Organizational Development for Knowledge Management at Water ...

2 | Organizational Development for Knowledge Management at Water Utilities
Source: Bennet, David and Bennet, Alex. 2008. The depth of Knowledge: Surface, shallow or deep? In Jour. VINE:
The Journal of Information and Knowledge Management Systems, Vol. 38, No. 4. Used with permission.
Figure 1.1 Characterization of organizational knowledge needs. Routine decisions made in
organizations are at the surface level.
Much of everyday life such as light conversations and descriptions can be considered surface
thinking and learning that creates surface knowledge. Facts, data, concepts and information memorized
for quizzes and tests (without a deeper understanding of purpose and underlying meaning)
would fall into this category.
Shallow knowledge is surface knowledge with some level of meaning, with that meaning
typically related to an individual or organization and implying some level of action. To make
meaning requires context. Because social interactions such as conversations and dialogue help
convey context, surface knowledge emerges and expands as employees interact in the course of
everyday practices and processes. For example, utilities who embrace the use of teams and communities
facilitate the mobilization of knowledge and creation of new ideas as employees interact
in these groups.
For deep knowledge individuals need to develop understanding and meaning, integrate it,
and be able to shift their frame of reference as the context and situation shift. This requires a large
amount of Knowledge (Proceeding) to know when and how to take effective action. The source of
deep knowledge lies in an individual’s creativity, intuition, forecasting experience, pattern recognition,
and use of theories. In other words, this is the area of the expert whose unconscious has
learned to detect patterns and evaluate their importance in anticipating the behavior of situations
that are too complex for the conscious mind to understand. The development of deep knowledge
requires intense and persistent interest and dedication to a specific area of learning, knowledge and
action.
Routine decisions made in organizations occur at the surface level. Decisions requiring
deep knowledge are much fewer, and tend to be more critical. See Figure 1.1. Understanding
knowledge in terms of surface, shallow and deep can help decision-makers recognize the scope
and depth of knowledge available to maximize problem solving, decision-making and action in
simple, complicated and complex situations. Further, thinking about knowledge in terms of these
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