Week 3 Post: Knowledge Management
Prior to this course, I was not familiar with the term knowledge management (KM). I guess that makes sense since Davenport (2018) suggests KM is dying/gasping for air. To learn more, I went to Google. Koenig (2018) shares that KM was once defined by Tom Davenport (1994), stating: "Knowledge Management is the process of capturing, distributing, and effectively using knowledge." When I read that definition, I think maybe I do know about KM, but I just call it something else.
In this week's video, Dr. Watwood summarized Dixon's thoughts that knowledge has moved from individuals (document-based) to teams (knowledge others brought to the table) to collective knowledge (complex systems) and now moves into the fourth stage of network knowledge (not what you know but who you know). With more information readily available at our fingertips through the internet, I could see how this would be important for a leader to realize and use to their advantage.
Dixon (2012) writes about cognitive diversity, where you can pull perspectives from different parts of an organization to help come to a decision. In ILD 825, we learned about and discussed the concept of the Diversity Bonus (Page, 2017). Page suggests the Diversity Bonus comes from a variety of voices that can share different perspectives that help solve a complex problem.
Dixon and Page's two concepts seem to overlap, especially with Dr. Watwood's idea of network knowledge; a leader must know people to successfully solve their complex problems. Leaders must know who to choose from their organization that will best help them come to a decision. Weekly, I sit in on a meeting that includes Department leaders from across the campus (security, office staff, technology, registrar, teachers, behavior, admin, cafeteria, health, and custodians). We sit together and discuss situations that have come up on campus and how to best solve complex problems. Though we have our varying opinions on the best course of action, the principal has the final say, and it is the principal that must decipher our words to help make a decision that is beneficial for the entire school. As for the management of the data and information that is shared, that varies from meeting to meeting and from department to department.
The diversity bonus/cognitive diversity is only two parts of KM, however. According to Davenport's definition, leaders still need to distribute the information. How this information gets distributed could be part of the new KM. How can we keep the information succinct, informative, and accessible with so much information and so little time? With so much out there, it is another job of the leader to keep the information together. Before using Google, our school used Lotus Notes (which was written about in Davenport's article). Our principal loved Lotus Notes and did not want to switch to Google, even though it was a state-mandated decision. I found it difficult because the information that was on Lotus Notes was no longer accessible in a convenient way. People would just share documents and folders, and my Google Drive was becoming a mess. This year, I created a Google Share Drive for the entire school so that everything that we needed was in one central location. In this way, the information is able to be distributed and effectively used by everyone involved. The principal has the opportunity to take out or add anything that he wants to be shared with the staff as part of the manager settings.
Does every leader have the ability to manage the information in the age of fake news? No. Can leaders minimize the misinformation? Hopefully, yes, but like Pew Research stated, it goes back to trust. If you can't trust your leader (in any sense of the term), then you will continue to have misinformation. In my opinion, it's the leader's job to remain as truthful as possible and to listen to as many stakeholders as possible. That's why the diversity bonus/cognitive diversity is key and getting and gaining trust while listening to everyone's ideas.
Unhyperlinked References
Page, S. E. (2017). The diversity bonus: How great teams pay off in the knowledge economy. Princeton University Press.
Inclusion. I too enjoyed reading the Page article regarding diversity and thought what about inclusion. When leading in this complex world, how do we bring varied experiences to the table and hear their voices? Xu et al. (2019) studied this concept on how to include heterogeneous inputs and found as long as the leader was political savvy, which meant the leader could bring out all voices in a respectful and inclusive way then people would provide diverse perspectives. The study showed that having diverse people in the room or on a project is not enough, but a leader must be skilled in inviting and expecting the diverse inputs to benefit an organization. A suggestion was for the leader to establish the ground rules by stating that the group was diverse and it was the goal to solicit varied options. is one thing to invite a diverse group of people but another to listen to diverse voices. Some say diversity without inclusion is exclusion" (Li, 2018).
ReplyDeleteQuestion. How does your principal promote inclusion during your meetings?
References
Li, K. (2018) https://globalforum.diaglobal.org/issue/january-2018/diversity-without-inclusion-is-exclusion/
Xu, N., Chiu, C. & Treadway, D. (2019). Tensions between diversity and shared leadership: The
role of team political skill. Small Group Research 50(40), 507-538.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1046496419840432
Hi! Great question.
DeleteInclusion comes from providing input from multiple stakeholders, both inside and outside of school. For school level decisions, we have lots of voice (like I stated in my original post) and the principal goes around the table to encourage/ask each person to share any concerns, ideas, or solutions they have to problems.
This, of course, is not without hesitation. Our school has done a lot of work on trust. In a comment to Gaby's blog (https://gpmcreighton.wordpress.com/2021/09/02/week-3-knowledge-management/) I provided some other articles that show the importance of trust within an organization and for a leader. I think that makes a huge difference. If you don't trust that someone or that something will get done, then you will not feel comfortable to be part of the inclusion.
Carli, There are many methods of bringing in people's ideas and participation. It appears your principal does it well. I was looking at the comments below regarding authentication and verification of users to determine their validity. Since leaders must use outside sources to get a broad swath of ideas, credentialing will play an ever increasing role. I came across this article (https://www.pymnts.com/authentication/2021/in-the-age-of-social-media-influencers-need-digital-ids-and-verified-credentials/) that stated many organizations and countries are determining how to go about this validation, even saying India requires social media users be identified. That may not be a bad idea.
DeleteGood post. I liked how you wove Dixon's and Page's two concepts together.
ReplyDeleteIn Twitter, Vivian noted that KM had been fading away until the pandemic gave it a boost. In some ways, the pandemic shown a spot light on misinformation... which ties in with your points about trust. A 2019 McKinsey report noted the need for a digital identification process to lend validity to information - https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/Digital-identification-A-key-to-inclusive-growth
Your Lotus Notes to Google Drive case mirrors what is happening world wide. A Digital ID could help clean up KM.
Hi Dr. Watwood,
DeleteI agree. Having a Digital ID could help clean up KM (and a lot of other issues). The last sentence in the post states "While solutions are not always clear, and more research will help clarify upsides and downsides", which I think is true for all KM and changes. More time is needed to process and see what is exactly needed for the organization for success.
ReplyDeleteCarli,
The point you made about trust with your leader and how fake news can enter is on the fringes of a question I have been having about KM. Typically, the definitions I see around KM are about the organization managing its knowledge. The concern for me is that if the organization has bad/fake information, yet they manage the information, nobody inside the organization can overcome the bad information. This aspect of KM scares me. How do you suggest leaders use cognitive diversity (Dixon, 2016) or the diversity bonus (Page, 2017) to find, identify, discuss, and resolve incorrect knowledge?
Cameron
References
Dixon, N. (2012, August 8). The Three Eras of Knowledge Management. Conversation Matters. https://www.nancydixonblog.com/2012/08/the-three-eras-of-knowledge-management.html
Page, S. E. (2017). The diversity bonus: How great teams pay off in the knowledge economy. Princeton University Press.
Hi Cameron!
DeleteYou bring up a good point about having bad/fake information with little ways to correct that knowledge if the whole organization is believing in the same thing. But, that's when I think Dixon's (2016) and Page's (2017) ideas help create solutions. When creating solutions, it might be helpful if the leader takes suggestions from outside of the organization (of course, depending on the situation, this might not be possible).
For example, in the education sector, a parent, student, or community member might have an better idea to solve a problem at the school than the school can figure out. That's why it's important to have PTA's (or similar organizations) to help solve problems. Personally, I like to ask the students for their advice and suggestions for issues at school. Sometimes, those middle schoolers can surprise you!
One of my best friends was a school principal for an Australian elementary school. After several months of planning with teachers and parents, he rolled out the new vision statement for his school. When he asked if there were any questions, a second grader raised her hand and asked, "Mr. Robinson, why does it not say anything about us getting good grades?" At that moment, he realized that they had nothing in their vision about academic rigor! He invited students to join the planning committee the next day!
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