KNOWLEDGE MOBILISATION RESEARCH, Part I

1. Draft 1.5 August 2, 2006 KNOWLEDGE MOBILISATIONRESEARCH, Part I Christer Carlsson IAMSR/Abo Akademi University christer.carlsson@abo.fi Knowledge Mobilisation Joint Research

2. Executive Summary • Knowledge Mobilisation has five parts: (i) creating, building & forming knowledge; (ii) activating latent knowledge; (iii) searching for, finding and systematising hidden knowledge, (iv) making knowledge mobilisation operational with MAS technology, and (v) expanding the limits of the possible in the structures of everyday life by making knowledge mobilisation part of mobile value services and using mobile technology • Proposal: (i) a start-up project in Finland on Knowledge Mobilisation, to form and activate (ii) a joint strategic research project on Knowledge Mobilisation, which (iii) will drive a European Centre of Excellence in Knowledge Mobilisation Knowledge Mobilisation Joint Research

3. Mobilisation [Peter Keen] • To mobilise: “make or become ready for action” • Contrast mobilisation with management: • Information management: the transaction processing and data base era: organize data to turn it into information • Information mobilisation: the Web and its prodigies, bar coding: create mechanisms for access to and distribution of information; “google” as a verb • Knowledge management: a spectrum of information resources and communication facilitators: supply-driven • Knowledge mobilisation: activation of information and communication as needed, where needed, when relevant and to whom; demand-driven Knowledge Mobilisation Joint Research

4. Knowledge Mobilisation [Peter Keen] • Standard corporate intranet: product information, inventory status • Knowledge management resource; users access it centrally “@” • Sales rep does not tap into inventory information via desktop – not in the form and structure he needs – and he does not know how to modify it • Field technicians can’t access it anyway; need to contact the “office” and find an information broker as they are not given own access • Out in the field, sales rep needs unanticipated information to meet a client contact situation; not foreseen in the knowledge base • Field technician needs unanticipated inventory and product data – needs to describe the data over a mobile phone • The inventory status has changed; outdated info used for decisions • Give them mobile knowledge access and knowledge mobilisation technology – significant time & cost savings and the work is done Knowledge Mobilisation Joint Research

5. Knowledge • There are quite a few definitions/ideas what knowledge is about [as collected by Thomas J. Beckman]: • Knowledge is organized information applicable to problem solving [Woolf] • Knowledge encompasses the implicit and explicit restrictions placed upon objects (entities), operations and relationships along with general and specific heuristics and inference procedures involved in the situation being modelled [Sowa] • Knowledge is reasoning about information and data to actively enable performance, problem-solving, decision-making, learning and teaching [Beckman] • Knowledge consists of truths and beliefs, perspectives and concepts, judgments and expectations, methodologies and know-how [Wiig] Knowledge Mobilisation Joint Research

6. Knowledge Typologies • Typologies are defined, categorized and described in terms of knowledge type-conversion, structural features, elementary properties, purpose and use, and conceptual levels [Beckman]: • Tacit knowledge [Nonaka-Takeuchi]: knowledge of experience (body skills), simultaneous knowledge (here and now), analogue knowledge (practice) • Explicit knowledge [Nonaka-Takeuchi]: knowledge of rationality (mind), sequential knowledge (there and then), digital knowledge (theory) • Brooking has defined four conceptual levels of knowledge: • Goal-setting or idealistic knowledge • Systematic knowledge • Pragmatic knowledge • Automatic knowledge Knowledge Mobilisation Joint Research

7. Knowledge Management • The theory development around Knowledge Management [KM] has been carried out for about 15 years [Beckman]: • KM is the systematic, explicit and deliberate building, renewal and application of knowledge to maximize an enterprise’s knowledge-related effectiveness and returns from its knowledge assets [Wiig] • KM is getting the right knowledge to the right people at the right time so they can make the best decision [Petrash] • KM applies systematic approaches to find, understand and use knowledge to create value [O’Dell] • KM is the formalization of and access to experience, knowledge and expertise that create new capabilities, enable superior performance, encourage innovation and enhance customer value [Beckman] Knowledge Mobilisation Joint Research

8. Knowledge Management • There are ten general principles of KM [Davenport]: • Knowledge management is expensive (but so is stupidity) • Effective management of knowledge requires hybrid solutions involving both people and technology • Knowledge management is highly political • Knowledge management requires knowledge managers • Knowledge management benefits more from maps than models, more from markets than hierarchies • Sharing and using knowledge are often unnatural acts • Knowledge management means improving knowledge work processes • Access to knowledge is only the beginning • Knowledge management never ends • Knowledge management requires a knowledge contract [i.e. intellectual property issues] Knowledge Mobilisation Joint Research

9. Knowledge Management • There are six steps forming a KM process [Holsapple-Joshi]: • Acquiring knowledge: extracting, interpreting, transferring • Selecting knowledge: locating, retrieving, transferring • Internalizing knowledge: assessing, targeting, depositing • Using knowledge • Generating knowledge: monitoring, evaluating, producing, transferring • Externalizing knowledge: targeting, producing, transferring • History: • 1980 Digital Equipment Corporation [XCON, expert system] • 1989 Price Waterhouse [KM integrated in business strategy] • 1991 Harvard Business Review [Nonaka-Takeuchi] • 1994 Large consulting firms [KM services offered to clients] • 1996 Various firms and practitioners [KM became a hype movement] Knowledge Mobilisation Joint Research

10. Knowledge Management Markets • Google brought back 655 million references to Knowledge Management in 0.29 seconds [quite an active reference] • KM has become embedded in the policy, strategy and implementation processes of worldwide corporations, governments and institutions. • The global KM market was estimated [Malhotra] at USD 8.8B in 2005; the KM technology is expected to be part of the CRM market, which is estimated at USD 148B in 2006 and KM is expected to save USD 31B in annual re-invention costs at Fortune 500 companies; the broader KM application context which includes learning, education and training shows significantly larger markets Knowledge Mobilisation Joint Research

11. Knowledge Management Failures • Knowledge Management is described as “getting the right information to the right person at the right time”; this builds on the assumption that all relevant knowledge can be foreseen and stored in databases and modified, enhanced and developed with software, rules and practices [Malhotra] • KM builds on the following assumptions [Malhotra] • The same knowledge can be re-used by any human mind (or computer) to re-process the same logic to produce the same outcomes • The same outcomes will be needed and delivered again and again through an optimal use of input resources • The system’s primary objective is to achieve the most efficient means for transforming pre-specified input to predetermined outcomes • There is no need for subjective interpretation of information Knowledge Mobilisation Joint Research

12. Knowledge Mobilisation Potential • Knowledge Management may be valid for a static world in which pre-specified inputs, processing logic and the expected outcomes represent an optimal mode of activities • Knowledge Mobilisation [adapted from Malhotra] develops relevant technologies for • Intelligence in action which requires an active, affective and dynamic representation of knowledge as a dynamic construct • Active: knowledge is adaptive to a changing context • Affective: cognitive, rational and emotional [subjective interpretation] • Dynamic: proactive and adaptive reinterpretation of data, information and assumptions • Continuous re-assessment of performance outcomes • “Knowledge resides in the user and not in the collection” [Churchman]; “knowledge, unlike information, is about beliefs and commitment” [Nonaka-Takeuchi] Knowledge Mobilisation Joint Research