Knowledge Management (KM) Processes in Organizations - Chapter 4 -

Chapter 4

Conceptualizing Knowledge Emergence 

4.1 Gatekeepers, Information, Stars, And Boundary Spanners

Thomas J. Allen coined the term ‘Gatekeeper’ to describe the information flow stars that he discovered, the heavily connected nodes in the information flow pattern. The reason that he chose that term was that much of the development and project work that he investigated was classified military work, where there seemed to be something of a paradox. 

Allen himself, in fact, in developing and explicating the role of gatekeepers introduces and explains his gatekeepers with the term “sociometric stars.” “Information stars” a term emerging later [Tushman and Scanlan, 1981a,b], is, however, a more apt description, one that brings to mind more of the multiple roles and functions that such persons perform. 

The “information stars” were central to information flow both within the organization at large, and within their project or projects. The characteristics that distinguished these stars were:

- extensive communication with their field outside of the organization 

- greater perusal of information sources, journals, etc., information mavens 

- a high degree of connectedness with other information stars, one can infer that their utility was not just having more information at their fingertips, but knowing to whom to turn within the organization for further information 

- an above average degree of formal education compared to their project teammates 

These characteristics of information stars were further corroborated by Mondschein, L. [1990] in a study of R&D activities across several industries. 

The information flow structure was not at all closely related to the formal organizational structure, and that the information stars did not map onto any consistent pattern of organizational placement or level. The relationship between formal organizational structure and the information flow structure also seems to be in part a function of the larger corporate culture. 

Tushman, M. [1977], Tushman and Scanlan [1981a,b] introduced and added the concept of “boundary spanning” or boundary spanner to describe verymuch the same phenomenon that Allen described as gatekeeping. He extended Allen’s work by distinguishing between two types of communication stars, “internal communication stars” and “external communication stars,” and defining boundary spanners as those who were both internal and external communication stars. The emphasis is clearly directed to projects and project management, and the “take home” theme is that boundary spanners should be recognized, utilized, and nurtured for facilitating project success. 

In the context of KM, this tradition relates very directly to the development of Communities of Practice (CoP). Given the relative non-alignment of organizational structure and information flowand sharing,CoPs can be seen as the setting up of an alternative structure to facilitate information flow and sharing. 

4.2 Research Productivity And Knowledge

The ‘Gatekeepers, Information Stars & Boundary Spanner’ tradition is very consistent with a substantial body of work studying research productivity. 

The more productive companies were characterized by: 

- A relatively egalitarian managerial structure with unobtrusive status indicators in the R&D environment, 

- Less concern with protecting proprietary information, 

- Greater openness to outside information, greater use of their libraries and information centers, specifically, greater attendance by employees at professional meetings, 

- Greater information systems development effort, 

- Greater end-user use of information systems and more encouragement of browsing and serendipity. Increased time spent browsing and keeping abreast,

- Greater technical and subject sophistication of the information services staff. 

4.3 Lack Of Recognition Of These Findings In The Business Community 

A subset of an even larger problem - the lack of recognition of or even obtuseness to the importance of information and information related managerial actions in the business community. 

The three most important characteristics are all related to the information environment and information flow – specifically: 

1) easy access to information by individuals; 

2) free flow of information both into and out of the organizations; 

3)rewards for sharing, seeking, and using “new” externally developed information sources. 

Not only did information related management behavior tend strongly to discriminate between “high-performance” and “low-performance” companies, but also that none of the non information related management behaviors measured had any discriminatory value. 

Here, given the inability to find any significance for other managerial factors, the failure to remark upon the importance of information and knowledge factors can truly be described as remarkable. 

4.4 Community-Based Models 

An abundance of KM strategies in the category of Computer Mediated Communication (CMC). While technology may provide the tools for interaction and communication, the application of technology alone may not be a sufficient condition for sustaining the creation and sharing of knowledge. 

A lack of key words,index terms, or metadata on transcriptions and other knowledge aids means that the embedded knowledge can be lost to those who wish to re-use the saved text. 

Group Decision Support Systems (GDSSs) were originally conceived of as collaborative tools where groups came together, participated in brainstorming and then, through human facilitation, voted on items and issues important to the organization. 

Advantage of Group Decision Support Systems : 

- allowed for anonymous voting that moved decisions along rapidly by prioritizing topics more easily than trying to do so without the system’s assistance. Participants’ knowledge and experience contributed to the democratic process. 

- in general, is the ability for each person to speak (through entering opinions via a keypad, or original ideas via a keyboard) anonymously without fear of being politically incorrect or worrying about speaking in opposition to the manager. 

- is able to calculate the votes and display them graphically, so that an individual attending the meeting can see if she or he were an outlier on certain issues or to determine where his or her vote stood as compared with peers. 

- work well in a face-to-face situation where immediate feedback can be given and displayed. 

The GDSS has not migrated easily to theWeb, however, some web-based systems are available and have adapted to an asynchronous situation. The ability for groups to share knowledge and make decisions using decision technology tools is a beneficial way to combine human know-how and experience with database and display systems. 

Generic Decision Support Systems (DSS) that act more like expert systems with the added feature of suggesting decision options are well suited to the Web, and they are proliferating as the Web becomes the ubiquitous information and communication platform for information storage and retrieval, and for interaction as well. 

4.5 Repository Model 

The knowledge management repository, a space to store and retrieve knowledge objects has long been a standard in KMprograms. It is a model that emphasizes the creation of quality knowledge content in online repositories with re-use as a goal. 

Financial firms, IT departments, law firms and others who depend on frequently updated information and new legislative materials are just a few types of organizations that can make good use of the repository and re-use model. 

4.6 Activity-Based Models 

There has been significant work done in terms of Information Systems support for the coordination of work [Winograd,T., 1988], the next logical progression would be to link knowledge production and capture with work processes. 

Based on such a historical-cultural perspective of activity, Hasan, H. [2003] proposed rudiments of a KM system influenced by activity-based models that would link work activities with people and content. 

Incorporating workflow support with a knowledge repository, Kwan and Balasubramanian [2003] take the notion a step further; they propose the design of a KM system they call Knowledge Scope that provides integrated workflow support to capture and retrieve knowledge as an organizational process within the context it is created and used. 

They also propose a meta-model knowledge structure called Knowledge-In-Context that specifies relationships among processes. The model was implemented with limited workflow functions at a global telecommunications company. While repositories and workflow support have largely developed with limited integration, designs such as this, grounded in case implementations, provide some empirical validity as to the appropriateness and value of incorporating activity as context for knowledge reuse.