Knowledge Management in Superorganisms1
F. J. Radermacher
(Forschungsinstitut für anwendungsorientierte Wissensverarbeitung
(FAW),
Ulm, Germany
radermacher@faw.uni-ulm.de)
Abstract: This paper deals with a general approach to knowledge
management in companies and organizations. It strongly builds on insights
concerning knowledge processing in superorganisms and reflects years of
FAW experiences in applications. The paper in particular shows how (1)
human resources, (2) issues of organization and (3) new IT systems interact
in achieving a higher level of competence and competitiveness. In this
context, dealing with non-explicit sources of knowledge is a major issue,
too.
Keywords: human resources, IT systems, knowledge management,
non-explicit knowledge, organizations, superorganisms
Category: H.3
1 Introduction
Globalisation and the spread of information and communication technology
are making knowledge management a new challenge for companies. There
is a saying in Germany that goes like this: "If company X really knew
what company X knows, company X would be unbeatable." This applies
especially in a world in which products, companies and employees are changing
faster and faster. In reaction to this challenge, a lot of people are talking
now about knowledge management, some of them in a somewhat "naive"
administrative way, in which the topic is ultimately reduced to new software
tools such as document management systems, GroupWare systems, etc.
The present text, which builds upon FAW's experience of more than a
decade with the topic of knowledge management, takes a different perspective.
Generally, it asks for common features in information processing in so-called
superorganisms, be it animals, robots, swarms, insect states, humans, companies,
organizations, humankind as a whole or GAIA, the biosphere of the earth.
Essential issues deal with questions of knowledge representation, seen
as frames of pattern transformation (see four-level
1A short
version of this text appeared as "Knowledge management: a challenge
for companies" in "Germany - Global Visions", MVV Medien
Vertriebs- und Verlagsgesellschaft mbH, Düsseldorf, pp. 116-121, 2000
architecture below), questions of learning and creativity and the priorization
of scarce resources.
If this point of view is more focussed on companies and organizations,
it sees knowledge as primarily bound to the people within these organizational
"bodies", their experience and the way they interact. Knowledge
is hard to pin down, especially in its deeper dimensions, and certainly
cannot be readily captured on computer systems. On the other hand, modern
intranet and document systems in the area of flat knowledge offer great
potential to simplify information access and exchange. Furthermore, there
are humanised approaches to use these networks to improve employees ways
to network among each other and to communication and to ask one another
how to get at sources of information. FAW is pursuing this way of looking
at knowledge management with a workgroup of small to medium-sized companies
that belong to FAW's group of regional partners, and with several companies,
that form the legal basis of FAW as a foundation in a series of projects,
and also in projects with external partners. FAW, in this context, builds
on its own four-level architecture of information and knowledge
processing, which makes it possible to take a very general view of the
topic and which clearly distinguishes among types of information that are
more neural/holistic or more of a calculating/symbolic nature. This differentiation
takes place on the level of individuals as well as, e.g., on the level
of companies, which are understood to be complex organisms, too
(cf. the remarks at the beginning of this introduction). The present text
gives a short introduction to the topic. It treats FAW's four-level architecture
and certain key elements of the approach in Section 1. In Section 2 it
explains why companies - even small to medium-sized companies - should
use knowledge management more. Section 3 describes
the role of formalized knowledge administration and Section
4 looks at learning companies. The paper ends with a short summary
and bibliography.
2 Placing the Topic in the Context of the Current Debate
Unlike many other approaches followed today, the present text deals
with a view of the topic knowledge management that is oriented around biological
systems and biological evolution. Such an approach views companies
to be complex organisms oriented towards the goal of long-term survival
while living in a biotope that is getting "hotter and hotter"
under present conditions of economic globalisation. The approach takes
a system-theoretical perspective on such complex organisms and is based
on the following four points, which comprise the essentials of FAW's methodology
of knowledge management:
- differentiating four levels of information and knowledge processing
in such systems. This concerns primarily the interaction of "head"
(symbolic processing mechanisms) with the "gut" (subsymbolic
processing mechanisms), i.e. the interaction of control systems on the
one hand and mechanisms of self-organisation on the other
- identifying various learning mechanisms on the different levels
of information and knowledge processing, considered
- taking a certain view on creativity and innovation as an interplay
of the mechanisms "Generation" and "Selection" of or
between "solutions" on the various processing levels, and
- taking a certain perspective on the interplay of hierarchy and distribution,
oriented around the organisation of and role that consciousness plays in
human cognition. Results show that hierarchies should be used in such areas
- and only in such areas - where important, but scarce resources have to
be controlled intelligently and in a time-critical fashion.
Let us go into the four different levels in greater detail. On the lowest
of them we see signals, each of them comprising a direct interaction
of a physical-chemical nature with the environment, many of which are of
a "key-lock" nature. On the one hand, signals induce direct
effects, while on the other, so-called features are filtered out,
based of them. Features are the input-information on the second level of
information processing under consideration. Here, on the one hand, starts
a functional transformation of such features, for example, into a motor
response or actuation, perhaps in the form of trained (natural or artificial)
neural networks. On the other hand, objects or concepts can
be identified by classifiers on the basis of features. This leads
to a conceptual or symbolic level of information processing, the
third level, which includes a massive compression of information. At the
same time it allows a much more rapid acceleration of the generation of
new knowledge because of the powerful processing mechanisms available on
this level. These include all kinds of symbol-processing, in particular
those called "logical thinking" and the use of language: this
is the classic domain of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a scientific discipline.
Beyond this there is a fourth level consisting of theories and models,
on which one uses complex mathematical models or models from the natural
sciences and instruments such as optimisation, statistics, decision theory,
logic and numerical analysis to describe real-world cases and to make assertions
and to draw conclusions from them.
In conjunction with the FAW approach, we realise that many companies
perform as well as they do in some cases not because of, but rather despite,
their control systems (Level 3). We realise that it is therefore important
to maintain this adaptability and ability to self-organise
(Level 2) on the companies' working level, and that one should not expect
wonders from planning, especially when the role of planning is taken too
narrowly. Instead, a great potential lies in the interaction of the various
mechanisms and levels, described. Particularly, in small to medium-sized
companies, but probably in all companies, aspects of self-organisation
will continue to play an important, if not dominant, role, and to constitute
a comparative advantage - not even considering the advantage that such
a modus of operation protects a company from espionage and copying much
better than more formalised forms of use of knowledge.
The idea of a company as an "organism", a feature typical
of the FAW approach to the issue, is rounded off by a stakeholder-oriented
company philosophy. Such as philosophy respects not only shareholder
value, but also takes the other important actors more extensively into
account such as employees, customers, suppliers and a company's local and
regional environment.
3 Why Should Companies Practice Knowledge Management
Today?
Today's change processes are very dynamic, in that new products
and processes are appearing all the time, employees are coming and going
more rapidly and stocks of new knowledge are accumulating always faster.
Conditions change very quickly. Employees have to become and somehow remain
competent in this rapidly changing world, to access the necessary know-how,
to satisfy customer demands and to mobilise their own energies again and
again. Whereas certain dimensions of knowledge about factual areas, the
company's own history, along with knowledge of the strengths and weaknesses
of its employees and partners was generated in former times under relatively
constant conditions in virtue of the continuity among employees within
so-called "communities of practice", today these things are altogether
different. Today, having the relevant knowledge available is no longer
as easy as it used to be. Today a company has to use technology and new
organisational aids more than in earlier days to mobilise its own energies
appropriately.
Mobilising a company's own energies takes various forms such as creating
intranet structures, which are now taking on the role of a (technical)
nervous system of one's own organisation; it takes the form of making,
as a kind of so-called "flat knowledge" important standard documents
available through databases and networks, of using software tools to co-ordinate
or share information, and of using e-mail and similar services as the basis
of a strong internal networking. It is also important to combine
a corporate culture of the sensible documentation of content with the activation
of a mentality of "knowledge sharing". But all this is
still not enough. There are very essential stocks of knowledge hidden away
somewhere in people that cannot be represented in a formalised manner.
And there is very much important knowledge that perhaps could be articulated,
but which can't be documented for cost reasons or should not be documented
at all for other reasons, for instance, in order to protect certain
secrets. And there is a lot that comes about in interaction as a spontaneous
behavioural change that never becomes really manifest anywhere. The proper
attitude towards these aspects which take place in one's "gut"
rather than in the "head", and what employees and workgroups
develop, taken as complex units, is also important.
We need the proper attitude towards the potential dormant in interaction
and self-organization. We need a respect for knowledge that cannot
be formalised, but is of a holistic nature. This is an important point.
Money has to be invested here, and there are things to be learned here;
this is an exceptionally difficult topic. Knowledge management is becoming
increasingly important as an explicit topic for the orientation of successful
companies; however it should not be allowed to exhaust itself in the illusion
that one tries to formalise everything that is important. Often it is better
instead to document, by means of e. g. yellow pages within an intranet,
who can give information on which topic, who was once in a position to
do what work with whom, etc. Another alternative to dedicated planning
is to organize an event as an effective means of reaching a result
by a specified time. Only by using and coupling such different approaches
is it possible to encourage increased and focussed interaction of people
in a human-centred way in distributed environments, in order to
accomplish tasks with one another and to reach corporate objectives. Great
new challenges lie
ahead in this area for companies and organisations that want to be successful.
Only when this is realised, can certain latent potentials be unlocked,
as will be described in the next section.
4 The Management of Knowledge within the Framework
of an Information and Knowledge Society / Virtual Companies
Globally, we are on the way to becoming a knowledge society.
As we travel further along this road, knowledge is increasingly becoming
a major source of value generation. In the virtual businesses which
are developing, the proper handling of knowledge is continually becoming
a more important factor in ensuring that a business holds together, that
a corporate memory is created and that there is continuity. This
also applies to a whole range of other business activities, such as the
relationship with customers, quality assurance, working in collaboration
with others, etc. Very different forms of knowledge will become more important.
Attention has to be drawn here to knowledge about sources of information,
knowledge of conceivable know-how input, knowledge about employees, business
associates, customers and key account partners, and knowledge concerning
production procedures and processes. Also to be included is knowledge about
available information systems and technical components, e.g. actuators,
which can be neurally or symbolically realised. Knowledge will have to
be made available via databases and by the use of interconnected systems.
Interconnection will be organised on the basis of meta-knowledge
systems and a world-modelling that is operating in the background,
and partly, too, by the use of mechanisms of discourse management.
When it comes to the concrete distribution of information and the retrieval
of contents, intelligent filters and brokers, together with measures
to ensure the quality of the knowledge in question, will become more and
more important. From a business's point of view, knowledge of all on-going
processes, production procedures, quality assurance measures, contract
conditions, etc. is of central importance. At the same time, on-line
feedback from customers will grow in importance, for example, making
reference to the quality level of the firm's products actually being used.
The processing of information (in the broadest sense) will continue to
grow in importance and, therefore, also the use of networks, operating
systems, middleware, database systems, meta-database systems, method banks,
Geographical Information Systems (GIS), repositories, and so on. Uniting
many of these aspects, knowledge concerning the whole infrastructure of
information and communication (knowledge of the technical and information
infrastructure) will become ever more important as an independently represented
body of information. Being able to manage this constantly growing stock
of information on knowledge infrastructure will be absolutely essential
for organisations in the future.
In the course of the increased use of telecommunications and, in particular,
with regard to the continuously increasing exploitation of the international
cost differences concerning suppliers and employees, the virtual company
will further gain in importance. Virtual companies will also allow
the adoption of quite different forms of work organisation. Already today
in the construction industry, working together through
the use of connected CAD systems at locations in various parts of the
world is becoming a reality; this can be supported by modern GroupWare
tools and the use of video conferencing facilities.
One of the guiding ideas here is 24-hour engineering design workdays,
alternating between different places around the globe. This will lead to
a further enormous acceleration in product development times. Virtualisation
and the use of modern telematics will make it possible to do many things
faster and more efficiently than today. Travelling sales representatives
are already frequently linked to their companies by cellular telephones
and laptops, enabling them to finalise contractual agreements with customers
on the spot. In dealings with customers, whole processing stages can be
eliminated. A lot of interaction with the customer will be done via multimedia
technology as the channel of contact which becomes the major interface
to all information management and control systems of a company in the times
of e-commerce.
Following this line of argumentation further, customers, especially
the corporate ones (OEMs), as they communicate with the system, will take
on inventory restocking responsibilities themselves. But not only such
suppliers will be involved, but also employees will participate, as global
sourcing gains importance; on many occasions the virtual employee will
be an independent entrepreneur. In this context, many current company
functions will be outsourced. Relationships with employees will, in part,
be more temporary than today and mobile workplaces will play a central
role. Just to remark in passing: in such virtual businesses the smaller
degree of orientation to hierarchies and internal politics within the company
will probably mean that the constantly necessary adjustments of organisational
structures to market changes will become easier than today.
In this context, one essential company function will be information
management, i.e. to make available the right information at the right
time and in the right place for the right person. As already indicated
above, this will, among other things, be a matter of ensuring the maintenance,
technical support and integration of information processing systems among
the company's employees and towards business partners, even over great
distances and possibly even when frequent changes of personnel are involved.
In this context, too, contract management will gain in significance,
as will online payment processing. At the same time, the question
of data-security will assume even more importance than it has already
today since, in this process, company data will be more widely distributed
and mastery of the subject of data-security - including key management
- will be required. This also applies to dealings with suppliers and customers,
as well as, for example, to the management of consortiums and projects
for special tasks. In general terms, it will have to be ensured in these
circumstances that a corporate memory, as a computer-supported system,
is available and stays valid and powerful.
5 The Learning Organisation
For a variety of reasons, businesses all around the world, in addition
to virtualisation, are on the way to becoming learning organisations
and have to do so. This is linked with the fact that in the complex world
of today, classical organisational structures, described primarily by sets
of rules, which reflect the classical principles of organisation, are no
longer able to react fast enough. For this reason, it is important to enrich
and empower these rule-based systems with more informal relationships and
structures such as can grow within a firm or outside it related to common
interests, for example through intranets, and to make better use than before
of the intuitive or neural abilities of employees. This also includes
the possibility and necessity of employees being involved in lifelong
learning and training courses, relevant content being in part laid
down by the company, but also in part being chosen by the employee himself
in his desire to improve. In the broadest sense, therefore, the aim of
the learning organisation will be to make knowledge on all levels utilisable
- as it is discussed in Part 1 in greater detail - and ensuring co-ordination
among employees by specifying objectives and by making available to them
all the guiding ideas of the company. In doing so, it should be ensured
that an appropriate interaction between explicitness and more intuitive
or neural or structural experience takes place. Providing the environment
for these important future processes will involve many logistic functions,
too.
The utilisation of employees' know-how, referred to above, has often
proven so central that today the primary consideration is often how to
use this knowledge, in a suitable form, to boost the performance of a company.
This usually means, as a rule, less hierarchical forms of organisation
and structuring (heterarchies), more freedom and "empowerment"
for employees and, for management, a heavy emphasis placed on the creation
of conditions under which the capabilities of employees can best flourish.
It is then a matter of the staff, for both separate individuals and within
working groups, to find the best solutions for the benefit of the firm.
In this context, a very important part is played by the right kind of interconnection
of employees via appropriate infrastructures, such as intranets which might
be seen, as already pointed out above, as the nervous systems of
modern businesses, possibilities for self-organisation through agendas,
ease of access to knowledge sources of all kinds and the possibility of
enlarging the contents of such knowledge bases locally with data of personal
interest or value. It is in the nature of things that employees who are
independently active to such an extent need a clear picture of the aims
of the company on all levels.
Ultimately, in conformity with the theory of self-similar structures,
this development leads to the observation that such future learning organisations
will be recursively made up of interacting sub-structures, which are similar
in many respects to the whole (self-similarity). Of course, the
whole structure must be strongly characterised by cohesion between the
parts, by interaction and empowering and all parts must have a clear idea
of the philosophy and overall aims of the company. Conceptually, a comparison
can be made here with profit centres which, however, here are guided by
clear target vectors, and the making available of a wide range of information,
this within the clearly delineated framework of interaction which leads
to the common attainment of overriding objectives and not to results that
are in many ways sub-optimal. Principles
of self-organisation are decisive, as is the utilisation of meta-knowledge,
both at the structural level, in the organisation of collaboration, and
also for the individual employees. Once again, much of the orientation
and clear setting out of aims on a detailed level, which was characteristic
of the trend towards explicitness, is intentionally lost in this process.
Success factors are, in part, more hidden and, in part, exist
in employees' heads, partly in the forms of interaction that arise therefrom.
Continuous further training will also be a central feature of
learning organisations. Where the training itself is concerned, this will
mean the provision of learning environments in which lifelong learning
can take place. Alone on the grounds of the cost, but also once more with
an eye to making the most of one's own possibilities where competition
with others is concerned, the essential training and learning processes
will be multimedia-based with their content designed accordingly,
and will take place at the point of learning, e.g. on company premises
at times individual persons themselves choose. In order, as a business,
to ensure that this is achieved with maximum success, businesses will establish
links, in the form of knowledge co-operation associations, appropriate
to the subject concerned, with varied business associates, partners in
the supply chain and, of course, with the right kind of scientific partners
in research centres and universities. This, too, will in turn be strongly
furthered by the possibilities that networks offer. In this context, the
quality assurance function within the firm itself will gain in importance
both domestically and world-wide, thus requiring the development of abilities
in the area of the assessment and international certification of
the content of training courses and of qualifications.
6 Concluding Remarks / Summary
The present text has only been able to present fragmentary elements
of knowledge management, as it is needed in today's world: it pertains
primarily to personnel development, human resource management and organisation,
and also has technical, database-related and formalised aspects. Here,
the IT environment is strongly involved. It should be emphasised once again
that paying attention to the human-centred aspects is extremely important.
This is an aspect that FAW has spent a lot of work on, especially in conjunction
with small to medium-sized companies in our region. That is a question
of making it easier for employees to ask other employees for information;
it means identifying and rewarding those persons who are especially helpful
to others via knowledge-sharing; it can also mean protecting certain key
people so that they are not too easily accessible to others. Mission-critical
knowledge has to be protected adequately, which sometimes means not
making it explicit. FAW thinks that it is also important to gather
and make accessible information about situations in which something did
not work out right. Finally, it should be emphasised again, that knowledge
management has to be embedded into a context of organisation, personnel
development and system technical infrastructure. In this context, in our
work with small to medium-sized companies, we have dealt with and also
produced documents on topical combinations such as knowledge management
and personnel, knowledge management and conflict, knowledge management
and crisis, knowledge management and mergers, etc. Knowledge management
is really an interesting topic. Many small to
medium-sized companies are doing the right thing intuitively. They should
not have primarily to think about buying software systems for that purpose;
instead, companies need to use the new technical tools available within
an appropriate organisation and accordingly skilled human resources to
help them develop their present structures further and to link such structures
together more effectively; along their full chain of value creation.
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