Case Study - The Institute Of Electrical Engineers (IEE)

Case Study – The Institute Of Electrical Engineers (IEE)

The IEE is the professional body representing electrical engineers. It has a membership of around 130,000 worldwide. Its role is to encourage and support the professional technical development of its members. It also supports members with their career development. The Institute has always played an important role in helping its members develop their knowledge. Historically it has done this by bringing members together through the branch meeting structure, as well as at centrally organised events.

However, recognising the growing importance of the Internet, and electronic communications tools, the organisation has introduced the concept of Professional Networks (PNs). These are effectively knowledge communities consisting of members with a shared interest in a particular area: industrial structures, academic discipline, even management.

The organisation felt that the PN structure would enable them to build global knowledge communities. It also felt that the PN structure was more congruent with the changing nature of where and when work takes place, enabling members to keep in touch and up-to-date without having to invest time in travelling to branch meetings.

It is envisaged that these PNs will help build a community spirit among members, as the PNs would share the common aim of keeping up-to-date with new developments in their field. The PNs are not just online knowledge communities, they offer more than this:

• Interactive community websites – providing easy access to key information relevant to their profession

• Tailored news

• Events – physical and virtual

• Library of information resources

• Links to relevant websites

• Survey information about their industry sector

• Interviews with gurus

• Development of products and services to enhance the knowledge of the profession

• Networking facilities with community members

The organisation seems to have recognised the importance of providing the relevant central resources to help get PNs started, as well as helping them grow and develop. One of the ways in which it is doing this is by creating a new role – On-line Knowledge Communities Manager. This is a full-time role based at the organisation’s central offices. What is interesting is that the Institute envisages a number of people working in these roles in the future.

1. Possible ways of gaining funding for CoPs Some options include:

   • Sponsorship by a senior executive, for example in the form of a SEEDCORN fund.

   • The Knowledge Manager allocating some of his/her budget to the work of communities.

   • The central learning and development department allocating some of their budget to learning through communities.

Preparing For And Running The First Meeting

• Decide who should be invited – remember the politics involved. Having the sponsor present at the inaugural meeting would send out a powerful message. Consider inviting an external speaker.

• Organise and publicise the venue.

• Open up a dialogue on how to set about gaining the necessary resources.

• At the first meeting: clarify the community’s focus/scope; discuss and agree scope of involvement, outcomes and responsibilities; decide on frequency of contact; plan next steps and discuss and agree how the learning will be disseminated.

Developing And Sustaining Interest In The Work Of Communities

• Communicate what communities exist and how to join.

• Disseminate findings from the work and learning that is emerging from COPs.

• Education – run some KM road shows to help others get a better understanding of what communities do and how they work.

• Produce some guidelines on how to get the best out of working and learning in COPs.

• Help COPs manage the peaks and troughs in their energy levels, perhaps by balancing face-to-face with on-line meetings. Faceto-face meetings are important too. ICL’s Mobilising Knowledge community has been organising a physical meeting of a subset of its 150 members every two months or so. Community members present to the group on the KM work that they are doing with customers and receive input from other members. The personal networking element of communities should not be underestimated.

• Remain focused on the needs of members.

• Tempt people into discussions by posting interesting snippets of information on the community’s intranet or posing some interesting questions.

• Review the reward and recognition element. Start a debate about whether or not the work of communities needs rewarding, or is recognition on its own enough? If communities should be rewarded what form should that take (extrinsic versus intrinsic rewards)? There is a view that there should be some form of recognition for publishing papers on behalf of the community, or for use by community members. Often this recognition comes from regularly circulating a list of new content to group members and to members of the management team.

• Promote the benefits to individuals. Participation in COPs can help individuals develop a sense of identity and belonging; something that is particularly important where individuals work in fairly autonomous roles, or are location-independent.

Monitoring And Evaluating Outcomes

Despite the importance of not over-managing COPs there is a need for some form of evaluation, given that COPs consume both organisational and individual resources.

Some questions that could be considered in the evaluation process include:

How will you know whether the work being done within COPs is helping the business move forward? Here then organisations will need to monitor the extent to which the work carried out in communities is leading to action and change.

How will you know whether working in COPs is an effective way of working? What indicators might be used?

• Regular attendance at community meetings, or involvement in online community discussions.

• Participation in COPs respected, as opposed to being challenged and questioned by others, particularly line managers.

• Good judgement of use of time by community members.

• Commitment to ensuring lessons learnt are shared outside the community.

• Community members regularly consider who else might need to know and/or might be interested in what the community has discovered.

• Low attrition rates among community members – if the attrition rate of community members is high, this could be an indication that the community is not functioning effectively.

• Enhanced social capital – individuals’ contacts within the organisation grow and strengthen as a result of working in COPs.

• Enhanced career and personal development – working in COPs helps individuals to develop knowledge that enhances their future career opportunities.

And finally, what broader organisational learning is emerging from the work of communities? The English Nature case study in Chapter 11 provides an example of this.