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• Module overview
• 1. Introduction to knowledge management
  • 1.1 Knowledge management in organisations: Theory and practice
  • 1.2 Information and knowledge
    • 1.2.1 Distinguishing information, data, knowledge and wisdom
    • 1.2.2 Knowledge defined and managed

• 2. Type and structure of knowledge

  • 2.1 Type and structure of knowledge
    • 2.1.1 The structure of purposeful knowledge in an organisation
    • 2.1.2 Explicit and tacit knowledge
  • 2.2 Acquiring knowledge
    • 2.2.1 Sources of knowledge

• 3. Knowledge and learning

  • 3.1 The ability to learn as knowledge
  • 3.2 Types of knowledge and culture, meaning, and learning
  • 3.3. Knowledge management and balanced learning strategies

• 4. A knowledge management cycle

  • 4.1 A Knowledge Management Framework
    • 4.1.1 Stages in KM Cycle
  • 4.2 Dimensions to KM Strategy
    • 4.2.1 Leadership dimension to KM
    • 4.2.2 Governance and policy dimension
    • 4.2.3 Architecture dimension
    • 4.2.4 Absorption dimension
    • 4.2.5 Measurement dimension
  • 4.3 Knowledge as a basis for organising

• 5. Conduct a knowledge audit

  • 5.1 Knowledge audit
    • 5.1.1 Conducting a knowledge audit
    • 5.1.2 The Audit Process

• 6. Organisational Knowledge Capital

  • 6.1 Building an organisational Knowledge Capital framework
    • 6.1.1 IC and KC
    • 6.1.2 The value of knowledge
  • 6.2 Structural capital
  • 6.3 Social capital
  • 6.4 Human Capital defined
    • 6.4.1 Capital resources for organisations
    • 6.4.2 The individual as a capital resource
    • 6.4.3 Ingredients to HCM

• 7. Valuing forms of knowledge

  • 7.1 Valuing forms of knowledge assets
    • 7.1.1 Valuing Intellectual assets
    • 7.1.2 Valuing knowledge as an intangible asset

• 8. Information management systems

  • 8.1 Information management systems
    • 8.1.1 A basic information management framework
    • 8.1.2 Building systems to meet individual and organisational needs
    • 8.1.3 Information guardians versus stakeholders
  • 8.2 Structure and information transfer
    • 8.2.1 Information relevance and timeliness
    • 8.2.2 Information characteristics versus decision types
    • 8.2.3 Storage and retrieval

• 9. Information capture and intelligence gathering

  • 9.1 Information capture and intelligence gathering
    • 9.1.1 Developing a 'wish list'
    • 9.1.2 Finding answers
    • 9.1.3 Integrating intelligence within a knowledge management framework
  • 9.2 Forecasting methods
    • 9.2.1 Issues to consider when forecasting

• 10. IT and E-commerce

  • 10.1 An overview of e-commerce
  • 10.2 The Internet, computer networks and e-commerce
    • 10.2.1 Internet speed, innovation and change
  • 10.3 E-commerce advantages and disadvantages
    • 10.3.1 E-commerce advantages
    • 10.3.2 E-commerce disadvantages and constraints
  • 10.4 The Internet and business
    • 10.4.1 Drivers of e-commerce and Internet growth
  • 10.5 E-commerce and e-business

• 11. IT and supply chain management

  • 11.1 Electronic supply chain management (eSCM)
  • 11.2 E-logistics
    • 11.2.1 Are e-logistics and e-commerce the same thing?
    • 11.2.2 E-logistics blurs older logistic business categories
  • 11.3 E-procurement
  • 11.4 E-fulfilment

2.1.1 The structure of purposeful knowledge in an organisation

This section examines how the structure of knowledge will impact its creation, management and transfer within an organisation seeking to harness that knowledge.

Joseph Badaracco (1991) suggests organisational success will be dependent on their identification of two types of knowledge; migratory and embedded knowledge. Appreciating the distinction between migratory and embedded knowledge is an appropriate starting point for examining the structure of knowledge. Competitive advantage or organisation survival can depend on how well an organisation manages both types of knowledge.

When knowledge crucial to an industry has migrated to firms with lower costs, greater flexibility, or the capacity to improve the knowledge, other companies face challenges that affect activities such as finance, marketing, and manufacturing, as well as their corporate culture and strategy (Badaracco, 1991:55).

In reality, many companies have ‘discovered’ the importance of managing knowledge to preserve vestiges of competitive advantage when they have already lost the knowledge associated with the product and its production to companies with lower margins of profit and higher levels of quality output than its competitors.

Migratory knowledge is knowledge that can be accessed by another individual or firm, or moved away from one firm to another. Basically it is knowledge that once identified becomes hard to control and protect (Badaracco, 1991:34).

Embedded knowledge is differentiated from migratory knowledge because this knowledge ‘moves very slowly, even when its commercial value is high and firms have strong incentives to gain access to it’ (Badaracco, 1991:79). Badaracco defines firms as ‘vast repositories of embedded knowledge’ (1991:80). How they manage embedded knowledge across its absorption, transfer and expansion can determine a company’s competitive success.

Table 1 Conditions for migration of knowledge

Conditions for migration of knowledge	Examples of knowledge types
Ability to exit one organisation – how well it is articulated and packaged together	Designs (blueprints, patents, trade marks, instructions for design and use) Machines & technology (knowledge encoded into use and construction of technology) Individual minds (knowledge to replicate discoveries or for specific purposes)
Ability to enter another organisation       (Badaracco, 1991:34-36)	Complementary capabilities (human and financial capabilities to exploit knowledge) Legal and regulatory restrictions (trade marks, contracts of employment, etc.) Incentives (e.g. paying for an individual’s intellectual capacity)

 

Fundamentally knowledge has to be sourced, captured, stored and retrieved with a sensitivity to its migratory or embedded nature. This is illustrated in the table below.

Table 2 Dimensions of knowledge and its management

	MANAGEMENT OF RESOURCES
TYPES	Finance	Marketing	Strategy	Culture	Partnerships
Migratory Threat	Inability to invest in specific knowledge creation	Competitor builds knowledge relationship with customer and dealership/ service provider to reinforce their competitive advantage	Investment in knowledge that can be replicated by competitor able to operate on lower profit margins or lower production costs for equivalent quality. Focus on redundant not emerging capabilities.	Lack of value placed on sustainable change and role of workforce in visioning and achieving goals.	Inability to share costs, risk, market analysis, competitor information or develop relationships that enhance responsiveness.
Opportunity	Innovation and research, and investment in technology or human capabilities	Greater responsiveness to customer needs and use of knowledge migration through advertising, warranties, incentives, image promotion	Cognisant of the strengths or weaknesses in their management of migratory knowledge when framed	Overcome problems and respond to market demands.   Pool of people committed to agreed purpose, vision and outcomes.	Reduce costs and risk through collaboration; accelerate speed to market through aggressive migration and sharing of knowledge; flexibility through management of environmental constraints and monitoring of competitors by allies in regions/ sector, channels to ‘share’ knowledge for advantage, and neutralise competitors through networks (Eg. Establish product distribution network).
Embedded Threat	Financial management imperatives loses relationship with existing organisational capital and (infrastructural, social, and human) capabilities.	Loss of identity for product, workforce or customers.	Investing in production competencies or types of knowledge that, when codified, can migrate outside the organisation (Eg. Designs, skills, machines, etc.)	A production-focussed culture not a long-term market success or shared basis for wanting to work and meet new challenges.	Inability to focus strategic relationships on problems that limit responsiveness, market agility or a focus on customer needs. Inability to manage geographic-specific relationships that impact market success.
Opportunity	Invest in developing sense of craftsmanship and expertise beyond competencies to just ‘do a job’.	Basis for individual, team and group behaviour and interaction is reinforced within and outside the organisation by public communication, advertising, training and image reinforcing activities.	Focus on developing highly specialised personal knowledge in individuals and processes that promote organisational learning (collective and generative learning)	Reinforce sense of craftsmanship and expertise of individuals and teams   Establish planning processes that are learning processes that confirm commitment and individual and shared purpose.	Exchange of embedded knowledge to create shared capabilities, rapid information and communication flow, and shared search for opportunities.   Ability to empathise and relate to customers, markets, societal factors and political issues in a geographic region.

(Table based on Badaracco 1991:55-73 & 80-114)

 

Activity 1

1. Using your own words describe:
   Embedded knowledge -
   Migratory knowledge -
   
2. Now give two examples of both embedded knowledge and migratory knowledge that you can identify in your own workplace or a workplace you are familiar with (Eg. A university)

Using Badaracco’s model (1991:34) the degree to which knowledge is migratory will depend on how the systems for capture, storage, retrieval and use permit:

• Knowledge to be linked, articulated and packaged together;
• Other individuals access to ‘open the packages’;
• Other individuals sufficient incentive to open the ‘knowledge package’; and
• Barriers to be constructed that limit migration.

Embedding knowledge requires strategies to address internal factors such as craftsmanship, teams, the organisation’s culture and communication relationships; and external factors such as strategic partnerships and its community or geographic context (Badaracco, 1991:80-96).

Companies seeking to achieve market responsiveness before a competitor or to move the marketplace to a new product or service that competitors cannot match with their existing capacity, need to allocate resources into attracting competitive knowledge or prevent migration of its knowledge to a competitor (Badaracco, 1991:56).

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