Bukowitz, Wendi R. and Ruth L. Williams. New metrics for hidden assets.Journal of Strategic Performance Measurement 1, no.1
(February-March 1997): 12-18.
A new measurement tool, the knowledge management assessment tool (KMAT), looks at the
inputs to the knowledge management process and examines how companies perceive their own
performance. This article examines process measurement using the results of the KMAT tool and
explores how some companies view their own performance in knowledge
management.
Davenport, Thomas H., Sirkka L. Jarvenpaa and Michael C. Beers. Improving
knowledge work processes.Sloan Management Review 37,
no.4 (Summer 1996): 53-65.
Authors suggest that organizations choose reengineering approaches which reflect the type of
knowledge work, the organizational culture, and the project's business requirements. In their
definition, the primary activity of knowledge work is the acquisition, creation, packaging, and
application of knowledge. Characterized by variety and exception rather than routine, knowledge
work is performed by professionals or technicians with top skills and expertise. Organizational
management must be aware that although it is wise to view knowledge work from a process
perspective, there are significant differences in that those who deal with knowledge work tend to
resist structured approaches more than those who handle administrative and/or operational work.
Knowlege work tends to be "untidy". Twenty years ago, Drucker noted that "To make knowledge
work productive will be the great management task of this century, just as to make manual work
productive was the great management task of the last century"; today, according to the authors of
this essay, an organization's core competencies must focus on managing knowledge and
knowledge workers now and in the future. A viable approach to improving knowledge work is
needed; the authors suggest ceding day-to-day task control to the professional worker while
maintaining control and direction over strategic issues.
Davenport, Thomas H. and Laurence Prusak. Working knowledge: how
organizations manage what they know. Cambridge: Harvard Business School Press,
1997. 224 pp.
According to the publishers, this book will establish enduring vocabulary and concepts and serve
as the hands-on resource of choice for organizations that recognize knowledge as "the only
sustainable source of competitive advantage". The authors examine all types of organizations to
see how they analyze, measure, and manage their intellectual assets. In the process, they consider
the key cultural and behavioral issues managers must address to effectively use knowledge; what
are the best ways to incorporate technology into knowledge work; and, what does a successful
knowledge project look like, how do you know whether it has succeeded? (Taken from HBS
Manager's Bookshelf feature selection review).
Garvin, David A. What makes for an authentic learning organization?Management Update: Newsletter from Harvard Business School 2,
no.6 (July 1, 1993): 7-9.
Before people and organizations can improve, they must first learn the fundamentals of meaning,
management, and measurement. Focusing on learning aims at a fundamental shift in orientation,
whereas continuous improvement can be aimed at relieving symptoms instead of purposefully
modifying behavior based on new knowledge and insights.
Kim, Daniel H. Toward learning organizations: integrating Total Quality
Control and systems thinking. Cambridge, MA: Pegasus Communications, 1997. 17
pp. (Shelved at HD62.15.K55 1997).
Total Quality Control (TQC)-driven environments are based on advancing continuous
improvement at every level of the organization. To accomplish this improvement, there must be
an emphasis placed on becoming a learning organization, not only at the operational level, but also
at a conceptual level, where mental models need to be altered as the organization's deep-rooted
assumptions and norms are challenged in order to reframe problems and generate radically
different solutions. Learning organizations will benefit from using the seven TQC tools (Pareto
chart, cause-and-effect diagram, stratification, check sheet, histogram, scatter diagram, and
control charts) as analytical means of understanding and improving processes. A systems level of
thinking is needed to advance management thinking at the conceptual level where the constituent
parts are synthesized. At the point of synthesis, functions striving to optimize their own
performance can lead to overall functional gridlock unless systems thinking provides a framework
for understanding the importance of managing the interconnections, gaining insight into the nature
of complex systems, and testing assumptions about the effect of change upon the system. The
author calls the integrated TQC and systems thinking approach Systemic Quality Management
(SQM), a model which includes tools falling into four broad categories: brainstorming tools,
dynamic thinking tools, structural thinking tools, and computer-based tools. Kim asserts that
managers, as experimental researchers formulating theories and conducting controlled tests,
should be responsible for enhancing the quality of their thinking and rethinking, not just the
quality of their doing.
Mattimore, Bryan W. 99% inspiration: tips, tales & techniques for liberating
your business creativity. New York: American Management Association, 1994. 236
pp. (Shelved at HD53.M374 1994).
1/98 version: This book suggests tips and techniques for tapping hidden, creative strengths in
order to solve a wide range of workplace issues, including product development, naming products
and services, cost cutting, business writing and speaking, and process
reengineering.
McMaster, Michael D. The intelligence advantage: organizing for
complexity. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann, 1996. xxiii, 245 pp. (Shelved at
HD31.M3856 1996).
In exploring the possibilities of human organization, the author aims to provide access to a way of
thinking and questioning that is capable of transforming organizations to meet the demands of the
Information Era. If we intend to create a complex intelligent system through organizational
change, then each instance of a blockage or breakdown is an opportunity to discover the natures
of the old structures and an occasion for creativity in designing new structures.
McMaster, Michael D. Organizational theory. In The intelligence
advantage: organizing for complexity. , 43-105. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann,
1996. (Shelved at HD31.M3856 1996).
In this section, the basis for a new theory of organization based on complexity is developed. The
theory calls for freedom designed with an understanding of complex intelligent systems and their
self-organizing nature. The process of breaking free begins with a leadership able to understand
the grip of the past, as well as grasp the nature of possiblity, and willing to lead by
example.
Miles, Raymond, Charles C. Snow, John A. Mathews, Grant Miles and Henry J. Coleman.
Organizing in the knowledge age: anticipating the cellular form.Academy of Management Executive 11, no.4 (November 1997):
7+ (BRP232; also available online through Proquest).
1/98 version: The focus of the US economy has shifted first to information-intensive industries
such as financial services and logistics, and now toward innovation-driven industries, such as
computer software and biotechnology, where competitive advantage lies mostly in the innovative
use of human resources. This was a move from the era of standardization to customization, and
the new organizational form found most helpful has been the network organization which can
respond rapidly to demands for new products and services. The coming century is predicted, by
the authors, to be the era of innovation. The new organizational form will rely on clusters of
self-organizing components collaboratively investing the organization's know-how in product and
service innovations for markets they have helped to create and develop. Such organizations can
best be described as cellular, suggesting a living, adaptive organization, able to respond rapidly to
new demands.
Morecroft, John D. W. and John D. Sterman. Modeling for learning
organizations. Portland, OR: Productivity Press, 1994. 400 pp. (Shelved at
HD30.4.M626 1994).
To improve effective functioning within complex systems, building models can be used to test
how an organization works in order to test policies, discover thinking flaws, and understand
sensitivities and leverage points. This collection of essays by leading system dynamicists
demonstrates how modeling can support organizational learning.
Nadler, Gerald and Shozo Hibino. Breakthrough thinking: why we must
change the way we solve problems, and the seven principles to achieve this.
Rocklin, CA: Prima Publishing, 1990. 350 pp.
1/98 version. "Breakthrough Thinking" is a conscious mode of thinking that applies seven proven
principles of successful solution-finding to any problem you, your group, or your company may
face. It is best to apply all seven principles at the concurrently and constantly, but at least, the
reader should always apply the two essential principles: uniqueness and purposes. Each problem
must be treated as unique from the outset. Secondly, all the purposes- uses, intents, objectives -
must be considered not just at the outset, but throughout the process as many more purposes
emerge with scrutiny and creative thinking.
Nevis, Edwin C., Anthony J. DiBella and Janet M. Gould. Understanding
organizations as learning systems. Cambridge: MIT, [1997]. 15 pp. (BPR226;
available online at
http://learning.mit.edu:80/res/wp/learning_sys.html).
The authors provide a framework for examining an organization, based on its "learning
orientations," a set of critical dimensions to organizational learning, and "facilitating factors," the
processes that affect how easy or hard it is for learning to occur.
Savage, Charles M. Fifth generation management: co-creating through virutal
enterprising, dynamic teaming, and knowledge. Revised ed. [Bedford, MA]: Digital
Press, 1997. 341 pp.
Savage offers suggestions for helping management get out of the Industrial Era and into the
Knowledge Era.
Senge, Peter. The fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning
organization. New York: Currency, Doubleday, 1994. xiii, 593 pp.
Senge describes how organizations suffer from learning disabilities that prevent them from seeing
threats and opportunities. He effectively demonstrates the need to become a learning
organization.
Sugarman, Barry. Notes towards a closer collaboration between organization
theory, learning organizations and organizational learning in the search for a new
paradigm. Cambridge: MIT, [1997]. 22 pp. (BPR225; available online at
http://learning.mit.edu:80/res/kr/Sugarman.html).
The existing paradigm of management and organization has been found deficient and a new
paradigm is needed. According to the author, his paper, a collection of short essays on key topics
in the relationships between organizational theory, learning organizations, and organizational
learning, can serve as a "reader's guide" to the field, as well as a "notebook" of ideas. In his recap,
Sugarman notes some ideas that may be crucial for the final breakthrough to a new paradigm. He
ends his paper admitting that he has no clear conclusion as to what the new paradigm will look
like, but that knowledge creation will likely occupy an important role, and digital technology will
play two roles -- one in implementing the new way and one in providing a metaphor for
understanding it. This is a very well-written, well-organized article, helpful for anyone in need of a
background in organizational theory.
