Proceedings of the 12th European Conference on Knowledge ...

Eva-Maria Kern et al
efficiency (Womack/Jones 1997). In addition to labor, capital and land, <strong>the</strong> consideration <strong>of</strong>
knowledge as <strong>the</strong> fourth resource contributing to value creation is decisive for a lean design <strong>of</strong>
business processes.
Knowledge is very special in <strong>the</strong> way it may occur in business processes: Regarding knowledge as a
resource, it is an important input for process execution (North 2011) as e.g. skills required for <strong>the</strong>
execution <strong>of</strong> process steps. Alternatively, it can be <strong>the</strong> intended product <strong>of</strong> a process, as <strong>the</strong>
knowledge developed within an innovation process. In most processes, knowledge is also generated
as a by-product, e.g. as an increase in experience through <strong>the</strong> repeated execution <strong>of</strong> a process step.
In each <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se cases, knowledge is anchored in business processes, which thus can be considered
<strong>the</strong> companies’ knowledge platform (Abecker et al. 2002). Hence, knowledge management is in <strong>the</strong>
following understood as a means <strong>of</strong> achieving business objectives by designing, controlling and
developing <strong>the</strong> organizational knowledge base (North 2011). Applying <strong>the</strong> principle <strong>of</strong> value
orientation to knowledge management means to concentrate on process related knowledge which
creates value and to disburden processes from inherent waste in this regard.
Accordingly, value orientation in knowledge management can be divided into two consecutive fields <strong>of</strong>
action:
Firstly, it is necessary to analyze business processes in order to identify <strong>the</strong> particular knowledge
demands for execution <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> different process steps as well as <strong>the</strong> knowledge created within <strong>the</strong>
different stages <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> process. This analysis is a precondition for designing knowledge
management in a demand-driven way.
Secondly, <strong>the</strong> handling <strong>of</strong> knowledge at <strong>the</strong> different process steps has to be particularly aligned
to <strong>the</strong> characteristics and requirements <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> knowledge identified. Knowledge management
methods and tools need to be specifically selected and customized in order to assure <strong>the</strong>
achievement <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> processes goals while avoiding any kind <strong>of</strong> waste.
As it is widely agreed upon in <strong>the</strong> scientific community, <strong>the</strong>re are no processes in which knowledge is
totally irrelevant (Amelingmeyer 2004, Davenport 2005, Remus 2002, Stewart 1998).Yet <strong>the</strong> demand
for knowledge and thus knowledge management can differ significantly between processes and even
between process steps (Kern/Boppert 2010). In order to avoid waste in <strong>the</strong> sense <strong>of</strong> value orientation,
<strong>the</strong> extent <strong>of</strong> knowledge management supply for business processes should be directly derived from
<strong>the</strong>ir knowledge demand.
A class <strong>of</strong> business processes typically bearing substantial knowledge demands are so-called
knowledge-intensive business processes. These processes or more precisely <strong>the</strong>ir individual steps
typically (Davenport 2005, Kern/Boppert 2010, Riedl/Schauer 2010)
require a high level <strong>of</strong> qualification,
show a high degree <strong>of</strong> interaction,
generate a lot <strong>of</strong> knowledge,
are highly innovative and
possess a low degree <strong>of</strong> standardization.
Although <strong>the</strong>se characteristics are difficult to measure, knowledge intensity seems to be a suitable
criterion for deciding upon <strong>the</strong> extent <strong>of</strong> and efforts justified for implementing knowledge management:
It allows for narrowing down <strong>the</strong> range <strong>of</strong> generally suitable knowledge management processes,
methods and tools to those expected to facilitate <strong>the</strong> goals <strong>of</strong> value orientation.
For <strong>the</strong> knowledge management processes mentioned above, different classifications and notations
are used in <strong>the</strong> scientific community. This paper draws upon <strong>the</strong> knowledge management processes
defined by Probst et al. (2010), namely knowledge identification, acquisition, development, transfer,
preservation and utilization.
As illustrated in figure 1, business processes and knowledge management processes are strongly
interconnected:
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