Knowledge Communication among Experts and Decision Makers in the Realm of Management

1. Knowledge Communicationamong Experts and Decision Makers in the Realm of Management Martin J. Eppler, Jeanne Mengis University of Lugano (USI) www.knowledge-communication.org March 2006

2. Overview • Research Motivation, Questions, and Domains • Describing the Knowledge Communication (Kcom) Area • Analyzing Kcom Problems • Developing Kcom Solutions • Conclusion :

3. Research Motivation As organizational decision making is becoming increasingly complex and dynamic, the delegation of decision-relevant analyses from decision makers to experts gains relevance and becomes a critical prerequisite for the quality of decision making in management. Knowledge Communication Experts Decision Makers

4. Research Questions • Description: How do experts convey their insights to managers and vice versa in organizational decision making? What problems affect this communication process? • Analysis: How can these problems be detected and explained? • Solutions: How can the problems be avoided or resolved? ?

5. Research Domains: Examples of Kcom Contexts Public Sector Strategy Marketing Technology Consultants Engineers Market Researchers Analysts Managers Managers Executives and Managers Public Policy Officers

6. Research Methods • Description: 10 Case Studies and 10 Focus Groups; Personal Interviews; Literature Review • Analysis: Experiments & Case Studies, Literature Review, Concept Development • Solutions: Software Development and Action Research

7. Topic Definition and Description: Knowledge Communication • We define knowledge communication as the (deliberate) activity of interactively conveying and co-constructing insights, assessments, experiences, or skills through verbal and non-verbal means. • Successful knowledge communication leads to the integration of know-how, know-why, know-what, and know-who between experts and managers through face-to-face or media-based interaction. • Knowledge Communication is more than communicating information because it requires • conveying context, background, and assumptions, • conveying personal insights and experiences, • conveying rationale and reasoning, • conveying perspective and priorities, • conveying hunches, intuition, skills (implicit knowledge).

8. The Knowledge Integration Perspective • What is knowledge integration?Knowledge integration is “the synthesis of individuals’ specialized knowledge into situation-specific systemic knowledge”. It is a key factor for knowledge application (Alavi & Tiwana 2002) • Why is knowledge integration an important construct for knowledge communication between experts and decision makers? • knowledge integration is a key aspect of the application of the experts‘ and decision makers‘ specialized knowledge within the decision making processThe complexity of today’s tasks requires a wide use and specialized development of the knowledge of various individuals. At the same time, decisions can only be taken if the specialized knowledge of the individuals is integrated on a collective level. (Grant 1996) • The aim of knowledge integration is not a levelling of knowledge between experts and managers, but higher level of shared action and decision makingKnowledge integration (as opposed to knowledge transfer) does not aim at minimizing specialization and disagreement trough the exchange of knowledge, but rather to maintain or even foster specialized knowledge though the development of rich meaning and the creation of new insights that leads to joint actions and decisions which are highly context embedded (Eisenhardt & Santos 2000)

9. The Research Arena Harkins, P. (1999) Stasser, G. & Titus, W. (2003) Mc Leod, J.M., Chaffee, S.H. (1973) Janis, I. L. (1982) Alavi, M. and Leidner, D. (2001) Davenport, T.H. & Prusak, L. (2000) Von Krogh, G. Ichijo, K. & Nonaka, I. (2000) Grant, R.M (1996) Starbuck, W.H. (1992) Szulanski, G. (1996) Stasser, Stewart, Wittenbaum 1999 Menon, T & Pfeffer, J.2003 Anderson, J.R (1981) Mieg, H.A. (2001) Newell, A., & Simon, H. A. (1972) Sternberg, R. J. (1998)

10. Description: Our Process Model Management Tasks Management Tasks Expert Tasks Expert Identification Need Articulation Analysis Transfer of Results Application Who has the exper- tise to analyze the issue? How can I articulate what I need to know? How can I elicit the relevant insights? How can we optimize our mutual under- standing? How and by whom can the insights be applied? Organizational Level Organizational Level Inter-personal Level = management challenges

11. Analysis: Knowledge Communication Problems Management Tasks Management Tasks Expert Tasks Expert Identification Need Articulation Analysis Transfer of Results Application • Prophet • Syndrome • Ingroup • Outgroup • Problem • A.S.K. • Big Picture • Problem • Common • ground • Paralysis by • Analysis • Information • Overload • Hidden Profile • Cassandra • Syndrome • Groupthink • Expert • paradox • Knowing • Doing Gap

12. Typical Knowledge Communication Problems • Prophet syndrome: managers have a preference for outside experts. [Menon & Pfeffer, 2003] • Ingroup-outgroup: managers prefer to consult with likeminded peers rather than other professional groups [Blau, 1977] • ASK (anomalous state of knowledge): Managers often do not have the terminology to articulate their needs to experts [Belkin,1980 ] • Big picture problem: managers and experts deviate from the main issue and get lost in details. [Harkins, 1999] • Common ground: managers and experts are not aware of their differing background knowledge. [Clark and Schäfer, 1989, Olson & Olson, 2000 ] • Paralysis by analysis: experts have difficulties in concluding their analysis and proposing solutions [Langley, A. (1995) ,Lenz, R. T., Lyles, M. A., 1985, ] • Information Overload: experts are inundated with detail information and loose sight of the main objectives of their assignment [O’Reilly, 1980]. • Hidden Profile: managers and experts only focus on their already identified mutual knowledge and neglect new insights. [Stasser & Titus, 2003] • Cassandra Syndrome: the managers ignore the experts’ warning and advice, but later on blame the expert if losses occur. [Mikalachki, 1983] • Groupthink: managers and/or experts ignore evidence or do not use available knowledge fully in order to preserve group cohesion. [Janis, 1982] • Expert paradox: the experts are not able to convey what they know to managers because they cannot articulate it in terms that management can understand. [Johnson, 1983] • Knowing-Doing Gap: managers and experts know what to do, but cannot execute it due to internal competition or wrong incentives [Pfeffer & Sutton, 2000]

13. Description: Iterations in the Process Management Tasks Management Tasks Expert Tasks Expert Identification Need Articulation Analysis Transfer of Results Application Follow-up questions Refinement of need statement Follow-up analysis Revision of expert matching Suggestions for analyses based on application experiences Revised needs based on use Revised expert consultation based on experiences

14. Analysis Example: The Big Picture Problem The big picture problem (BPP) is the dysfunctional tendency of a group to neglect the global context of an issue by discussing relevant and irrelevant aspects at an inappropriate level of detailwhich does not contribute to the team’s conversational progress or to the common understanding of its main issues. • The inappropriate level of detail may be too detailed, i.e., getting lost in minor side-issues, • or too broad, not focusing enough on the real (big) issue at hand. • It includes the inability to recognize a counterproductive level of detail for an extended period of time and • manifests itself in the inability of meeting participants to relate their contributions to the team’s objectives or • in statements of discontent with the progress of a conversation.

15. Analysis Example: The Big Picture Problem- Stages and Drivers 5 4 3 2 1

16. Solution: Our Typology of Knowledge Dialogues By classifying knowledge-intensive conversations according to their main objective, managers and experts can align their expectations and behavior, avoid the big picture problem, and optimize their interactions. • Sharealogues: are open discussions that focus on the integration of mental models. • Crealogues: are divergent discussions that focus on the genreation of action options alternatives, and reframings of current perceptions. • Assessalogues: are critical discussions that focus on the positive and negative aspects of decision options. • Doalogues: are convergent discussions that focus on how to implement decisions. • Metalogues: are joint reflections and considerations about the process of communication

17. Five visualization applications can facilitate these crucial conversations Strategic Conversations Crealogue Sharealogue New Ideas Common Understanding Metalogue Understanding The Present Crafting the Future Committed Action Balanced View Assessalogue Doalogue Operational Conversations

18. Solutions: Advantages of Interactive Joint Visualization Software • Focuses and aligns the attention of experts and managers • Elucidates and clarifies basic assumptions • Visualizes the evolution of a discussion • Allows to verify the reached consensus • Documents the process and the results • Facilitates knowledge-intensive collaboration (mediated/live)

19. Solutions: Interactive Joint Visualization Screenshots of the Let‘s Focus Suite

20. Other Solutions • Training to foster effective communication behavior • Use formal procedures such as the ladder of inference, in training to rais awareness of certain conversational patterns • Simulate difficult conversational behavior as for example active listening • Job improvement measures for knowledge intensive conversations: • work with conversational guidelines, principles, and rules • engage trained, neutral, external facilitators • employ formal procedures/interventions like devil‘s advocate, to structure conversations • Build up a fruitful context for conversations: • Team Development / Team Building • Job-rotation • Care • Time

21. Conclusion • Knowledge Communication between experts and decision makers is a critical, but under-researched topic at the intersection of knowledge management and communication studies. • The five step process of knowledge integration among experts and managers suffers from numerous problems, such as groupthink, the big picture problem, the ASK syndrome, or the hidden profile problem. • Managed process iterations, explicit communication intentions and formats (such as sharealogues or doalogues), and interactive real-time visualization can reduce some of these problems effectively. !

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