.4.4. Disadvantages of Knowledge Maps

Table 2 : Disadvantages of knowledge maps29

29Ibid., p .201.

Disadvantages for Map UsersDisadvantages for Map

Designers

The potential harmful effects if

the map is seen by illegitimate

users (such as head hunters or

competitors)

The danger of misinterpretation

The commitment to one scheme

of order and neglect of other

perspectives

The difficult depiction of

dynamic processes


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4.1.4.5. Quality dimensions of Knowledge maps

There are a few quality dimensions that a knowledge map should follow:

- Functional map qualitydoes the map fulfill its purpose?- Cognitive map qualityis the map clear and not overloaded?- Technical map qualityis the access time sufficient / securely protected?- Aesthetic map qualityis the map pleasing to the eye?

The fixation or 'reification of

one frame of reference (i.e., the

layout of the knowledge map)

The danger of information

overload if the map represents

too many elements or dimensions

of a knowledge area

The danger of using an outdated

map

The relatively high costs for

production and updating

The missing quantification of

inter-dependencies

The reduction of complexstructures to graphic symbols

The difficult and time-consuming

task of ergonomic visualization


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Figure 4 : Does your agency have a map of existing knowledge or KM data base?

61% of the agencies have knowledge maps; however, the analysis of this question could be

misleading, as the comments showed that some agencies are not familiar with the concept of

knowledge mapping.

4.1.5. The OFT ExampleThe OFT has combined both codification and personalization methods for an EKM system. A

Know-How team was set up to gather useful know-how from across the Office in relation to

competition, consumer and markets domains, in order to make it easily accessible to the whole

Office. It has employed both codification and personalization methods. The main tools that have

been developed and used are the following30

:

- Know-how intranet pages are divided into categories that are sub-divided by particulartopics. Key internal written know-how (e.g. procedures, manuals, guidance, speeches,

presentations) are stored under these topics. New subject areas are continually being

added. The pages are updated every two weeks and can be searched discreetly via the

Google search engine.

30 The OFT Knowledge Sharing Strategy 2010/11, p .2.

61%

39%

Yes No


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- Know-how floatcovers new know-how for office wide circulation and includes legal andpolicy advice, information on progress of projects, slides from know-how presentations,

and updates on relevant developments. The material is then added to the relevant know-

how intranet pages.

- Cross-Office know-how presentations. The know-how team arranges a program ofpresentations that cover a mixture of topics of relevance to competition, consumer,

markets and cross-cutting work. Talks take place at least once every two weeks,

sometimes more often. External attendees are sometime invited, where the subject matter

is suitable.

- Know-how Liaison Officer (KLO) network. The know-how team has established a KLOnetwork to facilitate knowledge capture. The KLOs gather know-how from their

teams/groups and forward it for inclusion in the float/know-how pages.

- A number of horizontal knowledge sharing fora. The know-how team chairs or organizesa number of horizontal knowledge sharing fora including: Consumer seminars, and theLawyers Forum. The most successful of these fora is the Competition Act 1998

Knowledge sharing meetings.

4.1.6. Risk ManagementRisk management is a broad process which identifies risks, security and controls for KM

infrastructure and systems. The KM governance committee needs to appoint persons to carry out

this risk management process. It is usually suggested that the Chief Knowledge Officer of the

organization together with the IT internal auditor and security managers are appropriate personsto carry out this task

31. In order to achieve the objectives of KM relating to integrity, accuracy,

availability, and control, management must consider the risks, security and controls over the

knowledge repositories and environment.

The KM risk management team should first identify the KM assets (including personnel,

systems, infrastructure and networks, locations) and then identify risks associated with these

assets. The next phase involves identifying existing controls and security measures over these

assets and then analyzing the risks by determining the likelihood, consequence, and level of the

risks. The risks are then evaluated and prioritized, and an action plan drawn up to implement the

recommendations for additional KM security and control measures to counter or mitigate theidentified KM risks.

31 Rodger JAMIESON and Meliha HANDZIC, A Framework for Security, Control and Assurance of Knowledge


and Business Media B.V., 2004, p .478.


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Figure 5: Illustration of the risk management process according to the Standards Australian

International

Figure 5 above illustrates the risk management process, according to the Standards Australian

International

32

.

There are several functional requirements for electronic records management, the ones discussed

below directly relate to integrity and the controls necessary for continuity of evidence33

:

32Ibid., p. 480.33Ibid., p. 482.


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- Safeguarding the legality of the electronic record, that is, it should retain its unequivocalconnection to the related relevant action;

- Security, privacy, confidentiality, and freedom of information should be addressed; and- Need to evaluate hardware, software, storage media, and documentation techniques to

ensure usable preservation of the record over time34

.

Data administration is vital in an organization, and is emerging as a function for the management

and control of an organizations corporate data resource. The objectives of data administration

are35

:

- To support the objectives of the organization;- To promote the use of knowledge as a shared organizational resource;- To aid efficient use of the knowledge resource;- To ensure integrity and accuracy of knowledge;- To ensure proper management of the knowledge resource;- To improve co-ordination and integration in the organization by providing greater share-

ability of the knowledge resource;

- To improve availability of knowledge at all levels; and- To control knowledge duplication and redundancy.

Table 3 : Selection of Risks in the Knowledge Management Environment36

34 David BEARMAN, Electronic Evidence: Strategies for Managing Records in Contemporary Organizations,

Pittsburgh: Archives & Museum Informatics, 199435 Rodger JAMIESON and Meliha HANDZIC, A Framework for Security, Control and Assurance of Knowledge


and Business Media B.V., 2004, p. 482.36Ibid., p .484.

Strategic /

Planning

- Mismatch of KM strategy to corporate and IT strategies- Unidentified / excessive costs especially maintenance and support- Overlooked essential KM functionality


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Accidental

or

Intentional

-Damage-Loss-Modification-Destruction-UseTo/of specialized KM or traditional IT hardware used to run KM systems, KM

software, knowledge repositories, as well as feeder software and associated

data bases. Loss or incapacitation of key KM experts, knowledge engineers,

programmers, or knowledge maintenance personnel is also of concern.

Fraud and

abuse

-Substitution/deletion of knowledge repositories-Obscure placement of forward chaining demons in a knowledge base ifexpert systems or knowledge based systems are an integral part of the KM

systems

-Unauthorized access to KM systems or knowledge management/audit trails-Modification, deletion or insertion of KM information when passing througha network, communications or other layers of operating or support software

such as data warehousing. This includes other application software when

linked or integrated with KM systems.

OtherExposures

-Inability of imbedded KM software to recover/restart-KM hardware, infrastructure or software failure especially real-timemonitoring or imbedded systems

-Lack of knowledge use histories (audit trails) in hardcopy and/ormagnetic/optical form

-Inadequate trace facilities in KM software for debugging and KM testing-KM systems knowledge not based on best expert's knowledge, reasoning,and explanations

-Inadequate control of and access to KM repositories-Poor quantity or quality of KM personnel-Poor management, supervision, and control of the KM application andrepositories if held elsewhere to IT department (e.g., under R & D)


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As well as identifying risks and putting in place security and control mechanisms to mitigate

these risks, KM should also consider audit assurance of its systems and environments.

Knowledge audit has involved the review of an organization to determine where knowledge is

located within an organization and then look at the best methods of being able to retrieve,

extract, capture, store and disseminate the knowledge to others.

Knowledge assurance refers to a review of the KM systems and infrastructure to ensure thatthese systems are adequately secured, controllable and auditable so that those who use the

systems can rely on the results produced by those systems. This will involve having qualified

knowledge auditors to perform quality assurance checks on the KM systems.

These moves ensure the organization is better grounded in the facts of the situation, more

responsive to changes, and better able to focus and harness the imagination of its members and

measure the effects of its actions.

Table 4 : Selection of Security and Controls in the Knowledge Management Environment37

37Ibid., pp. 486-487.

-Inadequate training and supervision of KM personnel-Inadequate KM hardware/software maintenance-Legal liability for reliance on KM opinion when that opinion caused loss oflife, damage, or monetary loss

-Inadequate KM documentation of tools, environment, and applications

KM Hardware

Sensitive knowledge access:

-Key locked equipment-Restricted / controlled boot up proceduresUp-to date documentation

Regular audits of KM equipment

KM back-up: strategy / equipment

KM maintenance: diagnostic aids/ documentation

Security infrastructure


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KM Software

Automated procedures for KM access control

Valid software license agreement

Appropriate KM maintenance strategy

Help facilities

Cross reference listings

KM Systems Development

KM systems development methodology followed

Appropriate design documentation

Quality assurance / control review

Validation and testing of KM systems

KM Applications

Systems access security & strong authentication

Smart cards

Hardcopy or magnetic/optical collection of case histories

Good application documentation

Back-up and recover

KM Network Controls

Internet, extranet or intranet access controls

Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)

Dedicated connections

Firewalls

KM Human Resources

Management commitment to KM strategy

Assign responsibility for:

o KM systems developmento KM production operationso KM disaster planning

Supervision and management of KM personnel

KM information centre


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With regards to the security measures implemented by the agencies to protect the KM system

from external and internal threats against damage, loss, and criminal activity, the agencies

developed the following security measures:

- Firewall and Antivirus.- Informatics security policy (Access key systems, user profiles, periodic backup firewall,

antivirus and anti-spam perimeter security).

- Physical security.- Setting general ethics rules for staff along with periodic training.- Security box.- Active directory authentification.- Regular audit of the system.- Scheduled Data backup.- Banning of non-secure memory sticks or CDs.- Centralized management of resources.

4.1.7. Difference Between Database Subsystem and Knowledge ManagementSystems

There is a major distinction between the database subsystem and the KM system. Database

subsystems are important vehicles for capturing information, but in order for these to be used

effectively; they have to be supported by a strong informal networking subsystem. EKM

involves managing both formal and informal systems and recognizing that the effectiveness of

one can benefit the other38

.

The agencies consider the following technical features as being the most important components

in a KM system:

- Custom made IT system according to the organizational goals and objectives. Userfriendliness. Easy access.

- Subscription systems.38 Christine SOO, Timothy DEVINNEY, David MIDGLEY and Anne DEERING, Knowledge Management:

Philosophy, Processes and Pitfalls, California Management Review, Vol. 44, No. 4, Summer 2002, pp.138-139.


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- Versioning, codification and searchability.- Syndication.- Data lifecycle management.- Tagging.- Establishing security levels.- Intranet.

4.2. Whos in ChargeWhile management has always been about directing and disposing the organization's assets, the

potential novelty of a knowledge-based approach can only grow from the new phenomena and

practices addressed. The assumption is that the management of knowledge assets differs from the

management of the organization's more traditional tangible assets, in particular those recorded on

the firm's balance sheet39

.

According to the famous book Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They

Know, Davenport and Prusak view organizations as knowledge markets that have buyers who

need knowledge carrying solutions to their issues,sellers who have an internal market reputation

for possessing substantial knowledge about a certain project or process and brokers who are the

one that make connections between the ones seeking the knowledge and those who possess it

such as gatekeepers, boundary spanners and corporate librarians.

With the emergence of KM, it was usually an employee or two associated with information

technology that used to be in charge of applying it in the organization. Nowadays, as KM

becomes vital in the development of the organizational strategies, organizations give more

importance to those who should implement their KM system. This whole evolution in the

importance of KM led to the shift of responsibility for knowledge initiatives from those who are

specialists in information technology to executives.

With the development and advancement in the field of KM, organizations and organizers have

witnessed the creation of positions such as knowledge manager who accepted the challenge

assigned by senior management. KM is a newly emerged management function.

4.2.1. Profile of Knowledge Managers39 John-Christopher SPENDER, Knowledge Fields: Some Post-9/11 Thoughts about the Knowledge-Based Theory

of the Firm, in Handbook on Knowledge Management, Part 1: Knowledge Matters, Springer Science and

Business Media B.V., 2004, p. 63.


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It is hard to find existing studies of the characteristics of a knowledge manager, but there are

existing studies of the closest position to the knowledge manager, which is Chief Knowledge

Officer (CKO) which is a relatively new position for most organizations. According to some

studies40

, a CKO needs to be an expert in KM initiatives and be able to energize the organization

with a good vision and high communication skills.

There are seven challenges that CKOs usually face41:

- Set KM strategic priorities.- Establish a knowledge database of best practices.- Gain commitment of senior executives to support a learning environment.- Teach information seekers how to ask better and smarter questions of their intelligent

resources.

-Put in place a process for managing intellectual assets.

- Obtain customer satisfaction information in a near real-time.- Globalize KM.

CKOs can be identified as technologists and environmentalists. As environmentalists, they know

their role in creating a social environment that will facilitate and help individuals communicate

and have fruitful conversation and share knowledge. CKOs are also able to have a consulting

role with their new ideas and listen to peoples new ideas.

The role of a CKO differs from a CIO (Chief Information Officer) in the public sector since therole of a CIO is mainly about the activities that relate to physical computers and network assets,

while the role of a CKO mainly addresses organizational behaviors, processes and technologies

which fall in the fields of leadership and strategy, knowledge sharing culture, taxonomy and

resources.

When it comes to identifying the essential functions of a knowledge manager it is essential to

address his ability to direct and establish a good organizations culture and policies to efficiently

fulfill its objectives. They must establish the culture that will model the needed behavior among

its staff, communicate the organizations vision and strategy and make sure of its successful

40 Daintry DUFFY, Knowledge Champions: What Does It Take To Be a Successful CKO?, CIO. Enterprise, Vol.

12, 1998.41 James MCKEEN and Sandy STAPLES, Knowledge Managers: Who They Are And What They Do, in


2004, pp. 21-40.


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implementation. Knowledge managers have the responsibility of developing the right

organizational culture that includes all the beliefs, ideologies, values and norms.

Knowledge managers can be characterized as follows42

:

- Highly educated- A seasoned organizational performer- A researcher who likes to learn more and looks for knowledge- Likes new things- Mostly motivated by challenges- Likes to help others- A risk-taker- Sees the importance of KM for an organization to be successful.

The primary goal of knowledge managers is to guide their organization towards a clear

understanding of knowledge, which should be treated as an important organizational asset ready

to be managed for maximal benefit to the organization. Their challenge is changing the staffs

behaviors with little direct authority over them so their way of undertaking such cultural changes

is through negotiations and good communication.

4.2.2. The Abilities and Roles of Knowledge ManagersKnowledge managers must have certain abilities that will help them establish an efficient KM

system within an organization such as:

- Implementing Systems-Thinking in Finding Solutions. Knowledge managers mustestablish powerful activities in the organizations offering certain cultures that will

introduce sound systems thinking in the minds of the individuals. Systems-Thinking

believes that almost everything is a system with connecting elements. Systems-Thinking

stresses on the importance of relationships and structure within an organization and

makes the staff know the effects of their exerted efforts on others enabling them to

perform their roles more effectively.

- Designing, developing and sustaining communities of interest and place. Communities ofpractice include a domain of practice and crossing organizational boundaries defining

42Ibid.


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themselves by knowledge fields and not tasks. Communities are usually managed by the

development of relations between individuals and organizations while working on the

mutual exchange and continuous learning. The main core of communities of practice

includes collaboration, innovation, learning and information sharing. Communities are

used to increase the transfer and flow of information within an organization in order to

create as much knowledge as possible. They facilitate the transfer of experiences while

encouraging the employees to build new knowledge to undertake in a faster and more

efficient way.

- Creating, developing and sustaining the flow of knowledge. Data and information andknowledge circulate in the networks of systems and individuals. It is transferred through

team interaction, communities and events. With the development of ways to

communicate, it is easier to connect further across organizations. It is important to work

more on informal organization, which is the network of relationships that the staff forms

across functions and departments in order to rapidly undertake and accomplish their

tasks.

- Entering information into the system. Managers who are always busy rarely take the timeto enter information and practices into a database unless it is part of their job. Companies

must appoint people specialized in entering practices the minute they find them.

Knowledge managers have to then identify and enter the practice and information into the

database system.

- Establishing a supportive culture for sharing. Knowledge managers should always set arewarding system into the organization, which will enable the staff to share information

and keep it. They should establish and reinforce a supportive culture among the

organizations personnel that will facilitate sharing and creating knowledge.

4.2.3. The Practice in the Competition AgenciesMost of the agencies have a central unit or a contact person regarding KM. In the more

experienced agencies, normally there are multiple points of contacts depending on the topic.

However, very few agencies recruit employees who are dedicated to KM. Other agencies depend

on other employees dedicated to or participating in only one phase of the KM System.

A KM professional, whether working full time or half-time in a competition authority, is

responsible for the harmonization between the different phases of KM, i.e. the information flow

throughout the organization. Hes responsible for the implementation of the KM strategy and its

development, the KM System design, and the dissemination of KM culture and training.


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Of course, a KM professional doesnt work alone; hes assisted by the other employees who

contribute in the KM System. Based on the agencies experience, the contribution of the

following employees in the KM System phases is as follows:

- The codification and the retention of the knowledge:o Professional librarians: Conference materials, articles, access to externalresources. Management of the physical and electronic library. Management of

published knowledge.

o IT professional: Technical support and management of the KM software (e.g. ITinfrastructure, intranet, database, shared hard drives)

o Record managers: Case files, inserting in and updating the organizational memorywith all the technical information.

o Clerical support: Divisional support staff.- Knowledge acquisition:

o Specialist Human resources: Training, coaching and mentoring. Managingpolicies and procedures.

o Paraprofessional or technical specialists: They are training the employees and thusproviding them with knowledge.

4.3. ChallengesA broad range of factors can influence the success of KM implementation in an orga

draft ekm chapter (25!3!2012)

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