Rivadávia Correa Drummond de Alvarenga Neto

Beyond the ba: managing enabling contexts in knowledge organizations

Purpose – Looking at the practical experience of organizations pursuing knowledge management, it is found that their efforts are primarily focused on creating the conditions and the context that will enable knowledge creation. This need for developing enabling conditions and contexts was identified more than a decade ago when Nonaka and associates introduced the concept of ‘‘ba.’’ This paper aims to map the development of the concept of ‘‘ba’’ in a number of disciplines in order to understand its theoretical evolution and practical application. Design/methodology/approach – A comprehensive search and evaluation of the literature resulted in a database of 135 papers, four dissertations and four books. Using content analysis, citation analysis, and concept mapping, four categories of research findings are identified that in turn suggest four groups of conditions for enabling knowledge creation. Findings – The paper discusses each of these conditions (the social/behavioral, cognitive/epistemic, information systems/management, and strategy/structural), and introduces a framework that relates these conditions to the type of knowledge process and the level of interaction that characterize a knowledge management activity in the organization. Originality/value – It is concluded that managing knowledge in organizations is fundamentally about creating an environment in the organization that is conducive to and encourages knowledge creation, sharing and use. Organizations interested in pursuing knowledge management and innovation may wish to be guided by the enabling conditions presented here that have been discovered over ten years of research. These conditions and the frameworks of which they are part can help managers to analyze, discuss, and introduce specific combinations of enabling factors that are tailored according to the type of knowledge process and level of interaction needed to address a particular knowledge problem or vision.

The post Nonaka concept of ba: eclectic roots, evolutionary paths and future advancements

This paper investigates and analyses the concept of ba -- or enabling context - in the fields of information science, information systems and management/business literature in order to understand its conceptual evolution, discussions, applications and expansion since its introduction in 1998 by Nonaka et al. The qualitative methodology is bibliographic and comprises -- among others - the methods of citation analysis and content analysis. A resulting selection of 135 papers, 4 dissertations/theses and 4 books constituted the researchs final database. Data analysis consisted of three flows of activities: data reduction, data displays (in the forms of both conceptual and mind maps) and conclusion drawing/verification. The results point out to the identification of four major groups of enabling conditions -- social/behavioral, cognitive/epistemic, informational and business/managerial - which can be singly or freely combined into different knowledge processes -- creation, sharing/transfer and use -- occurring in different levels of interactions -- individual, group, organizational and inter-organizational. Based on these results, a decision cube is proposed in the form of a framework for designing enabling contexts in knowledge organizations. The conclusions suggest that the concept of ba and its underlying concepts are indeed sine qua non conditions for organizational knowledge creation and innovation processes, though ba is still both theoretically and empirically under-explored. Organizations interested in pursuing knowledge management (KM), innovation and ba may wish to be guided by the enabling conditions presented in this paper.

Mapeamento semântico através da análise de ocorrência de descritores sobre gestão do conhecimento

Este artigo se apresenta como uma proposta metodologica para demarcacao conceitual de assuntos, tendo como objeto o fenomeno da “Gestao do Conhecimento. Acesso ao texto completo (PDF)

Expanding the concept of Ba: managing enabling contexts in knowledge organizations

This paper investigates and analyses the concept of ba - or enabling context - in the fields of information science, management/business and information systems literature in order to understand its conceptual evolution, discussions, applications and expansion since its introduction in 1998 by Nonaka et al. (Nonaka and Konno, 1998; Nonaka et al., 2000; Nonaka and Toyama, 2002; Nonaka et al., 2006). The qualitative methodology is bibliographic and comprises - among others - the methods of citation analysis and content analysis. A resulting selection of 135 papers, 4 dissertations/theses and 4 books constituted the researchs final database. Data analysis consisted of three flows of activities: data reduction, data displays (conceptual maps) and conclusion drawing/verification. The results point out to the identification of four major groups of enabling conditions - social/behavioral, cognitive/epistemic, informational and business/managerial - which can be singly or freely combined into different knowledge processes - creation, sharing/transfer and use - occurring in different levels of interactions - individual, group, organizational, inter-organizational. The conclusions suggest that the concept of ba and its underlying concepts are indeed sine qua non conditions for organizational knowledge creation and innovation processes, though ba is still both theoretically and empirically under-explored. Concerning the management of enabling contexts in knowledge organizations, the study revealed that the main arising challenges rely on the implementation and development of the issues comprised on the four groups of enabling conditions identified, most especially social/behavioral and business/managerial.

GESTÃO ESTRATÉGICA DO CONHECIMENTO NO CONTEXTO ORGANIZACIONAL BRASILEIRO: PROPOSTA DE MAPEAMENTO CONCEITUAL

Este artigo apresenta-se como uma tentativa de demarcacao conceitual da tematica conhecida como gestao do conhecimento (GC). Longe de almejar propor uma solucao definitiva ou um modelo acabado, espera-se contribuir para um melhor entendimento da area. Propoe-se um mapeamento conceitual integrativo adaptado daquele originalmente proposto por CHOO (1998), o qual se associa a ideia de contexto capacitante e as varias abordagens e ferramentas gerenciais - metaforicamente denominadas de “guarda chuva conceitual da GC”. Essas abordagens e ferramentas, interligadas, contribuem para a construcao de um marco teorico-conceitual abrangente que se apresenta como um ponto de partida para um melhor entendimento da GC. Para a consecucao de tal fim, relatar-se-ao estudos de casos realizados em tres organizacoes atuantes no Brasil. As conclusoes sugerem que nao se gerencia o conhecimento, apenas se promove ou se estimula o conhecimento atraves da criacao de um contexto organizacional favoravel.