Before We Measure Something We Must Ask Whether We Understand What It Is We Are Trying to Measure in the Field of Strategic Knowledge Management

Knowledge management is a discipline that promotes an integrated approach when an organization wants to capture, evaluate, share and retrieve its information assets. This can be through tools such as communities of practice, and the utilization of organizational social networks. This paper analyses to what extent is the following claim valid, “before we measure something, we must ask whether we understand what it is we are trying to measure” in the field of strategic knowledge management. To do this, the paper looks at four primary areas of inquiry which are the theoretical aspects of information management in the context of Financial Services Regulatory Authority, an organization that I work for. These aspects include the knowledge environment, communities of practice, the types or examples of intellectual capital and social networks and the challenges that are encountered in the measurement of performance.

17) Knowledge, on the other hand, is distinguishable from data in two ways. The first definition is that knowledge is information with direction as it facilitates action (Becerra-Fernandez & Sabherwal, 2014, p. This definition views knowledge as the highest level of a hierarchy where information is at second place and data at the bottom. The second definition considers knowledge more than just a more productive or more detailed set of facts but as justified beliefs that look into the relationship that is present among certain concepts that are relevant to a particular area (Becerra-Fernandez & Sabherwal, 2014, p. Aspects of Knowledge management From the meaning of what knowledge is, we see that one aspect of knowledge management is that it involves the management of information. The workforce of companies can discover things that they did not know of before in groups such as communities of practice where they carry out activities such as problem-solving.

The Financial Services Authority of Ontario is a new, independent regulatory agency that was created to improve consumer and pension plan beneficiary protections in Ontario. When fully functional, the FSRA will regulate many sectors of business that are important to Ontario and pension plan beneficiaries. If the organization is to be fully functional, it needs information that is both held in artifacts and individuals or communities that make up the organization. The functioning of the organization heavily relies on information from financial institutions outside its environment. However, a study has shown that this approach creates an atmosphere where people are encouraged to sabotage the reputation of their fellow staff workers to protect their jobs (Bratton & Gold, 2017, p. This hinders activities such as the sharing of information and undermines the basis from cooperation and innovating together.

It makes the second aspect of knowledge management not as smooth and does facilitate things like communities of practice and interests. Communities of Practice/Interest Communities of practice refer to a group who interact with each other for their pursuit of a common practice. The members of this groups share knowledge on common practice, and they pursue joint solutions. This aspect is very common in the organization that I work for. The employees of FSRA use a lot of informal channels to address the work challenges that they face on a daily basis. This can occur across different departments. A person in the Human resource department ca inquire on how to go about an issue from the member of the fiancé department.

People who are also responsible for the development of policy often gain insight from the finance department too. Lastly, they develop and promote innovation as from the employees. This system is however not well utilized in Amazon due to the rank and yank system in Amazon. The system created a situation where employees are hostile towards each other for them to retain their job. They, therefore, will not share knowledge with each other about how to do their work efficiently as this would put them at a disadvantage. With the average employee tenure at Amazon being one year (Spicer, 2015, para. When it comes to performance management, one has to be aware of what is being measured. In the case scenario, the manager needed to identify some metrics that he is going to use to evaluate the individual with.

One cannot simply start measuring the performance of the employees within his or her department without assessing what it is that is being measured. Challenges are however present. One challenge in the measurement of performance is that it is hard to establish a system that incorporates a balanced perspective by taking into account both the financial and non-financial aspects. If the previous management of FSRA had considered the relationships between some factors such as the ‘yank and out’ system and the effects of purposeful Darwinism, then such a flawed system would not have been implemented. In this context, a good understanding of what is being measured should first be made before measuring it. Intellectual Capital and Social Networks Organizational The intellectual capital is the immaterial values that have been created through activities that are intellectual.

John Kenneth Galbraith first introduced the term. John considered that in addition to the pure, classic knowledge, creative knowledge is also of great importance to the economy. These are the intangible elements that constitute a firm’s organizational culture, a process in business and the ability to innovate. This part of the intellectual capital is not easily quantifiable and very abstract. The third intellectual property is relational capital. These are the firm’s relationship with the outside world, and this includes the shareholders of the company, the customers, the employees, partners, the government and other primary and secondary stakeholders. This consists of both formal and informal relationships. While artifacts in the information field do provide large well-understood graphs and charts, human beings do not.

Most of the traits they have are not well understood and are abstract and intangible. Other areas such as the measurement of performance require us to have a good understanding for us to evaluate the situation accordingly and avoid which demoralize the employees. They rank, and yank system was heavily reliant on data, and this left the abstract nature of human beings and failed to meet its objectives. In the field of Knowledge management where some issues are intangible, we must put think deeply about what it is we try to measure. "5th European Conference on Intellectual Capital University of the Basque Country Bilbao, Spain 11-12 April 2013. Haksever, Cengiz, and Barry Render.  Service management: An integrated approach to supply chain management and operations.