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Developing knowledge management awareness in public relations students
Public Relations Review 30 (2004) 107–115
Developing knowledge management awareness in public relations students Jane Hiscock∗ School of Communication, Information and New Media, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia Received 1 February 2003; received in revised form 28 September 2003; accepted 1 November 2003
Abstract Students completing the postgraduate qualification, Graduate Diploma in Communication (Public Relations) at the University of South Australia, undertake a field research project, the Graduate Communication Management project, as the final course in their program. Students design their own research (mainly interpretive and qualitative in nature) to investigate communication and organizational culture within their chosen organization. This paper suggests that knowledge management concepts provide another useful framework in which the students can research organizational culture and communication. © 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Communication; Organization; Management; Knowledge management
1. Introduction The Graduate Communication Management project (the final course in the Public Relations Graduate Diploma) enables students to put the theoretical framework of the previous semester into practice, by undertaking an original piece of research. The theoretical framework encompasses organizational theory and communication, organizations as cultures, organizational power and politics, decision making, environmental uncertainty and motivation. The course develops students’ skills in understanding organizational communication, how it works in organizations and how it affects individuals within the organization. Fieldwork for public relations students is a strong way to complete the program. Students may choose to research any organization of their choice, including their own organization. ∗
Tel.: +61-8302-4533; fax: +61-8302-4745. E-mail address: [email protected] (J. Hiscock). 0363-8111/$ – see front matter © 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2003.11.010
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The project focuses on the organizational aspects of communication. The emphasis is on analysis of communication in the organization and how it relates to and is interpreted by the culture of the organization. For the purposes of the course ‘culture’ is based on Schein’s definition: A culture is a set of basic tacit assumptions about how the world is and ought to be that a group of people share and that determines their perceptions, thoughts, feelings and, to some degree, their overt behaviour . . . . Culture manifests itself at three levels: the level of deep tacit assumptions that are the essence of the culture, the level of espoused values that often reflect what a group wishes ideally to be and the way it wants to present itself publicly, and the day-to-day behaviour that represents a complex compromise among the espoused values, the deeper assumptions and the immediate requirements of the situation.” (Schein, 1996, p. 11)
2. Why do research? Research into how organizations work and how organizational communication channels operate gives public relations students an awareness of how they might pursue and consolidate their role. Research skills can be utilised to examine both needs for and consequences of public relations strategies. Students develop their skills in qualitative research methods and writing research in a format resembling a minor thesis. They are encouraged to adopt a flexible approach to the usage of academic theories in their research and to incorporate a variety of theoretical approaches. This approach is reinforced by Cornelissen who examined the use of academic theories in teaching practice and concluded, “It has been stressed . . . that public relations is above all a pragmatic professional occupation and that practitioners will adopt notions from the rich pool of academic theory when these entail practical relevance” (Cornelissen, 2000, p. 324). The emphasis on researching an understanding of communication in organizations is echoed by Daymon and Holloway who state: Public relations and marketing communications are concerned with managed communication. The two disciplines are increasingly interested in co-ordinating communication through relationships which are developed and maintained by collaborative dialogue.” (Daymon & Holloway, 2002, p. 11) For Daymon and Holloway collaborative dialogue enables an understanding of how others make sense of communication encounters and what sort of realities this creates in a communication exchange. Qualitative research is one way to examine what events, symbols and communication interactions mean to other people. Singh and Smyth (2000) in their article on the current status of Australian public relations, also note the need for a solid understanding of theory and methodology relevant to the profession. They emphasise that this needs to be matched by skills in communication technology and strategic management, where “Public relations is increasingly being looked on as a strategic management function evidenced by the fact that 60% of senior public relations staff reported directly to the CEO, managing director or chairman (p. 397). Radford and Goldstein examined the links between research methods and the methods practitioners use and suggest:
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While survey research has long been used to gauge public perceptions on issues, we are entering an era where increasingly sophisticated techniques of marketing segmentation analysis and message distribution will be used to guide communication strategy.” (Radford & Goldstein, 2002) They conclude: “Communication is becoming a knowledge-based profession, and the lines between corporate communication/public affairs disciplines are converging. In this new era, media relations, issues management, advertising and the rest of the disciplines will be more closely integrated to ensure clear, consistent and constant emphasis on key messages” (Radford & Goldstein, 2002, p. 256). A recent paper (Bowen) focusing on undergraduate public relations students in the United States highlighted the students’ awareness of the importance of research skills in the profession. Students pointed out the important role that research played in enhancing the credibility of the function within an organization. Many were aware of the pressure they would encounter from senior management to show “bottom-line results, and they saw conducting formative and evaluative research as one way of illustrating their efficacy” (Bowen, 2003). The communication project can be situated in variety of contexts, some of which are outlined below. 3. Suggested frameworks for the research Students are expected to situate their organization in a wider context, which demonstrates their understanding of major issues affecting organizations. Three possible frameworks in which to situate their organizational communication research are information technology, globalization and knowledge management. They are, of course interconnected and interdependent. Information technology is all pervasive. It is however, important to emphasise the difference between face-to-face and computer mediated communication as a factor affecting organizational communication. Choice of communication can indicate hierarchy within the organization and reveal aspects of organizational culture as outlined by Adrian (2001) and Suutari (2001). Globalization is suggested as a possible framework, using a broad definition such as Scholte’s (2000) five interpretations: internationalisation (interaction and interdependence between people in different countries, facilitated by technology and information technology), liberalisation (no regulatory barriers to transfers of resources such as goods, services, money between countries), universalisation (the uneven spread of people and cultural phenomena to all corners of the globe), westernisation (all the world is becoming western—western culture is becoming predominant), and deterritorialization (where global relations have substantially transcended territorial space). Depending on the size of the organization, globalization may be a strong factor influencing organizational communication. There will be global networks and processes, such as telecommunications or financial markets, which may consciously or unconsciously affect the organization. Information technology and globalization are interdependent and they are both factors affecting knowledge management. Incorporating the concept of knowledge management as a framework for organizational culture and communication is a useful way of developing students’ awareness of knowledge management and how it can impact on their host organization. Knowledge management is an organizational strategy affecting all the other theoretical frameworks the students encounter. It also affects the way employees interact and communicate. Students develop an understanding of the fundamental theories and concepts of knowledge management and then decide if they are relevant to their particular project.
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4. What is knowledge management? Knowledge management can be defined in a variety of ways. For the purposes of the course, it is introduced as an organizational communication strategy to improve the effectiveness of the organization and maintain competitive advantage. As the students research both profit and non-profit organizations in both the public and the private sector, they are presented with a range of definitions of knowledge management. 4.1. A general definition Knowledge management is a multi-disciplined approach to achieving organizational objectives by making the best use of knowledge. It involves the design, review and implementation of both social and technological processes to improve the application of knowledge, in the collective interests of stakeholders (Standards Australia, 2003, p. 3). 4.2. A business definition “Knowledge management is the process by which the organization generates wealth from its intellectual or knowledge-based assets,” according to Bukowitz and Williams (1999, p. 2). 4.3. And a definition from an IT perspective “KM [is] a discipline that promotes an integrated approach to identifying, capturing, retrieving, sharing and evaluating an enterprise’s information assets. These information assets may include databases, documents, policies and procedures as well as the uncaptured, tacit expertise and experience resident in individual workers,” according to the GartnerGroup (1997, p. 1). Knowledge management is a cross-disciplinary field, influencing a wide range of organizational practices and processes, from research to human resources. Current thinking identifies three generations of knowledge management practices. The first generation is now considered to be those practices prior to 1995 which relied entirely on computer technology, without acknowledging the importance of the human input. Earl labelled these approaches “technocratic” because they are “based on information and management technologies, which largely support and, to different degrees condition employees (or knowledge workers) in their everyday tasks” (Earl, 2001, p. 218). In 1995, Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) published their SECI model (socialisation, externalisation, combination and internalisation) of knowledge exchange. This is the second generation of knowledge management, where knowledge exchange is depicted as a spiral (see Fig. 1) a thing to be managed and something which can be made explicit. Students become familiar with concepts such as tacit and explicit knowledge. Tacit knowledge is personal, context specific and hard to formalise and communicate and explicit knowledge has been recorded (codified) as a document or some other medium. Researching their organization and interviewing organizational members about aspects of communication and culture gives the students opportunities for examining tacit and explicit knowledge. Students learn about the various permutations which make up knowledge conversion and creation, where according to Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) knowledge is created from the interaction between
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Fig. 1. Spiral evolution of knowledge conversion (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995).
tacit and explicit knowledge, and can be converted from tacit to tacit (socialisation), tacit to explicit (externalisation) explicit to explicit (combination) and explicit to tacit (internalisation). They make their own links between these processes and readily incorporate the concept of tacit knowledge into the idea of organizational culture. The tacit to tacit (socialisation) knowledge conversion is directly connected with theories of group processes and organizational culture. Interviewing and focus groups are research techniques enabling this transfer, by sharing experiences and creating tacit knowledge. The conversion of knowledge from tacit to explicit (externalisation) is also readily understood as part of the research process where tacit knowledge can be articulated into explicit concepts and the reconfiguration of existing information can lead to new knowledge in the form of written research reports. The explicit to explicit (combination) transfer includes collecting relevant knowledge and editing and disseminating it, allowing knowledge transfer across organizations. In the research project, the researcher can act as the transfer agent disseminating relevant explicit knowledge across the cultures and sub-cultures of the organization to facilitate the research. The explicit to tacit (internalisation) knowledge transfer process can also be part of the students’ research, where organization and group knowledge to the individual is examined. Questions about socialisation and induction into the organization reveal the processes whereby new organizational members acquire the essential knowledge to make them effective in the organization. Snowden (2002) suggests there is now a the third generation of knowledge management which asserts “properly understood knowledge is paradoxically both a thing and a flow—in the second age [of KM] we looked for things and in consequence found things, in the third age [of KM] we look for both in different ways and embrace the consequent paradox” (Snowden, 2002, p. 104).
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Fig. 2. Cynefin: knowledge flows (Snowden, 2002, p. 108).
Snowden introduces the knowledge model he calls “Cynefin” (a Welsh word pronounced kun-ev’in) “four open spaces or domains of knowledge all of which have validity within different contexts.” He calls these “complex,” “knowable,” “known” and “chaos,” (see Fig. 2) and suggests that knowledge flows between the domains creating informal communities and the transfer of knowledge from informal to formal. He talks of “just in time KM,” where “we create ecologies in which the informal communities of the complex domain can self-organize and self manage in such a way as to permit that knowledge to transfer to the formal, knowable domain on a just in time basis” (Snowden, 2002, p. 104). For the third generation of knowledge management, knowledge is depicted as a thing and a flow rather than a spiral. Students can apply aspects of these models wherever they are researching knowledge pathways in their organization.
5. How is knowledge management awareness useful? Knowledge management is an organizational process dependent on communication and staff interaction. Knowledge management processes and strategies within the organization impact on communication pathways and influence organizational culture. Knowledge management processes may engender change within the organizational culture and sub-cultures. These changes are important and may be observed during the practicum. An understanding of the principal theories and concepts surrounding knowledge management enriches the students’ perception of organizational communication and adds another layer to the design of their research. For some of the students, knowledge management is the missing piece of the jigsaw incorporating their research question. They can see the communication patterns that they are researching involve knowledge management strategies and decisions reinforcing the culture of the organization, which they are already examining in other ways. Other key knowledge management concepts for the students include broad understandings of data/ information/knowledge and the ideas behind knowledge mapping, data mining, metadata and information literacy. A brief outline of the concepts is included in this article. These terms have direct relevance to the research project and the skills the students need to undertake the course, so they catch the attention of the students. They find examples of these concepts in both the content and the method of their research. They
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are able to reflect on their role as both a researcher examining organizational communication within a knowledge management framework and as a practitioner examining his/her own knowledge management. Data needs organization to turn it into information. Hence the term “raw data” for data which has not yet undergone any organization. Students understand this refers to their fieldwork notes or interview transcripts. Information is data in context that can be used for decision-making—for example, interview/survey data organized into topics or themes for analysis. In terms of the research project, knowledge is the result of the analysis of the data and its interpretation leading to new understandings of the problem the research investigated. Students feel enthusiasm for creating new knowledge through their own research design and their own recommendations for changes in the way the organization conducts certain organizational processes. Knowledge mapping enables the identification of existing knowledge and knowledge gaps and how the knowledge circulates in an organization. Students are familiar with the “concept of the communication audit” (Scott, 1999) and some of them choose to use the technique in their research. Knowledge mapping (Grey, 1999) uses similar techniques, and is another possible research method for the students. Data mining describes both the generic process of analysing the information in a data warehouse (a consolidation of data from many sources) and a set of techniques to identify patterns and correlations in vast amounts of data. The concept of data mining is relevant to some organizational strategies the students may encounter in their research. Metadata is information about information. An example is the author of a document such as a webpage or the subject codes attached to documents so that they can be searched and retrieved. Students often examine websites for their chosen organization as part of their research and find the idea of metadata helpful in their searching. Information literacy is defined as, “an understanding and set of abilities enabling individuals to recognise when information is needed and have the capacity to locate, evaluate and use effectively the needed information. An information literate person has learned how to learn . . . ” (Council of Australian University Librarians, 2001, p. 1). Students can identify with the skills needed to become information literate and often ask questions about information skills levels in their research.
6. Student approaches to KM Having looked at the key concepts the question can be asked: how do organizations manage knowledge? For many organizations there is a combination of human motivation to share/create knowledge and information technology programs to facilitate the sharing. Examples of students’ research questions indicate their involvement with the knowledge management concepts. The question below, from one of the student’s interview questions, indicates an interest in both communication and knowledge pathways in a organization which is part of a retail chain: When you receive interesting/useful information relating to running the stores, do you share it with the other Departmental Managers? With store managers? Another student asked about information seeking skills as a way of examining communication and information pathways in an organization: Do you ever look for information that is on the Intranet through other sources, e.g. calling someone, asking colleague, using a manual? Why?
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Another student asked a direct interview question about knowledge sharing and communication in an organization: How are XXX employees encouraged to share their knowledge with other members of the organisation? Email/intranet? Face to face? Team meetings/debriefings? Incentives or rewards for people using knowledge from other projects? Informal storytelling or anecdotes? Students become attuned to possible strategies to look out for when researching an organization which may affect the communication pathways within the organization. These may impact on organizational culture and elicit a range of staff responses and may involve strategies for mapping knowledge in the organization, for capturing existing knowledge onto electronic databases, for maximising knowledge sharing within the organization, or strategies for dedicating staff to knowledge management processes. One student researched “The interpretation of local government initiated communication by community clubs,” and examined how local knowledge is managed at the council level by written communication. The framework for researching the community clubs’ culture and communication was knowledge management—what happens to local knowledge and how is it maintained and exchanged with relevant stakeholders. This student asked about a knowledge management strategy: Are there any specific strategies used at YYY to facilitate the flow of knowledge? Knowledge manager and team? Use of outside consultants for special projects? Regular opportunities for employees to share knowledge such as formal or informal social event or meetings? Another student reflected on the usefulness of a KM framework for their research: In regard to the actual project, I’ve been reading a lot about KM and information sharing and feel that my research will lead me down the path of trying to discover if the Information sharing efforts used on the Intranet are actually working at branch level. I have a strong suspicion that I will find the branches don’t use the Intranet very much, which will then lead me into looking at the culture that exists which causes them to underuse or even ignore this technology. I may find that other information sharing efforts such as the internal newspaper and meetings are more useful in a busy environment where access to the Intranet is limited to the few moments XXX may have spare in their day. These examples suggest that an understanding of organizational culture and communication is enhanced by including knowledge management as a research framework and utilising it as one more way to research strategic organizational initiatives and to learn what is happening in an organization. In the workplace, identifying and aligning oneself with key organizational initiatives is a vital way to become effective in the organization. This research gives students new insights into organizational processes and they are delighted when they can apply these insights to their own work environment.
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References Adrian, C. M. (2001). The influence of e-mail as an interoffice communication tool in small organisations. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 31(3), 283–292. Bowen, S. (2003). ‘I thought it would be more glamorous’: Preconceptions and misconceptions among students in the public relations principles course. Public Relations Review, 29, 199–214. Bukowitz, W. R., & Williams, R. (1999). The knowledge management fieldbook. London: Pearson Education. Cornelissen, J. P. (2000). Toward an understanding of the use of academic theories in Public Relations practice. Public Relations Review, 26(3), 315–326. Council of Australian University Librarians. (2001). Information Literacy Standards. Canberra: CAUL. Daymon, C., & Holloway, I. (2002). Qualitative research methods in Public Relations and Marketing. London: Routledge. Earl, K. (2001). Knowledge management strategies: Towards a taxonomy. Journal of Management Information Systems, 18(1), 218. GartnerGroup. (1997, December 18). Information management is not knowledge management. Research note. Grey, D. (1999). Knowledge mapping: A practical overview [On-line]. Available at: http://www.smithweaversmith.com/ knowledg2.htm. Nonaka, I., & Takeuchi, H. (1995). The knowledge-creating company. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Radford, G. P., & Goldstein, S. Z. (2002). The role of research methods in corporate communication. Corporate Communication: An International Journal, 7(4), 252–256. Schein, E. (1996). Three cultures of management: The key to organizational learning. Sloan Management Review, 38(1), 9–17. Scholte, J. A. (2000). Globalization: A critical introduction. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Scott, C. R. (1999). Using communication audits to teach organizational communication to students and employees. Business Communication Quarterly, 62(4), 53–60. Singh, R., & Smyth, R. (2000). Australian public relations: Status at the turn of the 21st century. Public Relations Review, 26(4), 387–401. Snowden, D. (2002). Complex acts of knowing: Paradox and descriptive self-awareness. Journal of Knowledge Management, 6(2), 100–111, available Emerald. Standards Australia. (2003). Interim knowledge management standards (AS 5037) (Int). Sydney: Standards Australia. Suutari, R. (2001). Curbing creativity. CMA Management, 75(4), 12–14.
Developing knowledge management awareness in public relations students Jane Hiscock∗ School of Communication, Information and New Media, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia Received 1 February 2003; received in revised form 28 September 2003; accepted 1 November 2003
Abstract Students completing the postgraduate qualification, Graduate Diploma in Communication (Public Relations) at the University of South Australia, undertake a field research project, the Graduate Communication Management project, as the final course in their program. Students design their own research (mainly interpretive and qualitative in nature) to investigate communication and organizational culture within their chosen organization. This paper suggests that knowledge management concepts provide another useful framework in which the students can research organizational culture and communication. © 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Communication; Organization; Management; Knowledge management
1. Introduction The Graduate Communication Management project (the final course in the Public Relations Graduate Diploma) enables students to put the theoretical framework of the previous semester into practice, by undertaking an original piece of research. The theoretical framework encompasses organizational theory and communication, organizations as cultures, organizational power and politics, decision making, environmental uncertainty and motivation. The course develops students’ skills in understanding organizational communication, how it works in organizations and how it affects individuals within the organization. Fieldwork for public relations students is a strong way to complete the program. Students may choose to research any organization of their choice, including their own organization. ∗
Tel.: +61-8302-4533; fax: +61-8302-4745. E-mail address: [email protected] (J. Hiscock). 0363-8111/$ – see front matter © 2003 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2003.11.010
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J. Hiscock / Public Relations Review 30 (2004) 107–115
The project focuses on the organizational aspects of communication. The emphasis is on analysis of communication in the organization and how it relates to and is interpreted by the culture of the organization. For the purposes of the course ‘culture’ is based on Schein’s definition: A culture is a set of basic tacit assumptions about how the world is and ought to be that a group of people share and that determines their perceptions, thoughts, feelings and, to some degree, their overt behaviour . . . . Culture manifests itself at three levels: the level of deep tacit assumptions that are the essence of the culture, the level of espoused values that often reflect what a group wishes ideally to be and the way it wants to present itself publicly, and the day-to-day behaviour that represents a complex compromise among the espoused values, the deeper assumptions and the immediate requirements of the situation.” (Schein, 1996, p. 11)
2. Why do research? Research into how organizations work and how organizational communication channels operate gives public relations students an awareness of how they might pursue and consolidate their role. Research skills can be utilised to examine both needs for and consequences of public relations strategies. Students develop their skills in qualitative research methods and writing research in a format resembling a minor thesis. They are encouraged to adopt a flexible approach to the usage of academic theories in their research and to incorporate a variety of theoretical approaches. This approach is reinforced by Cornelissen who examined the use of academic theories in teaching practice and concluded, “It has been stressed . . . that public relations is above all a pragmatic professional occupation and that practitioners will adopt notions from the rich pool of academic theory when these entail practical relevance” (Cornelissen, 2000, p. 324). The emphasis on researching an understanding of communication in organizations is echoed by Daymon and Holloway who state: Public relations and marketing communications are concerned with managed communication. The two disciplines are increasingly interested in co-ordinating communication through relationships which are developed and maintained by collaborative dialogue.” (Daymon & Holloway, 2002, p. 11) For Daymon and Holloway collaborative dialogue enables an understanding of how others make sense of communication encounters and what sort of realities this creates in a communication exchange. Qualitative research is one way to examine what events, symbols and communication interactions mean to other people. Singh and Smyth (2000) in their article on the current status of Australian public relations, also note the need for a solid understanding of theory and methodology relevant to the profession. They emphasise that this needs to be matched by skills in communication technology and strategic management, where “Public relations is increasingly being looked on as a strategic management function evidenced by the fact that 60% of senior public relations staff reported directly to the CEO, managing director or chairman (p. 397). Radford and Goldstein examined the links between research methods and the methods practitioners use and suggest:
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While survey research has long been used to gauge public perceptions on issues, we are entering an era where increasingly sophisticated techniques of marketing segmentation analysis and message distribution will be used to guide communication strategy.” (Radford & Goldstein, 2002) They conclude: “Communication is becoming a knowledge-based profession, and the lines between corporate communication/public affairs disciplines are converging. In this new era, media relations, issues management, advertising and the rest of the disciplines will be more closely integrated to ensure clear, consistent and constant emphasis on key messages” (Radford & Goldstein, 2002, p. 256). A recent paper (Bowen) focusing on undergraduate public relations students in the United States highlighted the students’ awareness of the importance of research skills in the profession. Students pointed out the important role that research played in enhancing the credibility of the function within an organization. Many were aware of the pressure they would encounter from senior management to show “bottom-line results, and they saw conducting formative and evaluative research as one way of illustrating their efficacy” (Bowen, 2003). The communication project can be situated in variety of contexts, some of which are outlined below. 3. Suggested frameworks for the research Students are expected to situate their organization in a wider context, which demonstrates their understanding of major issues affecting organizations. Three possible frameworks in which to situate their organizational communication research are information technology, globalization and knowledge management. They are, of course interconnected and interdependent. Information technology is all pervasive. It is however, important to emphasise the difference between face-to-face and computer mediated communication as a factor affecting organizational communication. Choice of communication can indicate hierarchy within the organization and reveal aspects of organizational culture as outlined by Adrian (2001) and Suutari (2001). Globalization is suggested as a possible framework, using a broad definition such as Scholte’s (2000) five interpretations: internationalisation (interaction and interdependence between people in different countries, facilitated by technology and information technology), liberalisation (no regulatory barriers to transfers of resources such as goods, services, money between countries), universalisation (the uneven spread of people and cultural phenomena to all corners of the globe), westernisation (all the world is becoming western—western culture is becoming predominant), and deterritorialization (where global relations have substantially transcended territorial space). Depending on the size of the organization, globalization may be a strong factor influencing organizational communication. There will be global networks and processes, such as telecommunications or financial markets, which may consciously or unconsciously affect the organization. Information technology and globalization are interdependent and they are both factors affecting knowledge management. Incorporating the concept of knowledge management as a framework for organizational culture and communication is a useful way of developing students’ awareness of knowledge management and how it can impact on their host organization. Knowledge management is an organizational strategy affecting all the other theoretical frameworks the students encounter. It also affects the way employees interact and communicate. Students develop an understanding of the fundamental theories and concepts of knowledge management and then decide if they are relevant to their particular project.
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4. What is knowledge management? Knowledge management can be defined in a variety of ways. For the purposes of the course, it is introduced as an organizational communication strategy to improve the effectiveness of the organization and maintain competitive advantage. As the students research both profit and non-profit organizations in both the public and the private sector, they are presented with a range of definitions of knowledge management. 4.1. A general definition Knowledge management is a multi-disciplined approach to achieving organizational objectives by making the best use of knowledge. It involves the design, review and implementation of both social and technological processes to improve the application of knowledge, in the collective interests of stakeholders (Standards Australia, 2003, p. 3). 4.2. A business definition “Knowledge management is the process by which the organization generates wealth from its intellectual or knowledge-based assets,” according to Bukowitz and Williams (1999, p. 2). 4.3. And a definition from an IT perspective “KM [is] a discipline that promotes an integrated approach to identifying, capturing, retrieving, sharing and evaluating an enterprise’s information assets. These information assets may include databases, documents, policies and procedures as well as the uncaptured, tacit expertise and experience resident in individual workers,” according to the GartnerGroup (1997, p. 1). Knowledge management is a cross-disciplinary field, influencing a wide range of organizational practices and processes, from research to human resources. Current thinking identifies three generations of knowledge management practices. The first generation is now considered to be those practices prior to 1995 which relied entirely on computer technology, without acknowledging the importance of the human input. Earl labelled these approaches “technocratic” because they are “based on information and management technologies, which largely support and, to different degrees condition employees (or knowledge workers) in their everyday tasks” (Earl, 2001, p. 218). In 1995, Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) published their SECI model (socialisation, externalisation, combination and internalisation) of knowledge exchange. This is the second generation of knowledge management, where knowledge exchange is depicted as a spiral (see Fig. 1) a thing to be managed and something which can be made explicit. Students become familiar with concepts such as tacit and explicit knowledge. Tacit knowledge is personal, context specific and hard to formalise and communicate and explicit knowledge has been recorded (codified) as a document or some other medium. Researching their organization and interviewing organizational members about aspects of communication and culture gives the students opportunities for examining tacit and explicit knowledge. Students learn about the various permutations which make up knowledge conversion and creation, where according to Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) knowledge is created from the interaction between
J. Hiscock / Public Relations Review 30 (2004) 107–115
111
Fig. 1. Spiral evolution of knowledge conversion (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995).
tacit and explicit knowledge, and can be converted from tacit to tacit (socialisation), tacit to explicit (externalisation) explicit to explicit (combination) and explicit to tacit (internalisation). They make their own links between these processes and readily incorporate the concept of tacit knowledge into the idea of organizational culture. The tacit to tacit (socialisation) knowledge conversion is directly connected with theories of group processes and organizational culture. Interviewing and focus groups are research techniques enabling this transfer, by sharing experiences and creating tacit knowledge. The conversion of knowledge from tacit to explicit (externalisation) is also readily understood as part of the research process where tacit knowledge can be articulated into explicit concepts and the reconfiguration of existing information can lead to new knowledge in the form of written research reports. The explicit to explicit (combination) transfer includes collecting relevant knowledge and editing and disseminating it, allowing knowledge transfer across organizations. In the research project, the researcher can act as the transfer agent disseminating relevant explicit knowledge across the cultures and sub-cultures of the organization to facilitate the research. The explicit to tacit (internalisation) knowledge transfer process can also be part of the students’ research, where organization and group knowledge to the individual is examined. Questions about socialisation and induction into the organization reveal the processes whereby new organizational members acquire the essential knowledge to make them effective in the organization. Snowden (2002) suggests there is now a the third generation of knowledge management which asserts “properly understood knowledge is paradoxically both a thing and a flow—in the second age [of KM] we looked for things and in consequence found things, in the third age [of KM] we look for both in different ways and embrace the consequent paradox” (Snowden, 2002, p. 104).
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Fig. 2. Cynefin: knowledge flows (Snowden, 2002, p. 108).
Snowden introduces the knowledge model he calls “Cynefin” (a Welsh word pronounced kun-ev’in) “four open spaces or domains of knowledge all of which have validity within different contexts.” He calls these “complex,” “knowable,” “known” and “chaos,” (see Fig. 2) and suggests that knowledge flows between the domains creating informal communities and the transfer of knowledge from informal to formal. He talks of “just in time KM,” where “we create ecologies in which the informal communities of the complex domain can self-organize and self manage in such a way as to permit that knowledge to transfer to the formal, knowable domain on a just in time basis” (Snowden, 2002, p. 104). For the third generation of knowledge management, knowledge is depicted as a thing and a flow rather than a spiral. Students can apply aspects of these models wherever they are researching knowledge pathways in their organization.
5. How is knowledge management awareness useful? Knowledge management is an organizational process dependent on communication and staff interaction. Knowledge management processes and strategies within the organization impact on communication pathways and influence organizational culture. Knowledge management processes may engender change within the organizational culture and sub-cultures. These changes are important and may be observed during the practicum. An understanding of the principal theories and concepts surrounding knowledge management enriches the students’ perception of organizational communication and adds another layer to the design of their research. For some of the students, knowledge management is the missing piece of the jigsaw incorporating their research question. They can see the communication patterns that they are researching involve knowledge management strategies and decisions reinforcing the culture of the organization, which they are already examining in other ways. Other key knowledge management concepts for the students include broad understandings of data/ information/knowledge and the ideas behind knowledge mapping, data mining, metadata and information literacy. A brief outline of the concepts is included in this article. These terms have direct relevance to the research project and the skills the students need to undertake the course, so they catch the attention of the students. They find examples of these concepts in both the content and the method of their research. They
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are able to reflect on their role as both a researcher examining organizational communication within a knowledge management framework and as a practitioner examining his/her own knowledge management. Data needs organization to turn it into information. Hence the term “raw data” for data which has not yet undergone any organization. Students understand this refers to their fieldwork notes or interview transcripts. Information is data in context that can be used for decision-making—for example, interview/survey data organized into topics or themes for analysis. In terms of the research project, knowledge is the result of the analysis of the data and its interpretation leading to new understandings of the problem the research investigated. Students feel enthusiasm for creating new knowledge through their own research design and their own recommendations for changes in the way the organization conducts certain organizational processes. Knowledge mapping enables the identification of existing knowledge and knowledge gaps and how the knowledge circulates in an organization. Students are familiar with the “concept of the communication audit” (Scott, 1999) and some of them choose to use the technique in their research. Knowledge mapping (Grey, 1999) uses similar techniques, and is another possible research method for the students. Data mining describes both the generic process of analysing the information in a data warehouse (a consolidation of data from many sources) and a set of techniques to identify patterns and correlations in vast amounts of data. The concept of data mining is relevant to some organizational strategies the students may encounter in their research. Metadata is information about information. An example is the author of a document such as a webpage or the subject codes attached to documents so that they can be searched and retrieved. Students often examine websites for their chosen organization as part of their research and find the idea of metadata helpful in their searching. Information literacy is defined as, “an understanding and set of abilities enabling individuals to recognise when information is needed and have the capacity to locate, evaluate and use effectively the needed information. An information literate person has learned how to learn . . . ” (Council of Australian University Librarians, 2001, p. 1). Students can identify with the skills needed to become information literate and often ask questions about information skills levels in their research.
6. Student approaches to KM Having looked at the key concepts the question can be asked: how do organizations manage knowledge? For many organizations there is a combination of human motivation to share/create knowledge and information technology programs to facilitate the sharing. Examples of students’ research questions indicate their involvement with the knowledge management concepts. The question below, from one of the student’s interview questions, indicates an interest in both communication and knowledge pathways in a organization which is part of a retail chain: When you receive interesting/useful information relating to running the stores, do you share it with the other Departmental Managers? With store managers? Another student asked about information seeking skills as a way of examining communication and information pathways in an organization: Do you ever look for information that is on the Intranet through other sources, e.g. calling someone, asking colleague, using a manual? Why?
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Another student asked a direct interview question about knowledge sharing and communication in an organization: How are XXX employees encouraged to share their knowledge with other members of the organisation? Email/intranet? Face to face? Team meetings/debriefings? Incentives or rewards for people using knowledge from other projects? Informal storytelling or anecdotes? Students become attuned to possible strategies to look out for when researching an organization which may affect the communication pathways within the organization. These may impact on organizational culture and elicit a range of staff responses and may involve strategies for mapping knowledge in the organization, for capturing existing knowledge onto electronic databases, for maximising knowledge sharing within the organization, or strategies for dedicating staff to knowledge management processes. One student researched “The interpretation of local government initiated communication by community clubs,” and examined how local knowledge is managed at the council level by written communication. The framework for researching the community clubs’ culture and communication was knowledge management—what happens to local knowledge and how is it maintained and exchanged with relevant stakeholders. This student asked about a knowledge management strategy: Are there any specific strategies used at YYY to facilitate the flow of knowledge? Knowledge manager and team? Use of outside consultants for special projects? Regular opportunities for employees to share knowledge such as formal or informal social event or meetings? Another student reflected on the usefulness of a KM framework for their research: In regard to the actual project, I’ve been reading a lot about KM and information sharing and feel that my research will lead me down the path of trying to discover if the Information sharing efforts used on the Intranet are actually working at branch level. I have a strong suspicion that I will find the branches don’t use the Intranet very much, which will then lead me into looking at the culture that exists which causes them to underuse or even ignore this technology. I may find that other information sharing efforts such as the internal newspaper and meetings are more useful in a busy environment where access to the Intranet is limited to the few moments XXX may have spare in their day. These examples suggest that an understanding of organizational culture and communication is enhanced by including knowledge management as a research framework and utilising it as one more way to research strategic organizational initiatives and to learn what is happening in an organization. In the workplace, identifying and aligning oneself with key organizational initiatives is a vital way to become effective in the organization. This research gives students new insights into organizational processes and they are delighted when they can apply these insights to their own work environment.
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