Traditional Concepts To Modern Knowledge Intensive Concepts Management Essay

Traditional Concepts To Modern Knowledge Intensive Concepts counsel tasteIntroductionInnovation and Change argon 2 of the most apply buzz words in the forward-looking corpo range era. Some industries atomic number 18 entirely base on launching. The surviv efficacy of companies operating in much(prenominal)(prenominal) industries are, to a large extent, based on their ability to innovate. The electronic consumer goods effort is a great example. The frequency in which firms wish easily Apple and Google scrap their third-year design and go for the invigo evaluated matchless is good alarming. On the former(a) hand, Change is a nonher equally important imagination for companies in the unexampled era. Change becomes inevitable for firms operating in volatile industries as they thrust to respond quickly to the ripples in the market and adjust their own acquaintanceable paradees as a reaction. This necessitates effective potpourri dish out(a)ment every cadence an o rganization undergoes a tack initiative. As Kotter(XXXX) discover rightlyThe rate of channelize is not going to slow down anytime soon. If anything, competition in most industries will probably speed up even much in the next few decades. through with(predicate) this piece of drop dead, I would a alike(p) to look at companionship theory and how the suppositions of cornerstone and change guide evolved from traditionalistic unidimensional ideal to the current experience intensifier forms. The try would be foc utilise in the main on information technology functions of firms and how they manage their induction and change address. We would withal explore the practical implications of widely office academic hurt like friendship counsel, fellowship workers, boundary objects, stickiness of knowledge and so onwith the help of some examples from the technology front.Knowledge theoryFor the scope of this essay, we shall use the verge Knowledge theory as the one which refers to the concepts of knowledge worry and the appreciation of intellectual capital as an integral part of an organisations asset. As a broad term, this in any case includes the various terms frequently utilize in knowledge work like knowledge boundaries, boundary objects etc. During the industrial revolution, labour and capital were considered as the major resources to build an organisation. caution emphasis was on effectively handling these resources and the grapheme of managers was limited mostly to financial way and human resource management. However, with the advent of the information age, we declare seen managers being change magnitudely advised of another major resource knowledge. This change magnitude importance of knowledge management is reflected in the works of some(prenominal) academics as well. Bell (1973) suggested that knowledge would be a central own of post-industrial societies.The concept of knowledge management mainly revolves around 2 popular views on knowledge, the knowledge as possession view and the epistemology of practice. Knowledge as a possession considers knowledge as something that an individual/organisation pot possess, and course on to others seamlessly across different situations and contexts. However, the practice view of knowledge takes into billhook the importance of tacit knowledge and argues that knowledge is intrinsic to specific contexts and is created and negotiated through with(predicate) with(predicate) social interactions (Newell et al., 2009). so knowledge work could be defined as any work that deals with knowledge. However, for a specific spectrum of analysis, we shall limit our analysis nevertheless to the so called knowledge intensifier firms. These are firms which have a extravagantly percentage of exceedingly qualified staff who trade in knowledge itself (Starbuck, 1992). Consultancy firms like Ernst and Young or Deloitte are prime examples for knowledge intensive organisations. Con sultants sell their knowledge to organisations or individual and organisations in request and quite evidently does knowledge work on a daily basis. Organisations like Google and Apple, where research and development is key to gaining competitive advantage over rivals are also knowledge intensive. Other examples of knowledge intensive professionals include pharmacists, educationists, doctors, accountants etc.The majority of knowledge intensive firms are under increasing compel from the external environment in terms of staying competitive and profitable. Thus basically, ability to innovate and change is integral to their success as organisations. We shall now in short look at the traditional views on designing and change through the work of some academics and the gradual shift in concept in the information era. This would set the stage for our analysis on how and where knowledge management fits in the fulfiles of change and universe.Definition of InnovationSeveral academics hav e understandably differentiated the concepts of creativity and origination. Organisational creativity refers to the generation of novel and useful ideas, whereas organisational origin describes the realization of those ideas(Cook,1998 Jones, 1995). Thus renewing stinkpot be defined as the process by which a new element becomes available indoors the marketplace or is introduced into an organization with the intention of changing or contend the status quo (King, 1995).The instauration process can be classified into 5 types (Andriopoulos and Dawson, 2009)Product innovation As the name suggests, this refers to the invention of a new product. Common examples include the ipod and the latest ipad devices from Apple, which took the market by storm. Innovative methods of figuring are being released each year and this is changing the face of the IT arena. receipts innovations This refers to the creation of new and remedyd services. Hotmail domain of a functions first free web bas ed email service is a prime example.Process innovations Here, the innovation is on the process rather than on the end product or service. In the United States, Netflix offers subscription based DVD rentals online. This is now the largest of its kind in the world due to several innovations in its process. The firm uses distributed warehouse system to hold DVDs to its customers via post. The returned DVDs are scanned first if they are requested again before it goes punt to the warehouse. This streamlined and quick delivery model has helped Netflix become the market leader.(Rappa, 2008) circumspection innovations The adoption of Japanese manufacturing techniques by American and European companies during the eighties and mid-nineties is an example of Management innovation.Market or position innovation This refers to the creation of new markets as a result of innovation. With the advent of Second life, a whole new virtual reality market has sprung up and is fast growing. Before thi s, this market simply did not exist.Traditional view on innovationThe traditional view on innovation considers it as a unidimensional process starting from creation of the innovation, going through several stages until the innovation is accepted or rejected by the adopting unit. Rogers (1995), in promote of the linear commence, used the term diffusion for the process of communicating the innovation through the channels of a social system. The innovation-decision process according to this model can be depicted as belowKnowledge judgmentDecisionImplementationConfirmationFig1.1 Innovation-Decision process (Rogers, 1995)Knowledge The manager or decision maker or more generally the adopting unit becomes aware of the innovation.Persuasion The unit develops either a favourable or bad attitude towards the innovation.Decision The unit undergoes a series of activities leading to the excerption of acceptance or rejection of the innovation.Implementation The unit puts the innovation to use.Confirmation The innovation is confirmed and the innovation becomes a routine if the general feedback from the unit is favourable. Otherwise, the innovation is rejected.The traditional model also looks at innovation as a rational process in which managers use industry-wide accepted standards or lift out practises. This model revolves around the idea that best practises, once created, all that is left wing in the innovation process is the communication of this across the organisation. Thus the traditional model of innovation essentially named that innovation can be carried out in a linear fashion and can be overlooked with rational thinking. However, this models inability to explain the complex and dynamic innovations in the modern era has led to various criticisms, which would be discussed at a later on stage in the essay.Definition of Organisational ChangeAndriopoulos and Dawson (2009) define organisational change by and large as new ways of organizing and working. And more specifically(p14) governing bodyal change is the process of moving from some current secern that, whether planned or unplanned, comprises the unthought and unforeseen as well as the expectThe definition distinctly identifies 3 integral parts of organisational change (1) the as-is state, (2) the to-be state and (3) the transit path. However, the transition from as-is to to-be state, in the views of several academics, rarely takes the planned or expected path as evident from the above definition. Studies on organizational change process have been conducted extensively by academics. However, the dynamic nature of the issue itself has meant that we heretofore dont have a prescriptive explanation in terms of theory and concept as far as the topic of Organization change is concerned, as evidently expressed by Pettigrew et al. (2003p351)This constant process of change and renewal means that, whilst scholars and managers can take forward true key messages, in that respect will always be a need for more research on innovative forms of organizingOrganizational change can be of varied degree and form from minor changes in the organizational processes to major organization wide re-structuring initiatives. Palmer et al. (2006) identifies 2 types of changesIncremental adaptive change is when one firm plays catch-up in response to another firms activity in an incremental adaptive fashion. E.g Microsoft and Yahoo largely followed google applications like maps and videos.Reactive adjoin breaking change deals with a much larger scale of change. E.g major(ip) restructuring and downsizing was required for investment banks like RBS as they came under increasing government and public control after the recession driven bailouts using taxpayer bullion. It is interesting to note that most banks havent cut down on their IT disbursal as they have identified IT as a tool to improve efficiency and cut costs.Outside these two more reactive changes, there is of course the strategy driven large scale operational changes that organizations undergo. additive views on Organisational ChangeThe traditional theories on organisational change have been modelled mainly around the concept of unfreeze-change-refreeze put forward by Lewin (Collins, 1998). This 3-step model essentially looked at organisational change process as a linear one. In this model, Lewin(1958) also talks to the highest degree the helping and restraining forces for and against the change.UnfreezeChange stoppageFig1.2 Lewins 3-step change model (Lewin, 1958)An extended 7-step model was proposed by Lippitt, Watson and Westley (1958) which progressively focused on the role of the change agent than the actual change. The 7 stages werediagnosing the problemAssessing substance and motivation for changeAssess motivation and capacity of the change agentChoose progressive change objectsClear segregation of role of the change agentMaintain the changeTermination of the change agent (Lippitt et, al. ,1958)Kotter(1995) later proposed his 8-step model for effective change management in his analysis on why most change formulates fail.These change theories as we can see, largely revolves around a certain degree of predictability of the overall change process. They have invited criticism from the supporters of chaos or complexity theories as we would examine later in the piece.Criticisms on traditional viewsThe traditional linear view on innovation process has been fairly criticised by the advocates of process views on innovation. These academics argue that innovation is very rarely rational and linear and is in most times, a network based concept(Abrahamson, 1996 Swan and Scarbrough, 2005). The concept of best practices were deemed inappropriate by some academics as innovation is a highly context specific concept(Swan et al., 1999) Some other criticisms includeScarbrough(2008) argues that innovation is not a linear process and that the importance of feedback into the process c ould not be neglected at any stage of the process. Rogers(1995) did speak closely two-way communication amidst the original sender and receiver in a knowledge diffusion process, however, it is go off that the critics of the linear model propose a much wider network-based mesh-like communication process during innovation. Swan and Scarbrough(2005p3) states thatsince knowledge is increasingly dispersed across organizational boundaries, it is at these interstices, through the operation of networks, that distributed networks can be brought together and integrated into new products, processes and services.Newell et al.(2009) observes that most innovation processes are not predictable and cannot be considered as a technical fix.Clark (2003) observed that innovation often required considerable re-engineering of the existing process and therefore cannot be considered as an entity that can be used as an accession to an organisational context.The linear freeze-change-unfreeze view of org anisational change has been countered by supporters of complexity theory or chaos theory. According to the chaos theory, it has become impossible to predict the answer of long term organisational changes as this would require knowledge of the present state at a very high accuracy (Tsoukas, 1998). Certainly, the high rate of failure of Enterprise Systems capital punishments (70%) reinforces the concept of unpredictable nature of change.It can also be seen from relevant literature that organisational change need not be segregated from innovation as such. Andriopoulos and Dawson (2009), maintains that there are no clear boundaries between the concepts of creativity, innovation and change as in practise, they interlock and convergence over time. Moreover, it can also be argued that their concept of process innovation is quite correspondent in some respects to the concept of organisational change. Thus we shall consider innovation and change as one broad realm further in this work.K nowledge based innovation and changeAs discussed earlier in the essay, the traditional liner view on the innovation process have been attacked and countered with the process view. The processual, network based view on innovation looks at the process as a set of iterative, cooccur and interdependent episodes rather than linear stages (Newell et al, 2009).This model as we can see, distinctly addresses the unpredictability of the innovation process. The episodes overlap and iterate, leaving room for the occurrences of good or bad co-incidences and also takes into account the social and organisational factors that may affect the innovation process. The importance of knowledge work during innovation is also emphasized in this model. From agenda formation to routinization of the innovation, the success of the change lies in effective creation, diffusion, implementation and use of knowledge. Due to several reasons, we can see that such an unrestricted framework is more appropriate when we look at some of the recent innovations in IT.Thus, understanding of knowledge concepts are critical to any innovation and change project in the modern era. The communication channel between the change agent and the unit undergoing a change is no longer the straightforward 2-way communication as seen in Rogers (1995). Innovation and change processes are increasingly befitting network based, spanning across practises, institutions and geographies. The success of Research in Motions blackberry phone can be Brobdingnagianly attributed to the innovative feature of email on a hand held. However, the product was actually just meant to be a start-up product, designed to enable the company to enter the radio set market. The huge popularity of this new way of working among its users resulted in immense press on the development team to refine and come up with the blackberry we know now. Thus it can be argued that the users were part of the innovation project as well. Further on this example, during the 9/11 strike on the world trade centre, there were several media reports that people trapped indoors the building used their blackberry phones to keep in touch with their love ones since all other forms of wired and mobile linkivity had gone down. Along with huge popularity, this event added even more social value to the otherwise scientific product. This clearly qualifies for the external factor depicted in the Clark model.Other innovations like Open Source Software Development, Extreme programming(XP) and Agile methodologies are also examples for experimental innovation models including dynamic, planning, testing and regular releases (Beck, 2000 Highsmith, 2002). The open source developers company consists of developers from across the globe and from different functions of life. In spite of the existence of semantic, syntactic and pragmatic knowledge boundaries among them, they still manage to interact remarkable well and come up with innovative solutions. Information technology interestingly plays the role of a boundary object in the form of the Knowledge Management (KM) portal or forum. The open source KM forum is exceptionally well maintained and strictly moderated, just as well as the knowledge intensive firms, if not better.In a more organisational context, knowledge intensive firms like consulting and software services companies consider knowledge management as an integral part of innovation and change projects. The amount of money they spend on maintaining a centralised repository for knowledge management is testament to this fact. The consultancy firm Ernst and Young spends 6% of their revenue on knowledge management (HBS, 2001). It may seem that the abundance of knowledge workers and technology would automatically foster a favourable environment for KM in such companies some academics believe that this is not always the case. Andriopoulos (2003) suggests that knowledge can be a double headed sword. Since knowledge workers in such organisations are highly specialized in their area, this may enslave them inside a formula of thought, thus inhibiting innovation and change (Bengtson, 1982). Such a view of experts becoming not receptive to new ideas was shared by Starbuck (1992) as well. On similar lines, Carla ODell, president of American Productivity Quality Center expressThe number-one reason KM initiatives may not function is that the evangelists fail to connect with the real business issues.Relevant academic literature suggest that such organizations try to work around this problem by creating a conceptive culture and by involving the specialists more and more in organisational dialogues (Blackler, 1995). Such enabling contexts created by the organisation would be an important factor for fostering knowledge creation for innovation and change. Google, for example, gives one day a week for its employees to work on their pet projects and ideas. The ideas can be posted by anyone on the repository via e mail. Rocket ride, as it is called, has also led its competitors to create similar projects like Microsofts Technorati and Yahoos Exalead (Business Week, 2005).The concepts of knowledge theory has indeed influenced the way organizations go about undertaking innovation projects as evident from the above illustrations.ConclusionThrough this piece, we have looked at knowledge theory as a term relevant to the scope of the topic. We have also looked the traditional view on innovation and change process via the works of several academics and some industry examples. Some of the criticisms against these views were also discussed. In the specific area of knowledge intensive firms, we analyzed how these knowledge theories affect the innovation and change process.Having looked at the modern unpredictable and network based modes of innovation and change, it may seem that the traditional concepts are now outdated. However, majority of knowledge management work is still based on the assumption t hat most forms of knowledge can be codified, stored and distributed. Change consultants still follow the step by step approach for organisational innovation and change. Thus the apt conclusion here would be one of a compromise between the two. It is imperative that organisations, especially the knowledge intensive ones cannot ignore the importance of knowledge management for innovation and change. However, the approach shall be decided upon considering the institutional context in detail.