Preface for the Third Edition - Read

150 B. Concepts and Theories
5.4 Résumé
The state of the art of KM goals and strategies can be described as follows: there
are already a large number of KM initiatives in organizations under way. There are
quite a few authors who went to the trouble of distilling those KM activities which
are used most frequently in organizations. As KM is a broadly defined concept, it is
not surprising that many organizations combine projects with a more traditional
focus, such as business process reengineering, quality management or customer
relationship management and activities that in some way or the other have to do
with the handling of knowledge and are supposed to deliver business value. KM in
practice seems to be an effort that comprises a set of diverse activities, measures
and technologies. Unfortunately, it seems that up to now organizations do not pay
much attention to the strategic value of their initiatives. What is missing is a clear
definition of generic KM strategies or, alternatively, dimensions of strategies (strategic
options) that can be used to characterize one particular KM strategy.
Thus, one suggestion might be that organizations should aim at all KM goals at
the same time and implement the strategic activities altogether. However, as a KM
initiative will always face budget limitations, this potentially ideal situation might
not be feasible. Moreover, even though most abstract KM activities 272 seem to
complement each other, some instruments might also be conflicting. One example
is a centralized approach with specialized knowledge brokers drawn together in
competence centers in order to develop a central organizational knowledge base
and a decentralized approach with emerging knowledge networks.
As a consequence, it seems that so far the relationships between KM goals and
strategies 273 have not been well understood, neither in theory nor in practice. Thus,
it is likely that organizations implement many KM activities at the same time hoping
that some of them might trigger a substantial improvement of the way the organization
handles knowledge. The following hypothesis can be formulated:
Hypothesis 7: The majority of organizations strongly aim at more than half of
the KM goals (>7 goals) at the same time.
Organizations aiming at many goals at the same time would suggest a general
KM strategy. The lack of emphasis could, however, limit the orientation provided
for KM instruments leaving KM staff unsure what exactly the initiative should be
about.
Due to time and space restrictions in the questionnaire, not every aspect of strategy
could be questioned. Strategic KM goals and business goals were directly
asked in the questionnaire. KM activities will be accounted for in the organization
part (chapter 6) and the systems part (chapter 7). Due to the fact that KM strategies
up to now have not been well defined neither in the literature nor in the empirical
studies, it seems best to try to elicit different KM strategies by looking at scenarios
of KMS implementations. This will require to consider a bundle of facts together,
272. See section 5.2.2.5 - “Strategic knowledge management activities” on page 125.
273. i.e., which relationships are complementary and which ones are rather conflicting.