Strategic Behaviour

GRAND FALLOON UNIVERSITY870

 

 

 

Individual Assignment

What contribution can reframing make to knowledge management?

 

 

 

Prepared for:

Dr Grand Falloon

 

 

 

Prepared by:

Robert Russell

Student ID: 121212121

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Copyright remains with the author - please do not plagiarise!

What contribution can reframing make to knowledge management?

 

My contention is firstly that reframing can make a significant contribution to Knowledge Management (KM), and secondly that it has already done so innumerable times.

 

For a simple proof of this, consider the wheel. Archaeologists have uncovered Mesopotamian wheels dating back to 3,500 BC[1]. The wheel is likely to have been an accidental discovery, one rediscovered many times until first oral and later written KM methods were developed. However it remained a simple rolling log until it was 'reframed' as a true wheel and axle, a spinning wheel for pottery, a toothed gear, a clock mechanism, an early (if inaccurate) model of the solar system and so on.

 

Let's take a step back and define our terms. 'Reframing', as espoused by Bolman and Deal, is a conceptual tool for the purpose of multiple-perspective analysis of any situation and 'frames' are the cognitive lenses and base assumptions through which we view the world[2].

 

"Knowledge management" is defined as the capturing, indexing and storage of information for the purpose and intent of reuse[3]. In considering our conception of KM at this point, we should not be wedded to the assumption of an electronic database. From ancient times the human experience has embodied both raw data and the effective husbandry of stored information. Whether retained as memory, cave paintings, hieroglyphs or as written English, it is knowledge embedded in a coded, indexed system using the technology of the day. When the intention is both for storage and re-use, it is clearly a form of KM.

 

It is surely also true that the captured data has been formed in accord with the assumptions of the authors.[4] These assumptions may work as cultural and personal filters, perhaps embedded in a language, which have developed over time. They develop because they have proven to be of value in that local environment. It is a process akin to that by which Arctic Eskimos developed many more words to describe snow than did temperate Europeans[5].

 

Given that each of us embodies a personal set of assumptions based on a unique interaction with our world, I maintain therefore that the assumptions of the re-user of that knowledge are unlikely to be consistent with those of the author. More so if significant variations in location or time are involved. Unintentionally or not, it is thus reframed and reused. Such variations may be significant and shape new uses of the original data. Over time a log will become a wheel which becomes a gear, for example.

 

However Bolman and Deal have in mind that this reframing will be done with intent, so I shall give more purposeful examples.

 

Consider the plays of William Shakespeare[6]. When Shakespeare recycled a Roman theme, say in Julius Caesar or Coriolanus, he was not simply replicating the stored knowledge of authors such as Ovid and Plutarch but actively reframing their work to suit his own needs and assumptions, be they commercial, artistic or political. Similarly we reassess each such play within our own context, and a modern director will reframe the play in order to achieve particular creative ends.

 

In another example, the work of the late Joseph Campbell[7] elegantly describes the process by which the myths of ancient religions are reframed, purposefully, to suit the shifts in culture and assumptions of the following generations. Common religious themes, such as the flood-myth, are clearly reused (a KM outcome) and reframed (analysed in multiple perspectives) to generate what is clearly a new construct (the contribution). Often the output is a subtle shift in emphasis; sometimes it is a wholly new religion based on new assumptions in an upturned socio-economic and political environment.

 

One can easily conjecture that the leaders and priests of a conquering tribe were politically savvy enough not to completely overturn a local religion; rather they chose to reframe and reuse it in a creative way.

 

In the modern context let's consider the hypothetical example of a large manufacturer. The company's KM system is a computer-based database. Administration staff receive physical access to computers and by default to the KM system. However production-line staff is denied the KM toolset and training. This is a pragmatic decision based on organisational structure, not because they have no information to share or are intrinsically unable to use new information.

 

However by reframing this situation, management may see the potential to tap into a larger pool of knowledge. Simultaneously they could send a strong empowering signal to those staff simply by providing KM resources, training and access to the 'shop-floor'.

Large Information Technology (IT) businesses such as IBM [8] and Cisco[9] typically work in this more inclusive manner, tapping into a wider view of the business with a "Knowledge Portal" approach. In IBM 's case the company on-sells that KM approach to customers[10].

 

However simply providing the toolset and the access doesn't fix the problem. Not all staff will perceive the usefulness of these tools, or understand how to make use of the data presented. Whilst education may be provided in tool use, success is predicated upon insightful behaviour. If these workers receive effective reframing training then an improved contribution may be achieved.

 

Gunter Dueck from IBM  Research has recognised that different personality types perceive the data, structure and usefulness of KM in different ways. Dueck suggests that understanding and allowing for these differences is a vital knowledge management skill[11]. A skilful manager may for example reframe the entire KM process, from useability to data structure, looking at it through each of the 4 primary frames presented by Bolman and Deal[12].

 

Such innovation may sit uncomfortably with traditional efficiency-based work practices. 'Best practice' template-based documentation, for example, relies on a 'standard' view and the relentless application of that view (such as is reflected in ISO 9000 or related[13]). That may be appropriate within narrow contexts, but how useful will a formal template be to a creative, non-structural end user? Reframing would assist in decoding such data as well as reducing the likelihood of one-frame data presentation.

 

Reframing offers management the tool needed to recognise and potentially address design and skill gaps in any situation. Whilst some staff, using political frame assumptions, would see risk rather than opportunity in sharing their information, it is imperative that knowledge workers look beyond such narrow views. The wider use of reframing across an organisation would assist in breaking down such 'silo' mentality.

 

Whilst avoiding the re-invention of the wheel is of prime concern in a KM system, using the existing wheel design in exciting new ways is of equal or arguably greater benefit and the key contribution of effective reframing.

 

 

Bibliography

 

About.com

http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/blwheel.htm?once=true&

 

Bolman, Lee G. & Deal, Terrance E., Reframing Organisations, San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1997

 

Campbell, Joseph, Occidental Mythology: the Masks of God, London: The Viking Press, 1964

 

Cross, Rob, Parker, Andrew and Borgatti, Stephen, A bird's-eye view: Using social network analysis to improve knowledge creation and sharing, New York: IBM  Institute for Business Value, IBM  Corporation, 2001, accessed 17/02/2003 at

http://www-1.IBM .com/services/strategy/files/IBM _Consulting_A_birds_eye_view.pdf

 

Dueck, Gunter, Views of Knowledge are Human Views, IBM  Systems Journal, Volume 40, Number 4, New York: IBM  Corporation, 2001, accessed 17/02/2003 at http://www.research.IBM .com/journal/sj/404/dueck.pdf

 

Glossary, American Society for Training & Development (ASTD), accessed 17/02/2003 at http://www.learningcircuits.org/glossary.html#K

 

International Standards Association

http://www.iso.org/iso/en/iso9000-14000/iso9000/iso9000index.html

 

Johnson, G. & Scholes, K., Exploring Corporate Strategy, Harlow, Essex: Prentice Hall Europe, 1999.

 

Knowledge Discovery, New York: IBM  Corporation, Lotus Division, accessed 17/02/2003 at http://www.lotus.com/lotus/km.nsf/wdocs/home

 

Peck, Edmund J (Rev), Eskimo-English Dictionary: Compiled from Erdman's Eskimo-German

Edition of 1864, 1925, accessed 25/02/2003 at http://www.urbanlegends.com/language/eskimo_words_for_snow_derby.html

 

Schneble, John,  Learning Circuits, Knowledge Portal at Cisco, American Society for Training & Development (ASTD), accessed 17/02/2003 at http://www.learningcircuits.org/2002/may2002/schneble.html

 

Wells, Stanley and Taylor, Gary (Eds), William Shakespeare: The Complete Works, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.