Date post: | 21-Jan-2016 |
Category: |
Documents |
Upload: | emery-griffin |
View: | 218 times |
Download: | 0 times |
Knowledge Management:Can Librarians Do It?
Lee Chu KeongNanyang Technological University
Short Answer
Yes!But, some changes are needed!
discomfort
Changes That Are Needed
A shift in perspective on the concept of “knowledge”A shift in perspective on the concept of “silence”A shift in perspective on the concept of “intermediary”
Traditional Role of Libraries
Selection: Selecting and acquiring available information in the marketplace, based on user needs and quality standards, within the available budgetStorage: maintaining the availability of publications through long-term storage and preservationService: making the information resources available through facilities and procedures for on-site consultation, lending and document deliverySupport: giving the user guidance and assistance, including the development and maintenance of support systems such as catalogues, on-line help systems, websites, …
Traditional Role of Libraries
Selection: Selecting and acquiring available information in the marketplace, based on user needs and quality standards, within the available budgetStorage: maintaining the availability of publications through long-term storage and preservationService: making the information resources available through facilities and procedures for on-site consultation, lending and document deliverySupport: giving the user guidance and assistance, including the development and maintenance of support systems such as catalogues, on-line help systems, websites, …
Books
PeriodicalsCD-ROMs
Databasesdocuments
Knowledge: Perspective 1
“ As Object” vs “As Process”
Positivist Axioms knowability of the universe factual nature of scientific knowledge irrelevance of value judgment
Interactional environmental relational context
Knowledge: Perspective 2
“ As point” on a continuum
data information knowledgeadd value
contextualise categorise calculate correct condense
add value
compare connect evaluate understand implications
Knowledge: Perspective 3
“ As potential” of a very powerful sort
Information Sources
Information Sources
dictionaries, encyclopedias, bibliographies, almanacs,
handbooks, directories, atlases, gazetteers, biographies, abstracts & indexes – annual reports, patents & trademarks, statistical sources,
market research reports, white papers, stock data, company
information, …
Knowledge Sources
Knowledge Sources
human being(s)
!
Knowledge: A Public Good
non-excludable
non-rival[rous]
Goods are excludable if a person can be prevented from using it
Goods are rival[rous] if one person’s use of the good diminishes another person’s use
He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine,
receives light without darkening me.
What IS Knowledge Sharing?
Knowledge sharing “takes place each time you communicate what you are doing, who you are, or what you know to one person or to many people”, and “covers a variety of activities – a talk with a colleague at the coffee pot, an educational situation, a document in a database, an email, an information board with notices, etc.”
Petersen & Poulfelt (2002)
Knowledge sharing involves networking to become acquainted with what others know.
Wiig (1999)
Knowledge sharing is the deliberate act in which knowledge is made reusable for one party through its transfer by another.
Lee and Al-Hawamdeh (2002)
Be Careful …
If nature has made any one thing less susceptible than all others of exclusive property, it is the action of the thinking power called an idea, which an individual may exclusively possess as long as he keeps it to himself; but the moment it is divulged, it forces itself into the possession of every one, and the receiver cannot dispossess himself of it.
Jefferson (1813)
Knowledge Sharing – Critical to Knowledge Management
KnowledgeGeneration
KnowledgeCodification
KnowledgeTransfer
Construction
Use
DisseminationEmbodiment
Individual Group OrganisationInterorganisational
Domain
AR
TIC
ULA
TE
DK
NO
WLE
DG
ET
AC
IT K
NO
WL
ED
GE
Appropriation [Dialogue] Extension
Art
icul
atio
n
Inte
rnal
isat
ion
[Reflection] Expansion
ASSIMILATION
DISSEMINATION
Why Share Knowledge?
To prevent the “reinvention of the wheel”To minimise loss of knowledge through various meansTo enable the spread of best practicesTo construct meaning togetherTo build social capital“The practical problem, however, arises precisely because these facts are never so given to a single mind, and because, in consequence, it is necessary that in the solution of the problem knowledge should be used that is dispersed among many people.”
Knowledge Sharing Types
Knowledge Sharing
Voluntary Mandatory
InformalFormal
chance hallway conversations;canteen talk; informal meetings;
conversations in the loo
Voluntary, Informal, Knowledge Sharing
A need to learn: to “size up” a person to increase understanding of a complex issue/phenomenon/problem to clarify conceptsA need to tell to inform to express opinion or standA need to get another opinion from “outside the box”A need to “short circuit”A need to teachA need to build or maintain relationshipsA need to self-aggrandize
Participation in knowledge sharing
Sharing Knowledge: Reasons
Silence
Attitude of most libraries: “Silence Please”!In knowledge management:
“Silence denotes a lack of knowledge sharing”
“Silence implies an unwillingness to share one’s knowledge”
Rethink the concept of silence!
The Framework
climate
organisation
channel
actor actorknowledge
Barriers Attributable to Actors
Communication & People SkillsAbsorptive CapacityReputationAppreciation of Importance of KnowledgeIncompatible PersonalityDisciplinary EthnocentrismStatus HierarchiesTechnophobiaCognitive Hinds & PfefferMotivation Hinds & Pfeffer
Barriers Attributable to Channel
DocumentInability of the actors to tailor the knowledge shared to the needs and situation of the userKnowledge is fixed, sometimes for posterityLow bandwidth (zero social presence)
Face-to-Face (Unmediated)Ability of the knowledge recipient to request customization, clarification, or elaboration of the knowledge shared
The richest form of knowledge sharing (High BW)The knowledge can be tailored directly and immediately, and made relevant to the needs of the user
Coincidence of both time and location is required in this mode of knowledge sharing
Often unrecorded (little or no permanence), therefore lending itself to distortion & attenuation
Face-to-Face (Mediated)Dependent of technology
Barriers Attributable to Knowledge Being Shared
TACIT vs EXPLICITSharing one’s expertise can be risky because of the difficulty involved in articulating preferences based largely on tacit knowledge user-interface specialists (simply “know”, but
cannot explain) nurses (“insistent inner voice”, hunch)
In organisations that insist on hard data, sharing one’s tacit expertise via opinions and intuitions can convey a lack of certainty or clarity, undermining one’s standing in the organisation
logicrationaleevidence
Barriers Attributable to Organisational Environment
Organisational structure
Reward system and incentives for knowledge sharing compensation for time & energy
Availability of time
Availability of knowledge sharing champions
Office layout (Third Space, storking)
Staff tenure or length of service
Management support
Organisational culture
Barriers Attributable to Climate
Barriers arising from “the larger picture”, which may affect the “relationship with the organisation”
Economic condition of the nation, governmental policies, and societal culture
When jobs are at stake, networks are withdrawn and individual knowledge is closely guarded as protection against termination (Bonaventura, 1997)
Foreign talent policy
Societal culture (e.g. collectivistic pressure)
Librarian as Barrier Breaker
Traditionally, libraries have perform an intermediary function between publishers (and other information producers) and end-users
Can libraries now reinvent themselves and be intermediaries between knowledge source and knowledge source?
Can libraries break barriers and build people-to-people links
Can libraries be knowledge intermediaries
Conclusion
Libraries and their librarians CAN do knowledge management
Rethinking / repositioning / new perspectives are needed
Three areas have been suggested:
Rethink the concept of “knowledge”
Rethink the concept of “silence”
Rethink the concept of “intermediary”