Con Connell

Using industrial processes to improve patient care

Might industrial processes improve quality, reduce waiting times, and enhance the working environment?

The paradox of using tacit and explicit knowledge: Strategies to face dilemmas

Purpose – This paper contrasts two perspectives on the distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge: on the one hand, the perspective that categorises knowledge as belonging to either one or the other class; and, on the other hand, the perspective that views knowledge type as a graded continuum.Design/methodology/approach – The paper explores the extensive literature on the topic, and from this literature engages in conceptual development.Findings – The paper adopts the view that the continuum perspective, in which knowledge in a particular context has both tacit and explicit characteristics, is of particular value when considering the knowledge strategy of an organisation. Whereas the former perspective presents a well‐known dilemma, the continuum perspective permits the specification of a strategy in which the advantages of both tacit and explicit knowledge can, in principle, be obtained. One such strategy might be one that renders organisational knowledge as internally explicit, but externally taci...

Stakeholder engagement in health care simulation

The RIGHT project (Research Into Global Healthcare Tools, http://www.right.org.uk/) is a collaborative project involving five British universities, funded by the UKs Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council. Phase 1 of the project is due to be completed in October 2009, and this paper describes one strand of the research, namely identifying some of the issues with involving stakeholders in simulation modeling in healthcare. Not the least of these is actually identifying who the stakeholders are! Other problems identified are equally tricky, as they involve deeply rooted cultural and behavioral attitudes as well as complex organizational relationships. One of the underlying aims of the next phase of RIGHT is to tackle these problems and to develop a methodology for more effective stakeholder engagement with simulation modeling.

The challenges of navigating a topic to a prospective researcher: the case of knowledge management research

Exploring a researchable topic and narrowing it down sufficiently to make it workable is a first task in any scientific research. This is particularly difficult when the researcher is a novice, because s(he) is unlikely to be properly aware of what the essential issues and the research question(s) in the field are. This article addresses the question of how to navigate a research topic for an academic project. The article is potentially of interest to novice researchers and researchers new to a field. Illustrating its argument by means of an example in the area of knowledge management, the article proposes a set of guidelines for narrowing down a research topic to workable size. A number of recommendations are made; by utilizing these recommendations to construct a navigation map, it is hoped that a researcher can use fully formulate research question(s). It can be argued that drawing such a navigation map is an art in which prospective researchers need to be trained.

A decision tree conceptualization of choice of knowledge transfer mechanism: The views of software development specialists in a multinational company

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to empirically study transfer mechanisms of technological knowledge, and to explore the interplay among the factors that influence the choice of a mechanism. Design/methodology/approach – This paper reports on a qualitative case study designed to explore the reasons underlying the selection of intra-organizational knowledge transfer mechanisms. This research was carried out as an exploratory case study, which allowed one to observe the phenomenon in a natural setting. Findings – The results of the present study indicate the interplay between the factors, and link the factors in a sequence that help decide a mechanism. A decision to select a mechanism depends upon several variables; some of them override others, others are interlinked, and sometimes there is a causal link. Research limitations/implications – It is based on a sample of employees that may not be representative of the broader population. Since the samples were drawn only from a MNC, the results may not b...

Who needs memory? the case for the Markovian organisation

This paper examines the contradiction of organisational memory: that an organisation requires a memory to operate effectively, but that that same memory inhibits and constrains its ability to operate effectively. We briefly review the field of organisational memory and note its close connection with organisational learning.We introduce a conceptual framework pioneered by Schultze and Stabell for examining contradictions in the area of knowledge management. We use this framework to distinguish between the conventional view of organisational memory, which implicitly or explicitly regards knowledge as a commodity, and a constructivist view, from which emerges a picture of the Markovian organisation: an organisation the future behaviour of which is determined not by memories of the past but by its current state, characterised by an organisational consciousness informed by the activities in which it is engaged. While the emphasis of this paper is theoretical, we suggest that adopting this Markovian view of the organisation might be particularly appropriate to practitioners in organisations that are immersed in turbulent environments.

Model driven healthcare: disconnected practices

Over the past decades simulation has been recognized as a vital tool for solving problems within the healthcare sector, almost catching up with other areas. It is evident that healthcare systems are rapidly evolving into complex and dynamic environments whilst bearing a multitude of stakeholders. Simulation has originally emerged from military and manufacturing applications that mainly follow sequential processing with pre-specified targets. Such an approach is too rigid and irrelevant to the complexity and dynamism of healthcare systems, where lack of understanding is a common feature. This is mainly attributed to lack of understating of the life cycle of healthcare services. In this paper we attempt to define the life cycle of healthcare services and explore the use of modeling and simulation in supporting healthcare service development and management. We particularly explore a number of exemplars of how modeling was used to support earlier stages of the service life cycle.

Leadership Development: Applying New Learning in an Organisational Context

This paper presents findings from a qualitative study evaluating the impact of a leadership development intervention. The evaluation was designed to look beyond individual learning, but explore organisational learning once participants rejoined their organisations. A range of interviews were conducted with participants and their line managers to elicit perceptions about what participants learned, how interviewees thought the learning was used in practice and what organisational procedures are in place to integrate new learning into work practices within the organisation. The evaluation shows that individual learning took place, but little organisational learning transpired. The research found that lack of time to practice new learning and fragmented organisational support are the factors that influence learning transfer. Additional factors influencing the identification of learning transfer are the non‐alignment of organisational strategy/need with the education agenda supporting this strategy/need and the limited understanding of measurable benefits ‐ financial or behavioural ‐ that such training may provide.

The New Knowledge Management – Complexity, Learning and Sustainable Innovation

Knowledge Management Research & Practice (2003) 1, 64–66. doi:10.1057/palgrave.kmrp.8500003 Any publisher hoping to get on the right side of a book reviewer would probably do well to avoid a book cover describing the author as ‘the new guru of knowledge management’. Indeed, any combination of the words ‘new’ and ‘management’ in the title of a book suggests a propensity to lead with one’s chin, however well the author might feel he or she can roll with the punches. However, the definition of ‘guru’ in my OED emphasises spiritual leadership rather than enlightenment, so this review is written in the mood of reflection on the spirit of the author’s message, rather than too harsh a dissection of some of the more contentious detail – ‘don’t examine my finger, look where it’s pointing’, as Stafford Beer once reminded us (Beer, 1975). The book is a collection of papers, mostly published previously between 1999 and 2002, grouped together in four parts. Part 1, the New Knowledge Management, describes what the author refers to as Second-Generation Knowledge Management, where the focus is upon an organisation’s capacity to produce knowledge, rather than an emphasis on its capture and distribution. Part 2 proposes a number of implications for practice arising from such a conceptualisation, culminating with a (patentprotected!) Knowledge management (KM) methodology, the ‘Policy Synchronisation Method’ (PSM). Part 3 introduces the idea of Sustainable Innovation, and its relationship to second-generation knowledge management through the application of the ‘learning drive’. In the final part, the perennially difficult issues surrounding the economics of KM are discussed. At the heart of McElroy’s arguments is the notion of organisational learning, particularly double-loop learning (Argyris & Schön, 1978, 1996), and the conclusion that such learning cannot be managed, nor even directed, but at best only nurtured. Organisational structures can be put in place to facilitate or encourage such learning, and the ‘management’ of knowledge lies within the capability of managers to enable organisations to sustain such learning over time. These are attractive ideas, very much in keeping with the observation made by others that too often the emphasis on knowledge management has been towards ‘knowledge’ rather than ‘management’ (Swan & Scarbrough, 2001). McElroy puts forward a number of ideas to support his proposition. The first is that, in first-generation KM, the emphasis is on what to do after knowledge is produced, and in particular how to diffuse it throughout the organisation – what he terms ‘knowledge integration’. He argues that this ‘first-generation’ view is looking at only half the process, and that the more challenging aspect is, additionally, to consider knowledge production. To facilitate this process, he introduces the concept of a knowledge life cycle Knowledge Management Research & Practice (2003) 1, 64–66 & 2003 Palgrave Macmillan Ltd. All rights reserved 1477–8238/03

Balancing the skills: the need for an improvement pyramid

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