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The Practices of Knowledge Managers: an Activity System Based View

The Practices of Knowledge Managers: an Activity System Based View. Alexandre Perrin (aperrin@audencia.com) Strategy Department Audencia Nantes School of Management France. Statements. KM is a managerial practice (Bain, 2006) 1996  28% of usage 2006  69% of usage

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The Practices of Knowledge Managers: an Activity System Based View

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  1. The Practices of Knowledge Managers: an Activity System Based View Alexandre Perrin (aperrin@audencia.com) Strategy Department Audencia Nantes School of Management France

  2. Statements • KM is a managerial practice (Bain, 2006) • 1996  28% of usage • 2006  69% of usage • …but companies are dissatisfied with the results • Appointments of people in charge of knowledge management issues: • Chief Learning Officer, Chief Knowledge Officer, Knowledge Manager, Community Coordinator… • They initiate, drive and coordinate knowledge management programs (Earl and Scott 1999)  Paradox: few researches were conducted on these practitioners…none with a “practice-lens”

  3. Literature Review Knowledge as… KM Tools Knowledge Managers as… Technical Approach of KM Individual and collective objects that can be placed on an external support (Walsh et Ugson, 1991 ; Grant, 1991 ; Szulanski, 1996 ; Davenport et Prusak, 2000 ; Argote et al., 2003) Knowledge codification through patents, expert systems or databases (Hatchuel et Weil, 1992 ; Cowan et Foray, 2000 ; Hansen et al., 1999; Alavi et Leidner, 2001; Prax, 2004) - Chief Information/Knowledge Officer(Earl et Scott, 1999) - Chief Protection Officer (Awazu et Desouza, 2004) Social Approach of KM Knowledge built and traded in social spaces (Lave et Wenger, 1991 ; Brown et Duguid, 1991 ; Wenger, 1999 ; Gherardi et Nicolini, 2000 ; Bechky, 2003 ; Kellogg, 2006) Knowledge socialization through communities of practice (Wenger et al. 2002 ; Dameron et Josserand, 2006 ; Soenen, 2006 ; Vaast, 2007 ; Castro, 2007) - Chief Learning Officer (Awazu et Desouza, 2004) - Community Coordinator (Wenger et al., 2002)

  4. Research Questions • A practice-lens: RQ 1. What are the daily actions of knowledge managers? RQ 2. What kind of conflicts can emerge from these practices inside the organization ? RQ3. How these practices evolve over time ? • Objective: study the practices of knowledge managers through the image of the situated activity Level of analysis Organisation Managers Policy Plan What ? Issue Process Practice How ? Whittington (1996, p.732)

  5. Analyzing Knowledge Managers practices: the Activity Based View Artefacts Subject Object RESULTS Division of work Rules Community Adapted from Engeström (1996)

  6. Methodology • Research setting • Multinational corporation with KM function(s) • Three managerial levels: corporate/functions/business units • Qualitative methodology • 18 months of in situ observation (tasks) • 30 interviews conducted (discourses) • 850 pages of internal documents analyzed (artefacts) • Four embedded case studies (managers) • Data triangulation obtained  context • Content analysis with NVivo 2.0  Personal past experience has eased data analysis

  7. Results Artefacts Modify the content offered or select IT tools ? Animate or control tools (codification & socialization) ? Subject Object RESULTS How to ensure common practices in KM How to measure the value of KM ? Division of work Rules Community

  8. Outcomes • An evolving agenda with four domains of activity: • Knowledge portfolio (content) • Tools for codification (backbone) • Governance (rules) • Mindset (culture) (see the content analysis) • Knowledge Managers practices are influenced by: • Their ability to understand the knowledge that need to be managed (eg. Rewriting best practices) • The organization chart (eg. IT dept. vs Sales dept.) • The degree of understanding by stakeholders • The software/IT consultants • Practices evolve according to stakeholders needs

  9. Results – Content analysis (back) Case CKO Case FIRST Case BOOSTER Case KTP Portfolio 6 % 1161 words 56 % 5737 words 49 % 7952 words 20 % 2477 words IT 68 % 13158 words 13 % 1332 words 2 % 324 words 22 % 2724 words Governance 14 % 2709 words 13 % 1329 words 32 % 5194 words 8 % 991 words Mindset 12 % 2321 words 18 % 1844 words 17 % 2759 words 38 % 4706 words  Total 100% 100 % 100 % 100 %

  10. Conclusion • The situated activity model helps to understand • the different influences or conflicts in exercising the function of knowledge management • the underlying causes of birth and death of the function • the competencies needed to hire a knowledge manager (IT/Rhetoric/Writing) • Limit of the study • Quantitative study to be made on the four domains of activity • Conduct a survey inside the French knowledge manager community (CoP-1)

  11. What can we add…

  12. KM Programs vs KM Practices Level of analysis Organisation Managers What ? Policy Plan Problems How ? Process Practice

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