Theories of Knowledge • to be useful", "it's schizophrenic –

suffering from multiple personality

Management disorder"

A robust theoretical foundation is required as the

basis of any knowledge management initiative that is
to succeed. In this chapter, we will going to discuss
the different knowledge management models. The
models present distinct perspectives on the key
conceptual elements that form the infrastructure of
knowledge management. This chapter describes,
compares, and contrasts each in order to provide a
sound understanding of the discipline of KM.

1. NONAKA AND TAKEUCHI KNOWLEDGE SPIRAL MODEL

Nonaka and Takeuchi argue that a

key factor behind the successful
track record in innovation of
Japanese enterprises stems from
the more tacit-driven approach to
knowledge management. They
argue that Western culture
considers knower and known as
separate entities (harkening back to
the cognitive approach, which
places greater importance on
communicating and storing explicit knowledge). They underline the necessity of a sort of integration of
the two approaches, from the cultural, epistemological, and organizational points of view, in order to
acquire new cultural and operational tools to better build knowledge-creating organizations. Their
construct of the “hypertext organization” is the formalization of the need for an integration of the
traditionally opposed concepts of Western and Japanese schools of thought. In Nonaka and Takeuchi’s
model they emphasized that the creation of knowledge begins with the individual. Also, knowledge
conversion constitutes the engine of the entire knowledge-creation process. These modes are what the
individual experiences. They are also the mechanisms by which individual knowledge gets articulated
and amplified into and throughout the organization. Knowledge creation consists of a social process
between individuals in which knowledge transformation is not simply a unidirectional process but is
interactive and spiral. The Nonaka and Takeuchi model has proven to be one of the more robust in the
field of KM and it continues to be applied in a variety of settings. One of its greatest strengths is the
simplicity of the model—both in terms of understanding the basic tenets of the model and in terms of
being able to quickly internalize and apply the KM model. One of the major shortcomings is that while
valid it does not appear to be sufficient to explain all of the stages involved in managing knowledge.

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The Nonaka and Takeuchi model focuses on the knowledge transformations between tacit and explicit
knowledge, but the model does not address larger issues of how decision making takes place by
leveraging both these forms of knowledge.

2. CHOO SENS-MAKING KM MODEL

Is a model of knowledge management that stresses sense

making, knowledge creation, and decision making. It
focuses on how information elements are selected and fed
into organizational actions. Each of the phases, sense
making, knowledge creation and decision-making, has an
outside stimulus or trigger. The sense making stage is the
one that attempts to make sense of the information
streaming in from the external environment. Decision
making is situated in rational decision making models that
are used to identify and evaluate alternatives by processing
the information and knowledge collected to date. This theory has long been accepted in organizational
and management sciences. Bounded rationality is characterized by individuals’ use of limited
information analysis, evaluation, and processing, shortcuts and rules of thumb (sometimes called
heuristics), and “satisficing” (blend of satisfying and sufficing) behavior, which means it may not be fully
optimized but it is good enough. One of the strengths of the Choo KM model is the holistic treatment of
key KM cycle processes extending to organizational decision making, which is often lacking in other
theoretical KM approaches. This makes the Choo model one of the more realistic or feasible models of
KM, as the model represents organizational actions with high fidelity. The Choo KM model is particularly
well suited to simulations and hypothesis or scenario-testing applications.

3. WIIG MODEL FOR BUILDING AND USING KNOWLEDGE

Wiig model follows the following

principle: n order for knowledge to be
useful and valuable, it must be
organized. Knowledge should be
organized differently depending on
what the knowledge will be used for.

Knowledge organized in a semantic

network way can be accessed and
retrieved using multiple entry paths
that map onto different knowledge
tasks to be completed.

Some useful dimensions to consider in Wiig’s KM model include: Completeness, Connectedness,

Congruency and Perspective and purpose

Completeness addresses the question of how much relevant knowledge is available from a given
source.
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Connectedness refers to the well-understood and defined relations between the different knowledge
objects.

A knowledge base is said to be congruent when all the facts, concepts, perspectives, values, judgments,
and associative and relational links between the knowledge objects are consistent. There should be no
logical inconsistencies, no internal conflicts, and no misunderstandings. Most knowledge content will
not meet such ideals where congruency is concerned.

Perspective and purpose refer to the phenomenon where we know something but often from a
particular point of view or for a specific purpose we have in mind.

4. BOISOT I-SPACE KM MODEL

The I-Space model can be visualized as a three-

dimensional cube with the following dimensions

Boisot model is based on the key concept of an

“information good” that differs from a physical asset.
He distinguishes information from data by
emphasizing that information is what an observer
will extract from data as a function of his/her
expectations or prior knowledge. The effective
movement of information goods is very much dependent on senders and receivers sharing the same
coding scheme or language.

A “knowledge good” is a concept that in addition possesses a context within which it can be interpreted.
Effective knowledge sharing requires that senders and receivers share the context as well as the coding
scheme.

He introduced two key points:

1. Themoreeasilydatacanbestructuredandconvertedintoinformation,themorediffusibleit

becomes.

2. The less data that has been so structured requires a shared context for its diffusion, the more
diffusible it becomes.

The activities of coding, abstracting, diffusing, absorbing, impacting, and scanning all contribute
to learning. Where they take place in sequence—and to some extent they must—together they
make up the six phases of a Social Learning Cycle (SLC).

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5. COMPLEX ADAPTIVE SYSTEM MODELS OF KM

This model views the organization as an intelligent

complex adaptive system.

Complex adaptive systems consist of many independent

agents that interact with one another locally. Together,
their combined behavior gives rise to complex adaptive
phenomena. Complex adaptive systems are said to “self-
organize” through this form of emergent phenomena.
There is no overall authority that is directing how each
one of these independent agents should be acting. An
overall pattern of complex behavior arises or emerges as
a result of all of their interactions.

The Intelligent Complex Adaptive System (ICAS) model

is composed of living subsystems that combine, interact, and coevolve to provide the capabilities of an
advanced, intelligent technological, and sociological adaptive enterprise. Complex adaptive systems
are organizations that are composed of a large number of self-organizing components, each of which
seeks to maximize its own specific goals but which also operate according to the rules and context of
relationships with the other components and the external world.

The key processes in the ICAS KM model can be summarized as:

1. Understanding
2. Creating new ideas
3. Solving problems
4. Making decisions
5. Taking actions to achieve desired results

Since only people or individuals can make decisions and take actions, the emphasis of this model is on
the individual knowledge worker and his or her competency, capacity, learning, and so on.

To survive and successfully compete, an organization will also require eight emergent characteristics,
according to this model:

1. Organizational intelligence
2. Shared purpose
3. Selectivity
4. Optimum complexity
5. Permeable boundaries
6. Knowledge centricity
7. Flow
8. Multidimensionality

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Organizational intelligence refers to the capacity of the firm to innovate, acquire knowledge, and apply
that knowledge to relevant situations.

The process of selectivity consists of the filtering of incoming information from the outside world. Good
filtering requires broad knowledge of the organization, specific knowledge of the customer, and a
strong understanding of the firm’s strategic goals. Knowledge centricity refers to the aggregation of
relevant information from self-organization, collaboration, and strategic alignment. Flow enables
knowledge centricity and facilitates the connections and the continuity needed to maintain unity and
give coherence to organizational intelligence. Permeable boundaries are essential if ideas are to be
exchanged and built upon. Finally, multidimensionality represents organizational flexibility that ensures
the knowledge workers have the competencies, perspectives, and cognitive ability to address issues
and solve problems. This is sometimes seen as being analogous to developing human instinct.

Each of these characteristics must emerge from the nature of the organization. They cannot be designed
by managerial decree—only nurtured, guided, and helped along. In summary, there are four major ways
in which the ICAS model describes organizational knowledge management:

Creativity is the generation of new ideas, perspectives, understanding, concepts, and methods to help
solve problems, build products, offer services, and so on. Individuals, teams, networks, or virtual
communities can solve problems and they take the outputs of the creative processes as their inputs.
Decision making is the selection of one or more alternatives that were generated during the problem-
solving process and implementation is the carrying out of the selected alternative(s) in order to obtain
the desired results.

Complex-adaptive-system-theory-based KM models are definitely showing both an evolution and a

return to systems-thinking roots in the KM world. All of the models presented in this chapter are relevant
and each offers valuable theoretical foundations in understanding knowledge management in today’s
organizations. What they all share is a connectionist and holistic approach to better understand the
nature of knowledge as a complex adaptive system that includes knowers, the organizational
environment, and the “bloodstream” of organizations—the knowledge-sharing networks.

6. EUROPEAN FOUNDATION FOR

QUALITY MANAGEMENT KM
MODEL

This model looks at the way in which

knowledge management is used to
attain the goals of an organization.

This model is based on traditional

models of quality and excellence so
there are very strong links between
KM processes and expected
organizational results.

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The major components are: leadership, people, policy, and strategy, partnerships and resources,
processes, and the ultimate key—performance results. The role of KM as a whole is thus clearly positioned
as an enabler that helps a company achieve its goals—that is to say, the company’s goals and not KM-
oriented goals. This is an excellent depiction of the role of KM. One of the major reasons why KM fails
occurs when KM is pursued for the sake of KM itself. This is analogous to producing incomplete
sentences when attempting to articulate the justification for KM.

7. INUKSHUK KM MODEL

This model was developed by both reviewing

existing major models to extract five key enablers
(technology, leadership, culture, measurement,
and process) and by conducting quantitative
research to validate these enablers. The name
inukshuk is derived from the human-shaped figures
built by piling stones on one another by the Inuit in
the northern part of Canada to serve as
navigational aids.

The process element is directly derived from the SECI model (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995). Technology
and culture represent critical structural elements that help maintain the integrity of the figure.
Measurement and leadership are placed at the very top to represent the importance of the overarching
functions of measuring the impact of KM and providing leadership and support for its implementation.

8. MCADAMS AND MCCREEDY KM

MODEL

As knowledge is created through social

interactions, it becomes part and parcel
of the “way things are done” in an
organization. This is referred to as
“embodied knowledge.” This valuable
knowledge is then disseminated so that it
can be used. Social construction of
knowledge is guided by both social and
scientific paradigms, and knowledge use
yields both individual and organizational
benefits. In other words, the construction of knowledge is not solely governed by scientific inputs or data
but also through social interactions as employees interact with one another. In this way, organizational
knowledge becomes contextualized to the reality of the organization and its employees.

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 9. STATONSKY AND BALDANZA’S KM PILLARS
MODEL

The key dimensions of this model by Stankosky and

Baldanza (2001) include the four pillars of
leadership, organization, technology, and learning

Leadership consists of organizational strategies,

mission and goals. The KM strategy must always be
aligned with the overall business strategy of the
company. This serves to ensure that KM brings value,
that employees buy in to KM, and KM
implementation will succeed due to senior levels of support. The organization refers the organizational
change that is needed to integrate KM, typically a change in organizational culture. This may include
recognizing the expertise of employees more, ensuring information and knowledge is disseminated and
shared throughout the organization, and starting to embed KM processes into organizational processes.
Technology refers to KM tools to document, store, share, and preserve knowledge. As noted in the
previous chapter, there are tools that are relevant and can be used for each major KM process at the
individual, group, and organizational levels. The final pillar, learning, refers to using KM and KM tools to
improve (e.g., to be more efficient, to make fewer errors, to produce better quality products, to innovate
more, and so on). This comprises both individual and organizational learning as well as ensuring the
organization has a learning culture.

10. WANG AND NOE KNOWLEDGE

SHARING MODEL

Models of knowledge sharing address the

numerous enablers and obstacles including
organizational culture, individual
characteristics, interpersonal characteristics,
and motivational factors, among others.

In this model, there are a number of

environmental factors, individual
characteristics, motivational factors,
perceptions, and knowledge- sharing behaviors that comprise the theoretical framework.
Environmental factors include the organizational culture, and interpersonal and team characteristics,
as well as collective cultural characteristics. Interpersonal and team characteristics include team
cohesiveness (usually higher when team members have worked together for a long time), compatible
personality and communication styles, perceived equality of status, and the cultural dimension of
collectivism.

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11. INTELELCTUAL CAPITAL MODELS

These models grew out of methods of

measuring intangible assets, knowledge
being the prime form of such assets.
Intellectual Capital Management (ICM) has
become very important for all
organizations as it became increasingly
clear that “strategies used by organizations
to develop, maintain, and exploit
knowledge for innovation, constitute an
important topic in the field of business
strategy”

The idea was to explain the difference between book value (the sum total of all measurable, tangible
assets of a company) and market value (what the market valued the company at). The total market value
is the sum of its financial capital plus its intellectual capital. This model created a taxonomy of
organizational assets which is still widely used today. Intellectual capital is categorized as human capital,
structural capital, and organizational capital. Human capital is primarily composed of human knowledge,
expertise, and experience. Structural capital everything that remains behind when employees leave for
the day: physical inventory, patents, and so on. Organizational capital is further subdivided into
innovation capital and process capital. One of the strengths of this model is that it explicitly notes the
important roles played by the organization: its structure and its processes. Since the inception of the
model, there have been many extensions to it (e.g., social capital, creativity capital, cultural capital, and
educational capital, among others).

12. KM STRATEGY MODELS

Earl (2001) developed a preliminary taxonomy of seven KM strategies consisting of different “schools”
of KM:

1. Systems the focus is on explicit knowledge that has been stored in some type of KM system, typically
with little or no human intervention.

2. Cartographic the focus is on tacit knowledge. Typically experts are profiled in an expertise locator
system so that users can find out who can help them. F
3. Engineering knowledge is embedded in business processes so that employees can obtain the
knowledge they need when they need it as they are carrying out their tasks.

4. Commercial knowledge is converted into a revenue-generating asset or is monetized in some way.

5. Organizational earning is promoting through interactions, networks, and collaboration so that

employees can learn from one another and provide assistance to one another.

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6. Spatial new spaces and office layouts need to be implemented in order to promote knowledge
sharing conversations in order for exciting new ideas to emerge

7. Strategic he focus is on converting some knowledge into strategic knowledge, including internal
efficiencies through reuse but also innovating and looking at the bigger and longer term picture.

13. COLLABORATION MODELS

The knowledge jam model of collaboration and knowledge sharing. The knowledge jam is a deliberate,
planned, and systematic event that has as its primary objective discovering and capturing tacit
knowledge. Knowledge jams can be thought of as more structured forms of brainstorming. There is an
agenda and a facilitator. Typically, complex, difficult, or even wicked problems are addressed but a
secondary objective is to help build connections so that participants get to know one another and create
relationships that they will draw upon again in the future.

There are five major steps in a knowledge jam: select, plan, discover/capture, broker, and reuse.

In the first phase, select, sponsors and facilitators prioritize critical knowledge that is relevant to what
the knowledge originators do.

In the plan phase, originators and brokers set develop the agenda, identifying the knowledge capture
themes.

In the discover/capture phase, there is a 90-minute facilitated conversation to elicit tacit knowledge,
make sense of it, and document it.

The broker phase serves to translate the elicited knowledge and insights into practical and feasible
organizational applications.

The final phase is reuse, when the knowledge elicited from the knowledge jam session is integrated into
projects. The value of this knowledge can also be measured by the frequency of reuse and the impact
on products, services, and operations.

14. STRATEGIC IMPLICATIONS OF KM MODELS

This model help us to put the disparate pieces of puzzle together in a way that it leads to a deeper
understanding of both the pieces and the ensemble that they make up. A coherent model of knowledge-
driven processes is crucial in order for strategic business goals to be successfully albeit partially
addressed by KM initiatives. KM is not a silver bullet and it will not solve all organizational problems.
Those areas of knowledge-intensive work and intellectual capital development that are amenable to KM
processes, on the other hand, require a solid foundation of understanding what KM is, what the key KM
cycle processes are, and how these fit in to a model that enables us to interpret, to establish cause and
effect, and to successfully implement knowledge management solutions.

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15. PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS OF KM MODELS

The key role played by KM models is to ensure a certain level of completeness or depth in the practice
of KM: a means of ensuring that all critical factors have been addressed. The second practical benefit of
a model-driven KM approach is that models enable not only a better description of what is happening
but they also help provide a better prescription for meeting organizational goals. KM models help to
explain what is happening now, and they provide us with a valid blueprint or road map to get
organizations to where they want to be with their knowledge management efforts.

Resources:

Dalkir, K. (2017). Knowledge Management Theory and Practice. Third Edition, Cambridge, MA: MIT
press. ISBN 97802620366870

Uriarte, F. (2008). Introduction to Knowledge Management. ASEAN Foundation, Jakarta, Indonesia.

ISBN 978-979-19684-0-9

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Point of Discussion:

1. Describe, compare, and contrast at least five (5) models based on your
understanding of the different models of knowledge management.

MODELS DESCRIPTION COMPARISON CONTRAST

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Point of Discussion:
2. List down the strengths and weaknesses of each model.

MODEL STRENGHTS WEAKNESSES

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 Communities of Practice in
KM: A Learning Approach

Understanding Communities

Value creation in a knowledge-based

organization and beyond the limits of that
organization is determined considerably by the
ability to mobilize the shared knowledge across
markets, customers, products and processes
with a specific purpose and generate a value out
of it for customers. Hence, self-organized
communities that take initiative, learn together,
share experiences or develop new products
and services thus overcoming the boundaries of
hierarchy and organizational units gain impor-
tance. Innovation circles, experts, groups
become increasingly popular. one another and improved their understanding
of a particular object of common interest. What
Communities of Practices binds them is their common desire to improve
their knowledge and their respective need to
Communities of practice are group of people know what the other knows.
who share a concern, a set of problems, or a
passion about a topic, and who deepen their Ideal Type of Communities of
knowledge and expertise in this area by Practices
interacting on an ongoing basis. – Wenger et al.
2002
North et al. (2000) have identified the features of
an ideal type of community of practice from
As a result of a continuous interaction among
their personal experience with a number of
members of the community the information and knowledge communities.
knowledge were enriched. Communities of
practice provide the members with a very
Ideally, a community of practice is a community
powerful cooperative tools for further
of people:
development of expertise and abilities.
1. Who wish to cut through a topic
Communities of practice are not synonymous to
2. Who consider themselves to be
teams or task force that are formed for a specific
teachers or students
purpose for a certain period of time, instead
3. Who open themselves completely to a
they are peers that form groups to learn from
topic

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 4. Who let others express their beliefs and 4. Balance between implementing and
experiences experimenting: Finally, companies
5. Who talk openly about mistakes and should put the knowledge of the
failures communities of practice to a practical
6. Who have enough time and space for application and incorporate it in the
sharing this information value creation process. This can mean
7. Who protect each other that the communities of practice get
8. Who do not cling to the existing resources for pilot applications and
concepts and are open to think about implementations.
new things
9. Who listen to each other and try to Dimensions of Community of
understand each other
Practice
10. Who do not wish to enter commercial
competition with their knowledge
THE “MEMBER” DIMENSION: CHALLENGING
AND MANAGEABLE TOPICS
Components of Typical
Community of Practice Community of practice itself decides who can
be a member. A number of difficulties may
1. The inner values of the organization, result if the self-organized selection process is
inculcated in the members of the impaired from outside in order to retain or
communities of practice, should be as retrieve «control». Members appointed by the
follows: trust, openness to new things, management can easily become foreign bodies
individual responsibility, authenticity (of that can damage the trust that has developed,
one’s identity) and so-called «boundary- bring in an unwanted sense of hierarchy and
less behavior dam- age the matured work culture.

Communities of practice will not flourish THE “INTERACTIVE COMMUNITY”

in a command and control culture. DIMENSION

2. A balance between short-term, The work of the people in communities of

medium-term and long-term results: If practice is characterized by their interaction that
we think about the events in the can be described in terms of intensity,
ecology, we can also formulate a communication form, atmosphere and identity.
balance between sowing and yielding.
This appears to be a problem in many The interaction of people in a community of
real research groups and competence practice is further characterized by the
networks. atmosphere in which they work together.

3. Incentives for common activities: The community can develop its own language
Regulated communities of practices over a course of time and perhaps even its own
rarely prosper. Incentive should never methods, rules and tools that mark the
be searched in monetary form. independent identity as an outline from the rest
However, many companies have of the organization.
introduced incentive mechanisms that
are highly successful and motivating.

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THE “EFFECT” RESULT DIMENSION

Interaction between people not only involves exchange of knowledge but also creates new knowledge.
Communities of practice contribute in transporting knowledge to the company on the one hand and are
germ cells for new thoughts on the other hand.

THE “ORGANIZATIONAL SUPPORT” DIMENSION

The organizational support is decisive in implementing the knowledge for creation of value. This
dimension considers the criteria of level of formalization, restriction and time frame.

STAGES OF DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE

Communities of practice linked to organizational performance through the dimensions of social

capital

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SUMMARY OF STUDY OF CHARACTRESITICS OF COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE

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Point of Discussion:
1. Why do you think communities of practice succeed and fail?

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2. In your own opinion, what are the benefits of communities of practice in an organization?

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REQUIRED READINGS:

1.Communities of practice and organizational performance

2. A sense of community: the role of CoPs in Knowledge Management

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