k_dilip8
This is to give a broad outline of the various KM frameworks.

The frameworks discussed are

1) SECI model- Nonaka

2) The N-Form Organization (Hedlund)

3) Three Pillars of Knowledge Management (Wiig)

SECI (Nonaka)

Ikujurio Nonaka, a professor at Hitotusbashi University and the University of California at Berkeley, articulated a model of “knowledge creation” in a series of articles and books dating from the early 1990s. The SECI (Socialization, Externalization, Combination, Internalization) model first appeared in 1991 and attained recognition as a useful and rigorous approach to describing the ways knowledge is generated, transferred and re-created in organizations. In brief, the model incorporates the following:

Two forms of knowledge (tacit and explicit)

• An interaction dynamic (transfer)

• Three levels of social aggregation (individual, group, context)

• Four “knowledge-creating” processes (socialization, externalization, combination and internalization
).

The model proposes that a "knowledge-creating company" consciously facilitates the interplay of tacit and explicit forms of knowledge. This is accomplished through systems and structures, and a corporate culture, which facilitate the interaction of four knowledge-creating processes, per the following:

Socialization: the sharing of tacit knowledge between individuals through joint activities, physical proximity.

• Externalization: the expression of tacit knowledge in publicly comprehensible forms.

• Combination: the conversion of explicit knowledge into more complex sets of explicit knowledge: communication, dissemination, systematization of explicit knowledge.

• Internalization: the conversion of externalized knowledge into tacit knowledge on an individual or organizational scale. The embodiment of explicit knowledge into actions, practices, processes and strategic initiatives
.

Critical for Nonaka is the interaction dynamic between forms of knowledge and levels of organization. He proposes that the spiral resulting from the exchange of tacit and explicit knowledge across different organizational levels is the key to knowledge creation and re-creation. The prescription is that companies should recognize the importance of this interaction dynamic and imbed the mechanisms that make it possible.

The Concept of Ba -

In 1998 Nonaka & Konno introduced the concept of Ba, which relates to the English concept of place.

A Ba in Knowledge Management is a space for dynamic knowledge conversion and emerging relationships. Four Bas are defined by Nonaka:

Originating Ba: a space where individuals share feelings, emotions, experiences and mental models.

Interacting Ba: a space where tacit knowledge is made explicit. Two key factors are dialogue and metaphors.

Cyber Ba: a space of interaction in a virtual world. Implicates the combination of new and existing explicit knowledge to generate new explicit knowledge throughout the organization.

Exercising Ba: a space that facilitates the conversion of explicit knowledge into tacit.

Ba calls attention to the fact that knowledge is context-dependent: it cannot be separated from its "place" in any meaningful way.

Each knowledge-creating process therefore requires a Ba, a phenomenal space whose importance should be recognized by the organization.

The organization, in fact, should focus significant attention on the development of its Bas since more is to be gained by developing the environment around knowledge processes than efforts directed at the processes themselves.

Refer to the digramatic representation of the model in the attached word file

2) The N-Form Organization (Hedlund)

Gunnar Hedlund of the Stockholm School of Economics introduced the notion of the N-Form corporation in 1994. He proposed that the N-Form corporation goes beyond the M-Form in that it better accommodates the emerging imperatives of knowledge-based organizational design, drawing its synthetic wisdom from the, "…gray zone between economics, organization theory and strategic management" (1994: 74).

Hedlund suggests that a principal attribute of the model is its conjoint analysis of two sets of concepts: tacit/explicit knowledge, and four levels of social aggregation. He injects into these a set of dynamics related to knowledge creation, development, transfer and use, yielding a structure that is built around 3 basic dimensions:

Two types of knowledge (tacit and articulated), and within each type three forms of knowledge (cognitive, skill, embodied)

Four levels of carrier (individuals, small groups, organizations, the inter-organizational domain)

The dynamics of knowledge transfer and transformation, which are articulated by the following processes:

o Articulation and internalization, the interaction of which is reflection,

o Extension and appropriation, the interaction of which is dialogue,

o Assimilation and dissemination which refer to “… knowledge imports from and exports to the environment" (1994: 76).

Hedlund lays the foundation for his dynamic model by distinguishing between types, forms and levels of knowledge. In brief, he juxtaposes tacit and articulated knowledge (attending closely to definitional issues) with different levels of social aggregation. This results in a classification scheme that assumes cognitive, skill-based and embodied forms of knowledge exist in both tacit and articulated forms across the range of organizational levels .

On this foundation Hedlund then situates the dynamics of knowledge transfer and transformation. He writes that most existing works speak, "…primarily in terms of storage of information, and only secondarily about its transfer, whereas its transformation is left outside most analyses" (1994: 76).

Knowledge transfer, storage and transformation are presented as a set of processes whose interactions, across the different types and levels of knowledge, privilege knowledge creation and, in turn, argue for the N-Form organizational design. The articulation of tacit knowledge, and the internalization of articulated knowledge, may occur at any level of carrier and the interaction, termed reflection, is held to be a primary source of knowledge creation.

The acquisition of tacit or articulated knowledge by lower agency levels, termed appropriation, and the dissemination of tacit or articulated knowledge to higher agency levels, termed extension, signal the movement of knowledge through different levels of carrier. Their interaction is termed dialogue whose, "…quantity and quality are hypothesized to be important determinants of the type and effectiveness of knowledge management" in an organization" (1994: 77).

3) Karl Wiig is one of the pioneers in the field of Knowledge Management and was among the first to publish a series of texts that assembled management-relevant concepts focusing squarely on the topic. His overarching framework is based on three pillars and a foundation.

Wiig proposes that the foundation of Knowledge Management is comprised of the way knowledge is created, used in problem solving and decision making, and manifested cognitively as well as in culture, technology and procedures. On this foundation he situates three pillars which categorize the exploration of knowledge, its value assessment and its active management. This framework summarizes the main areas on which a KM initiative should focus.

The frameowrk is represented with all its components in the attached file

From India, Bangalore
Attached Files (Download Requires Membership)
File Type: doc km_file.doc (211.5 KB, 798 views)

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