Abstract
As shown earlier, a KM strategy describing the strategic intent of a KM initiative has to be implemented with the help of organizational instruments. This section is devoted to the organizational design of a KM initiative. Figure B-19 proposes a model of the tasks and flows in knowledge management. The model builds on the concepts and theories depicted in section 4.1.1 — “From organizational learning to knowledge management” on page 18. In particular concepts and approaches from the following research fields were integrated within the model:
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References
See Maier/Klosa 1999c and chapter 7 - “Contents and Systems” on page 194; see also e.g., Ruggles 1997, 5ff and 77ff, Borghoff/Pareschi 1998, especially 5ff.
The hierarchy is also called the line organization, structuring the organization according to e.g., functions, regions, products or customers, with its extension to include line and staff positions, see Kieser/Kubicek 1992, 67ff.
For a brief summary see e.g., Frese 1992, 1681, also Rehäuser/Krcmar 1996, 26.
There is a lot of literature on the matrix organization. The approach was developed in the 70s and was a popular approach receiving a lot of attention in the organization science literature in the 80s and early 90s, see e.g., Galbraith 1971, Reber/Strehl 1988, Scholz 1992, Schreyögg 1999, 176ff.
See e.g., Quinn 1992, 113ff, Nonaka 1994, 32f, Rehäuser/Krcmar 1996, 26ff, North 1998, 79ff, Schreyögg 1999, 194ff and 254ff.
The idea of the hypertext organization was developed by Nonaka, Konno, Tokuoka, and Kawamura and presented in the journal Diamond Harvard Business in 1992 in Japanese (Nonaka 1994, 32ff).
A hypertext document is a text document that contains hyperlinks. Hyperlinks are connectors to other documents with the help of cross-references to their URL that can be activated by a mouse-click (Horn 1999, 380, also Mertens et al. 1997, 191f).
See Wenger 2000, 220; see also the community roles distinguished above.
See e.g., Glazer 1999, 177ff for a model to measure the knowing subject, the knower. itively judge the adequate actions required in a specific situation. The five steps are briefly described in the following (Dreyfus/Dreyfus 1986, 19ff):
The term “Lernstatt” draws the two terms “Lernen” (learning) and “Werkstatt” (shop floor, factory) together. The “Lernstatt” concept is a model of work in small groups developed in German companies in the 70s (Deppe 1989, 82ff) and primarily aims at the training of social skills in small groups (Zink 1992, 2132).
Brown/Duguid 1991, Lave 1991, Lave/Wenger 1991, Wenger 1998a, McDermott 1999b, 1999c, Allee 2000, Nickols 2000, Storck/Hill 2000, Wenger/Snyder 2000, Henschel 2001, Lesser/Everest 2001.
Rheingold 1994, Armstrong/Hagel 1995, Donath 1999, Wellman/Gulia 1999, Hummel/ Lechner 2001; for an example of a virtual community that is well supported with ICT see Beinhauer et al. 1999.
Tönnies, a German sociologist, used the German word Gemeinschaft (community) in contrast to the word Gesellschaft (society) which denotes impersonal and independent relationships (Tönnies 1922).
Multi-user dungeons or dimensions or domains (MUDs) are play and conversation spaces in the Internet that offer synchronous modes of communication and are based on fantasy role games, see Götzenbrucker/Löger 1999, 3.
See Lave/Wenger 1991, 91ff, Armstrong/Hagel 1995, 131. For a list of examples of virtual communities that gives an overview of the heterogeneity of this concept see Schubert 1999, 207ff.
Botkin suggests to view the development of knowledge communities as an entrepreneurial project (Botkin 2000, 93) and to view the whole organization as a portfolio of knowledge communities that act like small, dynamic firms (Botkin 2000, 110ff).
See e.g., Ferran-Urdaneta 1999, 128 and the sociological theories as cited there; see also Smith/Kollock 1999, Wenger/Snyder 2000, 141ff.
See also Kollock 1999 for a more thorough discussion of the economics of virtual communities.
See e.g., Allee 2000, 8, North et al. 2000, 52f, Storck/Hill 2000, Wenger/Snyder 2000, 140f, Lesser/Everest 2001, 38 )
See e.g., Storck/Hill 2000; for guidelines how to foster communities see also McDermott 1999b, 1999c, Cothrel/Williams 1999, 56ff.
In an empirical study of 15 on-line Intranet, Extranet and Internet communities, about two thirds of the respondents responsible for managing or coordinating the community believed that the ongoing effort to maintain the community had increased compared to the initial effort to set up the community (see Cothrel/Williams 1999, 58).
Wiig 1988, 104ff, Albrecht 1993, 86ff, Schüppel 1996, O’Dell/Grayson 1997, 11, Ruggles 1997, 5ff and 77ff, Allweyer 1998, 39f, Choo 1998, 18ff and 105ff, Davenport/Prusak 1998, 115ff, Mentzas/Apostolou 1998, 19.3, Probst et al. 1998, Rey et al. 1998, 31f, Tuomi 1999, 341ff, Bhatt 2000, 17ff, Nissen et al. 2000, Pawlowsky 2000, 115ff, Roehl 2000, 154ff, Alavi/Leidner 2001, 115ff, Bhatt 2001, 71ff, Mertins et al. 2001a, 3f; see also section 4.1.3 - “Definition” on page 42.
Tuomi uses the term appropriation to denote the generation of knowledge that is available within the society but which is new for the learner, in this case the organization (Tuomi 1999, 342).
Examples are Davenport et al. 1996, Allweyer 1998, Warnecke et al. 1998, Ricker et al. 1999, Schreiber et al. 1999, Warschat et al. 1999, Weggemann 1999, 223ff, Bach 2000, Nissen et al. 2000, Merali 2000, Hoffmann et al. 2001, Maier/Remus 2001, Remus 2001.
There is no agreement in the literature concerning the definition of knowledge process. For example, Allweyer (1998, 44) uses the term “knowledge process” to denote both, knowledge-intensive business processes as well as “specific” knowledge processes the main aim of which is to process knowledge. Bach (1999, 65) uses the term “knowledge management process” for separate processes to support knowledge management, e.g., knowledge distribution or development of knowledge. Many authors also do not distinguish between the terms knowledge process, knowledge task, knowledge function or knowledge activity (see also section 4.1.3 - “Definition” on page 42).
See also Roehl 2000, 253ff for a discussion of implicit assumptions of interventions into an organization’s knowledge organization.
The interested reader will find a host of literature on organizational culture. Examples are Schein 1984, Hofstede et al. 1990, Drumm 1991, Sackmann 1992, Schreyögg 1992, Schein 1996, Brown 1998, Frey 2000, Rosenstiel 2000 and the literature cited there.
See also Döring-Katerkamp 2001 who performs an empirical study on the use of incentives to improve motivation to participate in KM; the results should be available by the end of 2001.
The interested reader should consult literature in the realm of systemic organizational interventions. Examples are Königswieser/Exner 1999, for an overview of modern therapeutic methods to guide change processes in organizations e.g., Buchinger 1997, Scala/Grossmann 1997, for supervision, e.g., Piihl 1992, for the use of processes in large groups for organizational change processes, e.g., Königswieser/Keil 2000.
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Maier, R. (2002). Organization. In: Knowledge Management Systems. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-04380-6_6
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