Case Studies in Knowledge Management Murray E Jennex San Diego State University, USA IDEA GROUP PUBLISHING Hershey • London • Melbourne • Singapore Acquisitions Editor: Development Editor: Senior Managing Editor: Managing Editor: Copy Editor: Typesetter: Cover Design: Printed at: Renée Davies Kristin Roth Amanda Appicello Jennifer Neidig Joyce Li Jennifer Neidig Lisa Tosheff Integrated Book Technology Published in the United States of America by Idea Group Publishing (an imprint of Idea Group Inc.) 701 E Chocolate Avenue, Suite 200 Hershey PA 17033 Tel: 717-533-8845 Fax: 717-533-8661 E-mail: cust@idea-group.com Web site: http://www.idea-group.com and in the United Kingdom by Idea Group Publishing (an imprint of Idea Group Inc.) Henrietta Street Covent Garden London WC2E 8LU Tel: 44 20 7240 0856 Fax: 44 20 7379 3313 Web site: http://www.eurospan.co.uk Copyright © 2005 by Idea Group Inc All rights reserved No part of this book may be reproduced, stored or distributed in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, without written permission from the publisher Product or company names used in this book are for identification purposes only Inclusion of the names of the products or companies does not indicate a claim of ownership by IGI of the trademark or registered trademark Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Case studies in knowledge management / Murray Jennex, editor p cm Includes bibliographical references and index ISBN 1-59140-351-0 (hardcover) ISBN 1-59140-352-9 (softcover) ISBN 1-59140-353-7 (ebook) Knowledge management Case studies I Jennex, Murray, 1956HD30.2.C378 2005 658.4'038 dc22 2005004515 British Cataloguing in Publication Data A Cataloguing in Publication record for this book is available from the British Library All work contributed to this book is new, previously-unpublished material The views expressed in this book are those of the authors, but not necessarily of the publisher Case Studies in Knowledge Management Table of Contents Preface vii Section I: Knowledge Management in Support of Organizational Learning Chapter I Learning from Simple Systems: The Case of JPL 101 Lynne P Cooper, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, USA Rebecca L Nash, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, USA Tu-Anh T Phan, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, USA Teresa R Bailey, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, USA Chapter II A Knowledge Management Case Study in Developing, Documenting, and Distributing Learning 23 Brigette McGregor-MacDonald, Marsh Inc., UK Section II: Knowledge Management in Support of Retaining Organizational Knowledge Chapter III A Case Study on Assessing the Readiness of Professional Services Company to Build an Organizational Memory Information System 36 Hani Abdel-Aziz, Cairo University, Egypt Khaled Wahba, Cairo University, Egypt Chapter IV Rebuilding Core Competencies When a Company Splits: A Case Study of Assessing and Rebuilding Expertise 51 Gail Corbitt, California State University, Chico, USA Section III: Knowledge Management Strategy Chapter V Exploring the Impacts of Knowledge (Re)Use and Organizational Memory on the Effectiveness of Strategic Decisions: A Longitudinal Case Study 66 Afsoun Hatami, London School of Economics, UK Robert D Galliers, Bentley College, USA Chapter VI Governance of Strategies to Manage Organizational Knowledge: A Mechanism to Oversee Knowledge Needs 83 Suzanne Zyngier, Monash University, Australia Frada Burstein, Monash University, Australia Judy McKay, Swinburne University of Technology, Australia Chapter VII Challenges in Developing a Knowledge Management Strategy for the Air Force Material Command 104 Summer E Bartczak, Air Force Institute of Technology, USA Ellen C England, Air Force Institute of Technology, USA Section IV: Knowledge Management in Support of Projects Chapter VIII Knowledge Management in a Project Climate 130 Elayne Coakes, University of Westminster, UK Anton Bradburn, University of Westminster, UK Cathy Blake, Taylor Woodrow, UK Chapter IX Where Knowledge Management Resides within Project Management 138 Jill Owen, Monash University, Australia Frada Burstein, Monash University, Australia Section V: Knowledge Management is Support of Knowledge Transfer Chapter X Organizational Knowledge Sharing Based on the ERP Implementation of Yongxin Paper Co., Ltd 155 Zhang Li, Harbin Institute of Technology, China Tian Yezhuang, Harbin Institute of Technology, China Li Ping, Harbin Institute of Technology, China Chapter XI Supporting Research and Development Processes Using Knowledge Management Methods 165 Thomas Hahn, Profactor Produktionsforschungs GmbH, Austria Bernhard Schmiedinger, Profactor Produktionsforschungs GmbH, Austria Elisabeth Stephan, Profactor Produktionsforschungs GmbH, Austria Chapter XII Know-CoM: Decentralized Knowledge Management Systems for Cooperating Die- and Mold-Making SMEs 186 Florian Bayer, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany Rafael Enparantza, Centro Technológico Tekniker, Spain Ronald Maier, Martin-Luther-University Halle-Wittenberg, Germany Franz Obermair, Profactor Produktionsforschungs GmbH, Austria Bernhard Schmiedinger, Profactor Produktionsforschungs GmbH, Austria Section VI: Issues in Knowledge Management Chapter XIII Reserve Bank of New Zealand: Journey Toward Knowledge Management 211 Yogesh Anand, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, New Zealand David J Pauleen, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand Sally Dexter, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand Chapter XIV A Comparative Case Study of Knowledge Resource Utilization to Model Organizational Learning 235 Colin White, Deloitte Consulting, USA David Croasdell, University of Nevada, Reno, USA Chapter XV Implementing Knowledge-Enabled CRM Strategy in a Large Company: A Case Study from a Developing Country 249 Minwir Al-Shammari, University of Bahrain, Bahrain Chapter XVI Why Knowledge Management Fails: Lessons from a Case Study 279 Ivy Chan, The Chinese University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Patrick Y.K Chau, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong Chapter XVII Infosys Technologies, Limited 289 Nikhil Mehta, Auburn University, USA Anju Mehta, Auburn University, USA Chapter XVIII Keeping the Flame Alive: Sustaining a Successful Knowledge Management Program 315 Eliot Rich, University of Albany, USA Peter Duchessi, University of Albany, USA Section VII: Knowledge Management Outcomes Chapter XIX Knowledge Management for Healthcare: Using Information and Communication Technologies for Decision Making 328 A.N Dwivedi, Coventry University, UK Rajeev K Bali, Coventry University, UK R.N.G Naguib, Coventry University, UK Chapter XX Productivity Impacts from Using Knowledge 344 Murray E Jennex, San Diego State University, USA About the Authors 358 Index 369 vii Preface Knowledge Management (KM) has been growing in importance and popularity as a research topic since the mid 1990s This is sufficient time for many organizations to implement KM initiatives and KM systems (KMS) This book presents twenty cases investigating the implementation of KM in a number of business and industry settings and a variety of global settings The purpose of this book is to fill a deficiency that I’ve observed while teaching KM KM is being taught in specialized courses and as a topic included in Decision Support Systems (DSS), Enterprise Information Systems (EIS), and Management Information Systems (MIS) issues courses The deficiency I’ve observed is in moving discussions of KM from a focus on theory to the more practical focus of how to implement KM to help organizations improve their performance Existing course materials include some short cases and/or vignettes discussing KM in business settings, but I haven’t found any source that has multiple, detailed teaching cases This book is meant to fill that void The cases contained in this book are presented as teaching cases All have discussion questions and are written in a style that students can easily read and understand Also, additional sources and support materials are included where appropriate The book includes cases from many different countries in an attempt to appeal to as wide an audience as possible Cases are included from Australia, Austria, Bahrain, China, Egypt, Germany, Great Britain, Hong Kong, India, New Zealand, and the United States Additionally, a variety of business situations are presented including banking, consulting, engineering, government agencies, manufacturing, military, project management, software development, and public utilities Also, several different related processes and technologies are discussed Related processes include organizational learning (OL) and organizational memory (OM) Technologies include Customer Relationship Management (CRM), Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), Data Warehousing, networking, and Intranets Finally, several issues are addressed including knowledge capture, knowledge sharing, knowledge transfer, knowledge representation, organizational culture, management support, KM/KMS success, KM sustainability, retaining worker knowledge, creating learning organizations, and management support viii WHAT IS KM? There are many definitions of KM but this book combines the KM and OM literature to define KM as the process of selectively applying knowledge from previous experiences of decision-making to current and future decision making activities with the express purpose of improving the organization’s effectiveness This definition allows us to define the goals of KM as: • Identify Critical Knowledge • Acquire Critical Knowledge in a Knowledge Base or Organizational Memory • Share the stored Knowledge • Apply the Knowledge to appropriate situations • Determine the effectiveness of using the applied knowledge • Adjust Knowledge use to improve effectiveness WHY OM AND OL? Why is OM, and OL included in a book on knowledge management? Jennex and Olfman (2002) found that the three areas are related and have an impact on organizational effectiveness KM and OM are observed to be manifestations of the same process in different organizations User organizations ‘do’ knowledge management; they identify key knowledge artifacts for retention and establish processes for capturing it OM is what IT support organizations ‘do’; they provide the infrastructure and support for storing, searching, and retrieving knowledge artifacts OL results when users utilize captured knowledge That OL may not always have a positive effect is examined by the monitoring of organizational effectiveness Effectiveness can improve, get worse, or Figure The KM/OM/OL Model (Jennex & Olfman, 2002) Impact to Organizational Effectiveness EEEffectiveness Management Org Learning Access and Use Memory to perform actions that affect Organizational Performance Knowledge Users Evaluate Events for Use of Applicable Memory to perform actions that affect Organizational Performance Monitor Organizational Effectiveness and AdjustKnowledge Requirements as needed Knowledge Engineers KM OM System Designers/IT Drives Users to put Information and Knowledge into their OMS Identify and Acquire Knowledge for future use Store, Retrieve, and Search Memory Base ix remain the same How effectiveness changes influences the feedback provided to the organization using the knowledge WHAT IS A KMS? The cases in this book address the implementation of Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) However, KMS is a term that does not have a consensus definition Yes, we know what the initials KMS stand for and we have an understanding of what a system is The IPO model: Inputs, Processes, Outputs, defines a basic system that when we add feedback, is a fair description of a KMS in a learning organization We get further insight into what an information system is from Alter (1999) who defines an information system as humans or machines limited to processing information by performing six types of operations: capturing, transmitting, storing, retrieving, manipulating, and displaying This is further refined by Churchman (1979, p 29) who defines a system as “a set of parts coordinated to accomplish a set of goals;” and that there are five basic considerations for determining the meaning of a system: • system objectives, including performance measures • system environment • system resources • system components, their activities, goals and measures of performance • system management Churchman (1979) also noted that systems are always part of a larger system and that the environment surrounding the system is outside the system’s control, but influences how the system performs These definitions are useful but don’t fully describe a KMS Reviewing the literature provides definitions that range from purely technical to something that includes organizational issues These definitions are summarized below Alavi and Leidner (2001, p 114) defined a KMS as “IT-based systems developed to support and enhance the organizational processes of knowledge creation, storage/ retrieval, transfer, and application.” They observed that not all KM initiatives will implement an IT solution, but they support IT as an enabler of KM Maier (2002) expanded on the IT concept for the KMS by calling it an ICT (Information and Communication Technology) system that supported the functions of knowledge creation, construction, identification, capturing, acquisition, selection, valuation, organization, linking, structuring, formalization, visualization, distribution, retention, maintenance, refinement, evolution, accessing, search, and application Stein and Zwass (1995) define an Organizational Memory Information System (OMIS) as the processes and IT components necessary to capture, store, and apply knowledge created in the past on decisions currently being made Jennex and Olfman (2004) expanded this definition by incorporating the OMIS into the KMS and adding strategy and service components to the KMS Additionally, we have different ways of classifying the KMS and/or KMS technologies where KMS technologies are the specific IT/ICT tools being implemented in the KMS Alavi and Leidner (2001) classify the KMS/KMS tools based on the Knowledge Life Cycle stage being predominantly supported This model has stages, knowl- ... Chapter II A Knowledge Management Case Study in Developing, Documenting, and Distributing Learning 23 Brigette McGregor-MacDonald, Marsh Inc., UK Section II: Knowledge Management in Support... including knowledge capture, knowledge sharing, knowledge transfer, knowledge representation, organizational culture, management support, KM/KMS success, KM sustainability, retaining worker knowledge, ... Group Inc is prohibited Developing, Documenting, and Distributing Learning 35 Section II Knowledge Management in Support of Retaining Organizational Knowledge Copyright © 2005, Idea Group Inc