Chapter 3: Towards A Blueprint For Building A Knowledge-Centric Culture

Chapter 1 described five stages that organisations experience on their knowledge management journey. Stage 1 being knowledgechaotic and Stage 5 being knowledge-centric, i.e. where knowledge management practices are integrated into the organisational culture. But what are the characteristics of a knowledge-centric culture? As an outsider how would I know whether an organisation is knowledge-centric? What signs would I look for? This chapter is an attempt to try to answer these questions. It is based on findings from my own research, combined with ideas and thoughts from other writers, about the cultural dimension of managing knowledge.

Characteristics Of Knowledge-Creating Organisations

In his book, Living on Thin Air, Charles Leadbeater sets out a number of core principles which he believes are critical ingredients for knowledge-creating organisations. He defines these core principles as:

• Cellular – having organisational structures that are adaptive. If structures are too rigidly defined then organisations will not be adaptive enough; on the other hand, if too loosely defined, organisations will not be distinctive enough.

• Self-managing – individuals and teams need to be selfmanaging in order to unlock innovation and creativity. An important pre-requisite for self-management is the free flow of information up, down and across an organisation. Leadbeater cites the practices within CMG, a UK-based computer services company, where there is open access to personnel files, including how much individuals are paid. This open information approach enables individuals to challenge executives on the salaries paid to both themselves and others. The rule is that executives are ‘obliged to respond’ to these challenges.

• Entrepreneurial – to thrive in a knowledge economy all individuals will need to become more entrepreneurial, i.e. develop the ability to spot and act on opportunities for growth and/or change.

• Equitable membership and reward – in order to counterbalance the effects of self-management, organisations will need to provide reward systems that help to create a sense of membership.

• Deep knowledge reservoirs – organisations need to view knowledge as a core capability and thus focus on developing specialist expertise, rather than rely on a collection of generalists.

• The holistic company – the holistic company is one that recognises that it can benefit from knowledge assets that reside outside of its own structure.

• Collaborative leadership – in cellular organisations Leadbeater sees the role of the centre as being less concerned with monitoring and checking and more concerned with direction setting, communicating values, raising ambitions and encouraging others to adopt an ‘outside-in approach’ to conducting business.

These core principles are based on Leadbeater’s observations of practices in knowledge-creating organisations, particularly technology companies in Silicon Valley. They are challenging operating principles for organisations and individuals to come to terms with.

It seems that what is required in knowledge-creating organisations is the development of a new moral code, one which, according to Sumantra Ghoshal and Christopher Bartlett (1998), requires a fundamental shift in management philosophy and the role of senior managers. Their view of what this shift entails involves:

• Building new organisational structures that enhance initiative and personal responsibility.

• Tapping into the unused potential of individuals.

• Building an environment that supports individual knowledge and skills development.

• Strategic senior management that engages lower level managers in a dialogue in how to sustain competitive advantage.