Mining the wealth of knowledge in an organization is appealing to HR. The idea that there is a pool of untapped knowledge, simply because employees don’t have the forum to share it, is appealing.
Unfortunately, knowledge management has been dominated by IT-types for the past few years. But it really is an HR issue, and HR managers should be brought into the decision-making process surrounding the purchase and implementation of any knowledge management or portal solution.
A 2002 study of knowledge management behaviour, such as knowledge creation and sharing, looked at HR issues key to these types of activities. The study, sponsored by Andersen Consulting and the Saratoga Institute, looked at 25 financial services organizations with average revenues of (US)$8.5 billion and 13,000 employees — types of organizations that, because of a large number of white collar workers, can leverage vast stocks of intellectual capital.
There were four main findings:
•Leadership is important. Employees in organizations aspire to do what the people above them do. Employee behaviour is a reflection of management’s behaviour. If an organization has a knowledge hoarding problem, the cause is probably found in the boardroom. Having a championing change agent — a so-called evangelical chief knowledge officer — is a good start. According to the Institute for Capital Research, 25 per cent of Fortune 500 companies have them but less than 10 per cent of the largest Canadian firms do. One way of increasing knowledge sharing is by having senior management set the example. The senior executive team should model knowledge sharing behaviours for the rest of the firm.
•Give the best employees the best tools. An organization may have smart individuals and the best IT tools, but it is the relationship those individuals make with customers and suppliers that influence human capital effectiveness, defined as the revenue and profit per employee. HR must provide the smartest employees with the best technological tools to learn the most about the customer. This will ultimately drive revenue and profits.
•Turnover. If organizations had more employees sharing knowledge with one another, turnover rates would be reduced and that would positively influence revenue and profit. Exit interview data showed one of the critical reasons many of the brightest knowledge workers left is because, “they felt their talent was not fully leveraged.” Further work with cognitive mapping tools showed most firms were barely leveraging two per cent of the talent embedded in the organization. HR must identify the brightest stars and be sure to provide a culture and platform for them to share what they know.
•Motivation. The assumption that satisfied, committed or motivated employees will share knowledge is made by many. The study found employee motivation is the key to knowledge sharing. Because of this the HR manager needs to become an important member of any knowledge management implementation team and must gauge how well people are motivated to use it. Examining the reward and recognition programs that encourage sharing is critical.
The overarching finding from this study is that motivation is critical to knowledge sharing. This idea is entirely neglected by many IT vendors. HR professionals have seen empty databases and message boards time and time again because people do not have the incentive or motivation to code their knowledge into the system.
Experts who analyze corporate information systems have identified low worker participation in online information and knowledge sharing as a major problem. According to U.S.-based research group META, the number one pitfall of large corporate Web sites and portals is “lack of user acceptance.”
Another common problem with many corporate information systems is that they simply focus on document collection, management and indexing but provide little expert connection. Many knowledge management systems fail to provide employees a means to locate and connect with experts in their field. Non-compliance is the greatest barrier to any knowledge management system’s success, but many current solutions fail to motivate or measure employee contributions.
All this adds up to technologies that suffer from poor return-on-investment because they are underused and missing key applications that promote knowledge transfer. HR’s role in knowledge management is often ignored to the detriment of an organization. In most cases, knowledge management decisions have been made by a chief knowledge officer or an IT person and neither of them has ever consulted with HR.
By linking knowledge sharing with rewards or recognition, companies will also promote employee loyalty. But HR has to be actively involved by designating the incentives and rewards for the behaviour the company wants to promote. An organization can have the best IT system, but if it doesn’t have a culture that promotes knowledge sharing the system will be useless.
Nick Bontis is the chief knowledge officer of Knexa Enterprises. He is also assistant professor of strategic management at McMaster University’s DeGroote Business School in Hamilton and director of the Institute of Intellectual Capital Research Inc. For more information, call (877) 330-0338 or visit www.knexa.com and www.bontis.com.
Unfortunately, knowledge management has been dominated by IT-types for the past few years. But it really is an HR issue, and HR managers should be brought into the decision-making process surrounding the purchase and implementation of any knowledge management or portal solution.
A 2002 study of knowledge management behaviour, such as knowledge creation and sharing, looked at HR issues key to these types of activities. The study, sponsored by Andersen Consulting and the Saratoga Institute, looked at 25 financial services organizations with average revenues of (US)$8.5 billion and 13,000 employees — types of organizations that, because of a large number of white collar workers, can leverage vast stocks of intellectual capital.
There were four main findings:
•Leadership is important. Employees in organizations aspire to do what the people above them do. Employee behaviour is a reflection of management’s behaviour. If an organization has a knowledge hoarding problem, the cause is probably found in the boardroom. Having a championing change agent — a so-called evangelical chief knowledge officer — is a good start. According to the Institute for Capital Research, 25 per cent of Fortune 500 companies have them but less than 10 per cent of the largest Canadian firms do. One way of increasing knowledge sharing is by having senior management set the example. The senior executive team should model knowledge sharing behaviours for the rest of the firm.
•Give the best employees the best tools. An organization may have smart individuals and the best IT tools, but it is the relationship those individuals make with customers and suppliers that influence human capital effectiveness, defined as the revenue and profit per employee. HR must provide the smartest employees with the best technological tools to learn the most about the customer. This will ultimately drive revenue and profits.
•Turnover. If organizations had more employees sharing knowledge with one another, turnover rates would be reduced and that would positively influence revenue and profit. Exit interview data showed one of the critical reasons many of the brightest knowledge workers left is because, “they felt their talent was not fully leveraged.” Further work with cognitive mapping tools showed most firms were barely leveraging two per cent of the talent embedded in the organization. HR must identify the brightest stars and be sure to provide a culture and platform for them to share what they know.
•Motivation. The assumption that satisfied, committed or motivated employees will share knowledge is made by many. The study found employee motivation is the key to knowledge sharing. Because of this the HR manager needs to become an important member of any knowledge management implementation team and must gauge how well people are motivated to use it. Examining the reward and recognition programs that encourage sharing is critical.
The overarching finding from this study is that motivation is critical to knowledge sharing. This idea is entirely neglected by many IT vendors. HR professionals have seen empty databases and message boards time and time again because people do not have the incentive or motivation to code their knowledge into the system.
Experts who analyze corporate information systems have identified low worker participation in online information and knowledge sharing as a major problem. According to U.S.-based research group META, the number one pitfall of large corporate Web sites and portals is “lack of user acceptance.”
Another common problem with many corporate information systems is that they simply focus on document collection, management and indexing but provide little expert connection. Many knowledge management systems fail to provide employees a means to locate and connect with experts in their field. Non-compliance is the greatest barrier to any knowledge management system’s success, but many current solutions fail to motivate or measure employee contributions.
All this adds up to technologies that suffer from poor return-on-investment because they are underused and missing key applications that promote knowledge transfer. HR’s role in knowledge management is often ignored to the detriment of an organization. In most cases, knowledge management decisions have been made by a chief knowledge officer or an IT person and neither of them has ever consulted with HR.
By linking knowledge sharing with rewards or recognition, companies will also promote employee loyalty. But HR has to be actively involved by designating the incentives and rewards for the behaviour the company wants to promote. An organization can have the best IT system, but if it doesn’t have a culture that promotes knowledge sharing the system will be useless.
Nick Bontis is the chief knowledge officer of Knexa Enterprises. He is also assistant professor of strategic management at McMaster University’s DeGroote Business School in Hamilton and director of the Institute of Intellectual Capital Research Inc. For more information, call (877) 330-0338 or visit www.knexa.com and www.bontis.com.
