Open Universities Australia RMIT University Graduate School of Business and Law

OMBA720 (BUSM 4175) BUSM1550 Knowledge Management

Course Overview and Unit 1: Knowledge as the foundation of strategy

Course notes developed by Arthur Shelley

Page 1 of 12 Copyright RMIT University 2012 Graduate School of Business and Law

Disclaimer This subject material is issued by RMIT University on the understanding that: 1. RMIT, its directors, author(s), or any other persons involved in the preparation of this publication expressly disclaim all and any contractual, tortious, or other form of liability to any person (purchaser of this publication or not) in respect of the publication and any consequences arising from its use, including any omission made, by any person in reliance upon the whole or any part of the contents of this publication. 2. RMIT expressly disclaims all and any liability to any person in respect of anything and of the consequences of anything done or omitted to be done by any such person in reliance, whether whole or partial, upon the whole or any part of the contents of this subject material. 3. No person should act on the basis of the material contained in the publication without considering and taking professional advice. 4. No correspondence will be entered into in relation to this publication by the distributors, publisher, editor(s) or author(s) or any other person on their behalf or otherwise. All details were accurate at the time of creation. March, 2012

Contents
1 Introduction
1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Introduction to the Knowledge Management course Process to optimise learning in this course Introduction to Unit 1 Learning objectives Unit 1

3
3 6 7 10

2 Guided reading 3 Exercise 4 References

11 11 11

Page 2 of 12 Copyright RMIT University 2012 Graduate School of Business and Law

BUSM4175 KM Course Overview & Unit 1 Knowledge as strategy foundation

Introduction
This course is designed to challenge your thinking and approach to valuing knowledge and how it can be created and applied. You will be involved in active dialogue about what knowledge is and why it is important for your own future as well as that of those you work with in teams and in organisations. The more you [participate, the greater the benefit you will achieve, both in the short term and also in the longer term through a greater ability to make sense of what is happening and then act on that understanding.

1.1 Introduction to the Knowledge Management course

Knowledge is a challenging concept to grasp and an even more difficult one to understand how to leverage to create value. It is possible to have knowledge and get no benefit from it, or even to have knowledge and apply it in an incorrect manner to destroy value. This elective course forms a foundation to further develop all five of the MBA capabilities (see table 1 below) as well as enabling course participants to continue with lifelong learning to maintain their performance throughout their career and personal life. Table1: Course activities designed to support MBA capabilities
Capabilities KM (MBAE) Executive leadership Underpinning Knowledge Leverage of knowledge to generate more strategic and sustainable decisions from a greater range of options Learning outcomes How to leverage diversity of views for more robust decisions. Understand the importance of balance between short and longer term performance outcomes Ability to research topics of interest and constructively challenge the perspectives of authors and peers in class discussions. Ability to construct a well formulated argument and make own contributions. Learning activities Case studies Role plays Discussion forums Class discussions Wiki research Assessment Participation frequency and quality of contribution to discussions. Quality of conclusions and recommendations to wiki assignment. Individual knowledge research and interdependence of this with other participant contributions. Quality of conclusions and recommendations.

Professional Knowledge Synthesis

Range of knowledge models to assimilate and apply for more effective performance. Wiki assignment highlighting the interdependence of knowledge and actions

Wiki research Discussion forums Class discussions Case studies Role plays Presentation

Page 3 of 12 Copyright RMIT University 2012 Graduate School of Business and Law

BUSM4175 KM Course Overview & Unit 1 Knowledge as strategy foundation

Contemporary global perspective Business knowledge assessment of high performing businesses and how to enhance their performance Understanding that different cultures perceive value in different ways and use knowledge differently to create value. Consider ethical and sustainable investment decisions. Learning the foundations of complexity theory and how knowledge and decision making approaches can be adjusted to suit context. Assessment of international organisations and drawing recommendations. Presentation role play. Quality of participation, conclusions and recommendations. Ability to listen and reflect before taking action.

Negotiating complexity

Advanced problem solving

Complexity theory and emergence contrasted with traditional methods of management and leadership. Dialogues to exchange diversity of views leading to recommendations Interactive dialogue and analysis of situations with interdependent causes and effects.

Class dialogues to exchange views and leverage the diversity from the class perspectives. Reinforced in case study dialogues.

Level of sophistication in written assignments and richness of contributions to discussions. Group assignment and presentation. Ability to recommend clear sustainable solutions that make sense within the complex situations and which generate mutual benefits.

Analysis and synthesis of the existing knowledge and assessment of knowledge gaps. Generation of a range of options for the given context, not singular generic solutions.

Case studies Role plays Discussion forums Class discussions Wiki research Presentation

To optimise learning this course uses an andragogy approach. That is, facilitated adult learning through sharing experiences within a context to learn from each other. This provides the opportunity to engage with other parties whilst being introduced to specific content that provides a context to stimulate discussion. This approach will lead to higher quality learning, but requires more active involvement from the course participants. Malcom Knowles (1984) evolved the andragogy approach for adult learning and highlighted the key differences between the approaches as shown in Table 2.

Page 4 of 12 Copyright RMIT University 2012 Graduate School of Business and Law

BUSM4175 KM Course Overview & Unit 1 Knowledge as strategy foundation

Table 2: Comparison of Anagogical and Pedagogical approaches to learning Andragogy Learners are called participants or learners. Independent learning style. Objectives are flexible. It is assumed that the learners have experience to contribute. Active training methods are used. Learners influence timing and pace. Participant involvement is vital. Learning is real-life problemcentered. Participants are seen as primary resources for ideas and examples. Pedagogy Learners are called students. Dependent learning style. Objectives are predetermined and inflexible It is assumed that the learners are inexperienced and/or uninformed. Passive training methods, such as lecture, are used. Trainer controls timing and pace. Participants contribute little to the experience. Learning is content-centered. Trainer is seen as the primary resource who provides ideas and examples.

Knowles initially argued that andragogy is based on four key assumptions about the characteristics of adult learners that are different from child learners and later added a fifth: 1. Self-concept: As a person matures their self-concept moves from one of being a dependent personality toward one of being a self-directed human being. 2. Experience: As a person matures he accumulates a growing reservoir of experience that becomes an increasing resource for learning. 3. Readiness to learn. As a person matures his readiness to learn becomes oriented increasingly to the developmental tasks of his social roles. 4. Orientation to learning. As a person matures his time perspective changes from one of postponed application of knowledge to immediacy of application, and accordingly his orientation toward learning shifts from one of subjectcenteredness to one of problem centredness. 5. Motivation to learn: As a person matures the motivation to learn is internal (Knowles 1984:12). Although these anagogical principles are quite aged, they are robust and have withstood the test of time. Despite being harder to apply in learning

Page 5 of 12 Copyright RMIT University 2012 Graduate School of Business and Law

BUSM4175 KM Course Overview & Unit 1 Knowledge as strategy foundation

environments and requiring more investment on behalf of the learners and the facilitator, this investment provides a far superior return than simply learning content that is quickly forgotten or becomes out-dated. Course participants who engage with this approach will develop skills and capabilities he will remain with them forever and enable participants to deal with totally unknown or unpredictable situations in their future.

1.2 Process to optimise learning in this course

Each week a unit topic theme is introduced through a combination of, the introductory topic narrative, a Powerpoint slide deck providing additional details to fuel discussion and (for some weeks) an extract of video related to the topic. Course participants are expected to review these materials before the class interactions as they will be asked to engage in discussion about them. The dialogue work best when all participants are active in constructive challenges of the materials and share their perspectives of what this means for them. In face to face courses these interactions occur in the class room and in the elearning version of the course they happen firstly through the discussion forum and subsequently via the interactive dialogues in classes or via teleconferences. This process (Figure 1 below) is deliberately designed to maximise the value course participants receive from their investment in their education. The approach is a little experimental, but grounded in robust learning theory and the practical experiences of the course designer. Aligning learning activities and assessment tasks that reinforce the learning outcomes and the desired capabilities is critical to success of the design (Table 1). The interaction between members of the classes is critical to the richness of the learning for all involved and is therefore a critical element of the assessment. Class participants are graded on the frequency and quality of their contributions to the learning experiences.

Page 6 of 12 Copyright RMIT University 2012 Graduate School of Business and Law

BUSM4175 KM Course Overview & Unit 1 Knowledge as strategy foundation

Figure 1: Course design to link learning activities with learning theories and capabilities

1.3 Introduction to Unit 1

Constructing a strategy enables those involved in leading an initiative to dialogue with others about the purpose and scope and to understand on what knowledge it is based and what knowledge is missing to make robust decisions about the future impact of the initiative. Often the very act of constructing the strategy is a learning exercise in itself as it requires those involved to be able to agree on what is to be delivered and express this in a clear and concise way for others to understand it and be engaged by it. One argument against the development of a longer term strategy has been that the future is not predictable and as such determining plans several years out is not reliable. Whilst there are elements of truth to this argument, planning only around short term has worse outcomes. The Global Financial Crisis is a clear example where a focus on short term benefits that were unsustainable in the longer term creates more harm than good. Strategic management is a means of stepping back for the tactical day to day activities and assess how these activities can be done in a more aligned and constructive manner that is both sustainable and creating mutual benefits for

Page 7 of 12 Copyright RMIT University 2012 Graduate School of Business and Law

BUSM4175 KM Course Overview & Unit 1 Knowledge as strategy foundation

stakeholders including the wider community and the organisations reputation. The strategy process starts with understanding where you want to be (defined in a vision, purpose or mission), assesses where you are now and then enables you to visualise the path to get you there. Strategic thinking is the ability to rise above the minutiae and see the bigger picture (refer back to unit 1 for how crowded the big picture can look of observing tactically). It is the systems thinking perspective in Senges Learning Organisation or the Blue Hat in Edward de Bonos Six Hat Thinking. A knowledge strategy results from simply applying strategic thinking to how knowledge can deliver business benefits. Successful knowledge strategies are focused on how to best leverage knowledge assets (or build new knowledge) to maximise benefits to the business and its employees. Every business should differ in specific details of the strategy, as they are all have different desired outcomes, start at different points, have different knowledge requirements and gaps and are working towards different objectives and visions. However, there is still a degree of similarity between strategies, in that they all seek to leverage knowledge to generate benefits and achieve longer term visions or goals. The process each organisation goes through in order to generate the strategy is often quite similar. Several organisations have developed generic strategy development processes which assist to develop their knowledge strategy and implement it. A good example is the APQC (American Productivity and Quality Centre) which defines five generic phases in developing a knowledge strategy and a breakdown structure for knowledge processes. Most knowledge audit processes, benchmarking methods, maturity models or awards (e.g. Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise) commence their assessments with the knowledge strategy. This enables the assessors to obtain a sense of direction and purpose of the knowledge program and determine how well it is aligned with the business goals and how effective it is being managed. There is no right or wrong knowledge strategy development process. When developing a strategy is best to read widely and select one that works well for your circumstances (or develop something that suits your situation as a combination of components you find in your benchmarking research). If you select a consulting partner to assist in your KM program, they will often have a method they like to follow.

Page 8 of 12 Copyright RMIT University 2012 Graduate School of Business and Law

BUSM4175 KM Course Overview & Unit 1 Knowledge as strategy foundation

A reasonably generic strategy development process would include most of the steps below: 1. Understand the wider business goals and how knowledge or knowledge based activities could be used to assist delivery of these. 2. Develop the vision of how knowledge could be better employed to deliver these goals. Consider the main focus areas for action in the short an longer term. 3. Identify what knowledge is core to the current and future competitiveness of the organisation and assess if and where that knowledge is at present. 4. Assess knowledge gaps and what knowledge is at risk of being lost, depleted or becoming out of date. 5. Identify opportunities to enhance knowledge support for business activities and initiatives that could enable progress towards your vision of improved leverage of knowledge assets. 6. Prioritise actions and focus areas and plan a sequence of initiatives over the next 2-5 years which addresses al of the priority initiatives in a logical order and for which you can allocate adequate resources to ensure success. Build a descriptive text document (the strategy) around this plan, which documents the outcomes of all steps above, effectively setting the high level direction for the knowledge program, how it will be achieved and why (what benefits it generates and expected return on investment). 7. Summarise the strategy into a short (1-3 pages) graphic representation simplifying the sequence of initiatives (the roadmap). The roadmap will be used primarily as a communication tool to engage stakeholders and stimulate support and participation for the knowledge program (and for monitoring progress against for executives. 8. Build metrics to monitor progress of the strategy and the delivery of stated benefits for the knowledge initiatives. 9. Generate a support structure of senior stakeholders who regularly come together as a steering team to discuss progress and review the strategy and adjust as appropriate for changes of business direction. Maintain a constant window of 2-5 years for the strategy to ensure there is always a future perspective and review the priorities and vision statement to ensure they are updated as appropriate. 10. Implement the strategy through the initiatives and build support ongoing through networks, relationships always focusing on learning and building individual and organisational capabilities. Continue to cycle of 10 steps reviewing at each stage as appropriate. The metrics chosen are critical to the success of the strategy and the program. If chosen well they will focus the behaviours of those involved, by highlighting what has been achieved and how this benefits, them and the wider business. Metrics may change through the lifecycle of the strategy as there may be different focus areas at different stages. For instance, the

Page 9 of 12 Copyright RMIT University 2012 Graduate School of Business and Law

BUSM4175 KM Course Overview & Unit 1 Knowledge as strategy foundation

strategy may initially focus on simple quick winds early in the program. However, as the strategy continues to be implemented, knowledge maturity should continue to be developed and more sophisticated measures may be appropriate later in the lifecycle.

1.4 Learning objectives Unit 1

Reflect on how an andragogy approach results in higher quality learning and better capability development. Discuss how a well-structured strategy will enable a smoother and more effective delivery of knowledge programs and initiatives and how the knowledge strategy is critical for aligning people with the program and securing support. Explore relative priorities of knowledge initiatives in an overall program and how and when to assign resources to each. Experience some metrics for monitoring progress on knowledge related initiatives and activities and their impact on business performance. Learn how these metrics can drive the desired behaviours and benefits for the knowledge program.

Page 10 of 12 Copyright RMIT University 2012 Graduate School of Business and Law

BUSM4175 KM Course Overview & Unit 1 Knowledge as strategy foundation

2 Guided reading
Reading 2.1 Dalkir, K. (2011) Knowledge Management Strategy. Chapter 9 in: Knowledge management in theory and practice. The MIT Press. pp. 311-338. Dalkir highlights how the knowledge strategy brings together the building blocks required to deliver business value from knowledge assets and leads to a plan for moving ahead. Metrics are required to understand how the business reaps returns from the investments made in the KM initiatives and to determine if the strategy is generating the planed outcomes.

Reading 2.2 McGee, J. and Thomas, H. (2007) Knowledge as a lens on the jigsaw puzzle of strategy. Reflections and conjectures on the contribution of a knowledge-based view to analytic models of strategic management. Management Decision. Vol. 45 No. 3, 2007 pp. 539-563

3 Exercise
Exercise 3.1 Introduction to the wiki. Create a personal profile in the wiki tool to understand how to use it and also understand the importance of sharing details to build relationships between individuals.

4 References
Buckman, R.H. (2004) Technology is the easy part: Its culture changes thats hard. Chapter 2 in: Building a knowledge-driven organisation. New York: McGraw Hill. pp. 16-29. Dalkir, K. (2011) KM Strategy. Chapter 9 in: Knowledge management in theory and practice. The MIT Press pp. 311-338. Knowles, M. et al (1984) Andragogy in Action. Applying modern principles of adult education, San Francisco: Jossey Bass. A collection of chapters examining different aspects of Knowles' formulation.

Page 11 of 12 Copyright RMIT University 2012 Graduate School of Business and Law

BUSM4175 KM Course Overview & Unit 1 Knowledge as strategy foundation

Knowles, M. S. (1990) The Adult Learner. A neglected species (4e), Houston: Gulf Publishing. First appeared in 1973. 292 + viii pages. Surveys learning theory, andragogy and human resource development (HRD).

McGee, J. and Thomas, H. (2007) Knowledge as a lens on the jigsaw puzzle of strategy. Reflections and conjectures on the contribution of a knowledgebased view to analytic models of strategic management. Management Decision. Vol. 45 No. 3, 2007 pp. 539-563. Shelley, AW (2009) Being a Successful Knowledge Leader. What successful knowledge practitioners need to know to make a difference. ARK Publishing, North Sydney. Tirwana, A. (2002) The 10 step KM roadmap. Ch 4 in: The knowledge management toolkit. Orchestrating IT, Strategy and knowledge platforms. pp. 67-74. Prentice Hall PTR.

Page 12 of 12 Copyright RMIT University 2012 Graduate School of Business and Law