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 Characteristics Knowledge work

Material – based Work- base Information – basedOvert behaviors Working Covert behaviors High visibility lowDirect & immediate Linkage to result Indirect & Delayed Concentrated Knowledge Distributed Position and politics Balance of Power Politics and profession Liner \ parallel (quantitative )

Nature of work Non –liner – parallel (qualitative )

Others Source of standard Worker Worker Focus of control workmanagement Locus of control 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. Autonomy 2. Structure3. Tangibility4. Knowledge5. Creativity & innovation6. Complexity7. Routine & repetitiveness 8. 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.

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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

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 strategy2. The identification-based loyalty which is based on the

communication -based strategy.

The End