What is Organizational Knowledge?

Oleh: Kelompok Lima

1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Achmad Hery Fuad Rahayu S. Arifin Amalia Sholehah Wara Dyah Pita Rengga Andri Irfan Rifai

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Agenda:
    Definitions Personal and Organizational Knowledge Case study Discussion and Implication

Definitions:
Nonaka and Takeuchi Nonaka and Takeuchi argue that information is a flow of message, while knowledge is created by that very flow of information, anchored in the beliefs and commitment of its holder. This understanding emphasizes that knowledge is essentially related to human action. Choo, Davenport and Prusak, Leonard and Sensiper, Suchman, Wigg What ever knowledge is, its thought to make difference to individual actions This understanding emphasizes that knowledge is essentially related to human action. Its useful insight however, its not clear How knowledge is connected to action, What knowledge is, Knowledge makes difference to actions, how ? How is knowledge brought to bear on what individual does? What are the prerequisite for using knowledge effectively in action? Gates, Lehner, Terrett Organizational knowledge tends to be viewed as synonymous with information, especially digital information Davenport and Prusak Knowledge is a flux mix of framed experiences, values, contextual information, and expert insight that provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information. Its originates and is applied of knower's. In organizations, it often becomes embedded not only in documents or repositories but also in organizational routines, process, practices and norms Dynamics character of knowledge Now clear what sense knowledge is different from information How its possible for values and contextual information to originate and apply in the minds of individuals, Knowledge is many things entities: values, experiences, contexts, without explaining the relationship among entities Knowledge is embedded into organization : what form, how individual draw on it ?

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Brown and Duguid, Hendriks and Vriens, Emphasized the interesting case, how knowledge as information is best stored, retrieved, transmitted and shared Kay Organizational knowledge being the essence of the firm, however the organization knowledge is not the same with the firm, its more than the sum expertise of those who work in the firm and is not available to other firms. Still doesn't clear what are features of organizational knowledge and relationship between individual vs. organizational knowledge

Haridimos Tsoukas and Efi Vladimirou Knowledge is the individual capability to draw distinction within domain of action, based on an appreciation of context or theory or both. Organization knowledge is the capability members of an organization have developed to draw distinctions in the process of carrying out their work All organiaz,tion is a collective of knwoledge assets Bell.

Polanyi vs Nonaka and Takeuchi Polanyi :There is 2 type of knowledge: tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge. Tacit knowledge can not be converted into explicit knowledge as Nonaka and Takeuchi have claimed . Polanyi vs Wittgenstein Polanyi: all knowledge is personal knowledge Wittgenstein: all knowledge is fundamental way, collective, in order to show how individuals appropriate knowledge and expand their knowledge repertoire and on the other hand, how knowledge in organized contexts, become organizational and with what implications for its management
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Data is the sequence of given material or events Information context based arrangement of items with show the relationship among items Knowledge is the judgment of significance of events and items which come from particular context Data, information and knowledge are three concept that can be arranged on a single continuum, depend on the extent to which they reflect human involvement with, and process of, the reality at hand.

Personal and Organizational Knowledge

Bell Data is the sequence of given material or events Information context based arrangement of items with show the relationship among items Knowledge is the judgment of significance of events and items which come from particular context Data, information and knowledge are three concept that can be arranged on a single continuum, depend on the extent to which they reflect human involvement with, and process of, the reality at hand. Bells Example: Data : index name in the document Information: the subject index of a book Knowledge: the construction of a thematic index by a reader of a book Dewey and Bell argument Judgment arises from self conscious use of re: re-order, rearrange, re-design what one knows so create a new knowledge Self conscious desire to rearrange is caused by the wishes to see different thing, to disclose aspects of phenomenon that were hit her to invisible and to see more clearer than before
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The individual will rearrange his/ her knowledge while being located somewhere Ability to exercise judgement The ability of an individual to draw distinction (Reyes and Zarama, Vickers The location of an individual within a collectively generated and sustained domain of action : A form of life Wittgenstein Practice MacIntyre Horizon of meaning - Gadamer Consensual domain - Maturana and Varela

Why does the capacity of exercise judgments imply the capability of drawing distinctions? Split the world to this and that We bring into consciousness the constituent parts of the phenomenon we are interested in Through the language we name, and constantly bring forth and ascribe significance to certain aspect of the world. When our language is crude and unsophisticated, so are our distinctions and the consequent judgments. Case: X-Ray diagnostic of pulmonary diseases Based on X-Ray case: then we coudl refine the definition of knowledge. Knowledge is the individual ability to draw distinction within a collective domain of action, based on an appreciateion of contexts or theory or both.

The individual capacity to exercise judgement is based on an appreciation of theory in epistemic sense Theory allows one to take a finding and generalize from any context to another context ( Bell-1999) Choosing a theory and applying it in a new context involves judgement, the capacity to make a such judgment is knowledge Knowledge is organizational simply by its being generated, developed, and transmitted by individual within organization Organization as theory enables organizational members to generalize across contexts Rules exist for the sake of achieving specific goals Rules do not apply themselves, members of community of practice, situated in specific contexts, apply them ( Gadamer 1980; Tsoukas 1996; Wittgenstein 1968) The proper application of a rule is not an individual accomplishment but is fundamentally predicated on collectively shared meanings. (Wittgenstein) Organizational knowledge is the set of collective understandings embedded in a firm.

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Polanyis practical knowledge has two features. First personal, second instrumentalized Knowledge is the individual capability to draw distinctions, within a domain of action, based on appreciation of context or theory, or both Organizations are three things at once : concrete settings within which individual action takes place; sets of abstracts rules in the form of propotional statements, and historical communities Organizational knowledge is the capability members of an organization have developed to draw distinctions in the process of carrying out their work, in particular concrete contexts, by enacting set of generalization ( propotional statements) whose application depends on historically evolved collective understandings become instrumentalized We bring into consciousness the constituent parts of the phenomenon we are interested in

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A Case Study : Panafone Call Centre

Knowledge Practice Organizational knowledge contains information consisted of generic propositional statements in the form of If this problem appears, then look at this or that Operators use their informal knowledge to translate organizational knowledge and enact abstract If, then statement to serve costumer speedily improvisational element Polanyis claim : All knowledge is personal knowledge Research Setting Aim of study To examine how Panafons call operators gain knowledge and use it to do their duty task Research method / data collection and analysis Participate in 2-days induction program for new operators Involves in on-the-job and off-the job observations, also review the work-related material Knowledge resources Information from induction program (electronic and printed form) Organizational Knowledge Communication during break time (individual learning, storytelling, community ties) Informal Knowledge At least as far as organizational knowledge is concerned, there is always an improvisational element in putting knowledge to action Phenomenon of improvisation has received attention (Orlikowski 1996; Weick 1998 ) Alongside formal organizational knowledge, there exists informal knowledge that is generated in action Heuristic Knowledge (Collin 1990) Heuristic Knowledge : Resides both in individuals minds or in story shared in communities of practice May be turned into organizational knowledge by casting into propositional statements

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Discussion & Implication:

Organizational knowledge is a codification in the form of propositional statements underlain by a set of understanding


Every act of interpretation is necessarily creative and, in that sense, heuristic knowledge is not accidental but a necessary outcome of the interpretative act


To manage an organizational knowledge, an unreflective practice needs to be turned into a reflective practice


The grammar did not set the standards of correctness for the sentences they spoke; on the contrary, it was the sentences they spoke that set the standard of correctness for the grammar


Management of organizational knowledge today certainly implies the evermore sophisticated development of electronic corporate information systems. In this way, a firm provide its member the requisite propositional statements for acting efficiently and consistently
  The evidence of this chapter is the significance of heuristic knowledge developed by employees well doing their job

The effective management of organizational knowledge request the relationship between proportional and heuristic knowledge be a two-way street


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