Enabling KM in Large Decentralized Organizations:A Case Study of an Institution of Higher Learning

By Atreyi Kankanhalli, Assistant Professor,
Dept. of Information Systems, National University of Singapore

The Background and Purpose of the KM Effort

The target institution of higher learning (IHL) is a leading university in the Asia- Pacific region. It has more than 23,000 undergraduate and 9,000 graduate students from over 90 countries. It also employs around 3,000 academic and research staff and 3,500 general and administrative staff to support its teaching, research, and administrative functions. Other than cross-faculty collaborations, the university also works closely with more than 100 external teaching and research institutes and centers world-wide.

By Chua Lee Yang & Maizatul Akmar Ismail 
Faculty of Computer Science and Information Technology,
University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur

ABSTRACT
Knowledge Management (KM) is certainly challenging and important concept in Higher Learning Institutions (HLIS) to improve the quality of knowledge sharing and archive knowledge assets based on the available explicit and tacit knowledge.  This paper begins with an introduction of KM which provides an overview of KM and types of knowledge that can be acquired through various resources.

By Ravi Sharma & Naguib Chowdhury

Abstract
The research reported in this paper outlines the construction and utilisation of a diagnostic tool for performing what we call a material knowledge audit in an enterprise of medium complexity.  The tool was developed by adapting some of the more applicable techniques suggested in the literature by practitioners.  It was then put on trial in five organisations – a library, an IT consulting firm, a research institute, a telecommunications service provider, and a media agency – which were involved in knowledge intensive business activities.  The appendices list the three main components of such a field trial-ed diagnostic instrument. 

By Moi Kok Wah, JT Frank Academy

Global Pillars of Competition
Globally, organizations compete on one of the three pillars of competition: operational excellence, customer responsiveness and innovation intensity. Organizations in manufacturing and high-risk industries, for instance, strive to excel in operational excellence. They operate under conditions where customer requirements are very clear and they differentiate themselves by focusing on efficiency and effectiveness of operations.

By Naguib Chowdhury

KMTALK recently managed to get hold of renowned KM practitioners Patrick Lambe and Edgar Tan from the Straits Knowledge, Singapore. During the enlightening interview Patrick spoke about the development of KM in Asian region as compared to the West. According to Patrick, Asia is more serious in doing KM than the West. Edgar and Patrick also spoke about the worst practices in KM that they have encountered so far as consultants. Question was asked about the traits of a KM practioners, where Patrick mentioned, Knowledge managers themselves do not share much and it’s the time that they should change such attitudes. Other than Patrick, Edgar and myself we also had Hayati from PETRONAS participated in the conversation.

Click here to listen to the interview. It might take some time to download the podcast.