Knowledge management and the limits of knowledge codification

Purpose - The idea that knowledge needs to be codified is central to many claims that knowledge can be managed. However, there appear to be no empirical studies in the knowledge management context that examine the process of knowledge codification. This paper therefore seeks to explore codification as a knowledge management process. Design/methodology/approach - The paper draws on findings from research conducted around a knowledge management project in a section of the UK Post Office, using a methodology of participant-observation. Data were collected through observations of project meetings, correspondence between project participants, and individual interviews. Findings - The principal findings about the nature of knowledge codification are first, that the process of knowledge codification also involves the process of defining the codes needed to codify knowledge, and second, that people who participate in the construction of these codes are able to interpret and use the codes more similarly. From this it can be seen that the ability of people to decodify codes similarly places restrictions on the transferability of knowledge between them. Research limitations/implications - The paper therefore argues that a new conceptual approach is needed for the role of knowledge codification in knowledge management that emphasizes the importance of knowledge decodification. Such an approach would start with one's ability to decodify rather than codify knowledge as a prerequisite for knowledge management. Originality/value - The paper provides a conceptual basis for explaining limitations to the management and transferability of knowledge. © Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Tacit Knowledge and Innovation Capacity: Evidence from the Indian Livestock Sector

To cope and compete in this rapidly-changing world, organisations need to access and apply new knowledge. While explicit knowledge is important, what is often critical is an organisation's ability to create, access, share and apply the tacit or un-codified knowledge that exists among its members, its network and the wider innovation system of which it is a part. This discussion paper explores the role of tacit knowledge in livestock sector innovation capacity though the case of Visakha Dairy, one of the most progressive producer-owned milk marketing companies in India. Analysis of two episodes in Visakha's evolution clearly illustrates how it used tacit knowledge to innovate around challenges. The paper concludes that while tacit knowledge is clearly a major resource that organisations rely on to cope with change, it does not follow that knowledge management approaches that rely on codifying this knowledge are the way forward. Instead, what it does suggest is that better management of the learning processes, through which tacit knowledge is generated, would be a more useful contribution to innovation and innovation capacity - in other words, a shift from knowledge management to learning management.Innovation Systems, Innovation Capacity, Tacit Knowledge, Livestock, India Journal

Challenges in Knowledge Management

Knowledge management is an ever researched area in the discipline of information systems. Though the terminology might change with the waves of fashion, how information systems can support the multiple dimensions of knowledge management is an underlying theme in many streams of research. This article examines literature on knowledge management in order to synthesize a number of key challenges, which emerge from a multidimensional and boundary-spanning view on knowledge management. Six interrelated issues attempt to explain some of the essential aspects of knowledge in the organizational context: these issues are (1) standardization of processes, structures, and systems, (2) contextualization, (3) invasiveness in natural ways of working, (4) strategic alignment, (5) intelligence, and (6) cultural environment

Knowledge sharing:at the heart of knowledge management

Knowledge sharing is central to knowledge management in organizations. The more tacit the knowledge, the harder it is to share. However, successful knowledge sharing means looking not just at the content of the knowledge, and the people and technology concerned in the sharing, but the context in which that sharing takes place. This chapter discusses relevant theories from knowledge management and other fields. It goes on to present a model covering the time, place and context of the knowledge sharing activity, developed using theories about decision support systems. This forms the final part of a three-stage approach intended to help managers (and others) make decisions about how to support knowledge sharing activities in organizations. Each stage takes the form of a question to be answered, as follows: 1) What are the business processes concerned? 2) What is the knowledge to be shared related to - knowledge creation, knowledge acquisition, knowledge refinement, knowledge storage, or knowledge use? 3) What does this mean for the time, place and context of the knowledge sharing?

Exploring the Abstraction Levels of Design Principles: The Case of Chatbots

Formulating design principles is the primary mechanism to codify design knowledge which elevates its meaning to a general level and applicability. Although we can observe a great variety of abstraction levels in available design principles, spanning from more situated to more generic levels, there is only limited knowledge about the corresponding (dis-)advantages of using a certain level of abstraction. That is problematic because it hinders researchers in making informed decisions regarding the (intended) level of abstraction and practitioners in being oriented whether the principles are already contextualized or still require effort to apply them within their situation. Against this backdrop, this paper (1) explores different abstraction levels of design principles based on a sample of 69 principles from the chatbot domain, as well as (2) provides a preliminary positioning framework and lessons learned. We aim to complement methodological guidance and strengthen the principles\u27 applicability, ultimately leading to knowledge reuse

CODIFICATION OF KNOWLEDGE IN BUSINESS PROCESS IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS

In times of globalization, new technologies and high market transparency, companies search for ways to raise the efficiency of their business processes and achieve long-term customer relationships. Therefore enterprises are strongly devoted to business process improvement (BPI) initiatives. However, in times of globally spanning inter-organizational business processes, conducting BPI initiatives is particularly challenging du to the necessary diverse and distributed knowledge. Successful BPI projects require the participation of a variety of employees who are directly involved in a business process. The employees have tacit process knowledge that needs to be transformed into explicit knowledge to derive improvement opportunities in a BPI project. To reach this, a set of easy to understand and well-structured BPI techniqus is required to encourage employees to participate in corresponding initiatives. Further, the codification of the results gained in such initiatives is decisive to enable their proper documentation, communication and processing. \ \ The paper at hand introduces a BPI roadmap for coordinating the structured use of BPI techniqus in a project. The roadmap is based upon a set of formal conceptual model types for codifying the results generated by each techniqu. In addition, reports are specified that process the model information and facilitate the communication and documentation of the results. The presented approach thus contributes to the systematic transformation of employees´ tacit process knowledge to explicit knowledge in the course of BPI initiatives. By applying the roadmap in a use case, its benefits for BPI initiatives are illustrated.

Transferring knowledge of manufacturing techniques in multinational corporations:preliminary findings

With the growth of the multinational corporation (MNC) has come the need to understand how parent companies transfer knowledge to, and manage the operations of, their subsidiaries. This is of particular interest to manufacturing companies transferring their operations overseas. Japanese companies in particular have been pioneering in this regard, with techniques such as the Toyota Production System (TPS) for transferring the ethos of Japanese manufacturing and maintaining quality and control in overseas subsidiaries. A great deal has been written about the process of transferring Japanese manufacturing techniques, but much less is understood about how the subsidiaries themselves, which are required to make use of such techniques, actually acquire and incorporate them into their operations. The research on which this paper is based therefore examines how, from the perspective of the subsidiary, knowledge of manufacturing techniques is transferred from the parent company. There is clearly a need to take a practice-based view to understanding how the local managers and operatives incorporate knowledge about manufacturing techniques into their working practices. In-depth qualitative research was, therefore, conducted in the subsidiary of a Japanese multinational, Denso Corporation, involving three main manufacturing initiatives (or philosophies), namely ‘TPS’, ‘TPM’ and ‘TS’. The case data were derived from 52 in-depth interviews with project members, moderate participant observations, and documentations. The aim of this paper is to present the preliminary findings from the case analyses. The research contributes to our understanding of knowledge transfer in relation to the circumstances of the selection between adaptation and replication of knowledge in the subsidiary from its parent. In particular this understanding relates to transfer across different flows and levels in the organisational hierarchy, how the whole process is managed, and also how modification takes place

Expatriates managers' cultural intelligence as promoter of knowledge transfer in multinational companies

This study analyzes the role of the Cultural Intelligence (CQ) of expatriate managers in the processes of Conventional (CKT) and Reverse Knowledge Transfer (RKT) in Multinational Companies (MNCs). The Partial Least Squares-Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) technique was adopted to analyze the data from a survey of 103 senior expatriate managers working in Croatia. The study reveals how CQ, in all of its four dimensions (metacognitive, cognitive, behavioral, and motivational), acts as a knowledge de-codification and codification filter, assisting managers in the Knowledge Transfer process. The study also reveals how previous international experience does not moderate the positive effect of CQ on both CKT and RKT, offering important theoretical and practical insights to support MNCs in the KT process

Knowledge transfer across projects: Codification in creative, high-tech and engineering industries

The use of codification to support knowledge transfer across projects has been explored in several recent, and mostly qualitative, studies. Building on that research, this article puts forward hypotheses about the antecedents of knowledge codification, and tests them on a sample of 540 inter-organizational projects carried out in the creative, high-tech and engineering industries. We find that the presence of strong industry norms governing the division of labour discourages knowledge transfer through codification, as suggested by the existing qualitative studies. The presence of a system integrator plays an important role in driving the use of codification for knowledge transfer, to some extent embodying an organizational memory in volatile project environments. Finally, the level of use of administrative control in the project is a robust predictor of attempts to transfer knowledge via codification. When these antecedents are taken into account, the novelty of products and services plays a smaller role than previously found in determining the use of codification