Why Another Book On Managing Knowledge?

My intention is to stimulate a debate about the role of HR in helping organisations move forward on their knowledge management journey. HR has come under a lot of criticism as it is perceived not to be taking a proactive role in the knowledge management arena. In many organisations it is business teams, or IT teams, that have taken the lead. In practical terms this means that while the systems aspects are addressed, the people and cultural aspects are sadly often overlooked.

A cynical view of the role of HR in managing knowledge could be that HR do not have the skills and knowledge needed to be proactive in the knowledge management arena. After all aren’t HR just administrators? What do they know about business and how to make businesses more efficient?

That may have been the old view of HR, but just as the business world has been changing in recent years, so too has the agenda for HR. There are now many good examples of where HR professionals are performing the business partner role, a role which Dave Ulrich suggests is the new mandate for HR. This does not mean that HR have abandoned their administrative role, instead they are finding ways of delivering this part of their work more efficiently, and in doing so are creating the much needed space to operate more strategically.

This was the experience within IBM where the HR function was completely remodelled to channel resources into HR strategy, rather than administrative tasks, in order to support IBM’s business transformation in the 1990s^[1]. Drawing on techniques from Customer Relationship Management a new HR delivery model was introduced. This reflected the different types of customers that HR have contact with e.g. manager, employee, applicant, together with the different types of interactions e.g. advise, transact, or consult. The delivery model involves a service centre that provides information and advice covering most of the simple questions, an intranet system that enables policy and procedure to be easily accessible at individual’s desktop and HR strategy partners, who focus on the strategic issues the business is facing. The global e-HR system has been rolled out to 320,000 employees in 180 countries and is saving the organisation around $320 m ( 238 m) a year^[2]. It enables HR practices to be quickly updated in line with the changing business. Of course IBM is not the only organisation that is investing in new solutions to enhance the way that it delivers HR services to its different users.

Having been conducting research into the cultural dimensions of knowledge management for some years now I have found a mixed level of interest in the area of knowledge management among HR practitioners. My initial contact with organisations has often been with the IT or KM department. It is only when I have started to ask questions about the processes that support learning, in its broadest sense, or the informal processes for knowledge sharing, that I have then started to connect with the HR community.

My previous research suggests that HR needs to work in partnership with their business colleagues in the knowledge management arena. Indeed some of the case studies that I draw on in this book show the benefits of adopting this approach. In some organisations HR has been part of the catalyst team set up to get knowledge management onto the corporate agenda. In others, the Chief Executive has tasked HR with moving the organisation forward on its knowledge management journey, because of their expertise in the area of learning and change.

Given their knowledge of how to facilitate learning and change there is a real opportunity for HR to move more centre stage in the knowledge management arena.

However, HR will need to re-educate their business partners, and possibly themselves, on what is meant by learning and also how best to encourage and facilitate learning in the modern workplace. Etienne Wenger (1998), a leading researcher and writer in the field of learning, believes that one of the assumptions that many institutions hold about learning is that of learning being an individual process, one that occurs through teaching in locations held away from the workplace. Wenger has developed a theory of learning – a social theory of learning – that is based on the assumptions that (a) learning is as much a part of human nature as eating and sleeping and (b) learning occurs naturally through our active participation in the practices of different social communities. What does this mean for organisations? They need to adopt an integrative training approach, one which focuses on practice and seeks ‘points of leverage’ to support learning. These ‘points of leverage’, according to Wenger, can come from learning through everyday practice, as well as by encouraging shared working and learning in communities of practice.

HR can also add value by using their knowledge of best practice occurring outside the organisation to help managers address firstorder (i.e. doing the same things, only better) and second-order (i.e. doing different things) change. Part of the value that HR can bring here is in challenging existing assumptions and beliefs about the way business and work gets done. So questioning whether faster is always better and helping the organisation strike a balance between what needs changing and what does not.

However, HR’s contribution does not, and should not, stop there. In their strategic partner role HR can add also value in the knowledge management arena by developing a focus on capability building and retention; helping the business develop more efficient business processes, as well as facilitating relationship building, both within and outside the organisation (Evans, 2002).

Building a knowledge-centric culture takes time. As David Parlby, from KPMG, points out, few organisations have reached this stage on their knowledge management journey. While there are some common building blocks, i.e. building, sharing, reusing and retaining knowledge, how organisations move forward depends on their initial starting point and their overall business priorities. The case studies in this book provide examples of where different organisations are focusing/have focused their energies at different stages on their journey. The key message is that knowledge management activities need to add value to the business, it is not just a nice bolt-on to have. Managing knowledge should not be seen as a separate activity, but instead needs to be integrated into day-to-day business processes. The journey is an evolving one too, practitioners need to apply the learning cycle to their knowledge management approach. This requires identifying and using strategic change levers: What are we good at now? Where do we need to improve? How will we do that? Who needs to do what? How will we know that we are moving forward?

This book provides ideas, questions, and tools to enable HR to move their organisation forward on their knowledge management journey. One of the biggest challenges for HR as a function is to position itself as a role model for the knowledge-centric organisation through the way that it is structured, conducts business and builds and enhances its own capabilities. With the right attitude and knowledge HR can achieve this.

^[1]Leighton, R. Ensuring employee satisfaction. In Making e-business deliver. This is one of a series of business guides, produced jointly by Capstan Publishing and IBM.

^[2]HR budget at IBM slashed through e-HR. Personnel Today, 4 June 2002. See www.personneltoday.com