Knowledge Management is a science of harnessing creative, innovative knowledge and distribution of the knowledge in an organization. Knowledge Management includes processes which stimulate new knowledge and developing systems for transferring the knowledge. It is a social process which focuses on a climate, processes and a new paradigm in leadership across all departments of an organization. A climate which stimulate new ideas, new concepts supported by an organizational learning culture, followed by reliable internal processes for solving problems and creating solutions through a harmonization of vertical and horizontal leadership. On the other hand, a knowledge organization is an organization which can demonstrate abstract ideas of system theories into solutions for tangible results in the marketplace.
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT ORGANIZATION
A Knowledge Management Organization is an organization which entails holistic approach by incorporating second-generation Knowledge Management into its day to day operations. The organization taps into the individual human capital to produce a collective wide-scope of ideas, concepts. This organization has at its disposal knowledge management systems which facilitate aggregation, harmonization and dissemination of its collective human intelligence into one mainframe.
Concept #1. Knowledge Life-Cycle
The Knowledge Organization embraces the essence of second-generation mindset which is commonly referred to as Knowledge Life –Cycle. The organization realizes very well that for it to be relevant and pace setter it has to embrace Knowledge Life Cycle. This framework provides the organizations with fresh new ideas to make the organization to be a trailblazer.
By utilizing this concept, the organization the organization is able to formulate new strategies, concepts and a new way of thinking. The Knowledge organization does this by utilizing the human capital through the individuals who bring their heads together to craft new ideas. This is merely leveraging on the human social system. This process called Knowledge Claim Formulation. As the individuals engage and diagnose every angle of an idea or ideas, they do this through sharing which results in brainstorming. The group subjects their respective ideas before the organization for evaluation. A process called Knowledge Claim Evaluation. This kind of paradigm stimulates ideas and enables the organization to soar in greater heights, as a result of tapping on the human capital, which in business is an intangible asset.
Concept#2: Knowledge Management and Knowledge Processing
This Knowledge Organizations embraces learning through adopting Knowledge Production and Knowledge Integration. By participating in this process, the Knowledge Organization will be taking part in what is called Knowledge Processing. This process entails individuals and groups who are sharing, and brainstorming on various ideas. This process stimulates creativity and innovation. This results in learning and growing of an organization. This creates a transformed organization. It encourages a proactive role playing by the employees.
Knowledge Management in a Knowledge Organization involves dissemination of the knowledge to a central system to enhance efficiency and strengthen results-oriented processes. Knowledge Management harmonizes together the information through technology. The Knowledge management Organization creates a culture and environment that encourage critical thinking and develop processes and mechanisms to facilitate free-flow of knowledge. Knowledge management brings together the intellectual and technological resources.
Concept #3:Supply-Side and Demand-side Knowledge Management
This organization realizes that for it to meet its primary objectives and goals (Vision and Mission), it has to be dynamic, relevant and competitive; it has to have the best strategies, approaches, team. To be able to outperform its competitors it fully adopts the second-generation Knowledge Management toolkit. It also lays emphasis on both its human social systems and the technology aspect. It lays the foundation for knowledge production, it does not subscribe to the conventional knowledge management, which places high priority on tech-centric approaches. The organization installs in its human resource the culture of active employees who have a voice in the organization. And whose input is highly valued and priced.
The organization is futuristic in its approach. It believes in a vibrant organization where shared vision leads to vision ownership. It believes in teamwork and the individual’s unique inherent abilities. The organization buys in one of the greatest twentieth century Philosopher, Karl Popper, who believed in the combining power effect of “Subjective Knowledge,”- the knowledge held by an individual and “Objective Knowledge, “- the collective knowledge of a group. In the organizational circles is known in acronym as DOKB ;( Distributed Organizational Knowledge Base). The organization leverages on human social system to achieve its set goals. This visionary organization with visionary leadership has learnt from yesterday’s pitfalls of first generation knowledge management.
The conventional knowledge management placed high priority and focus on what is called knowledge integration other than production of new knowledge, ideas, and concepts. It was tech-centric in its approach and strategies. Second- generation knowledge management employs strategies and concepts which foster growth, thus steering the organization towards market dominance.
Concept #4:Nested Knowledge Domain
The organization intends to use harmonized knowledge produced from all departments of the social system to enable it meets its vision; to be the market leader in this segment. We expect growth as a result of harnessing the inherent power of all our knowledge domains. With each providing a different insights and how we should move forward, breaking new grounds so as to farther our market penetration and market share. We at our organization explicitly listen to our juniors in our organization’s ranking and seriously consider their inputs, strategies, point of views to formulate key strategies and policies geared driving our organization to the next level. Our organization is a true example of a learning organization. We are in calculating a culture of risk taking, and continuous personal growth. We believe through system thinking, individual expression and team-building will steer this visionary organization into unimaginable territories.
Each individual in our organization has mentally and visually mapped Knowledge Life –Cycle. This is our tool to match us beyond competitor’s territory. We understand very we will be experiencing disagreements from time to time, and that’s why we have set guidelines for democracy within our organizations. Like in any setting, with different group or sets of people there bounds to have divergent views and opinions. The fact is that every knowledge domain has its own set of results, outcomes. Individuals and groups in an organization tend to have different validation criteria, as knowledge claims are evaluated and validated at different levels of organization scale. We at our organization always integrate knowledge held by individuals or departments or groups (subjective knowledge) and knowledge held in database (objective knowledge). A combination known as for this Distributed Organization Knowledge Base (DOKB).
Concept #5: Containers of Knowledge
This design of day to day working environment should entail a meeting to be held bi-weekly, whereby the top brass of the organization, the stakeholder and the employees meet to discuss new strategies of tactfully conquering the market share. This is an opportunity for all to display their intellectual prowess by formulating new ideas (knowledge Claim formulation) and subject to critically analysis and thinking of the group (Knowledge Claim Evaluation).
Knowledge in this concept can be held in two forms. Knowledge held by agents or groups is considered subjective knowledge, while the knowledge held in artifacts or the database, document management systems of the organization is referred to as objective knowledge.
A learning organization has a culture of bringing out the best in every employee. A learning organization does not look up to senior management to make the key decisions. It is not an authoritarian or oligarchy. It has a democratic space where all employees of the organization are challenged to tap into their inner potential, (knowledge Claim formulation) to be proactive and everyone’s voice is heard and listened to. A learning organization provides an atmosphere which facilitates, maintains and nurture learning. An organization chief priority as far as designing its day to day working environment is concerned, is the collective creation of a vision and mission statement which should constantly been fed into their minds.
A learning organization should invest in its human social capital by conducting frequent trainings and career advancement programs to develop skills and knowledge prerequisite for the goals and aspirations of the mission statement. This also entails great skills in communication as traditionally “departmental social barriers” are broken. This will enhance teamwork without personality clash but cultivate an enabling environment for free flow of knowledge sharing.
Concept #6: Organizational Learning
Bastion of long-term thinking of any organization lies on its strategic planning through vision. An organizational Learning is an organization which has laid down program for creating, acquiring and transferring knowledge for purposes of continual improvement. An organization is as good as its ability to learn and stay ahead of the learning curve. Vision and mission are the life-line of any forward looking organization. It involves leveraging on the communities of practice to be competitive and the ability to learn and adopt faster. This requires organizations to create and develop effective knowledge processing environment. Second-generation knowledge management has made it easier for organizations to learn and thus help in sustainability.
In Peter Senge’s book Fifth Discipline, elaborates a new paradigm of thinking, in what he commonly refers to as System thinking. Peter Senge explains that an organization is as good as the trained or enlightened individuals. He maintains the school of thought that, for an organization to witness significant growth, it must invest in its human social capital. He adds that, learning is not a one-time affair, rather, a continuous process. He demonstrates a link between effective leadership and vision. He says a leader must effectively translate his or her personal vision into shared vision. A clear vision demonstrates genuine commitment other than compliance.
Peter Senge describes KLC (Knowledge Life- Cycle) as nothing other than a representation of holistic system thinking. Second-generation knowledge management is map which unravels knowledge production and how it is developed from human social systems. Second- generation Knowledge Management is a field which focuses on examining the gaps in the system and provide the right solution for the right problem.
Concept#7: The Open Enterprise
A knowledge organization which rests its knowledge making process and decision making process on an open platform is a vision organization adopting the second-generation should think of. Despite the knowledge process comprising of a full social system (subjective and objective voices) in the knowledge claim formulation stage and, adopts an authoritarian approach towards knowledge claim evaluation stage at the managerial stage. The question on who is responsible on detecting of problems and opportunities in the business process? Is a question with an answer on KLC (Knowledge Life-Cycle). The KLC comprises on social systems with problem detecting mechanisms under the “hospices” of individual and group. An organization functioning on the Second Generation Knowledge Management should re-program its business functions on the premise of Open Enterprise.
The idea of Open Enterprise is well-connected to the philosophy of Karl Popper, whose school of thought of “critical rationalism” an approach which suggests that knowledge is subject to fallibility, we should therefore counter this by being rationally open. Karl popper believed that all opinions and views or ideas should be Open to criticism. In my own view, a forward looking organization should institute mechanisms in its business function to prevent fallibility. Establishment of mechanisms such as CKO (Chief Knowledge Officer), whose mandate as an Ombudsman, will be to hear complains for retribution purposes. He will be in charge to oversee An open learning organizations despite political power vested on the management, should conduct more so, the sensitive aspect; knowledge claim evaluation process in an open manner. The Second-Generation Knowledge Management through KLC (Knowledge Life- Cycle), open fosters an Open Enterprise social system.
Concept #8: Social Innovation Capital
Social Innovation Capital is as a result of the second generation Knowledge Management and organization learning. It is the end product out of the human social system. The knowledge economy is the new age of industrialization. Growth is catapulted by intellectual capital. The new economic model portrays an exponential growth over the years compared to the stunt growth witnessed on the hard assets. The first generation of knowledge management does not produce new ideas thus there’s no intellectual capital involved in this rigid social system.
A learning organization will always endeavor in producing valuable intellectual capital. Intellectual Capital is a measure the inherent capacity of an organization. It is a manifestation of high quality in the business process environment. Second-Generation Management is the only barometer which can used to measure the intellectual capital. This is mainly because second-generation knowledge management has the knowledge processes essential for knowledge production and knowledge integration. It encourages and stimulates innovation and creativity.
Social Innovation Capital is the oversight process that yields Intellectual Capital. All these knowledge processes are possible thanks to the new field developed by practitioners of second-generation Knowledge management under the umbrella of KMCI (Knowledge Management Consortium International). Social Innovation Capital manifests itself as intellectual Capital. Social Investment Capital is the tool used in a learning organization for retaining of knowledge. Social Capital represents an organization’s social capacity to innovate and integrate new knowledge and or ideas. Valuable knowledge is an organization’s source of intangible capital. In sum, the value of a learning organization can be measured upon its knowledge production and knowledge integration.
Concept #9: Self- Organization and Complexity Theory
Understanding Complexity theory is all about acknowledging it as the source of living systems. It is the essence of human organizations. Complex Adaptive Systems Theory holds together living systems. Living systems consists of human organizations, independents agents such as people. The theory explains how we react and conduct ourselves in the ever-changing environment. Humans adapt to environment individual or collectively, and they do this through self-organization. Complex Adaptive Systems Theory does this by formulating mental models to solve problem. The theory suggests that we follow “rules” which are mental models. We do this so as to adapt to an environment. Rules are equivalent to sets of beliefs.
CAS theory is the foundation of the second-generation Knowledge Management. CAS theory seeks at representing, organizing and discovering processes which in the long run leads to knowledge discovery. CAS theory ancestral connection to concepts of Knowledge life-cycle, Knowledge processing, knowledge claim formulation and knowledge claim evaluation.
A knowledge organization will seek to adopt knowledge processes that enhance knowledge formulation at an individual level and collective level. CAS theory is widely embraced in the corporate world essentially for management of human resources. It is therefore paramount for a knowledge organization to develop by utilizing CAS theory and second-generation Knowledge Management for organization to self-organize around the production, diffusion and use of the acquired knowledge.
To stimulate a robust and vibrant organizations, organizations needs to invest in Knowledge Life-Cycle to enhance organizational behavior. Knowledge Life-Cycle is an asset tool for an organization which would like to strengthen its human social system. Mastering CAS theory , organizational learning and Second-generation KM is a recipe for organizational success.
Concept #10: Sustainable Innovation
A Knowledge Organization with this type of social capacity to innovate sustainably is a market leader and a pacesetter. This however, requires a fully trained and equipped human social system. It involves a learning organization with a culture of sustainability. An organization where individuals self-organize is an organization full of an atmosphere where self-motivation, self –discipline is practiced.
The right type of highly talented and focused human social system is produces a social innovation capital. Self-organized team understands and utilizes their strengths to come up with solid knowledge production, integration and the use of the new knowledge.
An organization with a vibrant team where collaboration in solving problems and finding solutions is a culture is bound to go places. This is basically, KLC in action. Detecting or identify the gaps, through concerted efforts (knowledge formulation) and the self-organize team deliberate on solutions (Knowledge evaluation).
Adopting the second-generation paradigm is the way to sustainability. Developing a social capacity for continuous capacity should be a must for any organization in any industry. Managing sustainability means understanding the distinction between decision making (the province of management) and knowledge-making (every one). To sum up, a Knowledge Organization through sustainable innovation can be achieved by instituting learning-related policies and programs that serve to support, strengthen an d reinforce KCL.
Second-generation Knowledge Management intrinsic connection with Complex Adaptive System Theory and Knowledge Life-Cycle has really transformed the way businesses are run. It’s a new rage in business.
