Abstract
We have a number of papers related to knowledge sharing and flow in this issue and I wanted to reflect on what that means in the current working climate. At the time of writing England has just entered into its second full lockdown as the Coronavirus shows no signs of abating. Office workers who were starting to return to the office in some cases are now back to working from home full time. It is therefore more and more important to facilitate effectively the sharing of knowledge as the face to face disconnect continues.
An article in McKinsey Insights, Reimagining the post-pandemic organization reflects on how the pandemic has changed previously bureaucratic organisations to be more adaptive and innovative, making quicker decisions. Access to senior executives and quicker decisions with a recognition that inertia is a more risky strategy than a willingness to ‘make decisions and go’ had enabled organisations to be more flexible and able to survive. This reflects what I have heard from conversations I have been involved in recently – the change in operations has seen a number of organisations flatten out and open up. Perhaps counterintuitively then it seems that the inability to be in the same location as other employees has been a facilitator to connect directly with key stakeholders and decision makers who have the ability to make things happen. This change in accessibility of senior stakeholders could be down to the initial slowing down everyone experienced as the first lockdown took hold, giving these people more time to take a moment to think how to survive and move forward under these conditions. How this will continue to develop and change is anyone’s guess but what is clear is a recognition and willingness to adapt to the changing environment is a key survival instinct. McKinsey’s article goes on to delve further into this scenario to speculate how things could be in the near future.
Good communication channels are the key to making the right connections to share knowledge and create an innovative space to find solutions to today’s challenges. Part of this is to ensure trust, trust in the system, operations and people. The ability to connect and share information, knowledge and expertise in the right context will enable us to get at to what is needed and help navigate the sea of mis-information and fake news.
How do you develop trust in an online remote working world? Trust is about believing in the system, that the technology works as it should, that it does what it says it will do, that people do what they say they will do, that what is expected happens and if it doesn’t we can find out why.
The main challenge is facilitating engagement and connecting people. Technology is helping us utilise knowledge and data internally, so is there a way to effectively combine the technologies available to us with the more people to people aspects of knowledge management?
A white paper from KM World entitled Knowledge Aware: the future of knowledge management takes a look at changes needed in knowledge management practice as we work in an ever more digitised environment and remote working situation. Written before the pandemic they reflect on the increasing trend for remote and asynchronous working, take a critical look at the current traditional models for knowledge management and conclude that in order for knowledge management to be successful users of knowledge need access to knowledge that is: ‘Trusted, up to date, and accurate. Preserved and shared widely. Actionable and readied for re-use. Available within the flow of work’.
Knowledge Aware is a model for knowledge management developed to fit in a more digitised remote working environment. It claims successes in manufacturing and similar industries through splitting knowledge into packets that are interactive and inserted into the regular workflow so that they are easily accessible. The format, use and interactivity of these packets aims to drive people to contribute further knowledge keeping the knowledge packets up to date and relevant and thereby creating a virtuous cycle of using and contributing to organisational knowledge. The paper made for an interesting read but I wonder how far this model can be used in industry sectors where people to people interaction is the focus of doing business and there is less focus on systems as an integral part of that process.
Something that is becoming apparent is getting the right information and expertise to the right people who are able to make a positive difference in the world today has become a new area of focus. A new campaign, Decade of Health has been launched in light of the impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic and how it has changed all of our lives. We are at a crucial point where we need to work together to curb the disease and find a vaccine. This new campaign’s drive is to move towards a more healthier and safer tomorrow through the collaboration of many organisations across the UK and across the globe. Their aim is to work together, collaborating sharing knowledge expertise and resources to not only fight the pandemic but have a positive impact on health across the globe over the next 10 years.
The situation the pandemic has caused has focused the efforts of organisation and government minds on taking action now, becoming more collaborative to combat the worldwide challenges of climate change and management of natural resources. The Japanese government has been reported to have unveiled an online platform that offers a source for knowledge and exchange of both government and non-government organisations alike. Designed in the first instance to manage knowledge and resources in the goal for sustainable and successful recovery from the pandemic, there is a clear need to develop this further and widen out its scope. With the environmental improvements seen since countries have been locked down and travel greatly reduced there is a drive to take advantage and build on these changes for the future of our planet.
Overview of the articles in this issue
The focus is on knowledge in this month’s issue with papers on making connections for good knowledge sharing, behaviours that both encourage and discourage knowledge sharing and how the quality of knowledge shared can impact innovativeness and performance. Rethinking the roles and skills of information professionals in the 4th Industrial Revolution – Lateef Ayinde, Hal Kirkwood
Taking a look at the 4th industrial revolution and its emerging technologies and skills, Ayinde et al. reflects that there is a mismatch between this revolution and the skills needed by information professionals to survive. Ayinde et al. proposes that information professionals should aim to adopt the missing ‘middle model/techniques in organisations’. AI, robots will change roles but ‘human’ skills are more important than ever. Personality traits predicting knowledge hiding behaviour – S Iqbal
Reflecting on the importance of knowledge in an organisation, particularly to competitive advantage, Iqbal explores the area of knowledge hiding behaviour. Reflecting on the fact that despite the energy and investment put into knowledge sharing to boost innovation and creativity people still hide their knowledge. The paper explores the effect personality traits have on whether an individual hides their knowledge or not. Examining the link between Social Capital, Knowledge Quality, SMEs Innovativeness and Performance – Henry Boateng
This paper by Boateng looks at the relationship between knowledge quality, social capital and innovation. Focusing on SME’s in Ghana findings indicate that social capital enables access to quality knowledge and enhances innovativeness. Connect the people and the knowledge will flow – My recipe for building strong, knowledge sharing communities of peers – Nancy Kinder
In this paper, Nancy, who is a knowledge management practitioner relates the best practice she has developed around knowledge sharing communities. Focusing on how particularly at the moment knowledge sharing communities are of the upmost value. Nancy’s examples have all been achieved virtually and have delivered effective results efficiently. The article finishes with recommend ways to develop and support knowledge sharing communities, enabling the flow of knowledge within an organisation. Out of the box – Sharon Richardson
Looking at the development in artificial intelligence technologies, this article from Sharon Richardson considers the potential effects of cognitive algorithms and how they may impact knowledge work. She considers the benefits and risks of the technology as well as its potential impact and concludes that ‘The value from next-generation knowledge systems will come from bridging human and artificial intelligence for insights and innovation’. Perspectives – Hal Kirkwood
In his latest Perspectives article Hal gathers together and summarises papers covering the evolution of information literacy, the intersection of business intelligence, business analytics, big data, and knowledge management.