Preface for the Third Edition - Read

610 D. Conclusion and Outlook
from the formal primary organizational structure, the hierarchy, and the formal secondary
organization, the project and team organization.
The organizational support for this kind of decentralized KM initiative can be
manyfold. Aspects of networks and communities can be integrated into the formal
process design, e.g., by the definition of network-oriented knowledge processes.
An example would be linking the publication process of knowledge elements to
communities as “subject matter specialist networks” which evaluate, refine, organize
and link the knowledge elements. Communities may also play important roles
in knowledge-intensive business processes. Examples are to provide “official”
sources for knowledge or to oblige process managers or all employees working on
the same process tasks to participate in specialized, formally supported networks.
As opposed to scenario 2, there is no separate organizational unit responsible for
KM. It is rather a kind of steering committee or a “meta-community” of key members
of the networks or communities or at most a project that provides the organizational
and ICT infrastructure needed to foster the decentralized growing of KM initiatives.
This coordinating committee also distills best practices about the handling
of knowledge in the networks and communities. Also, community moderators and
boundary spanners who play an active role in several networks and communities
broker knowledge between communities and identify new subject areas that could
be supported by new communities.
Consequently, the goal setting procedure employs a bottom-up approach which
makes sure that the knowledge needs of the networks and communities are served
rather than installing “just another” top-down goal setting procedure that does not
consider these needs. However, the alignment with business strategy is certainly a
crucial point in this scenario which often leads to insufficient management support
for the initiative.
Funding of this KM initiative might start with informal budgets provided by
those formal organizational units that the members of the networks or communities
come from. Later on, communities might also be funded directly by taking on
assignments, offering products or services or getting credit for suggestions, ideas,
success stories or measurable results.
ICT support for this scenario can be as manyfold as the organizational instruments
established to foster decentralized networking. There will be a focus on
functions that increase the visibility of networks and communities: knowledge
maps, directory services and catalogues (cluster 1 in Figure D-6).
There will also be an emphasis on collaboration and learning services, especially
for dislocated, virtual networks to support communication, coordination and
cooperation between personal meetings which should still take place regularly.
Community home spaces not only provide support for interactive KMS functions.
These community-centered portals are a prime instrument to bridge integrative and
interactive KMS functions with the help of contextualized knowledge repositories
holding community-related, valued knowledge elements. These elements are
linked to the individual members or sub-groups of the community who also rate the
elements and give feedback about their successful or unsuccessful application.