Expertise Networks

A Framework for Intra, Inter and Global Knowledge Sharing in Organizations

Toronto Knowledge WorkersJoel Alleyne – January 28, 2009

Adjunct Instructor (UT)

iSchool

Medicine (HPME)

KMDI Practitioner in Residence

PhD Candidate

Consultant

Manager

Entrepreneur

(was) CKO / CIO – large law firm

Action Researcher

“The economic problem of society … is not merely a problem of how to allocate ‘given’ resources – if ‘given’ is taken to mean given to a single mind … It is rather a problem of how to secure the best use of resources known to any of the members of society … a problem of the utilization of knowledge which is not given to anyone in its totality.”

Hayek, The Use of Knowledge in Society,

American Economic Review, No 35 (September, 1945) pp. 1 - 18

Expertise researchers can be found across a number of interrelated disciplines, e.g.:

Cognitive science and psychology (Sternberg & Grigorenko, 2003),

Education (Bereiter & Scardamalia, 1993) and

Sociology (Evans, 2008)

Expertise researchers can be found across a number of interrelated disciplines, e.g.:

Philosophy (Selinger & Crease, 2006) Medicine (Groopman, 2007) Management (Stephenson, 2006)

Expertise networks are the social, technical, and organizational networks that connect experts with novices and other experts.◦ A type of analysis (lens) that uses social networks

that model the distribution of expertise in a domain and make explicit the level of expertise of the actors with respect to that domain

Novice(s)

Expert(s)Intermediate(s

)

Expertise Networking is central to and supportive of

Knowledge Management

Effective problem-solving Sound decision-making Team collaboration Competitiveness Growing Complexity Market differentiation Innovation in products and services Coordination

Core to the business

Pervasive

A “lens” for examining the enterprise and also intra-enterprise opportunities

Better understanding of expertise networks will facilitate:◦ Identifying and locating experts and expertise◦ The sharing of knowledge, wisdom, and

experience.◦ Access to hidden or tacit knowledge resources.◦ The improved networking of a firm’s intellectual

(and human) capital assets.◦ An important channel for the acquisition, sharing,

trading and distribution of knowledge

Also … leads to optimization◦ When optimized – should pay dividends for an

organization

Goes beyond general repository-based approaches to knowledge management

Expertise Management (Kotlarsky, Oshri, & Fenema, 2008)

Expertise Sharing (Ackerman, Pipek, & Wulf, 2002)

Expertise Location (Ackerman & McDonald, 1998)

(References are examples only)

Expertise Communities / Communities of Experts (Benton & Giovagnoli, 2006; Hakkarainen & European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction., 2004)

Expert Directories / Yellow Pages (Collinson & Parcell, 2001)


Connected Intelligence (De Kerckhove & Rowland, 1998);

Distributed Mind (Fisher & Fisher, 1998); Collective Intelligence (Levy, 1997) Epistemic Communities (Haas, 1992)


Advice Networks (Stephenson, 2006) Automated discovery of expertise

(search vendors and Mitre.org) Knowledge Network/ing (Allee, 2003;

Skyrme, 1999) Talent Networks / Talent Management

(Bryan & Joyce, 2007); (Cappelli, 2008)


Expertise mapping Expertise markets Expertise recognition Expertise continuity Expertise utilization Expertise optimization Expertise networking

Expertise conduits Expertise recommenders Expertise development Expertise in context Expertise exchange (ask an expert) Expertise discovery Expertise profiling

British Petroleum Hill and Knowlton Morrison & Foerster IBM – Beehive IBM – Small Blue

Borden Ladner Gervais LLP Health Care – Inter-Professional Care School Board Utility Co – Central America Cubeless (Sabre)

Initiatives in several jurisdictions Goal: to optimize the use of health human

capital (expertise)◦ Effective, efficient, economical◦ Reduce fragmentation and lower costs (Retchin,

2008)

Several (overlapping) terms used in the health care literature

• Inter-professional • Collaborative• Interdisciplinary, • Trans-disciplinary

• Multidisciplinary, • Multi-professional• Coordinated• Transprofessional

This appears to be fertile ground for the examination of expertise networking

Experts in IPE/IPC cross disciplinary boundaries

Removing / transcending traditional cultural and organizational barriers appear to be a challenge

Within the IPC Expertise network Knowledge practices, knowledge sharing,

knowledge transfer, knowledge translation (from research to practice)

Collaboration, coordination and communication

Informatics Support◦ Shared record keeping – the electronic record

(necessary but not sufficient)◦ E-learning, e-cases◦ Social / Knowledge Media◦ Modeling and simulation / case based – virtual

worlds? Gaming?◦ Directories

Research will focus on IPC / IPE (clinical settings)

Examine existing knowledge practices Examine (case) attempts to change

behaviours and processes in a care setting

Develop understanding of the expertise networks and how they function in this setting◦ Further develop (inform and expand) theory of

expertise networking based upon experiences Opportunities (domains)

◦ Long term care◦ Primary care

A system for locating experts in the organization (expert locator)

A network of our internal experts (expert network)

A directory to experts (expert directory)

A system that enable one to search for internal expertise (expertise search system)

A system that allows us to discover capabilities existing in (expert discovery)

A system that allows users to ask questions and to receive answers from experts within your organization (question and answer exchange)

A system that facilitates collaboration between experts and non-experts (expert collaboration)

A system that hosts a community of internal experts (expert community)

A system that allows experts to share their knowledge (expert knowledge-sharing)

A virtual marketplace system that allows experts to swap and trade what they know in response to the demand for knowledge and their ability to supply expertise (expert marketplace)

A system that facilitates the profiling of experts capabilities (expertise profiling)

Technology that allows the visual mapping of expertise connections (expertise mapping) – e.g. using ◦ social network analysis◦ Knowledge Mapping, and◦ other techniques.

A system that acts as a pointer to expert know-how (who knows what)

A system that tracks skills and capabilities and therefore can support future workforce planning. (“workforce value chain”)

Your input is valued Looking for

◦ Ideas◦ Points◦ References◦ Cases

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