Example of Knowledge Management Exam Questions

EXAMPLES OF QUESTIONS FOR KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT WRITTEN EXAM 2007- 2010

1. Knowledge managementFrom an interdisciplinary perspective, it can be defined as: ‘the effective learning process associated with exploration, exploitation, and sharing of human knowledge (tacit and explicit) that use appropriate technology and cultural environments to enhance an organization’s intellectual capital and performance.’

Knowledge management is at the foundation of organizational learning. At this point and from organizational learning‘s aspect, knowledge management defined as the process of managing knowledge. As such, knowledge management limited to the activities that do not add value to knowledge. Therin (2000) mentioned that, knowledge management is concerned with the acquisition and communication of knowledge. Just as not instance but a simple notation, imagine an organization in which all the physical records disintegrate overnight, a simple break up. Suddenly, there are no reports, no computer files, no employee record sheets, no operating manuals, no calendars, and all that remain are the people, buildings, capital equipment, raw materials, and inventory. Now imagine an organization where all the people simply quit showing up for work. New people, who are similar in many ways to the former workers but have no familiarity with that particular organization, come to work instead. Which of these two organizations will be easier to rebuild to its former status?2. LeadershipLeadership and Leadership StyleA common difference between a manager and leader is a manager does right things where a leader is more concerned with doing the right things. A leader who himself involves in processes and activities that are core related with the goals which eventually achieve a vision. A leader has the ability to read the situation and call for his situational skills in complex and intense situation. A leader has the natural skills of providing his team the direction, faith, motivation and moral and financial support to take the best of his team who are in pursue of a clear roadmap to vision. Contrary to a manager who himself is more interested in dealing the everyday routines and calling the everyday or weekly progress without providing the necessary alignment and direction to his team. Since in Science co the management seems to be consist of a few people where the authority seems to be more with the founder who tries to implement a flat culture without interfering the consultant’s outdoor activities for invention and innovation purposes. Such kind of leadership would quality for Laissez-Faire where a leader has the power of final decision but he allows his team to grow in confidence as a leader is confident of their high skill expertise in the concerned areas and diverse situations.3. Human capitalHuman Capital: Human capital refers skills and knowledge that increase human productivity Becker (1993) defines capital as being something that yields income and other useful outputs over long periods of time (p. 15). Since 1964 this theory becomes

well accepted with this claim that skilled labor is more productive than other labor simply because more resources have been invested into the training of that labor. In same manner machine that has had more resources invested into it is likely to be more product (Mueller, 1982). One of the basic beliefs is that if we spend investment in skilled labor environment would be more profitable and more likely to be undertaken the longer the period over which returns from the investment can accrue (p. 94). HC refers to the unique values that each individual have which are consider assets to an organization. The knowledge contained within an organization becomes plus point for organization .This theory is easiest theoretical foundation to identify and describe intellectual capital.

4. Organizational capital The root of concept of organizational capital come from research exploring ways of increasing efficiencies in organizations where employee effort was considered to be suboptimal (Tomer 1987). Hence, organizational capital has been seen as an extension of human capital as it contains both organizational and behavioral variables. It is based on the level of knowledge sharing, cooperative effort and conflict resolution within organization.Tomer (1998) identified two types of organizational capital: a pure form (such as its organizational structure) and hybrid form (embodied in individuals through investment in activities such as socialization). The assumption underlying this concepts is that investment in organizational capital will lead to a range of benefits in term of worker productivity. The types of intervention may include:Changing formal and informal relationships and patterns of activity within the organization:Changing certain attributes key to organizational effectiveness;Developing information to match the optimal worker to a given situation. It is clear that the literature on organizational capital is closely linked with the concepts of structural capital within the intellectual capital literature. However, there is a danger of the hybrid conception of organizational capital creeping into intellectual capital frameworks and resulting in confusion between human and organizational capital.

5. Intellectual capitalIntellectual CapitalEvery organization includes two forms of assets, tangible and intangible assets. According to the organization of economic co-operation and development (OECD) in 1999; the economic value of two categories of intangible and tangible assets of a company that is organizational capital and human capital (Jashapara, 2004 p. 269). Another definition of intellectual capital by Sveiby (1997) as revealed by Jashapara is “the difference between the market value of a publicly held company and its official net book value is the value of its intangible assets” (2004, p. 268). The economic value of any company is dependent on the political and social norms on organization and political stability situation of the world. Any organization contains both

tangible and intangible assets which are physical existing in Knowledge management systems and the skulls on the employees. The need of understanding the intellectual capital is enormous as one would be able to understand the organization response to diverse changeability processes and transformation of the firm when it goes through such processes and how the cope with these never lasting drastic situations. The notion of intellectual capital is very rich and could be used in the meaning of social and human resources (tangible and intangible assets), information technology (Knowledge management system and IT resources) (Jashapara, 2004 p.268). However in each literature the notion of knowledge management is involved and that is our area of interest to elaborate and see its affect.

“Information and knowledge are the thermonuclear competitive weapons of our time. Success goes to those who manage their intellectual capital wisely” (Stewart, 1997, p. 68) . Many view the accessibility of knowledge as the foundation for establishing a competitive advantage in the new millennium (Edvinsson & Malone, 1997; Stewart, 1997). Intellectual capital theory introduced in past decade with the advancement within organization According to (Svieby 1997), “Intellectual Capital is the difference between the market value of a publicly held company and its official net book value is the value of its intangible assets”. Stewart (1997) has proposed “that intellectual capital is the intellectual material – knowledge, information, intellectual property, experience – that can put to create wealth”. Ulrich (1998) defines intellectual capital as “competence multiplied by commitment” (p. 125), meaning that intellectual capital equals the knowledge, skills, and attributes of each individual within an organization. The most common theory of IC is presented by Stewart, and Edvinsson and Malone. Edvinsson and Malone (1997) that “the possession of the knowledge, applied experience, organizational technology, customer relationships and professional skills that provide a competitive advantage in the marketplace” (p. 40).The overall theory is that IC is an assets, like money or equipment, exist and are worth cultivating only in the context of strategy [p. 70].

Figure 11 conceptual roots of intellectual capital

There are three types of Intellectual capital: Human Capital Structural Capital Customer Capital

Figure 12 intellectual capital framework

6. Organizational learning Cognitive perspective Definition: It means the process of improving actions through

better knowledge and understanding.A recent ethno methodology framework of organizational learning builds on the tension between exploration and exploitation in organizations and places these notions at the heart of strategic renewal. Renewal is based on organizations exploring and learning new ways while at the same time exploiting what they have already learnt.

Three learning levels: individual, group and organization Four learning process: intuiting, interpreting, integrating and institutionalizing. Intuiting: this is largely a subconscious process that often requires some form of

pattern recognition. For instance, an expert may be able to foresee a pattern in a problem that a novice may not. This pattern recognition will support exploitation. However, intuition is also important for exploration to help generate new insights and novel applications. Metaphors and the use of imagery can help provide the language to communicate one’s insight to someone else.

Interpreting: this is the process of explaining through words and/or actions an insight or an idea to one’s self or to another person. We develop our own cognitive map of a domain and can interpret the same stimulus differently due to our established cognitive map. In a group situation, this can result in multiple and potentially conflicting interpretations of the best course of action.

Integrating: this learning process is about developing shared understanding and taking coordinated action through mutual adjustment. Group dialogue and storytelling are seen as major tools for developing new and deeper shared understandings.

Institutionalizing: this learning process is to ensure that routinised actions occur. Successful actions over time often become embedded in organizational routines. Such routines have an effect on the systems, structures and strategies of an organization. One characteristic of institutionalization is the endurance of the behavior over a period of time..

Behavioral perspective Definition: an entity learns if, through its processing of information, the range of its potential behaviors is changed.Four constructs: Knowledge acquisition is seen as the process by which knowledge is obtained. Information distribution is the process by which information is shared, which

can often lead to new information or understanding. Information interpretation is the process by which information is given one or

more interpretations. Organizational memory is the means by which knowledge is stored for future

use.There is a danger that it may lead to a tendency towards exploitation rather than exploration in organizations. It may create a tendency to hold on to old views and practices rather than questioning them.7. Organizational cultureOrganizational culture refers to the general culture within a company or organization, and is often also referred to as corporate culture, though that isn‘t the best description since a large non-profit organization or charity could also have its own organizational culture even though they are definitely not corporations. Culture is a nebulous subject with a variety 30racticing30 and interpretation. Here are some of the many definitions of organizational culture that can be found. Definition of organization culture given by Deal and Kennedy (1982) defined as ―the way we do things around here‖. This definition may sound so simple but in management literature created a big debate. In more of anthropological sense, culture is defined as ―the set of important understandings that members of a community share in common‖ by Sathe (1985). Smircich (1983) has distinguished between culture as a variable and culture as a root metaphor. Researchers, who see culture as a variable, draw upon objectivist and functionalist view and try to improve models of organization. In contrast, researchers who see culture as a root metaphor approach organization as if they are cultures, behaviors and draw upon anthropology in developing new theories and paradigms. Gareth Morgan has described organizational culture as: ―The set of the set of beliefs, values, and norms, together with symbols like dramatized events and personalities, that represents the unique character of an organization, and provides the context for action in it and by it.‖ Norms might be described as traditions, structure of authority, or routines. Edgar Schein, another of the most famous and most respected theorists dealing with organizational culture says that the definition of organizational culture has to be general, or else you start to eliminate factors that actually are part of corporate culture. Schein‘s definition of organizational culture is: ―A pattern of shared basic assumptions that the

group learned as it solved its problems that has worked well enough to be considered valid and is passed on to new members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems.‖ Basic assumptions are taken-for-granted solutions to particular problems. They are the ―theories-in-use‖ that perpetuate organizational routines ans single-loop learning (Jashapara, 2004) At more surface or superficial level, Jashapara (2004) had the manifestation of culture as norms, artefacts and symbols. Norms are expectations of appropriate and inappropriate behavior. Norms attach approval or disapproval to hoking certain believes and attitudes and acting in particular way. Artefacts also provide as with shared systems of meaning that construct organizational life. They can exist like material objects, physical layouts, technology, language and behavior patterns as well as procedures and practices in organization (Brown 1998). Symbols can act to reflect aspects of organizational culture, frame experiences that may be vague or controversial, and mobilize members to action through their emotional response to a symbol (Ashkanasy, 2000). So while there are many definitions of organizational culture, all of them focus on the same points: collective experience, routine, beliefs, values, goals, system and norms. These are learned and re-learned, passed on to new employees, and continues on as part of a company‘s core identity.8. Organizational culture types Two popular typologies of organization culture are provided below. The Handy typologies (Handy, 1985) have been very influential among cultural scholars and suggests for types of culture: 1.Power culture. There is one source of power and influence (a group of leaders) striving to maintain absolute control over the organization along ―rays‖ diverging from the centre to the outside of the organization. The horizontal ―rings‖ in the web represent other relations (e.g. functional, social) but they are not as strong as the central lines. The related decisions are made under the influence of the leaders‘ priorities rather than with respect to logical procedures. Individuals from the heart of the web have full control and information. This type of organizational culture is suitable for an unstable environment when new stimuli necessitate quick response. However, the quality of the actions depends chiefly on the leaders‘ competence. Power culture is most suitable for small organizations. When they grow too much the culture may break down. A loss of the leader may be critical, equivalent to the end of the organization. 2.Role culture. The role culture‘s strength lies in its specialization. Every ―pillar‖ is almost an independent department or project; the specialists and their functions may also be ―pillars‖. Each pillar‘s operation and cooperation among them is coordinated by the Board which may be referred to as the temple‘s roof. It tends to be a highly bureaucratic organization. Cooperation among the pillars is based upon procedures and job descriptions. In this culture, effectiveness depends on rational goal setting and allocating financial means to the pillars. Power depends on the formal position in the organization‘s structure rather than personality traits. The employee‘s role is more important than the person assuming this role. This type of culture is suitable for a stable environment when the goals do not change on an annual basis and specialized teams can be established for each goal. Problems arise when a sudden change takes place in the environment and one of the ―pillars‖ is no longer needed. The organization may fall apart when the ―roof‖ is gone. 3.Task culture. This culture may be portrayed as a net with some ropes thicker and stronger than the other. In this culture, emphasis is placed on doing the job (programme, project, task). Power stems from knowledge and experience in tackling this type of task. Task

culture is targeted at teamwork and a group achieving a common goal. This culture‘s chief advantage lies in its great flexibility and ability to adjust to changing conditions. Working groups are created to handle specific tasks and dissolved when the task is over for the same individuals to create new teams tailored to the latest needs. Task culture is capable of rapid actions. It is managed by experts rather than the positions. Control is very difficult to exert; it is actually possible only when resorting to ―milestones‖ or by monitoring the key individuals‘ work. Effectiveness is ensured by quickly moving around resources from individuals to projects and back. Problems may arise when access to information and resources is limited. With long-term projects and a stable environment, task culture may transform into role culture. 4.Personal cultures. The individual is placed at its centre. These companies exist to satisfy the requirements of the particular individual(s) involved in the 31racticing31n. The company‘s role is reduced to organizing a comfortable workplace. They typically exist among lawyers, accountants, architects and consultants: specialists often 31racticing the so-called liberal professions. An individual may leave the company but the company has no right to make decisions about the employee.

Another cultural typology (Brown 1998; Deal and Kennedy 1982) is based on the degree of risk in company activities and the speed of feedback on actions and decisions. In this framework, the four idealized cultural typologies are: 1.Tough-guy, macho culture . One of the most common aspects of the tough-guy or macho culture is the quick feedback and high rewards. The pace can be break neck at times, but the obvious reward of the action is seen very quickly. From a corporate stand point, this type of organizational culture will be most often associated with really fast financial activities, such as currency trading, and brokerage. This can also apply to organizations such as a police force, or an individual athlete on a sports team. If a receiver catches a touchdown pass, you see the impact right away. This tends to be a stressful type of organizational culture that requires a certain mentality to thrive and succeed. 2.Work-hard, play-hard culture This type of an organizational culture that doesn‘t take a lot of risks, but it does take a few, and all receive fast feedback. This is something most likely to be see in a very large company which is dependent on strong customer service. This type of organizational culture is often characterized by multiple team meetings, specialized jargon, and buzzwords. These cultures can be fun and action oriented but may suffer from ―quick-fix‖ solution and lack of reflection in crisis situation. 3.Bet-your-company culture characterized by high-risk but low-feedback environments. This is a type of company where huge decisions are made over high stakes endeavors. In this type of culture, the end results of these decisions may not be seen for months or even years. The most common type of company that would have this type of a culture is one that is involved in experimental projects or searches. Two great examples would be like prospecting for new oil fields and designing experimental military weapons. 4.Process cultures exist in low-risk and slow-feedback environments. A process culture is most often fold in organizations where there is actually no feedback. This is rarely a good culture. In this type of a organizational culture people are so obsessed with the process of how things are done that the focus is lost on what the goal is. Process organizational culture is a synonym for bureaucracy. These cultures are overly cautious, obsessed with the letter of the law as opposed to the idea of the law. The only positive argument for this culture is that the consistency of results makes it good for public services.

P 1879. Organizational memory The old oral traditions utilized the human memory and highlighted its limitations.

Long periods of time were spent memorizing information, leaving little room for critical evaluation. In an organizational context, organizational memory may reside in people’s mind as repositories of organizational knowledge. However, as people leave a firm; this precious organizational memory may be lost forever. This soft form of organizational memory can be invaluable in a variety of circumstances: diagnosing an error in a complex piece of technology; knowledge of organizational skills, experts and resources; locating non-traditional information sources.

General/semantic memory comes from shared interpretation of significant events that are not personally experienced and may take the form of handbooks and procedural manuals.Context-specific/episodic memory is shared interpretations and collective understanding of personally experienced event.

The hard forms of organizational memory relate to storage and retrieval processes and computer based organizational memory.(data warehouse). Such notions of organizational memory treat the construct as a set of repositories of stored information from an organization’s history. The repositories may contain knowledge about individuals, culture, transformations, structure and ecology.

10. Single loop learning & Double loop learning Single loop learning refers to the process that maintains the central features of the

organization’s ‘theory-in-use’ by detecting and correcting errors within a given system of rules. This means that, given any set of problems, an organization is likely to act in the same traditional ways and patterns. Exploitation behaviors are concerned with the refinement of existing processes and emphasize efficiency goals. Effective in the short term but self destructive in the long term.

Double loop learning is where current organizational norms and assumptions are questioned to establish a new set of norms. Firms do not continue with their age-old patterns but question their assumptions and values. This often leads to new ways of working and acting. Exploration behaviors are where organizations engage in risk taking, play with ideas, experiment, discover and innovate.

Example: A firm may be faced with the problem of drastically diminishing sales. The firm

may place the blame for the problem on the poor sales force and introduce measures to make them work harder or face redundancy. This would be an example of single loop learning where the firm responds in a tried and tested manner but assumes it can accomplish its goals by pushing harder.

Double loop learning would be if the firm tried to assess the problem more closely and look at the underlying assumptions. It might discover that the customers find its products or services dated, unappealing and poor value for money compared with competitive offerings. In this situation, the firm might decide to innovate its product or service by engaging the collective talents of its marketing, design and operations teams. The new product or service might compete more effectively in the changing competitive markets.

11. Data & Information & Knowledge & WisdomData: ‘known facts or things used as a basis of inference or reckoning’. It depends on context. We acquire data from the external world through our sense and try to make sense of these signals through our experience. This external data becomes internal fact. The assumption about facts is that they are true, but our senses can play games with us.

Example: the optical illusion of Escher’s drawings that can be seen in two different ways. Escher made an art of creating impossible figures such as people ascending and descending stairs at the same time that were clearly contradictory. Exclude data in a number of ways.

Example: ‘cocktail party’ ignore background noise and concentrate on the data of the person speaking to us, putting on a blindfold or inserting ear plugs.

The source of data and the channel or medium through which it is transmitted will be distorted. Example: ‘Chinese whisper’ game.

Qualitative and quantitative data. Quan. Numbers is highly depended on context. Qual. It depended on perception of the transmitter and receiver of data. Example: Chinese and European artists paint the same landscape.

Information: ‘something told’ or ‘the act of informing or telling’, ‘systematically organized data’Example: libraries classify their books using a bibliographic classification scheme. A common one is the Dewey Decimal Classification which is based on dividing all of knowledge into ten fields ranging from 0-999. Another conception of information is data endowed with meaning, relevance and

purpose. This meaning can be a subjective meaning given by the receiver of the data. Example: a consultancy report may be written to inform senior manager of critical issues but may be judged as ramblings and noise by the recipients.

Knowledge:‘Actionable information’, which allows us to make better decisions and provide an effective input to dialogue and creativity in organizations. This occurs by providing information at the right place, at the right time and in the appropriate format.Challenge is that converting tacit knowledge(know how) into explicit knowledge(know what)

Wisdom:‘Wisdom is the ability to act critically or practically in a given situation. It is based on ethical judgment related to an individual’s belief system. It is often captured in famous quotes, proverbs and sayings.’Example: there is a plenty of sound in an empty barrel.12. Knowledge management cycle

13. The learning OrganizationP 252The learning organization focuses on enhancing its systems (including people) to continually increase the organization's capacity for performance. Ratner (1997) defines a learning organization as "one in which people at all levels, individually and collectively, are continually increasing their capacity to produce results they really care about."

Becoming a Learning Organization A. P. Moller Maersk made a cultural change for the entire organizations. To be successful, Maersk work with all staff members to: - Firstly create and communicate a shared vision for the organization - Make information in the organization accessible to all. - Help employees manage change by anticipating change and creating the types of change desired by the organization. - Empower employees to act (by the train programs mentioned before) - Acknowledge and support the need to take risks. - Learn to manage the organization‘s knowledge by: o Keeping information current. o Maintaining historical knowledge. o Addressing increasing volumes of information. - Establish and use individual and organizational learning strategies. 14. Knowledge sharing toolsInternet, extranets and intranet All software used on the internet is based on client/server technology. This means that the

software either acts as a server offering services to other computers on the network or acts as a client requesting a service from the server. The basic document on the web is a page with its own particular location. This location or URL (uniform1 resource locator) is simply a web identifier starting with a such as 'http' or ―ftp‖. When you click on a link your web browser (client) sends off a packet to that address asking for the URL and, subsequently, the server sends back the requested page to your computer. In the past, most pages have been written in a markup language called HTML (hypertext markup language). Each HTML page contains a number of tags or instructions on how text, video, graphics and sound are placed on the page and how links to other documents can be created. A recent development to markup languages has been the introduction of XML (extensible markup language) to complement HTML and to improve the usefulness of the web. Whereas HTML has provided a predominantly formatting function for data on a page, XML provides valuable information on what the data means. Metadata is directly linked to the resource and provides direct access to it. In bibliographic circles, a metadata standard or schema named 'Dublin Core' was developed in 1995 to allow greater bibliographic control over networked resources. The data elements include title, author, subject and keywords, description, publisher, other contributor, date, resource type, format, resource identifier, source, language, relation, coverage and rights management. Other standards are emerging across different industries and the standards are contained within an XML document type definition (DTD), often simply called a dictionary. To allow internationalization of the web, XML has been firmly rooted in Unicode which provides all kinds of text characters from different languages around the world. The future direction of the web as described by Tim Berners-Lee, its inventor, is one moving more towards a semantic web. This would allow the user to access precise information for decision making immediately rather than having to browse through lots documents to find the information. The goal is to make the web more intelligent. The language and schemas chosen for the semantic web are RDF rather than XML as information found in RDF (Resource Description Framework) maps links directly and unambiguously to a decentralized model and there are instruments known as that can decipher this information more easily. An intranet is a network that exists exclusively within an organization and is based on internet technology. It can provide an e-mail system, remote access, group collaboration tools, an application sharing system and a company communications network. Some traditional applications of intranets are: - Access to databases; - Forum for discussion; - Distribution of electronic documentation; - Providing on-line training; - FAQs

E-learning tools E-learning is the generic term used to describe online learning, computer-based training and web-based training. It is the application of internet technologies to support the delivery and management of learning, skills and knowledge. E-Learning does not have to occur exclusively on the internet. More reputable offerings tend to provide an integration of various learning technologies such as: - mentoring; - chat forums;

- expert-led discussions; - web seminars; - online meetings; - Virtual classroom sessions.

P 19915. KM Personalization strategyKnowledge Management Strategy (Personalization)Knowledge is been an intangible asset for any organization based on making the concrete strategies evolving the tacit and explicit form (Choi et al, 2008 p. 236). There is a greater need for almost every organization to put more stress on managing the knowledge when it comes to constructing the strategies based. Any knowledge management strategy must enforce, unfold and apply coherence among the vital factors of organization such as culture, IT, deployment of resources to produce the better knowledge creation models and methods, sharing such knowledge and ultimately using such knowledge to compete (Choi et al, 2008 p. 235). There are numerous models which conduct such organizational routines in the form of socialization, community of practice, transformation of tacit to explicit knowledge through metaphors, imaginary maps and several cognitive maps. Thus a knowledge management strategy must contain the basic ingredients that help such an asset to nourish and grow in adverse situations by having the aim for increasing the organizational economics values and transformation. Modern day research suggests a Knowledge management strategy can be categorized into personalization (Tacit-oriented) and codification (Explicit-oriented) (Jashapara, 2004). The resources vary from strategy to strategy as personalization strategy enforces the knowledge creation mechanisms and methods through the process of socialization, group meetings, mentorship, dialogues and with an outcome of high profits in economics where the codification strategy encompasses the heavy investment of technology like up to date Knowledge management systems, hiring fresh people, developing their skills through enforcing the measures of single and double loop learning, giving them online programming, codify the knowledge and with the output of high turnover for economic values (Choi et al, 2008 and Jashapara, 2004). However many researchers are still unable to see the effects of organization performance against mixed Knowledge management strategies and solitaire one (Choi et al, 2008).

Personalization StrategyKnowledge management personalization strategy is a strategy to management the knowledge that the core of the personalization approach to knowledge management is to develop an information system infrastructure that facilitates the communication of individuals in a company, so that they can easily exchange idea and share their

knowledge through socialization and interpersonal relationship to mobilize and share knowledge in tacit form across the organization, thus, the organization aim to create and facilitate networks between people to share and learn from their individual skills, experiences, and expertise. In a personalization strategy, IT is used to extend interpersonal networks and the ability to connect and communicate with one another (Hansen et al., 1999).

P 17416. Knowledge acquisition & 5 forms of knowledge acquisitionOrganizations acquire new knowledge through the processes of congenital learning, experiential learning, and vicarious learning, grafting, and searching and noticing. Congenital learning is the learning influenced by the founding fathers of the

organization. This inherited knowledge can affect the way a firm acts and interprets new knowledge.

Experiential learning is acquired from direct experience and can be found in a number of guises. (Jashapara P70 or next headline)

Vicarious learning means that they seek to borrow competitors’ strategies, practices and technologies, since they do not have time to gain certain knowledge to meet competitive pressures. And it adopts imitation or mimicry of other firms. Gaining the ‘know how’ of other firms is termed ‘corporate intelligence’ and can be gained from consultants, professional meetings and publications.

Grafting means that acquiring knowledge by employing new members with the knowledge and skills lacking within the organization. On bigger scale, firms engage in acquisitions of other companies where the acquisition may have core competences lacking within the parent firm.

Intentional search and unintentional noticing behaviors. Scan; focused search linked to a particular organizational problem; performance monitoring of internal targets and measures as well as satisfying the needs of external stakeholders.

17. Experience based learningExperiential learning is acquired from direct experience and can be found in a number of guises:Organizational experiments may take the form of pilot studies with feedback of findings and recommendations to the organization.Move from behavioral learning to cognitive learning through questioning key assumptions and values.Enhancing adaptability as an experimenting organization with a greater emphasis on exploration rather than exploitation.Unintentional learning through the haphazard and multi-faceted lives of workers.Learning curves or “learning by doing” show that as an organization produces more of a product, the unit cost of production decreases at a decreasing rate. The beauty of this experiential learning is that performance over time can often be predicted using a mathematical model. Such learning can be explained through individuals learning over time as well as the organization, such as the effective use of technology. effective decisions can be made by managers on how best to balance technology against working practices.

Jashapara P7018. Knowledge management strategy planP 170

INCLUDE CODIFICATION AND PERSONALIZATION STRATEGY

19. Knowledge codification strategyCodification StrategyKnowledge management codification strategy is a strategy to manage the knowledge that the core of codification approach to knowledge management is to develop an electronic document system that codifies store, disseminates, and allow reuse of knowledge (Hansen et al., 1999). A codification strategy aims to capture and codify knowledge in explicit form for subsequent transfer and reuse by others within the organization. Within this approach, organizations invest once in the development of explicit knowledge, store it, and are able to reuse it as often as required. As a result, this ‘reuse economics’ avoids the cost associated with the ‘reinvention’ of knowledge assets.

20. Community of practice Communities of practice are formed by people who engage in a process of collective learning in a shared domain of human endeavor: a group of engineers working on similar problems, a gathering of first-time managers helping each other cope. In a nutshell the Communities of practice 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. Note that this definition allows for, but does not assume, intentionality: learning can be the reason the community comes together or an incidental outcome of member's interactions. Not everything called a community is a community of practice. A neighborhood for instance, is often called a community, but is usually not a community of practice. Three characteristics are crucial: The domain: A community of practice is not merely a club of friends or a network of connections between people. It has an identity defined by a shared domain of interest. Membership therefore implies a commitment to the domain, and therefore a shared competence that distinguishes members from other people. (You could belong to the same network as someone and never know it.) The domain is not necessarily something recognized as "expertise" outside the community. A youth gang may have developed all sorts of ways of dealing with their domain: surviving on the street and maintaining some kind of identity they can live with. They value their collective competence and learn from each other, even though few people outside the group may value or even recognize their expertise. The community: In pursuing their interest in their domain, members engage in joint activities and discussions, help each other, and share information. They build relationships that enable them to learn from each other. A website in itself is not a community of practice. Having the same job or the same title does not make for a community of practice unless members interact and learn together. The claims processors in a large insurance company or students in American high schools may have much in common, yet unless they interact and learn together, they do not form a community of practice. But members of a community of practice do not necessarily work together on a

daily basis. The Impressionists, for instance, used to meet in cafes and studios to discuss the style of painting they were inventing together. These interactions were essential to making them a community of practice even though they often painted alone. The practice: A community of practice is not merely a community of interest--people who like certain kinds of movies, for instance. 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. This takes time and sustained interaction. A good conversation with a stranger on an airplane may give you all sorts of interesting insights, but it does not in itself make for a community of practice. The development of a shared practice may be more or less self-conscious. The "windshield wipers" engineers at an auto manufacturer make a concerted effort to collect and document the tricks and lessons they have learned into a knowledge base. By contrast, nurses who meet regularly for lunch in a hospital cafeteria may not realize that their lunch discussions are one of their main sources of knowledge about how to care for patients. Still, in the course of all these conversations, they have developed a set of stories and cases that have become a shared repertoire for their practice. It is the combination of these three elements that constitutes a community of practice. And it is by developing these three elements in parallel that one cultivates such a community.

WHAT COMMUNITIES OF PRACTICE LOOK LIKE Communities develop their practice through a variety of activities like for example: Problem solving (work on a design and brainstorm some ideas when you are stuck), Requests for information ( where can I find some code to connect to one server), Seeking experience (if anyone dealt with a customer in some specific situation), Reusing assets (if you have a proposal for a local area network that you wrote for a client last year and can easily adapt it for a new client), Coordination and synergy (combine our purchases of something to achieve bulk discounts), Discussing developments (what do you think about the new system and if it really helps), Documentation projects (have faced a problem five times and write it down to have all the information), Visits (see a program in other company that we need to establish in our), Mapping knowledge and identifying gaps (who knows what, what are we missing, what other groups should we connect with, and this kind of questions). Communities of practice are not called that in all organizations. They are known under various names, such as learning networks, thematic groups, or tech clubs. While they all have the three elements of a domain, a community, and a practice, they come in a variety of forms. Some are quite small; some are very large, often with a core group and many peripheral members. Some are local and some cover the globe. Some meet mainly face-to-face, some mostly online. Some are within an organization and some include members from various organizations. Some are formally recognized, often supported with a budget; and some are completely informal and even invisible. Communities of practice have been around for as long as human beings have learned together. At home, at work, at school, in our hobbies, we all belong to communities of practice, a number of them usually. In some we are core members. In many we are merely peripheral. And we travel through numerous communities over the course of our lives. In fact, communities of practice are everywhere. They are a familiar experience, so familiar perhaps that it often escapes our attention. Yet when it is given a name and brought into focus, it becomes a perspective that can help us understand our world better. In particular, it allows us to see past more obvious formal structures such as organizations, classrooms, or nations, and perceive the structures defined by engagement in practice and the informal learning that comes with it.

Community of Practice“Community of practice is group of people who share a concern, a set of problems or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise in this area by interacting on an ongoing basis” (Jashapara, 2004 p. 203). The main idea behind a community of practice is the double loop learning and the tacit knowledge acquisition and sharing. This form of community evolves with time to time as it is dependent on dialogues and sharing and includes the individual mental map in open forums to share the wisdom of knowledge and expertise. Since the Science co is been stuck with the field of innovation and invention where a community of practice may enroll the mechanism of several separate divisions of how they conduct their tasks, arranging the meetings, conferences and even on online basis how useful those video conferencing are for share community of innovation domain.

P 299 20321. Learning organizationThe learning organization focuses on enhancing its systems (including people) to continually increase the organization's capacity for performance. Ratner (1997) defines a learning organization as "one in which people at all levels, individually and collectively, are continually increasing their capacity to produce results they really care about."

Learning organization concept not only covers business organizations but also educational and non-profit organizations. The model of a learning organization is replacing the beaurocratic model that exists in the West for a long time. Competition among various organizations is very powerful because of they make significant changes that apply a new organizational model for survive. There is not a single definition for learning organization model exist on which all researcher agreed most common definition are. Learning organization is a philosophy or an approach to what an organization is and what the role its employees play in it. If we speak about the principles of management as a learning activity, we may maintain that learning is usually described as "change in individual’s actions depending on his experience" (P.Thompson; 1995). "Learning which encompasses changes, is open to innovations, has available sources so that technologies intended for learning be advanced, also meeting the organization’s need for learning and knowledge" (J.Henry; 1994) . "Such themes as a mode of solving uncertainty of the environment are often characterized in literature as such systems which are often called learning organizations" (P.Thompson; 1995, p. 315). Organizations encompass to enhance values, knowledge bases, processes and skills which encourage an effective reaction for prompting changes higher cultures, systems and employee knowledge formed on the basis of confidence which are valuable in decision-making and problem solving.

Figure 13 Management scheme

Learning organizations are those in which employees always try to achieve desired results, collective objectives are freely developed. The key tasks of a learning organization are according to (B.O.Leonien, 2001):To observe the environment To understand the importance of noveltiesTo consider each new task as an opportunity to learnTo continuously renovateTo employ people who are willing to learn new working methods, to acquire new skillsTo create the possibility for employees to adapt and changeTo encourage aspirations for knowledge, curiosityTo help everyone to find and make use of opportunities to learnTo create learning support systemsTo regard executives of an organization as encouragers of improvement of employee skillsTo acknowledge and rank those executives who take care of improvement of employee skills to learn from success and failuresTo ensure learning throughout the whole organizationIt’s important to identify that organizations where learning is continuous and external environment observed it with aim to adapt it then certain processes remain in progresses which have influence the way in which opinion is shaped, specific knowledge is created, decisions are made.

Figure 14 Learning organization Learning organization created to change methods applied in management and goals are production and profit then this action strategy go through changes by orienting them to knowledge. In simple means management that was economic management for long time now becomes a knowledge strategy. These happen when organization adopts knowledge and its maximum use to change environment become the key goal of activities.

Main values of company employees were loyalty and discipline in past but now this situation is totally change. Competence, capacity to learn continuously and know more than their competitors are the main value of any organization. If they learn constantly and modify their work regularly according to the user needs, then they are fruitful for the company’s greatest favor .Ideas of change environment, economics, and globalization highlight the importance of learning not only at individual, group and organizational levels, but also at regional and national levels.

22. Innovation processAs for innovation, learning may occur at the individual, group, organization and industry levels. As new outputs, innovations may come from new knowledge as well as from the combination of existing knowledge to create architectural innovations (Henderson, and Clark, 1990, pp 9], using combinative capabilities (Kogut and Zander, 1999, pp386). Radical and incremental innovations refer to high and low degrees of new knowledge (Dewar, and J.E. Dutton, 1986, pp 1422), involving high and low degrees of organizational transformation.As researchers argue that learning means integrating new knowledge or mixing existing knowledge in different ways, learning leads to newness, and thus to innovation. Innovation will be the by-product of a learning organization. A learning organization is an innovative organization.

Culture and Climate for innovationInnovation is related with the development and implementing of new ideas in an organizational context who themselves are been engaged in transaction with others (Ahmed, 1998). Innovation is always a frightening because it comes with a big factor of risk. Many organization try to implement the importance of doing the innovation and some actually do it but only a very few at the end succeeded in doing so (Ahmed, 1998). Innovation is related with double loop learning and that is learning by doing which involves a risk as some organization may not afford a financial allocation to drop to fund for such experimentation. As Science co organization works as a consultancy to bring the innovation in their products so it is subtle for demanding a creation of a culture which could support it. Many organizations tend to be calling the meetings and conferences and eventually throw the funds for innovation but more or less the commitment to bring the innovation stops here (Ahmed, 1998). According to Ahmed, the innovation requires an organizational culture that does not only rely of the allocation of funds but also strives for creating the environment constantly to guide the workers to be more creative (1998 p. 30). Innovation is a consistent pursuance rather than a constant entity which is to be felt that ultimately enables the business to see beyond the present and create a future (Ahmed, 1998 p.31).23. Team learning with Dialogue and discussionTeam learning can be viewed as the capacity of a group to engage appropriately in dialogue and discussion. There are three characteristics of effective team learning. Ability to think insightfully about complex issues and bring together the collective

intelligence of the team rather than the insight of the dominant individuals. Ability to provide innovative and coordinated action. This implies alignment of

minds between team members and a conscious awareness of other team members and their actions. The example of great jazz ensembles provides a useful metaphor for spontaneous and coordinated action.

Ability to share practices and skills between teams in organizations.

Dialogue: is the free and creative exploration of complex issues involving active listening and suspending one’s own view. The purpose of dialogue is to go beyond one’s own understanding and become an observer of one’s own thinking. This means suspending one’s own assumptions and playing with different ideas. Dialogue means letting go of power differentials between team players and treating each member equally. It means exploring our assumptions behind our closely held views. Dialogues are particularly useful for divergent thinking where we want a richer grasp of a complex issue rather than fostering agreement. All the early western philosophers such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle used dialogue in their development of knowledge.

Discussion: is complementary to dialogue and is best employed in situations of

convergent thinking and decision making. In discussion, different views are presented and defended and there is the search for the best view and arguments to support the decision that needs to be made. Discussions converge to a conclusion and a course of action. The assumption is that the best argument tends to win in discussions. However, it can be the best arguer using rhetoric or emotive language rather logic that wins as objective criteria against which the quality of and validity of an argument are rarely tested.Defensive routines of discussion: if an individual digs in their heels with their own perspective, this can lead to team conflict. Another is that individuals not wishing to confront their own thinking to save themselves from threat or embarrassment24. Data miningP108

25. Leveraging knowledge

26. Compliancy (Kotters definition)

27. Vision

28. Kurt Lewin’s change model

29. Change management

30. Change management: short term wins

31. Power of vision (in change management)

32. Intangible assets

33. Sense of urgency (in change management)

34. Knowledge management system

35. Resource based view of the firmP 166

36. Know-how and Know-what

37. Knowledge management toolP 89

38. Explicit knowledge & Tacit knowledge

39. Management

40. Core competence

41. Information systemP167