- Research Proposals - Valuing Knowledge Management in Organizations

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- Research Proposals -Valuing Knowledge
Management in Organizations

• Alexandre Perrin, Junior PhD Student
• CERAM Sophia Antipolis, European School of
  Management Nice, France
• alexandre.perrin_at_ceram.fr www.alexandreperrin.co
  m

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AGENDA

• About me
• About my research
• About my thesis
• About my articles
• Discussion

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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)
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Knowledge Managementa technical issue ?
personal experienceNO ! KM is far more complex
and interesting
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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

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AGENDA

• About me
• About my research
• About my thesis
• About my articles
• Discussion

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2. About my research

• 2.1 Research environment
• 2.2 Research questions
• 2.3 Research methodology

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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 ?
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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
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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

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AGENDA

• About me
• About my research
• About my thesis
• About my articles
• Discussion

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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

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3.1 The KM Framework
STRATEGY
CULTURE
TECHNOLOGY
ORGANISATION
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3.2 Typology of KM practices
STRATEGY Knowledge Portfolio What kind of
knowledge the company manage? EXPLORATION VS
EXPLOITATION
CULTURE Knowledge Sharing How often do employees
collaborate? COLLABORATION VS RETENTION
TECHNOLOGY Knowledge Systems Are the information
tools blocking knowledge sharing? CODIFICATION
VS PERSONALISATION
ORGANISATION Learning Structure Are the employees
aware and supported? TOP DOWN VS BOTTOM-UP
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3.3 Typology of tools to monitor KM practices
CULTURE Collaborative Climate Index STRATEGY StoryTelling Intangible Assets Monitor
ORGANISATION Maturity Models Cost Analysis TECHNOLOGY Usage Metrics Feedbacks
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AGENDA

• About me
• About my research
• About my thesis
• About my articles
• Discussion

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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

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Valuing Knowledge Management from theory to
practice, the Lafarge Case

• Alexandre Perrin
• Doctoral Student

Pascal Vidal Professor in IS
Jennifer McGill Knowledge Manager
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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.

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Issues raised by the case in the KBV

1. What is the role of a knowledge manager ?
2. How an organization defines a strategy to manage
   knowledge ?
3. How an organization can value knowledge
   management ?

Case on DVD
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The goal of a Knowledge Manager?

• Put in place a knowledge sharing culture, which
  becomes a natural way of working in the
  organizationwithout the ongoing need of a
  Knowledge Manager.

Jennifer McGill, Lafarge Corporate Knowledge
Manager
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Issue N1 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.

Knowledge Management Strategy 1998 2000 2002
Technological (codification) 72 66 33
Personalization (personal networks) 6 8 12
Socialization (communities of practice) 12 26 55
Rolland (2004)
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Issue N2 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
  contribution and 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 )

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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

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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,
  ProfilingMy 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.

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Knowledge Management Framework in Lafarge
Knowledge initiatives must be aligned with the
business Strategy.
The knowledge sharing culture must be aligned
with company programs including Leader for
Tomorrow and Division Performance initiatives
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
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Knowledge Management Challenges

1. Return on Investment
2. Divisional Organization
3. Clear understanding of the concept of knowledge
   sharing

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Issue N3 Valuing Knowledge Management

• Valuing knowledge management is obtaining
  tangible results with intangible resources.
• Start small and gain results to attract internal
  customers
• Story telling The Langkawi Case
• Valuing knowledge management is solving
  day-to-day issues.
• The example of the Corporate Directory
• Beyond toolsthe 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

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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
  marketingthan 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

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Evolution of the KM Strategy in Lafarge according
to our Framework
CULTURE Step 4 STRATEGY Step 1
ORGANISATION Step 3 TECHNOLOGY Step 2
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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 !