DIS08
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Assignment – I
Assignment Code: 2017DIS08B1 Maximum Marks: 100
Last date of Submission: 15th November 2017
Section A (50 Marks)
Q1. Describe three ways technology has changed the way people perform their work task
and roles. How has this influenced the ways organizations operate?
Q2. Why do we need to plan for knowledge culture development? Is a written plan of any
Value ? Why?
Section B (50 Marks)
Attempt all questions provided at the end of case reference . All questions carry equal marks.
Case Reference: Notes from Knowledge Management Expert.
Following are the notes taken from an Internal Memo generated by a Knowledge Management Expert to improve organizational efficiency. Please read
Why Knowledge Management?
While most managers agree that managing knowledge is important, few of them can articulate what the value is or how to become a learning, teaching, or coaching organization. The majority of companies have their knowledge embedded in people and organizations. It is often intuitive, tacit, rather than explicit, and is rarely detailed enough to be especially valuable. Such knowledge often gets lost when someone leaves the company. "All too often, knowledge exists with multiple points of view instead of the collective best thinking. It is occasional but not integral to the business. And, most important, it is available but not used very much."
Real Value of Knowledge
The value of knowledge is measured in its application. Knowledge has no intrinsic value of its own - it is only relevant when it is used. "The real value of it is only real if you change the way business is done."
Knowledge Management versus Information Management
"Knowledge management" is different from "information management". While the former targets collecting and distributing knowledge - both explicit and tacit - throughout the organization, the latter deals mainly with documented explicit knowledge - or information - only.
Most companies create, have access to, and use plenty of bits of knowledge, but neither efficiently, nor effectively.
The increased emphasis on knowledge management is attributed to recent rapid developments in the following areas:
On a practical level:
1. Shift to the new knowledge-driven economy dominated by knowledge-based enterprises and information-intensive industries
2. Rapid advances in information technology.
On a theoretical level, increased emphasis on knowledge in the strategic management literature, in particular:
1. Popularity of the new resource-based view of the company
2. Postmodern perspectives on organizations
The Dynamic Theory of Knowledge Creation
The current paradigm in which organizations process information efficiently in an “input-process-output” cycle represents a “passive and static view of the organization.13 Organizational learning results from a process in which individual knowledge is transferred, enlarged, and shared upwardly to the organizational level. This process is characterized as a spiral of knowledge conversion from tacit to explicit. In the broadest sense, organizational knowledge creation may be explicated by the interchange between tacit and explicit knowledge.
Tacit knowledge is a subtle conception rooted in cognitive schemata referred to as “mental models” and is rather difficult to articulate.14 It is highly personal and hard to formalize, making it difficult to communicate or to share with others. Subjective insights, intuitions, and hunches fall into this category of knowledge.
On the other hand, explicit knowledge is more easily transmitted as it is characteristically codified. As such, explicit knowledge is more easily processed and shared with others. Knowledge conversion initiates at the individual level as a “justified true belief” and is expanded through social interactions to include a diversity of perspectives that ultimately represent shared knowledge at the organizational level.
Tacit Knowledge as a Source of Competitive Advantage
Tacit knowledge underlies many competitive capabilities. The experience, stored as tacit knowledge, often reaches consciousness in the form of insights, intuitions, and flashes of inspiration. The marvelous capacity of your mind to make sense of your previous collection of experiences and to connect patterns from the past to the present and future is essential to the innovation process. "The creativity necessary for innovation derives not only from obvious and visible expertise, but from invisible reservoirs of experience."1
Tacit knowledge, or implicit knowledge, as opposite to explicit knowledge, is far less tangible and is deeply embedded into an organization's operating practices. It is often called 'organizational culture'. "Tacit knowledge includes relationships, norms, values, and standard operating procedures. Because tacit knowledge is much harder to detail, copy, and distribute, it can be a sustainable source of competitive advantage. What increasingly differentiates success and failure is how well you locate, leverage, and blend available explicit knowledge with internally generated tacit knowledge." Inaccessible from explicit expositions, tacit knowledge is protected from competitors unless key individuals are hired away.
Innovation Process: Diversion and Conversion of Ideas
"The process of innovation is a rhythm of search and selection, exploration and synthesis, cycles of divergent thinking followed by convergence". Divergence, or creative synthesis, is the interlocking of previously unrelated skills, or matrices of thought. The creation of such intellectual ferment is important to innovation - the more options offered, the more likely that an out-of-the-box perspective will be available for selection. Just hearing a very different perspective challenges the mindset of others sufficiently that they will search beyond what initially appears to be an obvious solution. This is a reason that intellectually heterogeneous cross-functional teams are more innovative than homogenous functional ones.
As soon as a sufficient choice of innovative ideas has been generated, a solution - convergence upon acceptable action - needs to be defined and agreed upon.
Confining the noting here to managing the tacit dimensions of knowledge three types of tacit knowledge - overlapping specific, collective, and guiding - need to be managed.
Managing Tacit Knowledge
Managing tacit knowledge is a significant challenge in the business world - and it requires more than mere awareness of barriers.
During the new idea generation - divergent thinking - phase, people create a wealth of possible solutions to a problem. "Chaos succeeds in creating newness because it takes place in a system that is non-linear". In a well-managed development process, where a group of diverse individuals addresses a common challenge, varying perspectives foster creative abrasion, intellectual conflict between diverse viewpoints producing energy that is channeled into new ideas.
Mechanisms by which collective tacit knowledge is created and tapped include:
• Brainstorming - gathering together a set of experts with diverse skills, preferably including client representatives. Main rules to be followed during the idea generation phase: defer judgments; build on the ideas of others; one conversation at one time; stay focused on the topic; and think outside the box - encourage wild ideas. All ideas should be recorded and discussed during the selection - convergent thinking - phase.
• In large organizations that are conceived as a collective of communities, separate community perspectives can be amplified by interchanges in order to increase divergent thinking. "Out of this friction of competing ideas can come the sort of improvisational sparks necessary for igniting organizational innovation".1
Managers and innovation team leaders can use tacit knowledge to aid convergent thinking by creating guiding visions and concepts for teams involved in innovation.
Distinguishing between Data, Information, and Knowledge
• Data - symbols or facts out of context, and thus not directly nor immediately meaningful
• Information - data placed within some interpretive context, and thus acquiring meaning and
value
• Knowledge - meaningfully structured accumulation of information; information that is relevant, actionable, and based at least partially on experience
Distinguishing between Explicit and Tacit Knowledge1
• Explicit knowledge - can be formally articulated or encoded; can be more easily transferred or shared; is abstract and removed from direct experience
• Tacit knowledge - knowledge-in-practice; developed from direct experience and action; highly pragmatic and situation specific; subconsciously understood and applied; difficult to articulate; usually shared through highly interactive conversation and shared experience.
Application of Tacit Knowledge in Innovation
• Problem solving - experts, as opposite to novices, can solve a problem more readily as they have in mind a pattern born of experience, which they can overlay on a particular problem and use to quickly detect a solution
• Problem finding - linking a general sense of intellectual or existential unease to radical innovation: creative problem framing allows the rejection of the "obvious" answer to a problem in favor of asking a wholly different question. Intuitive discovery is often not simply an answer to the specific problem but an insight into its real nature.
Tacit Knowledge as a Source of Competitive Advantage
• Individual tacit knowledge - is not publicly available except as embodied in people
• Collective tacit knowledge - is woven into the fabric of an organization and is not easily imitated
Barriers to the Sharing of Tacit Knowledge
• Hierarchies, when they implicitly assume wisdom accrues to those with the most impressive organizational titles
• Strong preferences for analysis over intuition discouraging employees to offer ideas without "hard facts" to back it up
• Penalties for failure discouraging experimentation
• Strong preferences for a particular type of communication within working groups
• Fear of failing to express the inexpressible when trying to convert tacit knowledge into explicit one
• Inequality in status among the participants is a strong inhibitor for tacit knowledge sharing, especially when exacerbated by different frameworks for assessing information
• Uneasiness of expressing emotional life experiences rather than intellectual disagreements
• Distance, both physical separation and time
Questions:
1. Do you agree with the views of the Knowledge Management Expert on the need and salience of managing knowledge in organizations? If yes, Why? If no, why not?
2. What is tacit Knowledge? How is it different from explicit knowledge? Elaborate.
3. What in your view is the role played by tacit knowledge in creating competitive advantage? Explain.
4. What are the barriers to sharing tacit knowledge in an organization? Recommend strategies to overcome these barriers.
DIS08
Knowledge Management
Assignment – II
Assignment Code: 2017DIS08B2 Maximum Marks: 100
Last date of Submission: 15th November 2017
Section A (50 Marks)
Q1. How would you describe the concept of a knowledge service to a CEO? What value
Would you suggest might be derived from such a service?
Q2. Why does human resource management affect knowledge management?
Section B (50 Marks)
Attempt all the questions given at the end of the Case. All questions carry equal marks.
Case Study: Knowledge Portal at Cisco
By John Schneble
(Sources: http://www.learningcircuits.org/2002/may2002/schneble.html)
Cisco wanted to rapidly grow their new Service and Support Advocacy group, from 20 to 120 people. To accomplish that goal, Cisco needed a way to capture and share the expertise of its more experienced service and support managers. Because this was a new group, training and ongoing support resources were limited. Although Cisco’s corporate intranet contained a portion of the needed resources, the time and effort required by new hires to locate them was costly. Here's how Cisco and their partner VisionCor designed, developed, and deployed a knowledge portal that provides service and support managers with a single source for learning, performance support, and ongoing knowledge sharing needs.
As the leading supplier of high-performance internetworking products, Cisco provides most of the infrastructure for the Internet. With more than 40,000 employees and record growth, the need for quick and easy access to information is vital to Cisco’s ongoing success.
To manage costs and practice what they preach, Cisco runs a significant amount of internal operations on its corporate intranet, which is critical to customer support. Indeed, exemplary customer service ranks high in the minds of Cisco employees—starting at the top. Each night, Cisco CEO John Chambers spends nearly 40 percent of his time listening to customers and personally reviewing all key accounts. In addition, Cisco created the service and support manager (SSM) role to provide a single point-of-contact for large clients. This one-to-one relationship gives customers a resource that understands and even anticipates their needs—a role that benefits both Cisco and the customer.
The business objective
With the goal of hiring 250 service and support managers in a period of 18 months, Cisco needed a comprehensive knowledge management solution that provided new SSMs with immediate access to crucial resources as well as orientation and reference information. Fast access to this information would help reduce the time to proficiency in Cisco's fast-paced work environment. Cisco also needed to leverage the expertise of its experienced SSMs by capturing and sharing their knowledge. Vital to SSMs' success was user-friendly access to all of this information. The three key objectives of the new initiative were
• Minimize time-to-proficiency. Orient new SSMs within 90 days of hire date by providing just enough of the right information about Cisco, its customer advocacy organization, and the SSM role in order for SSMs to become productive as soon as possible.
• Maximize performance and sharing of knowledge assets. Provide information specific to the SSM role, such as best practices of how other SSMs handled certain customer situations, goal setting, and advice on when and how to engage other departments within Cisco.
• Foster ongoing learning and communication. Within Cisco’s geographically dispersed work environment, develop a communication vehicle for sharing information and experiences with other team members.
The solution
Because Cisco is an Internet-centered company, a Web-based resource was essential. Rather than build the resource itself, the company looked to a partner to speed the development process. Senior manager Todd Griffin wanted a partner with experience researching, analyzing, and organizing complex environments. "There are plenty of Internet consulting firms out there, but we needed a partner with real knowledge management expertise and a proven methodology," says Griffin.
Enter VisionCor's Integrated Knowledge Architecture (IKA), which is an object-oriented approach to organizing content based on how the content is used. IKA provides a guide for organizing information, learning, and knowledge into smaller pieces called knowledge objects and building meaningful relationships between those objects. As a result, the end-user can locate the critical information needed to improve performance more quickly and easily. IKA is technology-neutral and can be used to leverage the capabilities of most major portal or knowledge management platforms. According to Griffin, "VisionCor understands how to determine what information to gather or build and how to organize the information so it's useful."
To build Cisco's solution, VisionCor assigned a team of consultants that included expert content developers, information architects, and a project manager. The project plan was developed based on VisionCor's development methodology in conjunction with its IKA methodology. The high-level steps were
• define the site's purpose
• define the site's content
• classify and organize the content
• identify and develop knowledge objects
• define the site's organizational and navigational schemes
• create a site maintenance plan
• create and rapidly deploy a prototype
• validate the site design by conducting a usability test
• make necessary changes based on the usability test
• continue to maintain, cultivate, and migrate knowledge
• conduct periodic value-add measurements to ensure continued effectiveness.
Status reports, project schedules, and conference calls kept the VisionCor team in Charlotte in synch with the Cisco teams in Chicago, New York, San Jose, California, and Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. After a complete project and role analysis, the project was divided into four distinct phases.
Phase 1: Quick hits. With new hires already in place and looking for direction, there was an immediate need for a 90-day new hire roadmap. Because the initial portal would be text-based, including rich detail and context was vital. Through interviews with existing SSMs and managers, the VisionCor team gathered, analyzed, and organized the events and tasks required for a new SSM.
The project sponsor and business leads helped select the best people to interview. A mix of new hires and experienced SSMs were consulted to determine the most useful and valuable information to include. However, any SSM who would use the portal was welcome to participate. To minimize the burden on people to contribute to the knowledge portal, interviewers maintained a reporter-type position to solicit content and ensure consistent writing and formatting, which varied based on the content type.
Within 45 days, the most important new hire information was made available on a text-based Website.
Phase 2: Initial development. Because the SSM role was a new and highly strategic one within Cisco, the VisionCor team conducted additional interviews to help build consensus within the company on some of the aspects of the SSM role. With a consensus in place, VisionCor built an overall site map and detailed content plan. The site look and feel was designed around content, audience analysis, and the existing intranet. Information was then converted into a Web format.
Once the site navigation, graphics, and initial content were developed, VisionCor conducted usability tests to ensure that the site structure was intuitive and content was meaningful. Experienced SSMs tested specific scenarios to ensure maximized usability. Testers varied from new hires to experts and leaders. Usability tests also helped to determine what content should be linked to other content to help maximize the content's value.
The entire development process took approximately 90 days from start to finish.
Phase 3: Core development. With the initial content online and tested, development and coding of final site content began. To confirm that the team was still on target, VisionCor conducted additional analysis on the SSM role and reviewed content categorization. The remaining content needed for a full-service portal was gathered, developed, and coded, with additional interviews conducted as necessary.
Next, developers began integrating content so that navigation was intuitive, which required a thorough understanding of the audience and how they would use the portal. To do that, VisionCor employed its own methodology for organizing content into knowledge objects and building relationships between them. Structuring content as objects based on how the information will be used gives developers an intuitive guide for building relationships and links between individual objects, what VisionCor calls chains of inquiry.
Next, the knowledge portal was retested. Users were given varied scenarios or situations and asked to use the Website to find the information they needed to best respond the situation. Developers conducted analysis based on how SSMs used--and didn't use--the portal. In addition to providing feedback, the usability tests also assisted in user acceptance of the site, which is vital to the success of any knowledge management initiative.
The team completed development and testing of the finished knowledge portal in approximately 120 days.
Phase 4: Ongoing knowledge cultivation. Because the portal is a growing collection of knowledge and experience, ongoing development continues through periodic reviews and additions to the Website.
It's important to note that although the project timeline was sectioned into four distinct phases, new content and iterations of the site's design were migrated weekly.
The results
Cisco's service and support advocacy intranet site was very well received within the SSM organization. "Everything I need is in one place. I can find what I need when I need it without having to wait on an email reply, walk around looking for someone, or search through gigabytes of information on the intranet. Plus, after working through difficult situations, I can post my lessons learned on the site so my colleagues can learn from my experiences," says Mike Pusich, SSM for Boeing. Rob Dacey, SSM for GM adds, "It guided me through my first 90 days, helped me build a support team,and introduced me to other SSMs. Now I'm using it to define my objectives. Basically, this site just makes my job easier and gives me more time to focus on serving my customer."
Currently, Cisco is working with VisionCor to leverage the knowledge and benefits gained from the SSM project into other areas of their organization. Cisco's record-breaking growth and razor-sharp focus on customer satisfaction could be problematic, but VisionCor’s knowledge management expertise coupled with Cisco’s commitment to customer satisfaction turned Cisco’s information overload into knowledge-on-demand.
Answer following questions:
1. With the help of Internet and other sources of information acquire knowledge about ‘Networking Industry’ in general and CISCO and its competitors in particular and write a report in 500 words.
2. In the above case identify problems and rewrite the solutions suggested.
3. With your imagination (or based on your experience) describe a scenario where such an approach of knowledge sharing and dissemination can be (or has been) designed and implemented.
4. Discuss a structured approach to monitor and evaluate on a continuous basis the process described in the case.
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
Assignment – I
Assignment Code: 2017DIS08B1 Maximum Marks: 100
Last date of Submission: 15th November 2017
Section A (50 Marks)
Q1. Describe three ways technology has changed the way people perform their work task
and roles. How has this influenced the ways organizations operate?
Q2. Why do we need to plan for knowledge culture development? Is a written plan of any
Value ? Why?
Section B (50 Marks)
Attempt all questions provided at the end of case reference . All questions carry equal marks.
Case Reference: Notes from Knowledge Management Expert.
Following are the notes taken from an Internal Memo generated by a Knowledge Management Expert to improve organizational efficiency. Please read
Why Knowledge Management?
While most managers agree that managing knowledge is important, few of them can articulate what the value is or how to become a learning, teaching, or coaching organization. The majority of companies have their knowledge embedded in people and organizations. It is often intuitive, tacit, rather than explicit, and is rarely detailed enough to be especially valuable. Such knowledge often gets lost when someone leaves the company. "All too often, knowledge exists with multiple points of view instead of the collective best thinking. It is occasional but not integral to the business. And, most important, it is available but not used very much."
Real Value of Knowledge
The value of knowledge is measured in its application. Knowledge has no intrinsic value of its own - it is only relevant when it is used. "The real value of it is only real if you change the way business is done."
Knowledge Management versus Information Management
"Knowledge management" is different from "information management". While the former targets collecting and distributing knowledge - both explicit and tacit - throughout the organization, the latter deals mainly with documented explicit knowledge - or information - only.
Most companies create, have access to, and use plenty of bits of knowledge, but neither efficiently, nor effectively.
The increased emphasis on knowledge management is attributed to recent rapid developments in the following areas:
On a practical level:
1. Shift to the new knowledge-driven economy dominated by knowledge-based enterprises and information-intensive industries
2. Rapid advances in information technology.
On a theoretical level, increased emphasis on knowledge in the strategic management literature, in particular:
1. Popularity of the new resource-based view of the company
2. Postmodern perspectives on organizations
The Dynamic Theory of Knowledge Creation
The current paradigm in which organizations process information efficiently in an “input-process-output” cycle represents a “passive and static view of the organization.13 Organizational learning results from a process in which individual knowledge is transferred, enlarged, and shared upwardly to the organizational level. This process is characterized as a spiral of knowledge conversion from tacit to explicit. In the broadest sense, organizational knowledge creation may be explicated by the interchange between tacit and explicit knowledge.
Tacit knowledge is a subtle conception rooted in cognitive schemata referred to as “mental models” and is rather difficult to articulate.14 It is highly personal and hard to formalize, making it difficult to communicate or to share with others. Subjective insights, intuitions, and hunches fall into this category of knowledge.
On the other hand, explicit knowledge is more easily transmitted as it is characteristically codified. As such, explicit knowledge is more easily processed and shared with others. Knowledge conversion initiates at the individual level as a “justified true belief” and is expanded through social interactions to include a diversity of perspectives that ultimately represent shared knowledge at the organizational level.
Tacit Knowledge as a Source of Competitive Advantage
Tacit knowledge underlies many competitive capabilities. The experience, stored as tacit knowledge, often reaches consciousness in the form of insights, intuitions, and flashes of inspiration. The marvelous capacity of your mind to make sense of your previous collection of experiences and to connect patterns from the past to the present and future is essential to the innovation process. "The creativity necessary for innovation derives not only from obvious and visible expertise, but from invisible reservoirs of experience."1
Tacit knowledge, or implicit knowledge, as opposite to explicit knowledge, is far less tangible and is deeply embedded into an organization's operating practices. It is often called 'organizational culture'. "Tacit knowledge includes relationships, norms, values, and standard operating procedures. Because tacit knowledge is much harder to detail, copy, and distribute, it can be a sustainable source of competitive advantage. What increasingly differentiates success and failure is how well you locate, leverage, and blend available explicit knowledge with internally generated tacit knowledge." Inaccessible from explicit expositions, tacit knowledge is protected from competitors unless key individuals are hired away.
Innovation Process: Diversion and Conversion of Ideas
"The process of innovation is a rhythm of search and selection, exploration and synthesis, cycles of divergent thinking followed by convergence". Divergence, or creative synthesis, is the interlocking of previously unrelated skills, or matrices of thought. The creation of such intellectual ferment is important to innovation - the more options offered, the more likely that an out-of-the-box perspective will be available for selection. Just hearing a very different perspective challenges the mindset of others sufficiently that they will search beyond what initially appears to be an obvious solution. This is a reason that intellectually heterogeneous cross-functional teams are more innovative than homogenous functional ones.
As soon as a sufficient choice of innovative ideas has been generated, a solution - convergence upon acceptable action - needs to be defined and agreed upon.
Confining the noting here to managing the tacit dimensions of knowledge three types of tacit knowledge - overlapping specific, collective, and guiding - need to be managed.
Managing Tacit Knowledge
Managing tacit knowledge is a significant challenge in the business world - and it requires more than mere awareness of barriers.
During the new idea generation - divergent thinking - phase, people create a wealth of possible solutions to a problem. "Chaos succeeds in creating newness because it takes place in a system that is non-linear". In a well-managed development process, where a group of diverse individuals addresses a common challenge, varying perspectives foster creative abrasion, intellectual conflict between diverse viewpoints producing energy that is channeled into new ideas.
Mechanisms by which collective tacit knowledge is created and tapped include:
• Brainstorming - gathering together a set of experts with diverse skills, preferably including client representatives. Main rules to be followed during the idea generation phase: defer judgments; build on the ideas of others; one conversation at one time; stay focused on the topic; and think outside the box - encourage wild ideas. All ideas should be recorded and discussed during the selection - convergent thinking - phase.
• In large organizations that are conceived as a collective of communities, separate community perspectives can be amplified by interchanges in order to increase divergent thinking. "Out of this friction of competing ideas can come the sort of improvisational sparks necessary for igniting organizational innovation".1
Managers and innovation team leaders can use tacit knowledge to aid convergent thinking by creating guiding visions and concepts for teams involved in innovation.
Distinguishing between Data, Information, and Knowledge
• Data - symbols or facts out of context, and thus not directly nor immediately meaningful
• Information - data placed within some interpretive context, and thus acquiring meaning and
value
• Knowledge - meaningfully structured accumulation of information; information that is relevant, actionable, and based at least partially on experience
Distinguishing between Explicit and Tacit Knowledge1
• Explicit knowledge - can be formally articulated or encoded; can be more easily transferred or shared; is abstract and removed from direct experience
• Tacit knowledge - knowledge-in-practice; developed from direct experience and action; highly pragmatic and situation specific; subconsciously understood and applied; difficult to articulate; usually shared through highly interactive conversation and shared experience.
Application of Tacit Knowledge in Innovation
• Problem solving - experts, as opposite to novices, can solve a problem more readily as they have in mind a pattern born of experience, which they can overlay on a particular problem and use to quickly detect a solution
• Problem finding - linking a general sense of intellectual or existential unease to radical innovation: creative problem framing allows the rejection of the "obvious" answer to a problem in favor of asking a wholly different question. Intuitive discovery is often not simply an answer to the specific problem but an insight into its real nature.
Tacit Knowledge as a Source of Competitive Advantage
• Individual tacit knowledge - is not publicly available except as embodied in people
• Collective tacit knowledge - is woven into the fabric of an organization and is not easily imitated
Barriers to the Sharing of Tacit Knowledge
• Hierarchies, when they implicitly assume wisdom accrues to those with the most impressive organizational titles
• Strong preferences for analysis over intuition discouraging employees to offer ideas without "hard facts" to back it up
• Penalties for failure discouraging experimentation
• Strong preferences for a particular type of communication within working groups
• Fear of failing to express the inexpressible when trying to convert tacit knowledge into explicit one
• Inequality in status among the participants is a strong inhibitor for tacit knowledge sharing, especially when exacerbated by different frameworks for assessing information
• Uneasiness of expressing emotional life experiences rather than intellectual disagreements
• Distance, both physical separation and time
Questions:
1. Do you agree with the views of the Knowledge Management Expert on the need and salience of managing knowledge in organizations? If yes, Why? If no, why not?
2. What is tacit Knowledge? How is it different from explicit knowledge? Elaborate.
3. What in your view is the role played by tacit knowledge in creating competitive advantage? Explain.
4. What are the barriers to sharing tacit knowledge in an organization? Recommend strategies to overcome these barriers.
DIS08
Knowledge Management
Assignment – II
Assignment Code: 2017DIS08B2 Maximum Marks: 100
Last date of Submission: 15th November 2017
Section A (50 Marks)
Q1. How would you describe the concept of a knowledge service to a CEO? What value
Would you suggest might be derived from such a service?
Q2. Why does human resource management affect knowledge management?
Section B (50 Marks)
Attempt all the questions given at the end of the Case. All questions carry equal marks.
Case Study: Knowledge Portal at Cisco
By John Schneble
(Sources: http://www.learningcircuits.org/2002/may2002/schneble.html)
Cisco wanted to rapidly grow their new Service and Support Advocacy group, from 20 to 120 people. To accomplish that goal, Cisco needed a way to capture and share the expertise of its more experienced service and support managers. Because this was a new group, training and ongoing support resources were limited. Although Cisco’s corporate intranet contained a portion of the needed resources, the time and effort required by new hires to locate them was costly. Here's how Cisco and their partner VisionCor designed, developed, and deployed a knowledge portal that provides service and support managers with a single source for learning, performance support, and ongoing knowledge sharing needs.
As the leading supplier of high-performance internetworking products, Cisco provides most of the infrastructure for the Internet. With more than 40,000 employees and record growth, the need for quick and easy access to information is vital to Cisco’s ongoing success.
To manage costs and practice what they preach, Cisco runs a significant amount of internal operations on its corporate intranet, which is critical to customer support. Indeed, exemplary customer service ranks high in the minds of Cisco employees—starting at the top. Each night, Cisco CEO John Chambers spends nearly 40 percent of his time listening to customers and personally reviewing all key accounts. In addition, Cisco created the service and support manager (SSM) role to provide a single point-of-contact for large clients. This one-to-one relationship gives customers a resource that understands and even anticipates their needs—a role that benefits both Cisco and the customer.
The business objective
With the goal of hiring 250 service and support managers in a period of 18 months, Cisco needed a comprehensive knowledge management solution that provided new SSMs with immediate access to crucial resources as well as orientation and reference information. Fast access to this information would help reduce the time to proficiency in Cisco's fast-paced work environment. Cisco also needed to leverage the expertise of its experienced SSMs by capturing and sharing their knowledge. Vital to SSMs' success was user-friendly access to all of this information. The three key objectives of the new initiative were
• Minimize time-to-proficiency. Orient new SSMs within 90 days of hire date by providing just enough of the right information about Cisco, its customer advocacy organization, and the SSM role in order for SSMs to become productive as soon as possible.
• Maximize performance and sharing of knowledge assets. Provide information specific to the SSM role, such as best practices of how other SSMs handled certain customer situations, goal setting, and advice on when and how to engage other departments within Cisco.
• Foster ongoing learning and communication. Within Cisco’s geographically dispersed work environment, develop a communication vehicle for sharing information and experiences with other team members.
The solution
Because Cisco is an Internet-centered company, a Web-based resource was essential. Rather than build the resource itself, the company looked to a partner to speed the development process. Senior manager Todd Griffin wanted a partner with experience researching, analyzing, and organizing complex environments. "There are plenty of Internet consulting firms out there, but we needed a partner with real knowledge management expertise and a proven methodology," says Griffin.
Enter VisionCor's Integrated Knowledge Architecture (IKA), which is an object-oriented approach to organizing content based on how the content is used. IKA provides a guide for organizing information, learning, and knowledge into smaller pieces called knowledge objects and building meaningful relationships between those objects. As a result, the end-user can locate the critical information needed to improve performance more quickly and easily. IKA is technology-neutral and can be used to leverage the capabilities of most major portal or knowledge management platforms. According to Griffin, "VisionCor understands how to determine what information to gather or build and how to organize the information so it's useful."
To build Cisco's solution, VisionCor assigned a team of consultants that included expert content developers, information architects, and a project manager. The project plan was developed based on VisionCor's development methodology in conjunction with its IKA methodology. The high-level steps were
• define the site's purpose
• define the site's content
• classify and organize the content
• identify and develop knowledge objects
• define the site's organizational and navigational schemes
• create a site maintenance plan
• create and rapidly deploy a prototype
• validate the site design by conducting a usability test
• make necessary changes based on the usability test
• continue to maintain, cultivate, and migrate knowledge
• conduct periodic value-add measurements to ensure continued effectiveness.
Status reports, project schedules, and conference calls kept the VisionCor team in Charlotte in synch with the Cisco teams in Chicago, New York, San Jose, California, and Research Triangle Park, North Carolina. After a complete project and role analysis, the project was divided into four distinct phases.
Phase 1: Quick hits. With new hires already in place and looking for direction, there was an immediate need for a 90-day new hire roadmap. Because the initial portal would be text-based, including rich detail and context was vital. Through interviews with existing SSMs and managers, the VisionCor team gathered, analyzed, and organized the events and tasks required for a new SSM.
The project sponsor and business leads helped select the best people to interview. A mix of new hires and experienced SSMs were consulted to determine the most useful and valuable information to include. However, any SSM who would use the portal was welcome to participate. To minimize the burden on people to contribute to the knowledge portal, interviewers maintained a reporter-type position to solicit content and ensure consistent writing and formatting, which varied based on the content type.
Within 45 days, the most important new hire information was made available on a text-based Website.
Phase 2: Initial development. Because the SSM role was a new and highly strategic one within Cisco, the VisionCor team conducted additional interviews to help build consensus within the company on some of the aspects of the SSM role. With a consensus in place, VisionCor built an overall site map and detailed content plan. The site look and feel was designed around content, audience analysis, and the existing intranet. Information was then converted into a Web format.
Once the site navigation, graphics, and initial content were developed, VisionCor conducted usability tests to ensure that the site structure was intuitive and content was meaningful. Experienced SSMs tested specific scenarios to ensure maximized usability. Testers varied from new hires to experts and leaders. Usability tests also helped to determine what content should be linked to other content to help maximize the content's value.
The entire development process took approximately 90 days from start to finish.
Phase 3: Core development. With the initial content online and tested, development and coding of final site content began. To confirm that the team was still on target, VisionCor conducted additional analysis on the SSM role and reviewed content categorization. The remaining content needed for a full-service portal was gathered, developed, and coded, with additional interviews conducted as necessary.
Next, developers began integrating content so that navigation was intuitive, which required a thorough understanding of the audience and how they would use the portal. To do that, VisionCor employed its own methodology for organizing content into knowledge objects and building relationships between them. Structuring content as objects based on how the information will be used gives developers an intuitive guide for building relationships and links between individual objects, what VisionCor calls chains of inquiry.
Next, the knowledge portal was retested. Users were given varied scenarios or situations and asked to use the Website to find the information they needed to best respond the situation. Developers conducted analysis based on how SSMs used--and didn't use--the portal. In addition to providing feedback, the usability tests also assisted in user acceptance of the site, which is vital to the success of any knowledge management initiative.
The team completed development and testing of the finished knowledge portal in approximately 120 days.
Phase 4: Ongoing knowledge cultivation. Because the portal is a growing collection of knowledge and experience, ongoing development continues through periodic reviews and additions to the Website.
It's important to note that although the project timeline was sectioned into four distinct phases, new content and iterations of the site's design were migrated weekly.
The results
Cisco's service and support advocacy intranet site was very well received within the SSM organization. "Everything I need is in one place. I can find what I need when I need it without having to wait on an email reply, walk around looking for someone, or search through gigabytes of information on the intranet. Plus, after working through difficult situations, I can post my lessons learned on the site so my colleagues can learn from my experiences," says Mike Pusich, SSM for Boeing. Rob Dacey, SSM for GM adds, "It guided me through my first 90 days, helped me build a support team,and introduced me to other SSMs. Now I'm using it to define my objectives. Basically, this site just makes my job easier and gives me more time to focus on serving my customer."
Currently, Cisco is working with VisionCor to leverage the knowledge and benefits gained from the SSM project into other areas of their organization. Cisco's record-breaking growth and razor-sharp focus on customer satisfaction could be problematic, but VisionCor’s knowledge management expertise coupled with Cisco’s commitment to customer satisfaction turned Cisco’s information overload into knowledge-on-demand.
Answer following questions:
1. With the help of Internet and other sources of information acquire knowledge about ‘Networking Industry’ in general and CISCO and its competitors in particular and write a report in 500 words.
2. In the above case identify problems and rewrite the solutions suggested.
3. With your imagination (or based on your experience) describe a scenario where such an approach of knowledge sharing and dissemination can be (or has been) designed and implemented.
4. Discuss a structured approach to monitor and evaluate on a continuous basis the process described in the case.
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