Managing Effective Knowledge Transfer

An integrative framework and some practice implications.Examine options for a web-based discussion forum and

an ideas bank.

Objectives

• Investigate “soft” issues (i.e. trust, attitude, teamwork, coherence, etc.) that’ll lead to increased sharing and idea generation

• Identify Information Technology hardware/software required to facilitate and capture learning successfully (i.e. web based discussion forum)

Knowledge transfer: key dimension of a learning organisation

Learning occurs when knowledge in one part of an organisation is transferred

effectively to other parts and used to used to solve problems there or to provide new

and creative insights.

Tapping Tacit Knowledge

“Ultimately, knowledge and best practices are in people’s heads. The

behavioural aspects of the system are therefore more important than its

architecture”

Support Structures

• Another important factor in knowledge transfer is an appropriate infrastructure to reinforce and support it. Breaking down hierarchies in the organisation enables knowledge transfer (Nonaka,1994).

• Organisations that maintain hierarchical levels and silos will not encourage it.

• Knowledge in such organisations frequently becomes “sticky”, that is, residing in one area or silo and not easily moved to other parts of the organisation (Bartlett and Ghoshal, 1998).

Possible Solutions

• A solution is to develop horizontal communication flows, which goes beyond using technology.

• One approach is to encourage cross-functional teams and teamwork in the organisation.

• A company can design tasks that require cross-functional collaboration to succeed.

• This forces individuals and groups away from the silo mentality and to begin learning to communicate horizontally.

Possible Solutions (cont

• Another organisational support structure is a reward system.

• Bartlett & Ghoshal (1998) suggest that one way to encourage knowledge transfer is to base rewards to groups on more than solely financial success; rewarding only financial success tends to encourage competition and lack of sharing.

• Measurement and reward systems that favour a more balanced “scorecard” that takes into account collaboration and the sharing of best practices can play a critical role in encouraging knowledge transfer.

Possible Solutions (cont

• The key is to establish new processes that reward and encourage horizontal communication and the sharing of information in the organisation (Davenport and Prusak, 1998)

• Time is also a factor. Increased horizontal communication can take many forms and may take time to accomplish.

• Appropriate structures and processes may be put in place but employees need an opportunity to use them.

• The organisation needs to free up time for them to engage in such activities.

Possible Solutions (cont

• This suggests that the organisation’s design, the structure of the reward system and the availability of time as a resource can give further impetus to effective knowledge transfer.

High Level IT Block Diagram

All users connected to the LAN receive an email to initialise discussion around specific

topic Once the email is activated, users enter a discussion space on the

Intranet to exchange ideas

Server hosting applications for: IE, Blogs and Wikis

A database of views exchanged about all

topics is created and is searchable for future

referenceTopics for discussion

can only be changed by the process champion

Detailed Description of the Functionality

• A discussion forum based on a specific management challenge or problem is posted on the Intranet

• All the user id’s connected to the LAN, will receive an email with a link to the discussion space on the Intranet

• Users will exchange views and ideas around a specific topic and the results will be captured into a database for future reference

• Each user will have a unique id on the discussion forum• The results of the discussions are posted in real time

and can be viewed by all users connected on the forum

Conclusion

• American Productivity and Quality Centre conducted its four, knowledge-management consortium benchmarking studies from 1995 to 1998.

• Each of these studies provides a unique chance to “peek” behind the scenes of KM at some of the early work, experimentation and success stories.

• The methodology presented here reflects the lessons learned from these knowledge management studies and experience of working with organisations to design knowledge management and transfer projects.