The Future of Work A presentation by Ray James October 3, 2006 Knowledge Management Systems ^ (Collaborative) Secondary Readings.

The Future of WorkThe Future of Work

A presentation by Ray James

October 3, 2006

Knowledge Management Systems

^(Colla

borative)

Secondary Readings

October 3, 2006 2

CoveringCovering• Teece: Research Directions in

Knowledge Management

• McDermott: Why Information Technology Inspired But Cannot Deliver Knowledge Management

• Masterton: Oracles, Bards, and Village Gossips, or, Social Roles and Meta Knowledge Management

October 3, 2006 3

Research DirectionsResearch Directions

• Past can inform present, future• Don’t re-invent the wheel• Use existing literatures in:

– Management of technology– Entrepreneurship– Business Strategy

• Don’t forget accounting, economics, entrepreneurship, behavioral studies, marketing, etc.

October 3, 2006 4

Research DirectionsResearch Directions• Does a business’s edge come from

what it knows that others don’t?

• Given an open market, what creates wealth these days: intangible assets & dynamic capabilities

• Challenging research methodology– Qualitative – Mixed methods

October 3, 2006 5

Research DirectionsResearch Directions• Discover how to value intangible assets

– Technological know-how– Brands– Customer relations– Others?

• Intellectual property for sale or rent

October 3, 2006 6

Research DirectionsResearch Directions• Where did those darling inputs?• Largely unknown input dimensions

– Information– Knowledge– Competences

• Largely unknown economics– Information– Knowledge and competence

• Need to know costs (value) of intangibles

October 3, 2006 7

Research DirectionsResearch Directions• Have you got a spare Tobus Q?

• Testing the relationships among intangibles (tacit knowledge) & profitability. How can it be done?

• It takes a generalist to raise a profit

October 3, 2006 8

Research DirectionsResearch Directions• Everybody can administer, can you

innovate?

• Can empirical research reveal why entrepreneurial enterprises (Silicon Valley) are quicker on their feet?

• Decentralize, decentralize, decentralize

• Other research directions?

October 3, 2006 9

IT can‘t deliver KMIT can‘t deliver KM

• IT creates ‘leveraged knowledge’ dreams

• Co-location of peers, ideas

• Change in work patterns based on electronic links

• Document and share, that’s it!

October 3, 2006 10

IT can‘t deliver KMIT can‘t deliver KM

• IT creates the vision

• IT can’t make it real

• Old norms don’t die, they just change their software

• F2F first then PC2PC

• Trap: use IM tools to design KM

October 3, 2006 11

IT can‘t deliver KMIT can‘t deliver KM

• Distinguishing knowledge/info

• Knowledge is human, residue of thinking, now, belongs to community, circulates in many ways, created at boundaries of old

• Humans needed to leverage knowledge

October 3, 2006 12

IT can‘t deliver KMIT can‘t deliver KM

• Knowledge is human act– Containing is not knowing

– Use it if you got it

– Professional practice• Turn knowledge into solutions• Put it to a purpose

• Thinking required (residue needed)

October 3, 2006 13

IT can‘t deliver KMIT can‘t deliver KM

• It’s happening now• Quick, tell me everything you know• ‘…living acting of knowing.’• Knowledge belongs to community

(Is sharing required?)• Knowledge flows P2P, G2G in

different ways – (water flows toward money)

October 3, 2006 14

IT can‘t deliver KMIT can‘t deliver KM

• Knowledge resides in books, file cabinets, minds, language, tools, routines, stories, axioms.

“Thought is an infection, some thoughts are an epidemic”

- Wallace Stevens

October 3, 2006 15

IT can‘t deliver KMIT can‘t deliver KM

• New knowledge is created at the boundaries of old knowledge

• Working outside the box

• Expand knowledge by sharing (blogging); it’s multiplex

October 3, 2006 16

IT can‘t deliver KMIT can‘t deliver KM

• Knowledge is what it is

• What’s really important is the community and it’s citizens

• Develop KM by developing community

• Create ‘space’ for thinking

• Community-driven sharing

October 3, 2006 17

IT can‘t deliver KMIT can‘t deliver KM

• To leverage knowledge– Create support structure– Use community’s terms for

organizing– Integrate into natural work flow– Culture change is community issue

• Important knowledge must be so for business and people

October 3, 2006 18

IT can‘t deliver KMIT can‘t deliver KM

• Key challenges in building KM communities– Technical– Social– Management– Personal

• The whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts

October 3, 2006 19

Social roles in KMSocial roles in KM

• KM has a KM problem

• How good are KM design tools?

• Social role/KM interface in organizations requires examination

• ‘Multiple role groupware’ produces conflict (work/benefit)

• KM systems can have problem

October 3, 2006 20

Social roles in KMSocial roles in KM

• ‘Intelligent agents’ solve problems without social conflict because they reside in the ether

• IA serve as matchmakers, editors, librarians, bards, and village gossips without a social cost

• H2H is social, H2C as well?

October 3, 2006 21

Social roles in KMSocial roles in KM

• ‘Intelligent agents’ work less well as we make them more human

• KM systems are diverse

• KM systems work differently at different levels – difficult to make usability study

October 3, 2006 22

Social roles in KMSocial roles in KM

• Use it, damn you, use it or I’ll …• Use of KM tools taper off after ‘new toy’

phase; WWW doesn’t work• Use failures may have social

component• Components of non-use of KMS

– Task-related problems*– Culture-related*– Individual-related*

October 3, 2006 23

Social roles in KMSocial roles in KM

• KMS failures mirror other collaborative systems problems

• KMS failures breakdown flow of valuable information

• Me and my PC, we and our PCs and this useless KMS

• Issues are complexity & magnification

October 3, 2006 24

Social roles in KMSocial roles in KM

• Since KMS are used in differing ways, problems differ

• Good early design can mitigate

• Examples– Answer garden

– Virtual participant

– British Telecom’s KSE

October 3, 2006 25

Social roles in KMSocial roles in KM• Answer Garden• Designed to aid information search for in

organization• User groups defined

– Tire-kickers– Intermittent users– Heavy users

• Answer Garden required two key changes– task related (additional software)– culture related (change in working practices)

October 3, 2006 26

Social roles in KMSocial roles in KM

• Virtual Participant designed to address observed problems in a computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment

• Core points stored, made available to current discussions

• Lack use came from complexity and failure of effort v. benefit

October 3, 2006 27

Social roles in KMSocial roles in KM

• KSE designed for closed systems to share explicit and tacit knowledge

• User-defined profile, user decisions

• Defines role in community

• System then acts as agent to gather and share information within the community

October 3, 2006 28

Social roles in KMSocial roles in KM

• Social dimensions in designing KMS– anthropomorphism vs. mechanomorphism– private vs. public– closed vs. open– fixed vs. extensible

• Usability and acceptance remain the key hurdles implementing KMS

October 3, 2006 29

Social roles in KMSocial roles in KM

“Knowledge management systems can, and genuinely do, play the roles of oracles, bards, and village gossips within today’s modern organizations. And why shouldn’t they?”

Well, what’s your opinion?

October 3, 2006 30

Questions?Questions?