Supporting Collaboration & Knowledge Work

Outline

1111

3333

2222 Supporting Collaboration

Supporting Knowledge Work

Emerging Organizing Principles

Organization Structure---Demise of Hierarchy

Command-and-control hierarchical bureaucracies

Coordinated, collaborative self-managed groups

New Organizing Principles ---Self-organizing Rather Than Designed Inspiration from chaos theory, ecology and biology

Order out of chaos The basic tenet is that nature provides a good

model for future organizations that must deal with: Complexity Share information & knowledge Cope with change

Self-organizing systems create their own structure, patterns of behavior, and processes to accomplish their work

New Organizing Principles ---The Learning Organization

(1) Peter Senge, The 5th Discipline: The art & practice of the learning organization Most organizations live only 40yrs – 1/2 the life of a

person Because they have "learning disabilities"

Organizations that can learn faster than their competitors will survive In fact, it is the only sustainable advantage Companies have to continually adapt and learn in

order to respond to changes in environment and to grow

New Organizing Principles ---The Learning Organization

(2) Five learning principles for learning organizations Personal mastery

Life-long learning and development The spiritual foundation for the learning organization

Mental models Deeply ingrained assumptions, generalizations, and

images that influence how people see the world and what actions they take

E.g. Shell learned how to surface its managers’ assumptions and challenge their inaccurate mental models

New Organizing Principles ---The Learning Organization

(3) Shared vision An organization’s view of its purpose, its calling The common identity by which its employees and

others view it Team learning

Dialog, not discussion Systems thinking

To understand systems, people need to understand the underlying patterns

Outline

1111

3333

2222 Supporting Collaboration

Supporting Knowledge Work

Emerging Organizing Principles

The Company of the Future

France Caircross states in her The Company of the Future The company of the future could be a collection of online

communities Internal or across the company boundaries Designed or self-organized

A main job of executives and managers is to foster these communities A major job of CIOs is to provide the technology to support

online communities and online collaboration

Teams: The Basis of Organization (1) A symphony orchestra, not a manufacturing

organization will be the new organizational paradigm when organization becomes information-based Teams of specialists who direct their own performance

Three factors driving the move Knowledge workers naturally resist command-and-

control form of organization Companies are forced to be more innovative and

entrepreneurial IT is forcing the shift

Teams: The Basis of Organization (2) We are in the third evolution in the structure of

management Around 1900, separated business ownership from

management 1920s, created the "command and control" corporation Now, organization of knowledge specialists

Organizations are becoming flatter Work is done mainly in task-focused teams Yet, people seem to feel they are most productive when

they work alone Groupware – electronic tools that support teams of

collaborators

Characteristics of Groups (1)

Collaboration is all about getting work done in a group rather than individually

Characteristics that differentiate groups include: Membership

Some groups are open, some are closed. Interaction

Some groups are loosely coupled (salespeople with their own territories)

Others work closely together (project team)

Characteristics of Groups (2)

Hierarchy Some groups have a chain of command (tiers of committees)

Location Some members are co-located, some are dispersed

Time Some groups are short-lived, some are ongoing Some group member works full time on the group's work,

other groups only require intermittent work

These characteristics illustrate that providing computer-based support for groups is not uniform From inter-company groups to global teams

Types of Groups (1)

Authority groups Involve formal authority (and often hierarchy), such as

boss and subordinates; Membership closed Coupling tight

Intradepartmental groups Can have members all doing essentially the same

work, often under the same boss Membership closed Interaction can range from tight to loose coupling

Types of Groups (2)

Project teams Work full-time to accomplish a goal within a

specific schedule Membership closed Coupling tight

Interdepartmental work groups Pass work from dept. to dept. (purchasing,

receiving, accounts payable) in a chain Membership closed; coupling tight; no hierarchy

Types of Groups (3)

Committees and task forces Committees are ongoing and task forces deal with the

issue, then disband Generally no full-time work requirement Membership not too closed Interaction generally not tightly coupled

Business relationship groups Relationships with customers, groups of customers,

suppliers, and so on Membership often closed; interaction loosely coupled;

no hierarchy

Types of Groups (4)

Peer groups Meet to exchange ideas and opinions Membership can range, interaction loosely coupled,

no hierarchy

Networks Groups of people who socialize, exchange information

Electronic groups Include chat rooms, multi-user domains, user groups,

and virtual worlds

New Organizing Principles ---Communities Rather Than

Groups Communities form of their own volition Groups formed by design, their members are

designated a priori

Communities Perform the same job, or collaborate on a shared

task/product They have complementary talents & expertise They are held together by a common purpose & a

need to know what the others know

Community of Practice (1)

Communities of practice (CoP) are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly

CoPs are all about managing knowledge, capturing and spreading know-how, ideas, innovations, and experience In some enterprises, CoPs form the foundation of

their knowledge management efforts

Community of Practice (2)

Three characteristics of CoPs are crucial The domain

An CoP has an identity defined by a shared domain of interest.

The community CoP members engage in joint activities and discussions,

help each other, and share information The practice

Members of a community of practice are practitioners. They develop a shared repertoire of resources: experiences, stories, tools, ways of addressing recurring problems—in short a shared practice

Community of Practice (3)

Though informal, some CoPs have had a profound effect on their enterprise Driving strategies Creating new lines of business Spreading best practices, and Solving seemingly intractable problems

Community of Practice (4)

CoPs resist being managed. But some enterprises have seen their value and have learned how to nurture them Identifying Potential CoPs

CoP consultants to help forming a CoP Providing a CoP Infrastructure

Executives need to give CoPs legitimacy Measuring CoPs

Measuring their contributions nontraditionally because their effects may only show up in a team member's department, not in the community's work

Network Armies (1)

A widely dispersed group of people that forms to further a cause It is as permanent as their common agenda Their cohesive force is their value system Their communications are open, taking place in

forums that anyone can join

Hierarchies have a tremendously difficult time fighting network armies because there is no single leader, simply a "hydra with many heads."

Network Armies (2)

Network armies have existed for a long time, but they can now suddenly appear with a lot of power because of three developments: High-speed information flows due to a common

language (English) and communication system (Internet)

The geometrically expanding power of networks (adding one person geometrically increases the number of interconnections)

The international visibility now afforded just about any cause

Group Activities and Supporting Tech Group activities

Communication and interaction Communication: transmitting information from one person to

others Interaction: back-and-forth communication over time

Decision making and problem solving Group members reach a decision or form a consensus

Supporting tech Communication: email, office systems Collaboration: CSCW (Groupware) Decision making: GDSS

Collocated Distributed

Synchronous

Asynchronous

Groupware and CSCW

Groupware denotes the technology that people use to work together Systems that support groups of people engaged

in a common task (or goal) and that provide an interface to a shared environment

CSCW studies the use of groupware CSCW is the study of the tools and techniques of

groupware as well as their psychological, social, and organizational effects

The CSCW Matrix

Same Time/Same Place

Face to face interaction Room-ware Shared tables, wall displays Group Decision Support Systems (GDSS) Single display groupware

Same Time/Different Place

Remote interaction Video-conferencing Real-time groupware Messaging (Instant messaging, Email) Virtual worlds Multi-user editors Shared screen (VNC)

Different Time/Same Place

Continuous task Project walls Meeting room schedules Large displays

Different Time/Different Place Communication and coordination

Wiki Blogs Workflow Version control Work flow

New Organizing Principles --- Virtual Rather Than

Physical A virtual organization doesn't exist in one place or time It exists whenever & wherever the participants

happen to be

e.g. Chief Scientist of Sun, John Gage The network creates the company "Your e-mail flow determines whether you're really

part of the organization: the mailing lists you’re on say a lot about the power you have."

Managing Collaboration in Virtual Organizations The increasingly virtual organizations

Network of communities instead of hierarchical bureaucracies

Virtual structures: CoPs, network armies, freelancers etc.

The key in managing these nontraditional, collaborative and knowledge-based structures Not to manage them (telling them what to do) But to lead them (show them the direction where the

organization is going)

Motivating a Virtual Workforce Inspirations from Open Source Movement

Expanding the kinds of motivators Money High reputation among peers Pride in contribution Participation in quality software development

Governing Virtual Organizations While the open source movement appears to

have all the trappings of chaos waiting to happen, it is actually very well disciplined because of its self-governance

Important governance principles Managed membership

Well-defined leadership; authority only comes from core teams

Rules and institutions e.g. Open source license; democracy and publicity on

activities Social Pressures

e.g. flame, spam and shun disobeyers

Outline

1111

3333

2222 Supporting Collaboration

Supporting Knowledge Work

Emerging Organizing Principles

Companies Want to Manage Knowledge (1) Controversial views on knowledge

management Knowledge can be captured in computer systems Knowledge can not be captured in a machine, it

only exists inside a person’s head Information VS. knowledge Knowledge management is a misnomer

Knowledge cannot be managed, but only shared The more people are connected, the more they exchange

ideas, the more their knowledge spreads and can thus be leveraged

Companies Want to Manage Knowledge (2) Tacit and explicit knowledge

Tacit knowledge exists within a person's mind and is private and unique to each person

Explicit knowledge has been articulated, codified, and made public

Effective knowledge management requires transferring knowledge between these two states Nurturing, cultivating and harvesting knowledge Knowledge management knowledge sharing

A Model for Managing Knowledge (1)

A Model for Managing Knowledge (2) These four stages create three types of capital:

Human capital Knowledge, skills and innovativeness of employees as well as

company values, culture and philosophy Structural capital

The capabilities embedded in hardware, software, databases, organizational structure, patents, and trademarks

Customer capital Can either be human capital (relationships with the company)

or structural capital (products used from the company)

CoPs and Knowledge Management Traditional knowledge management captures

only the most explicit forms of knowledge Tacit knowledge is more related with day-to-day

activities and how work is done in practice

Communities are the critical building blocks of a knowledge-based company People, not processes, do the work Learning is about work, work is about learning, and

both are social Organizations are webs of participation