The Future of Work

1. The Future of Work ^ (Collaborative) Secondary Readings A presentation by Ray James October 3, 2006 Knowledge Management Systems

2. Covering • Teece:Research Directions in Knowledge Management • McDermott:Why Information Technology Inspired But Cannot Deliver Knowledge Management • Masterton:Oracles, Bards, and Village Gossips, or, Social Roles and Meta Knowledge Management

3. Research Directions • Past can inform present, future • Don’t re-invent the wheel • Use existing literatures in: • Management of technology • Entrepreneurship • Business Strategy • Don’t forget accounting, economics, entrepreneurship, behavioral studies, marketing, etc.

4. Research Directions • Does a business’s edge come from what it knows that others don’t? • Given an open market, what creates wealth these days: intangible assets & dynamic capabilities • Challenging research methodology • Qualitative • Mixed methods

5. Research Directions • Discover how to value intangible assets • Technological know-how • Brands • Customer relations • Others? • Intellectual property for sale or rent

6. Research Directions • Where did those darling inputs? • Largely unknown input dimensions • Information • Knowledge • Competences • Largely unknown economics • Information • Knowledge and competence • Need to know costs (value) of intangibles

7. Research Directions • Have you got a spare Tobus Q? • Testing the relationships among intangibles (tacit knowledge) & profitability. How can it be done? • It takes a generalist to raise a profit

8. Research Directions • Everybody can administer, can you innovate? • Can empirical research reveal why entrepreneurial enterprises (Silicon Valley) are quicker on their feet? • Decentralize, decentralize, decentralize • Other research directions?

9. IT can‘t deliver KM • IT creates ‘leveraged knowledge’ dreams • Co-location of peers, ideas • Change in work patterns based on electronic links • Document and share, that’s it!

10. IT can‘t deliver KM • IT creates the vision • IT can’t make it real • Old norms don’t die, they just change their software • F2F first then PC2PC • Trap: use IM tools to design KM

11. IT can‘t deliver KM • Distinguishing knowledge/info • Knowledge is human, residue of thinking, now, belongs to community, circulates in many ways, created at boundaries of old • Humans needed to leverage knowledge

12. IT can‘t deliver KM • Knowledge is human act • Containing is not knowing • Use it if you got it • Professional practice • Turn knowledge into solutions • Put it to a purpose • Thinking required (residue needed)

13. IT can‘t deliver KM • It’s happening now • Quick, tell me everything you know • ‘…living acting of knowing.’ • Knowledge belongs to community (Is sharing required?) • Knowledge flows P2P, G2G in different ways • (water flows toward money)

14. IT can‘t deliver KM • Knowledge resides in books, file cabinets, minds, language, tools, routines, stories, axioms. “Thought is an infection, some thoughts are an epidemic” - Wallace Stevens

15. IT can‘t deliver KM • New knowledge is created at the boundaries of old knowledge • Working outside the box • Expand knowledge by sharing (blogging); it’s multiplex

16. IT can‘t deliver KM • Knowledge is what it is • What’s really important is the community and it’s citizens • Develop KM by developing community • Create ‘space’ for thinking • Community-driven sharing

17. IT can‘t deliver KM • To leverage knowledge • Create support structure • Use community’s terms for organizing • Integrate into natural work flow • Culture change is community issue • Important knowledge must be so for business and people

18. IT can‘t deliver KM • Key challenges in building KM communities • Technical • Social • Management • Personal • The whole is greater than the sum of it’s parts

19. Social roles in KM • KM has a KM problem • How good are KM design tools? • Social role/KM interface in organizations requires examination • ‘Multiple role groupware’ produces conflict (work/benefit) • KM systems can have problem

20. Social roles in KM • ‘Intelligent agents’ solve problems without social conflict because they reside in the ether • IA serve as matchmakers, editors, librarians, bards, and village gossips without a social cost • H2H is social, H2C as well?

21. Social roles in KM • ‘Intelligent agents’ work less well as we make them more human • KM systems are diverse • KM systems work differently at different levels – difficult to make usability study

22. Social roles in KM • Use it, damn you, use it or I’ll … • Use of KM tools taper off after ‘new toy’ phase; WWW doesn’t work • Use failures may have social component • Components of non-use of KMS • Task-related problems* • Culture-related* • Individual-related*

23. Social roles in KM • KMS failures mirror other collaborative systems problems • KMS failures breakdown flow of valuable information • Me and my PC, we and our PCs and this useless KMS • Issues are complexity & magnification

24. Social roles in KM • Since KMS are used in differing ways, problems differ • Good early design can mitigate • Examples • Answer garden • Virtual participant • British Telecom’s KSE

25. Social roles in KM • Answer Garden • Designed to aid information search for in organization • User groups defined • Tire-kickers • Intermittent users • Heavy users • Answer Garden required two key changes • task related (additional software) • culture related (change in working practices)

26. Social roles in KM • Virtual Participant designed to address observed problems in a computer supported collaborative learning (CSCL) environment • Core points stored, made available to current discussions • Lack use came from complexity and failure of effort v. benefit

27. Social roles in KM • KSE designed for closed systems to share explicit and tacit knowledge • User-defined profile, user decisions • Defines role in community • System then acts as agent to gather and share information within the community

28. Social roles in KM • Social dimensions in designing KMS • anthropomorphism vs. mechanomorphism • private vs. public • closed vs. open • fixed vs. extensible • Usability and acceptance remain the key hurdles implementing KMS

29. Social roles in KM “Knowledge management systems can, and genuinely do, play the roles of oracles, bards, and village gossips within today’s modern organizations. And why shouldn’t they?” Well, what’s your opinion?

30. Questions?