MGMT 8005M: Organizational Perspectives and Implications for Leaders | Week 9

Perceived intrinsic knowledge quality is not adequate by itself and should be transformed into perceived contextual, actionable knowledge quality to produce innovativeness.

—Yoo, 2014, p. 534

With the exponential growth of data collected, organizations increasingly face challenges in controlling the information derived from the data. On the one hand, access to data needs to be secured in order to protect intellectual property. On the other hand, data need to be transformed into reliable information to be used by employees and customers. Without careful management of knowledge, consistent shared sensemaking in the organization could be jeopardized, potentially affecting the quality of goods and services. This week, you will focus on the relationship between sensemaking and knowledge management.

Learning Objectives – Sensemaking and Knowledge Management Discussion

This week, you will:

• Compare the relationship between sensemaking and management of knowledge
• Explain how sensemaking can be integrated into a knowledge management system to enhance change and innovation

Skills

You will develop the following skills:

• Analyze sensemaking in organizations
• Apply theoretical concepts to practical cases

Resources

Note: To access this week’s library resources, please click on the link to the Course Readings List, found in the Course Materials section of your Syllabus.

Readings

Laeque, S. & Babar, S. (2017). Knowledge creation and firm performance: Is innovation the missing link? Pakistan Journal of Commerce, 11(2), 505–523.

Morgan, G. (2016). Commentary: Beyond Morgan’s eight metaphors. Human Relations, 69(4), (1029–1042. doi: 10.1177/0018726715624497

Salem, P. (2007). Making sense of knowledge management. RCA Vestnik (Russian Communication Association), 47-68.

Yao, L., Othman, A., Abdalla, A., & Jing, W. (2011). A novel sensemaking model of effective knowledge. African Journal of Business Management, 5(11), 4423–4431. Retrieved from http://www.academicjournals.org/article/article1380534461_Yao%20et%20al.pdf

Yoo, D. K. (2014). Substructures of perceived knowledge quality and interactions with knowledge sharing and innovativeness: A sensemaking perspective. Journal of Knowledge Management, 18(3), 523–537. doi:10.1108/jkm-09-2013-0362.

Document: MGMT 8500M Sense Making Diagram (PDF)

Discussion: Sensemaking and Knowledge Management

Sensemaking and knowledge management (KM) complement each other, providing a powerful resource for leaders to use in their decision making, strategic planning, and change management. During the past 8 weeks of the course, you have studied sensemaking, including the four frames of reframing and the use of metaphors. These are some of the tools to help a manager make sense of, and communicate about, an organization. Although new technologies and tools are available, managing information and knowledge is still challenging, and the effective flow of information is critical for success (Yao, Othman, Abdalla, & Jing, 2011).

In preparation for this Discussion, review the suggested reading and other sources to

• Define sensemaking and knowledge management (KM)
• Learn about the development of knowledge management during the past few decades
• Identify the differences, similarities, and relationship of sensemaking and KM.

Look for additional source to complement the suggested readings for this week. There is a great deal of research in the literature on KM and sensemaking.

Day 3: Initial Post

Post by Day 3 a proposal to integrate sensemaking into a knowledge management system that might be presented by a consulting firm to an organization of your choice.

Day 5: Response

Respond by Day 5 to at leat two of your colleagues’ postings. In your responses, be sure to address one of the following:

• Expand on your colleague’s posting.
• What insights did you gain from your colleague’s posting?
• Offer an alternative suggestion.

Note: Include proper APA citations to support all statements by referencing at least two sources from this week’s recommended readings as well as two additional sources from relevant peer-reviewed publications. Sensemaking and Knowledge Management Discussion

 

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION 

Making Sense Through Knowledge Management

Introduction

Knowledge management is a crucial component of any organization’s strategy, but it can be difficult to define and implement. In this article, we’ll explain why knowledge management is so important as well as provide you with tips on how to develop an effective process for managing your company’s knowledge assets.

Dreaming of the perfect knowledge management solution?

Knowledge management is the process of managing, organizing, and sharing information so that it can be used by a business in its various functions. This includes employees, customers and suppliers.

There are many benefits to employing knowledge management practices within your organization:

• It helps you understand what information is needed to make decisions.

• It reduces errors by providing clear guidance on how best to proceed with an issue or project.

• It allows employees who have access to different sources of information (such as internal documents) to share their thoughts and ideas with each other more easily than before because they have shared access across departments or divisions within an organization such as marketing vs finance etcetera…

Questions to ask before you embark on a knowledge management project.

Before you embark on a knowledge management project, it’s important to ask yourself some questions. These questions will help you determine if your company is ready for this type of initiative and what kind of results you can expect out of it:

• What is the purpose of this project?

• What are our goals?

• Who needs to be involved in this process (e.g., customers, employees)?

• How will we know when our goals have been met (e.g., by collecting data from various sources)?

Six key steps for developing an effective knowledge management process.

The first step to developing a knowledge management process is to identify the key elements you want your organization’s knowledge management efforts to include. Once you have this information, it can be used as a framework for designing your own processes or as an example of what another company might do.

Here are six steps that can help guide you through this process:

• Define your goals and objectives (e.g., increase employee engagement).

• Identify how you want the business unit employees involved in managing their own digital assets (e.g., creating content).

• Determine how much time each team member spends working on their own digital assets versus other tasks like preparing reports or answering emails from customers/clients/etc., which means identifying where certain skillsets fit into these categories (e.g., graphic designers spend more time creating graphics than writing copy).

• Map out where each department falls within overall organizational structure so everyone knows who they’re reporting back up through chain-of-command

Align your knowledge strategy with your business strategy.

Aligning your knowledge strategy with your business strategy is a critical step in ensuring that you are working with the most up-to-date and relevant information. When you align your knowledge strategy with the current business environment, it will be easier for employees to understand what’s important for their work, how they should act in order to deliver results and how those results are measured.

It’s important that everyone involved in this process understands what success looks like: not just at individual levels but also across teams or departments within an organization—and what could potentially lead them away from this path. This way, everyone knows exactly where they stand professionally and personally (i.e., whether they’re doing things right).

Create a clear, explicit knowledge strategy and related policies.

The first step to making sense through knowledge management is developing a clear, explicit knowledge strategy. This should be done before the project begins—and it’s not enough to just think about what you want to do and hope for the best. A good strategy will help you figure out how to achieve your goals in a way that’s both realistic and sustainable over time (i.e., don’t get stuck on your first idea).

When setting goals, try not to worry about what other people think or feel; instead focus on yourself and your own priorities. In addition, don’t be afraid of setting high expectations for yourself—but remember that being ambitious doesn’t mean being unrealistic! It may seem like an impossible task at first glance but if everyone takes this attitude then maybe there’s hope yet!

Build your team by cultivating a culture of knowledge sharing and collaboration.

• Create a culture of collaboration.

• Build your team by cultivating a culture of knowledge sharing and collaboration.

• Create an environment where people can collaborate on projects, share information, make decisions together, problem-solve together and learn from each other’s perspectives.

Capture, organize and distribute important information across the department and the company while ensuring that the most current information is easily accessible.

• Capture information in a central location.

• Organize the information so it makes sense to the organization.

• Distribute the knowledge across your department, then distribute it again within your own team.

This will ensure that everyone in your organization has access to this important information at all times, while ensuring they’re able to quickly find what they need when they need it.*

All organizations can benefit from improved knowledge management processes and tools

Knowledge management (KM) is an effective method to organize, store and retrieve information. KM can help you cut costs, improve efficiency, and increase revenue. You don’t need to be an expert in KM or have a large budget to reap the benefits of this strategy.

The key elements of any successful KM program include:

• A clear vision for how your organization will use its resources (money, people and time)

• A plan for collecting data about what happens within each department or business unit so that decisions can be made based on facts instead of assumptions or hunches

Conclusion

The key takeaway is that knowledge management can be a powerful tool for organizations in many different fields, from healthcare to education. And it can help drive significant improvements in your business performance as well. And if you need help implementing a new process or creating better tools for managing your company’s knowledge base, then we’d love to talk with you about what we can do for you!