- Research Proposals - Valuing Knowledge Management in Organizations

1. - Research Proposals -Valuing Knowledge Management in Organizations Alexandre Perrin, Junior PhD Student CERAM Sophia Antipolis, European School of Management – Nice, France alexandre.perrin@ceram.fr – www.alexandreperrin.com

2. AGENDA • About me • About my research • About my thesis • About my articles Discussion

3. 1. About me PROFESSIONAL How can we value Knowledge Management practices in our organization ? LAFARGE SIEMENS LAFARGE AMADEUS Action-Research 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 ACADEMIC Nantes Graduate School of Management Master in Management CERAM Sophia Antipolis Specialized Master in KM PhD Grant EUDOKMA (European Doctoral on KM)

4. Knowledge Management…a technical issue ? personal experience…NO ! KM is far more complex and interesting

5. …the reason for doing a PhD • Gap between theory and practice • Organizations have hard time valuing knowledge management effectively • Academic can help Business to value knowledge management • Lack of theoretical approach • Lack of operational methodology

6. AGENDA • About me • About my research • About my thesis • About my articles Discussion

7. 2. About my research 2.1 Research environment 2.2 Research questions 2.3 Research methodology

8. 2.1 Research environment: everybody talks about Knowledge ! Research Research Framework The Knowledge Paradigm Legal Economy Management The Knowledge Economy Knowledge Management Intellectual Property Practice Framework The Knowledge Based Organization Organization Faced with a low return on investment from technology and a lack of absorption from employees, organizations live a false revolution of information Organizations can build a competitive advantage by managing effectively information and knowledge My problem: How Valuing Knowledge Management ?

9. 2.2 Research Questions • Theoretical Question: What are the valuable dimensions of Knowledge Management practices ? • Empirical Question: How can an organization value these practices ? • Methodological Question: How can I build a model to value and monitor the increase of economical and organizational performance ? My aim: find scientific ways to value Knowledge Management

10. 2.3 Research Methodology • How: Action Research + Literature Review • Where: Global French companies that have implemented a Knowledge Management Strategy • Amadeus in Sophia Antipolis: Marketing • Lafarge in Paris: Information Systems • What: Longitudinal Case Study built on semi-structured interviews • Who: Collaboration with Knowledge Manager and Business Units (10) • How long: 18 months

11. AGENDA • About me • About my research • About my thesis • About my articles Discussion

12. 3. About my thesis 3.1 The KM Framework 3.1 Typology of Knowledge Management practices 3.2 Typology of tools to monitor KM practices

13. 3.1 The KM Framework CULTURE STRATEGY ORGANISATION TECHNOLOGY

14. 3.2 Typology of KM practices CULTURE Knowledge Sharing How often do employees collaborate? COLLABORATION VS RETENTION STRATEGY Knowledge Portfolio What kind of knowledge the company manage? EXPLORATION VS EXPLOITATION ORGANISATION Learning Structure Are the employees aware and supported? TOP DOWN VS BOTTOM-UP TECHNOLOGY Knowledge Systems Are the information tools blocking knowledge sharing? CODIFICATION VS PERSONALISATION

15. 3.3 Typology of tools to monitor KM practices

16. AGENDA • About me • About my research • About my thesis • About my articles Discussion

17. 4. About my articles • Article 1: Mc Gill J., Perrin A. et Vidal P. (2004) - Valuing Knowledge Management in Organizations, from theory to practice: the case of Lafarge Group - 5th Conference on Organization Knowledge and Learning Capabilities (OKLC), Innsbruck, Austria • Article 2: Perrin A., Stanley T. et Rolland N. (2004) - Managing organizational networks and knowledge transfer in a global service company - 24th Annual International Conference of the Strategic Management Society (SMS), San Juan, Puerto Rico

18. Valuing Knowledge Management: from theory to practice, the Lafarge Case Alexandre Perrin Doctoral Student Jennifer McGill Knowledge Manager Pascal Vidal Professor in IS

19. Theoretical foundations • In the Knowledge Based View (KBV) of the firm, knowledge is recognized as a vital source of competitive advantage (Nonaka, 1994; Spender, 1996 ; Grant, 2000) • Knowledge integration needs cooperation, but depends on coordination between individuals and knowledge they retained. The firm must manage the integration of discontinuous types of knowledge into a coherent organizational view (Spender, 1996). • According to this academic field, leveraging knowledge leads to knowledge management strategies.

20. Issues raised by the case in the KBV • What is the role of a knowledge manager ? • How an organization defines a strategy to manage knowledge ? • How an organization can value knowledge management ? Case on DVD

21. The goal of a Knowledge Manager? “Put in place a knowledge sharing culture, which becomes a natural way of working in the organization…without the ongoing need of a Knowledge Manager.” Jennifer McGill, Lafarge Corporate Knowledge Manager

22. Issue N°1: The role of the Knowledge Manager • According to Earl (1999): CKOs have two principal design competencies: they are “technologists” and “environmentalists”. They encourage and initiate investments in information technology as well as in the social environment. • A survey carried out in 92 firms show that organizations have shifted to the « environmental » side of Knowledge Management. Rolland (2004)

23. Issue N°2: The choice for a Knowledge Management Strategy, the case of Lafarge • Lafarge has followed this trend: while knowledge has been documented in the past thanks to a technological strategy, and the barriers to access in the international environment have been removed, the challenge today is to ensure contributionand use of this knowledge to improve business performance. • About Lafarge: • The world leader in construction materials • Four business lines: Cement, Aggregates & Concrete, Gypsum and Roofing solutions. • One of France's largest corporations in terms of sales(13,6 billions €)

24. Knowledge Management at Lafarge The vision for knowledge management is to support Lafarge in its efforts to become the undisputed world leader in building materials by: • Generating value for key stakeholders through the widespread sharing and application of expertise, good and best practices. • Providing local businesses with a simple way to access knowledge & know-how, find experts and work collaboratively on solutions that leverage and apply the knowledge of the company. • To provide tools that will analyze knowledge and turn it into actionable business intelligence to further enable performance improvements for Lafarge business and customers. Key knowledge stakeholders are defined as employees, customers, suppliers and partners

25. Knowledge Management Achievements Goal 1: Generating value for stakeholders • Internal: post-it session and definition of user needs • External: presentation on “Performance and KM” to shareholders Goal 2: Providing simple ways to access knowledge • Search Engine • New Information Portal (Navigation bar, Profiling…My Leo) Goal 3: Build a culture of knowledge sharing and collaborative communities • Collaborative Tools to support workgroup • Story Telling from Communication Team Goal 4: Providing tools to help decision • Not only softwares… • Mc Dermott (1999):Information Technology has led many companies to imagine a new world of leveraged knowledge […] as a result, many companies are rethinking how work gets done, linking people through electronic media so they can leverage each other's knowledge.

26. Knowledge Management Framework in Lafarge The knowledge sharing culture must be aligned with company programs including Leader for Tomorrow and Division Performance initiatives Knowledge initiatives must be aligned with the business Strategy. 1. Strategy & 4. Culture Content 3. User access 2. Governance A clear process of Governance. And organization must be Defined in the divisions. & Technology Process & Tools enable access to knowledge and must be simple and accessible to all Organization

27. Knowledge Management Challenges • Return on Investment • Divisional Organization • Clear understanding of the concept of knowledge sharing

28. Issue N°3: Valuing Knowledge Management • Valuing knowledge management is obtaining tangible results with intangible resources. • Start small and gain results to attract internalcustomers • Story telling: The Langkawi Case • Valuing knowledge management is solving day-to-day issues. • The example of the Corporate Directory • Beyond tools…the real implementation challenge is not to get the knowledge base, hardware and software in place, but to encourage their use (Orlikowski view) (Volumes of data are growing at a rate of 100% per year). • Valuing knowledge management is developing a knowledge sharing culture • Merger with Blue Circle • Focus of knowledge management on tools is only the first step

29. Conclusion Lesson 1: Focus on Human Beings and Corporate Culture ! • the essence of an effective Knowledge Management Structure is advertising, marketing, packaging, incentives, big travel budgets, and the psychodynamics of knowledge management. The answer turns out to lie more with psychology and marketing…than with bits and bytes (Peters, 1993). Lesson 2: Valuing KM is based on tangible and intangible results • keep track of people who ‘know the recipe’, and nurture the technology and culture that will get them talking • ROI measurement implies to link KM program to Corporate Performance Program

30. Evolution of the KM Strategy in Lafarge according to our Framework

31. Future Research • Focus on Knowledge Management Performance Enablers (Choi and Lee, 2003): collaboration, trust… • Paper on the use of StoryTelling in Information Systems • Test the StoryTelling approach in Lafarge THANK YOU FOR YOUR ATTENTION !