Companies are beginning to realize the importance of "knowing what they know" and of making the best use of this knowledge (1). Knowledge is being recognized as the most important asset of the company, as the “only significant economic resource” (2) and therefore efforts are being made to define how to acquire, represent, retain and manage it.
Within the object of knowledge administration and management is what the company knows about its products, processes, markets, customers, employees, etc., and about how to combine these elements to make a company competitive. In this aspect, this discipline seems to replicate the objective of Technological Management, but because it is more far-reaching, it seems to contain it.
This essay aims to examine the definitions, scope and objectives of Knowledge Management and reach a conclusion regarding its relationship with Technology Management. What concepts of knowledge management are useful to achieve the selection, acquisition, transfer, assimilation and generation of technology? How can these concepts be applied in the context of companies facing the pressures of globalization and competitiveness.
Definitions, similarities and contrasts
Knowledge and its administration There are multiple definitions of data, information and knowledge, of which two are presented, which in the author's opinion, are relevant for the purpose of this essay.
In the article "Knowledge Management: a Strategic Agenda" (3), the authors present the following definition that allows us to understand the relationship between these three concepts:
"Information is made up of organized facts and data, knowledge consists of truths and beliefs, perspectives and concepts, judgments and expectations, methodologies and 'know-how'".
David B. Harris (5) presents another definition that helps to understand the different levels in which the three are:
“The lowest level of known facts is data. The data does not have an intrinsic meaning. They must be ordered, grouped, analyzed and interpreted. When data is processed in this way, it becomes information. Information has an essence and a purpose. When the information is used and placed in the context or frame of reference of a person, it is transformed into knowledge. Knowledge is the combination of information, context and experience. »
On the other hand, there are various ways of conceiving what is known as Knowledge Management. A study by researchers Paul Quintas, Paul Lefrere and Geoff Jones and presented in the article "Knowledge Management: a Strategic Agenda" (3), reveals that when doing a search in more than 100 Internet sites that mentioned aspects of Management Knowledge, a range of related interests, perspectives, and issues were found, including:
- Knowledge as economic or organizational capital. Engineering approaches that aim to improve the use of information in support of manufacturing processes. Computational aspects and means of knowledge. Organizational studies from the anthropological point of view, of evolutionary biology, sociology, etc.Epistemology, learning, knowledge psychology etc.Definition and classification aspects from the point of view of artificial intelligence, information science, linguistics, philosophy, etc.Human resources sites that mention job categories as Director of Intellectual Capital, Director of Knowledge Capital, as well as other traditional jobs such as Chief Information Officer, Research and Development Librarian etc.
However, in order to propose a definition with a heuristic approach, the article defines Knowledge Management as follows:
"Knowledge Management is the process of continuously managing knowledge of all kinds to satisfy present and future needs, to identify and exploit both existing and acquired knowledge resources and to develop new opportunities."
Ann Macintosh (1) proposes the following definition:
"Knowledge Management involves the identification and analysis of both available and required knowledge, planning and control of actions to develop knowledge assets in order to achieve organizational objectives."
The two previous definitions recognize in knowledge an important resource that must be acquired, classified, preserved and exploited to achieve the objectives of the organization and find new opportunities. They also agree that Knowledge Management is a process, which must be part of the daily activities of an organization.
Why it matters According to Macintosh, the competitive environment experienced in the 90's has made critical the quality of knowledge that companies apply to their key business processes.
In any company, the supply chain depends on the knowledge you have about raw materials, planning, manufacturing, distribution, etc. Likewise, the development of new products requires knowledge about the needs of consumers, new scientific discoveries, new technology, marketing, etc.
The challenge of applying knowledge in a company to create competitive advantages is made even more challenging due to:
- The market is increasingly competitive, which demands greater innovation in products. Because of this, knowledge must be developed and assimilated with increasing speed. Companies are organizing their businesses focusing their efforts on creating greater value for their customers. The functions of the administration staff have been reduced, as well as the same administrative levels. There is a need to replace the informal way in which knowledge was managed in administrative functions by formal methods within customer-oriented business processes. Competitive pressure is reducing the size of groups of employees who possess knowledge of the company.It takes time to acquire knowledge and gain experience from it.Employees have less and less time to do this. There is a growing trend within employees to retire earlier and later in their working lives or to increase their mobility between companies, causing the loss of knowledge. Handle increasing complexity in small companies and with transnational operations. Changes in the strategic direction of the company can cause loss of knowledge in a specific area. A subsequent decision that retakes the previous orientation may require that knowledge, but the employee who owns it may no longer be in the company.There is a need to handle increasing complexity in small companies and with transnational operations. Changes in the strategic direction of the company can cause loss of knowledge in a specific area. A later decision that takes the previous orientation may require that knowledge, but the employee who owns it may no longer be in the company.There is a need to handle increasing complexity in small companies and with transnational operations. Changes in the strategic direction of the company can cause loss of knowledge in a specific area. A later decision that takes the previous orientation may require that knowledge, but the employee who owns it may no longer be in the company.
Why it is a challenge Knowledge is an intangible asset, volatile and difficult to specify and retain.
In the same article, Macintosh mentions that there are many problems associated with finding the required knowledge assets and then being able to use them efficiently and at an appropriate cost-benefit ratio. To properly handle the difficulties associated with knowledge management and administration, companies need:
- Have a uniform and standardized language throughout the company, which ensures that knowledge is understood correctly. Be able to explicitly identify, model and represent their knowledge. Share and reuse their knowledge between different applications by various types of users. This implies being able to share existing sources of knowledge and also those that may be in the future.
Some methods and tools focused on knowledge engineering have, for some time, been able to solve the problem of the use of company knowledge. These methods provide strict procedures for designing and building knowledge-based applications. There are also tools that help in the capture, modeling, validation, verification and maintenance of knowledge to develop such applications. However, these tools do not support the corporate knowledge management process.
All in all, Macintosh believes that the techniques that currently exist to model knowledge and support its use, along with traditional management techniques, provide a starting point for carrying out knowledge management in a company.
Principles of Knowledge Management
Professor Thomas H. Davenport, from the University of Texas (4), approaches knowledge management from a pragmatic point of view by describing ten general principles for knowledge management, which, once understood by an organization, can serve base to generate detailed strategies and tactics. The ten principles exposed by Davenport are:
1. Managing knowledge is expensive:
Knowledge is an asset, but its effective management requires investments in other assets. There are many particular activities in knowledge management that require investment and effort, some of them are:
- Knowledge capture, for example: document creation and document transfer to a computerized system Add value to knowledge through editing, compacting, packaging, etc. Develop ways of categorizing knowledge and categorizing new contributions of knowledge Developing infrastructure and applications of information technology for the distribution of knowledge. Educate employees in the creation, use and ways of sharing knowledge.
Although few firms have calculated the cost of knowledge management, there are some estimates: Robert Buckman of Buckman Laboratories estimates that his firm spends 7% of its revenue on knowledge management. McKinsey and Company hope to reach the goal of investing 10% of their income in development and management of their intellectual capital.
However, while managing knowledge is expensive, the obvious reflection is that not doing it is even more expensive. What is the cost of ignorance? How much does it cost an organization to forget what its key employees know, not being able to answer its customers' questions in a timely manner, or to make inappropriate decisions based on insufficient knowledge?
2. Effective knowledge management requires hybrid solutions of people and technology.
Despite advances in artificial intelligence, it cannot yet be said that you have a machine that can completely replace humans. The facts show that organizations that want effective management of their knowledge require a high dose of human effort. Humans are very good at certain types of activities, computers are good at others.
Humans are costly and grumpy, but they are better accommodated in certain aspects of knowledge management. When seeking to understand knowledge, interpret it in a broad context, combine it with other types of information, or synthesize various unstructured forms of knowledge, humans are the best option.
Computers and communication systems, on the other hand, are good for other tasks, for example, the capture, transformation, and distribution of highly structured, rapidly changing knowledge. Computers are becoming increasingly useful in performing the same tasks on less structured knowledge, such as text and images. Given this mix of skills, it is necessary to build “hybrid” knowledge management environments in which both people and computers are used in a complementary way.
When you are compiling databases of organizational knowledge, you need to include pointers to people. For example, at GM Huges Electronics, during the process of defining best practices for process reengineering, the combined knowledge of computers and people was captured in the database. Each entry of concepts and practices was sent to an editor, who defined its usefulness and relevance. These concepts and practices were described concisely to capture the reader's interest and included the name and phone number of a person who could describe them in detail. The use of this database is growing and consolidating, and each division manager is concerned that his division is well represented in the database.
3. Knowledge management is highly political.
It is no secret to anyone that "knowledge is power" and, therefore, it is not surprising that knowledge management has a highly political background. If knowledge is associated with power, money, and success, then it is also associated with intrigue, lobbying, and veiled deals.
What does the policy around knowledge mean for effective knowledge management? Some managers will disregard the policy claiming that they alone can find the solution. But a cunning knowledge manager must recognize and cultivate politics. He will lobby for the use and valuation of knowledge, he will do business between those who have knowledge and those who use it, he will cultivate the opinion of certain leaders of great influence so that they are the ones who adopt the new proposals on knowledge management. At the highest level, it will try to shape the way knowledge is governed for its best use in the organization.
4. Knowledge management requires knowledge managers.
The key resources of a business, such as labor and capital, have organizational functions dedicated to its administration and management. Knowledge cannot be well managed until some group in the company has a clear responsibility to do that work. Among the tasks that this group can carry out is collecting and categorizing knowledge, establishing a knowledge-oriented infrastructure and monitoring the use of knowledge.
Several professional services firms already have "Knowledge Management" roles defined: McKinsey, Andersen Consulting, Ernst & Young, Price Waterhouse, AT Kearney, Hewlett Packard and Buckman Laboratories, among others.
The Knowledge Management function could inspire resentment and concern in an organization if it sought to assemble and control all knowledge. The objective of knowledge management should only be to facilitate the creation, distribution and use of knowledge by other people. Furthermore, knowledge managers should not imply by their words or actions that they are more "educated" or that they possess more knowledge than anyone else in the organization. In fact, a Hewlett Packard knowledge manager argues that the most important quality for this role is not being selfish.
5. Knowledge management provides more benefits from «maps» than from models, more from markets than from hierarchies.
There is a temptation in knowledge management to create a hierarchical model or architecture of knowledge similar to the Propedia of the Encyclopedia Britannica, which governs the collection and categorization of knowledge. However, most organizations have performed better by letting the knowledge "market" operate by simply providing and locating the knowledge that their clients seem to want. The dispersion of knowledge as described on a map may be illogical, but it is more useful to a user than a hypothetical model of knowledge that is well understood by its creators, but may never be fully implemented. The location of organizational knowledge is the individual activity that probably influences the most access to it.
Letting the "market" work means that knowledge managers try to make knowledge as attractive and accessible as possible and then look at what kind of knowledge is requested and under what specific terms. The company Teltech, which manages an expert knowledge network in the city of Minneapolis, has observed that clients who call for advice rarely use the same terms that experts use to describe their work. The function of connecting customer needs with available expertise is performed through an online search and retrieval system designed by Teltech, called «knowledgescope». This system is a «map», dictionary or thesaurus of more than 30,000 technical terms.The system is maintained by several knowledge engineers who work full time.
Each term has a main meaning and several synonyms. Teltech's objective is to include in the database the terms that customers use to describe their needs. To do this, knowledge engineers receive a list of terms that did not have a successful database search daily. Many of the unsuccessful searches are due to typing errors, but some are new terms or synonyms that are added to the database.
Until recently the way Teltech modeled knowledge was hierarchical rather than dictionary based on thesaurus. Its previous database was called «Tech tree» and it had various branches of knowledge such as scientist, technician, doctor, chemist, etc. However, both Teltech customers and analysts found it difficult to navigate through the tree, and the new terms tended to be located at inappropriate levels within the tree. Teltech has found the thesaurus approach to be much more successful. This approach has produced a knowledge map instead of a model of it.
6. Sharing and using knowledge are often unnatural actions.
If my knowledge is a valuable resource, why should I share it? If my job is to create knowledge, why should I jeopardize my job by using someone else's knowledge instead of mine? Sometimes we are surprised when knowledge is not shared or not used, but we could better exercise role of knowledge managers if it were recognized that the natural tendency is to hide our knowledge and look suspiciously at others. To put our knowledge in a system and seek the knowledge of others, it is necessary not only to try but also to drive a great motivating effort to achieve that goal.
If a knowledge manager is aware of this principle, he should not assume that knowledge is shared. You should not assume that installing Lotus Notes will automatically change the attitude of users and they will start sharing, or that making information available necessarily makes people use it. We must be aware that sharing and using knowledge and information has to be a motivated action through rewards, performance evaluation, compensation, etc.
There are some firms that are beginning to evaluate and reward their staff for sharing and using knowledge. Lotus Development, now a division of IBM, has defined that 25% of the total performance evaluation of its customer support employees is given by sharing knowledge. Buckman Laboratories mentions its 100 largest knowledge "sharers" at a special annual meeting. ABB evaluates its managers based not only on the outcome of their decisions but also on the knowledge and information applied in their decision-making process.
7. Knowledge management means improving knowledge-based business processes.
It is important to direct and improve the generic process of knowledge management, but where knowledge is intensively generated, used and shared is in a few and specific knowledge-based business processes. Specific processes vary by firm and industry, but still include market research, product design and development, and even transactional processes such as order and price setup. If it is recognized that real improvements in knowledge management must be made, improvements must also be made in key business processes.
8. Access to knowledge is only the beginning.
If access to knowledge were sufficient, there would be long lines at the entrance to the libraries. Access is important, but successful knowledge management also requires attention and commitment. Attention is said to be the cash of the information age.
For knowledge consumers or customers to pay attention to knowledge, they must become more than passive recipients. Closer contact with knowledge can be achieved by having to summarize or report it to others, using role-based games and games based on the use of knowledge, and receiving the knowledge by close contact with the providers of the knowledge. This is particularly important when the knowledge to be received is tacit, as Ikurijo Nanaka has described it.
Some firms have already started helping their managers and employees get involved with knowledge. Jane Linder, manager of information, market research and strategic planning at Polaroid Corportation, works with the president of the support division to create "war games" to train and exercise division managers and professionals. Participants study market research and then take on roles as competitors or as Polaroid sales representatives in front of customers. Marketing-oriented exercises have been very successful and Polaroid is now planning to use this same approach for other types of knowledge. Toyota and Nissan have sent their car designers to the United States to receive tacit knowledge by fraternizing with particular segments of their customers.
9. Knowledge management never ends.
Knowledge managers may feel that if they could bring their organization's knowledge under control, their job would be done. However, the tasks of knowledge management are never ending. As with personal or financial management, there is never a time when knowledge can be said to be fully managed or managed.
One reason why knowledge management does not end is that the categories of required knowledge are always changing. New technologies, administrative approaches, regulatory issues, customer concerns are always popping up. Companies change their strategies, organizational structures, products and emphasize service. New managers and professionals have new knowledge needs.
This rapid change in the knowledge environment means that firms should not spend much time modeling a particular area of knowledge. As time passes to finish, it may be that the needs have completely changed. Instead, knowledge environment descriptions could be a quick, though not perfect, solution and only as extensive as their use requires.
10. Knowledge management requires a knowledge contract.
It is not clear in many organizations who owns or has the right to use the knowledge of their employees. Is it bought or rented ?; Is all knowledge in the employee's head owned by the employer ?; What about the knowledge stored in filing cabinets or computer disks ?; What about the knowledge of the consultants, while they are providing the service ?; Or the employees of an outsourcing firm? Few firms have policies that take these issues into account.
Many organizations have retained the knowledge of their employees (at least that which they have developed between the ages of 5 and 9) as the property of the corporation. However, many changes have made that approach more difficult. Employees move more frequently to new jobs and organizations, the distinction between work life and home life is less accentuated, there are more "contingency" workers. Either way, few firms have done a good job of extracting and documenting the knowledge of their employees in the past. If knowledge is becoming a more valued resource in organizations, we must pay more attention to the legal aspects of knowledge management.Possibly the biggest problem in increasing the legal aspects of knowledge management will be the increase in the number of attorneys they require. The intellectual property branch is the fastest growing field in the legal profession and will grow even faster.
2.1.4. Objectives and activities related to Knowledge Management Based on the definition of knowledge management as a process that must support the company in the search for a competitive position and new opportunities, Quintas et al. (3), propose a series of objectives and activities that must be fulfilled within the knowledge management of a company:
Goals:
- Formulate an organizational scope strategy for the development, acquisition and application of knowledge. Implement knowledge-oriented strategies seeking the support of the influential levels of the company. Promote the continuous improvement of business processes, emphasizing the generation and use of knowledge. Monitor and evaluate the achievements obtained through the application of knowledge.
Activities:
- Dissemination of knowledge (eg lessons learned, best practices, etc.) so that all members of the organization can use knowledge in the context of their daily activities. Make sure that knowledge is available where it is most useful for decision-making Ensure that knowledge is available where business processes need it Facilitate the effective and efficient generation of new knowledge (for example, research and development activities, learning from historical cases etc.) Support acquisition of knowledge from external sources and develop the ability to assimilate and use it.Make sure that new knowledge is available to those in the organization who carry out activities based on that new knowledge (for example,distribution of lessons learned) Make sure that everyone in the organization knows where knowledge is available in the company.
The proposed activities influence different levels and organizational functions. For knowledge management to be successful, these actions must be combined with others carried out in different parts of the organization and must be consistent with each other. The aforementioned authors stress the need to harmonize the actions of knowledge management with the following components of the organization:
- Organizational structure and culture: the creation of structures that facilitate the growth of "communities with similar interests" should be promoted, for example, groups of professionals who interact informally because they face common problems for which they seek solutions, constituting themselves themselves in a source and repository of knowledge. Personnel Administration: It is required to synchronize training programs, development, selection and recruitment, retention, location, function design, cultural change and motivation towards participation and creativity, and the administration of all types of employment contracts. Business processes:It is necessary to generate process innovation and reengineering projects both to make radical changes and to maintain continuous improvement. Technology application: tools must be available to make concept maps, object-oriented databases with multimedia features, artificial intelligence aimed at acquiring knowledge, representing it, supporting decision-making, to data mining and the dissemination of knowledge.
The aspects described above are only a brief account of what knowledge management encompasses. However, the author considers that they are sufficient to carry out the analysis of this process against technological management.
Technology and its management
As with data, information and knowledge, there are multiple definitions of what technology is. The Larouse dictionary says that technology is:
"The study and use of science for practical purposes."
A more technical definition is presented by Philip A. Roussel et al. (6). These authors say that:
"Technology is the application of scientific and engineering knowledge to obtain a practical result (…) Technology is the process that enables a company to say: 'We know how to apply science / engineering to…' (…) Technology it is what fixes the product, or the process, science and engineering »
In turn, technological management could be defined as:
"The organizational activity through which the necessary technology is defined and implemented to achieve business objectives and goals in terms of quality, effectiveness, value addition and competitiveness."
Taxonomy of technology
When talking about technology, there are several terms associated with it that give it different connotations, depending on its origin, its relative importance or the way in which it is represented.
It can speak, for example of:
- Hard technology: that which is considered incorporated into machines, equipment, processing plants, etc. Soft technology: that which refers to methodologies, procedures, administration styles, etc. Incorporated technology: that which is part of a team or machine: unincorporated technology: that which is described in documents such as plans, manuals, patents, etc. Core technology: that which is considered central, indispensable or critical for a particular business. Complementary technology: that which is not considered core, but that is required to achieve the objectives of a specific business.
It is not always easy to know what a company owns is technology, and even more difficult to classify it within one of the groups described above. There may be a tendency to confuse the technology a company uses with the product it markets or the role it performs. However, starting from Philip's definition (6), it is clear that technology is the knowledge that the company has about a certain area of science or engineering and that allows it to obtain products or services and market them.
Stages of technological management in a company
During the life of a company and depending on the degree of pressure to which it is subjected by the environment (competition, globalization of markets, life cycle of products, etc.), the company goes through a series of stages or stages that are typified, according to the degree of assimilation that the company achieves of the technology on which its business is based. These stages are described by Francisco Javier Mejía (7) and are:
- Complete independence Relative independence Incipient creativity Independence Self-sufficiency Excellency
Successful and competitive companies worldwide, are those that reach and remain at the stage of excellence. Many companies fail to go through all the stages, but remain stagnant in some of them or disappear when they are in the first ones because they are no longer profitable in a globalized market.
In many occasions, the stagnation of companies occurs when they fail to assimilate or appropriate technology that they have acquired through the purchase of equipment or through technical assistance received. The degree of assimilation of a specific technology in a company is simply the degree of knowledge and understanding that its employees achieve about it. In large part, this depends on the degree of education of the personnel, on the attitude of the management towards the acceptance of new ideas, on the communication schemes that are used in the company, on the importance given to education and training, etc.
The difficulty that appears in the assimilation of technology is due to the fact that, generally, the assimilation process is not understood as one of teaching-learning. The elements that this process requires to be successful are not taken into account.
Technology management activities
When technological management is described, some activities are usually mentioned such as:
- ProspectingSelectionNegotiationAcquisitionAdaptationModificationGeneration (Innovation)
Implicit in each of them is learning by company employees. Often, company executives approve investments in "technology", without taking into account that they must be accompanied by investments not less important in the process of assimilation of the same. This implies creating the appropriate conditions so that your engineers and technicians know, understand and learn to use it in the most productive way. When not enough attention is given to this matter, that is, when it is overlooked that it is a process of knowledge transfer, the acquired technology (equipment, software, etc.) is underused or misused and the productivity of the company does not improve and in some cases, it even worsens.
Relationship between Technological Management and Knowledge Management
Since technology is "applied knowledge", it is not surprising that the principles and activities described for knowledge management are applicable to technology management. However, in practice this fact is not always recognized, leading to poor results and failures in technology transfer tasks.
Similarities In the definition of both knowledge management and technological management, there is agreement that together these activities seek to achieve business objectives by obtaining and managing the knowledge or technology that the company requires to be competitive..
The reasons why both knowledge management and technology management have been developed are the same: the company must be competitive and face the pressures of a changing and globalized environment.
Contrasts Is technological management part of knowledge management, or is knowledge management an aspect to take into account in technological management? To answer this question, the following arguments can be considered:
- According to commonly accepted definitions, technology is “applied knowledge.” The principles of knowledge management take into account the conditions that must be met for knowledge to be acquired, disseminated, used and generated in the company, based on in the process of learning and innovation. These principles are often overlooked in technology management for believing that they are not necessary or for not understanding their impact on management results. Technology management is based on the premise that technology becomes obsolete and must be replaced, so that lessons learned in the past are simply put aside. Knowledge management aims to maintain and reuse acquired knowledge on the basis that knowledge does not become obsolete.If company managers viewed technology acquisition as an entrepreneurial learning process, they would be less likely to belittle budgets for training and coaching their workers, and would instead receive higher productivity.
Reflection
Technology management must be seen with new eyes. There must be a paradigm shift that makes it possible to see it not as the process to achieve the best acquisition of machinery, software or implementation of strategies or administrative models, but as the process by which the company is helped to acquire the necessary knowledge to achieve leadership in your business.
Executives dedicated to technology management must be instructed in learning theory and gradually become knowledge managers.
Conclusions
- Technology management is part of knowledge management. The approach to technology management as a business learning process, and its adaptation to the principles of knowledge management, can improve the success rate in the activities of transfer and assimilation of technology.
References
(1) Macintosh, Ann, "Position Paper on Knowledge Management", Artifitial Intelligence Applications Institute, University of Adinburgh, March, 1997. (2) PE Druker, "The information executives truly need", Hardvar Business Review, January-February, 1995 (3) Quintas, Paul; Lefrere, Paul; Jones, Geoff, "Knowledge Management: a Strategic Agenda", Long Range Planning, Vol. 30, No. 3, pp. 385 to 391, 1997, Elsevier Science Ltd. (4) Davenport, Thomas H., "Some principles of knowledge management", Graduated School of Business, University of Texas at Austin, March, 1997. (5) Harris, David, " Crating a Knoledge Centric Information Technology Enviroment », Harris Training & Consulting Services Inc., Seattle, WA, September, 1996.(6) Roussel, Philip A., Saad, Kamal N., Erickson, Tanara J., «Third Generation of R&D», Arthur D. Little, Inc. Editorial McGraw-Hill, Madrid, 1991. (7) Francisco Javier Mejía, Technological Management Model for Manufacturing and Service Companies, Technological Management Program, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, April 18, 1997.
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