Posted by Robbert Northolt on April 02, 1998 at 03:23:53:

In Reply to: How to Measure Knowledge Workers' Performance? posted by Yogesh Malhotra on April 01, 1998 at 17:06:03:

Thanks Yogesh,

In brief I will try to answer the questions you posted.

I think nowadays company structures are still derived from old Taylorism, which initiates a certain culture. By changing culture (and structure, leadership, rewards, etc.) ways to establish knowledge sharing can be set up. But most of the existing companies still act in a Tayloristic way, so why not adjust KM to this culture instead of adjusting culture to KM? Change of culture is a vague process and it often takes decades. Also, this is not allowed by nowadays culture which sets targets for only 1 or 2 years. Taken into account that most of senior management often passed the age of 50 (or older), their willingness to change culture is not that high (understatement), especially if the company is performing well.

As I consider KM out of a competitive intelligence view, a company can profit from competitive information being shared. I’m the opinion that real knowledge (tacit knowledge) cannot be shared. Knowledge (direct knowledge, tacit knowledge) can only be shared if it is transformed into information (indirect knowledge). Hopefully this answers your question on: "What is being shared".

Motivation of individuals to share knowledge is an often discussed topic, but in a Tayloristic culture embedding sharing into someone’s task is unavoidable and should be measured. To measure knowledge sharing I suggest two methods which must be used in combination.

· quantitative measuring: for instance, measure the number of entries in a database. Initially the contents of the information is not the most important, what matters is: awareness is created.
· qualitative measuring: herefore the by Denham suggested 360 approach seems appropriate. This method will stimulate individuals to share relevant information.

My view on KM is out of the CI corner, the outcome aimed at is better competitive information. As about 70% of the information which can be obtained on a ethical manner, comes out of your own organisation, disappointment will not occur very quickly.

I hope this illustrates my thoughts!

Robbert

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Follow Ups:

• Re: Tayloristic culture Jim McKinley 22:01:44 5/03/98 (0)
• Tayloristic Culture and 'Art of the Long View' Yogesh Malhotra 23:34:50 4/04/98 (5)
  • Re: Tayloristic Culture and 'Art of the Long View' Robbert Northolt 08:07:10 4/08/98 (2)
    • Re: Tayloristic Culture and 'Art of the Long View' Yogesh Malhotra 18:42:29 4/08/98 (1)
      • Re: Tayloristic Culture and 'Art of the Long View' Robbert Northolt 07:08:30 4/09/98 (0)
  • Re: Tayloristic Culture and 'Art of the Long View' Jay Reay 20:11:44 4/05/98 (1)
    • Re: Tayloristic Culture and 'Art of the Long View' Yogesh Malhotra 13:20:38 4/09/98 (0)
• Re: Tayloristic culture Jay Reay 20:11:48 4/04/98 (2)
  • Re: Tayloristic culture Robbert Northolt 08:01:00 4/08/98 (1)
    • Re: Tayloristic culture Jay Reay 22:52:27 4/08/98 (0)

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