The Knowledge Management approaches that have been used to develop the potential model of SKF Nova will be presented below.
Characteristics of an effective Knowledge management programme
To be effective a KM programme must have coherence across a number of dimensions including people and culture aspects, structure, processes and information and
communications technology (ICT).308
Management of knowledge
From the perspective of an organisation, knowledge manifests itself in many forms beyond human knowledge. 309Always originating within people, it flows into all other aspects of the
308
Quintas, P. & Lefrere P. & Jones, G (1997), p.387. 309 Wiig, K,M.(1993).p.155.
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organisation ranging from its structure, culture, work practices, technology, to its products and services.310 The described flow of knowledge from the people to the artefacts of an organisation implies a transformation of knowledge from tacit to explicit. What KM essentially does for an organisation is making that transformation increasingly structured while ensuring that the appropriate knowledge flows to the appropriate place in the
organisation. KM is the optimal organisation of the process that transforms personal ideas and experience into generally applicable concepts. 311
KM can be defined as ”the process of continually managing knowledge of all kinds to meet existing and emerging needs, to identify and exploit existing and acquired knowledge assets and to develop new opportunities.”312
What is needed to identify knowledge?
Wiik (1993) argues that the use of effective methods is necessary provide commonly accepted and well understood descriptions of the knowledge involved and to give insightful
representations of the situations that need to be managed.313
One means to identify knowledge presented by Sanchez (1996) classifies the knowledge of firms into know-how, know-why and know-what. The following table describes the three levels of knowledge.
Form of knowledge Level of understanding Capability derived from knowledge.
Know-how ”Practical understanding of how current products work.”
Enables firms to produce and refine current product designs Know-why ”Theoretical understanding of why
product designs work.” Enables firms to adapt current designs or develop refined new products.
Know-what ”Strategic understanding of purposes to which now-how and now-why may be applied.”
Enables a firm to imagine and define feasible new kinds of products.
Know-how
Know-how is the knowledge used to perform the daily work.314It is the ability to solve problems efficiently based on accumulated knowledge, experience and skills. Know-how can be obtained from a number of sources, from training, education and when one colleague instructs another how things work and are to be done. Know-how is developed when we figure out how things work and how we need to deal with them.
Know-why
Know-why provides general modules and organised understanding of and theoretical backgrounds for, the situations and conditions that we deal with, particularly the complex ones. 315 Knowledge on this level consists of the rules, facts, and explicit concepts that we use
310 Wiig, K,M.(1993).p.155.
311Quintas, P. & Lefrere P. & Jones, G (1997), p.387. 312
Quintas, P. & Lefrere P. & Jones, G (1997), p.385. 313 Wiig, K,M.(1993).p.162.
314 Wiig, K,M.(1993).p.136. 315 Wiig, K,M.(1993).p.136.
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consciously when we reason and make decisions as part of the daily work. 316 This type of knowledge provides us with methodologies and guides us with principles for how we handle situations. We use know-why knowledge as a background and reference knowledge for in- dept analyses of all kinds of problem solving situations. It can be obtained from self-study or education.
Know-what
This type of knowledge guides our thinking and motivation, helps us to generate our goals and ideas, and provides us with insights that enable us to observe situations from several perspectives. 317 This type of knowledge can also be called idealistic knowledge. The
idealistic knowledge is used for two purposes a) to direct our motivation and action toward a goal b) to change our mind concerning a particular situation. This knowledge can be obtained from for example discussions with knowledgeable individuals and benchmarking. It is
important that the goals and objectives of the firm guide everyone’s actions.
Management of know-how, know-what and know-why
According to Sanchez, the first step in managing the firm’s knowledge to greatest strategic advantage is to determine the relative importance of the firm’s know-how, know-what and know-why kinds of knowledge in maintaining or creating the firm’s distinctive competencies in creating products. 318The next step is to leverage the least strategically critically kinds of knowledge of the firm as broadly as possible, while maintaining close control within the firm of the kind of knowledge that is most critical to the firm’s distinctive competencies. 319
The most recent research on KM suggests that considering innovation the most important knowledge to manage is the know-who type of knowledge.
The know-who approach to knowledge management
Regardless of the type of industry, companies and their innovation process are becoming increasingly knowledge-based for each day that passes by, and intellectual assets take the predominant role in defining market value.320 Accordingly, the shifting sources of global competitive advantage call for new strategies and approaches to manage both knowledge and innovation.321 In response to this, a know-who based approach to Knowledge and Innovation management has been recently developed. The know-who approach stresses the importance of networks with customers, suppliers, competitors and research centres. Rather than developing all specialised knowledge internally, an extensive knowledge exchange save time and
development cost. Know-who can be defined as the ability to acquire, transform and apply the know-how.322
Measurement of knowledge
Another important aspect of KM is measurement of the knowledge assets. (Management includes the dimensions of monitoring and control.) Knowledge assets can refer to both productive knowledge and customer knowledge.323 According to Steward (1999) Intellectual
316 Wiig, K,M.(1993).p.136. 317 Wiig, K,M.(1993).p.136. 318 Sanchez, R. (1996), p. 136. 319 Sanchez, R. (1996), p. 136. 320 Harryson S, J. (2000).p.xiii. 321 Harryson S, J. (2000).p.xiii. 322 Harryson S, J. (2000).p.ix. 323 Teece, D, J. (2000), p.42.
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capital includes three possible classifications of knowledge assets: human capital, structural capital and customer capital.324
Figure 35 - Intellectual capital is composed by human capital, structural capital and customer capital, (Steward 1999).