Preface for the Third Edition - Read

13. Organization 505
Again, the data points show the number of respondents who indicated that they
had assigned the corresponding task to either a central or a decentral position. The
results are ordered according to the difference between the values for decentral and
central responsibility in descending order (first criterion) and according to
descending values for decentral responsibility (second criterion).
Most organizations acquired external knowledge decentrally. Of the four tasks
that were assigned in most cases to participants as shown in Figure C-9 on
page 502—storing of new knowledge, (semantic) release of new knowledge, refinement
of existing knowledge and deletion/archiving of knowledge—only the publishing
part was organized decentrally in most organizations: storing of new knowledge
and (semantic) release of new knowledge. Once the knowledge was documented
and inserted into a KMS, both, central and decentral organizational
positions took care of it. This was also true for quality assurance of knowledge
which in some cases might mean deletion, archiving of knowledge or refinement of
existing knowledge. The design level task update of structure was in most organizations
primarily a central task. The same was true for selling of knowledge. This
task might be imagined as assigned to one department that is responsible for licensing
patents to other organizations or employees in a particular organizational unit
work as consultants for other organizations.
These variables describing the distribution of responsibility to central and
decentral units of organization were aggregated to the construct decentrality of
knowledge management—written decentrality (KM)—which is determined by the
following formula:
decentralityKM =
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------number
of decentral KM tasks
number of decentral KM tasks + number of central KM tasks
Values for decentrality (KM) are defined in the interval [0;1]. An overall mean
of 0.64 shows a tendency for organizations to assign responsibility to decentral
units rather than central ones. Table C-37 shows the distribution of organizations
according to the level of decentrality of KM.
TABLE C-37. Decentrality of knowledge management
x = decentrality (KM) frequency percent
x < 0.40 3 17.65
0.40 x < 0.60 5 29.41
0.60 x < 0.80 3 17.65
0.80 x < 1.00 2 11.76
x = 1.00 4 23.53
valid total 100.00