1 / 16

META-ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM

META-ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM. Organizational knowledge. Process. Infrastructure. People. Theory of Organizational Knowledge William P. Hall (PhD) http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net Australian Centre for Science, Innovation and Society and Engineering Learning Unit,

afram
Download Presentation

META-ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. META-ENGINEERING COLLOQUIUM Organizational knowledge Process Infrastructure People Theory of Organizational Knowledge William P. Hall (PhD) http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net Australian Centre for Science, Innovation and Societyand Engineering Learning Unit, Melbourne School of Engineering, Melbourne University Email: whall@unimelb.edu.au 5 October 2009 Leave one of the legs off, and the stool will fall over

  2. My Background • Majored in physics for 3 years but dyslexic with numbers • Hands on with all generations of computers • PhD 1973 Harvard Univ. in evolutionary biology • Univ. Melbourne Research Fellow genetics 1977-1979 • Migrated to Australia in 1980, & bought a PC prototype • Turned to computer literacy teaching and tech writing • Software development & banking through 1989 • Joined Tenix ‘90 for $7 bn ANZAC Ship Project • Through July 2007 commercial and engineering content and knowledge management systems analysis and design roles through entire ANZAC project cycle • Since 2000 combining practice, fundamental & development research in engineering KM http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net

  3. Why do engineers need to manage knowledge? • Engineering processes and products are knowledge intensive and fallible! • Design, Manufacturing, Operation • Management is knowledge intensive • The “post-human” organization • Organizations are complex dynamic systems • Difference between complex and complicated • Organizations have minds of their own (my research area) • Cannot be predicted, can only be constrained • Involve much more than people • Depend on "system of systems" to manage knowledge • System of systems components include • Infrastructure (e.g., physical premises, ICT, software) • Processes • People! (most difficult area for engineers) • Concern to build a scientifically grounded understanding of this system of systems http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net

  4. Gap: foundation questions about knowledge • What is knowledge? • Deep and difficult philosophical question for anyone • Metaphysics vs reality • Theory laden terminology can lead to raging debate • How to start a flame war • Ask a knowledge manager to define what it is they are supposed to manage • Poor concepts can cause major blind spots in KM programs • What is an organization? • More than just a group of people • Natural history vs science • Multitude of ad hoc “theories” vs a generic foundation • Inescapable relationship: knowledge | organization • Historical steps towards answering the questions http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net

  5. History: DIKIW / “WIKID Power” • Ackoff (1988), Coombe (1996) Army Info Management • Cognitive processing transforms content and adds value • Data = differences • Contextualized data→information (differences that make a difference - Bateson) • Semantically linked information → knowledge (tentative solutions to problems) • Knowledge + assesment → intelligence (intelligence, with uncertainty, is deduced after several pieces of knowledge are assessed together) • Intelligence tested through application in the world to reduce uncertainty → wisdom • Wisdom leads to strategic power SEMANTICS http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net

  6. Tacit, Implicit and Explicit • Vines & Hall in prep after Polanyi, Nichols Semantics http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net

  7. Keys to answering “what is organizational knowledge” • Evolutionary epistemology (Karl Popper) • “Three worlds” ontology: (1) reality / (2) cybernetics / (3) code • Living knowledge built via evolutionary processes • Knowledge is “solutions to problems” • Solutions embodied as “control information” in feedback loops Popper’s “General Theory of Evollution” http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net

  8. Generic learning cycle • OODA – John Boyd • Jet fighter ace in Korean War • Strategic thinker http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net

  9. A major key • Autopoiesis (H Maturana, F Varela -“self” + “production”) • When can a complex system be considered to be living? • Self-identifiably bounded • Complex • Mechanistic, self-regulating • System boundaries internally determined (self referential) • System intrinsically produces its own components • Self-produced components are necessary and sufficient to produce the system (autonomy). • Autopoietic systems recursively produce and maintain themselves • Governed by laws of physical thermodynamics • Many organizations are autopoietic http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net

  10. HIGHER LEVEL SYSTEM / ENVIRONMENT Another major key boundaryconditions, constraints, regulations, actualities FOCAL LEVEL SYSTEM "HOLON" SYSTEM Possibilitiesinitiatingconditionsuniversallaws"material -causes" SUBSYSTEMS • Theory of hierarchically complex systems (H. Simon, H. Pattee, J. Hoffmeyer, S. Salthe) http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net

  11. More concepts • Information theory - C. Shannon, W. Weaver • Physical basis for information (but not meaning) • Biosemiotics (biological communication theory) – C.S. Pierce, H. Pattee, J. Hoffmeyer, C. Emmeche, M. Barbieri • Communication (information) • Signification (meaning) • Habit formation (learning) of living processes • Causality (upward and downward causation) – Aristotle, S. Salthe • Applicability to hierarchically complex systems • Epistemic cuts – H. Pattee, J. Hoffmeyer, H. Atmanspacher • The world vs knowledge of the world; a control vs control information • Physical basis of Popper’s three worlds • Code duality – J. Hoffmeyer, C. Emeche • Embodied or “structural” knowledge vs codified knowledge • Biological basis for Popper’s three worlds • Bounded rationality – H. Simon http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net

  12. Organizational autopoiesis • Many organizations meet all the requirements to be considered to be autopoietic • Self-identifiably bounded • Employee registers, ID badges, uniforms, walls, guards, fences, etc. • Complex • People, machines, premises • Mechanistic, self-regulating • Governance and accounting systems, processes • System boundaries internally determined (self referential) • HR systems, planning departments, property deeds • System intrinsically produces its own components • Induction, training, apprenticeship • Self-produced components are necessary and sufficient to produce the system (autonomy) • Organizational knowledge (Nelson & Winter 1982) • Structural knowledge – “tacit routines” – Popper’s world 2 • Codified knowledge – documents & formal processes http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net

  13. Implementing OODA system of systems in the organization http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net

  14. Knowledge and individuals • Individuals in an organizational environment (Vines & Hall in prep) • Personal knowledge (person’s own life management) • Person’s knowledge relating to organizational roles • what knowledge is needed • who may know the answer • where the explicit knowledge may be found • why the knowledge is important or why it was created • when the knowledge was last needed or may be needed in the future • how to apply the knowledge http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net

  15. The autopoietic organization • Vines and Hall in prep http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net

  16. Applying OODA to formal knowledge in the organization • Vines & Hall in prep http://www.orgs-evolution-knowledge.net

More Related