Preface for the Third Edition - Read

6. Organization 161
KTD – Knowledge Transfer Department at Buckman Laboratories (Pan/Scarbrough
1998, 59).
In many cases, the KM unit will be an extension of an already existing organizational
unit, such as document management or technology management. One of the
concepts preceding a formal KM unit best represented in the literature is the competence
center or think tank (Probst et al. 1998, 204, 207ff, 358, Roehl 2000, 180f).
These are units that systematically bundle capabilities (experts, networks, documents
etc.) within a targeted domain. A think tank identifies, develops, refines and
develops experiences (lessons learned, best practices) for a certain topic, regularly
a cross-functional and cross-disciplinary topic, e.g., “Eastern Europe” or “Energy”
at the professional services company McKinsey (Probst et al. 1998, 208).
Apart from the permanent institutionalization of KM in a separate organizational
unit, many organizations start a KM initiative with the help of a project. KM
projects are concerned with e.g., the assessment of potentials of KM for an organization,
the development of a KM vision, mission and goals, the design and implementation
of an organizational and especially technological KM infrastructure, the
promotion of KM-specific instruments, the definition of decentral KM roles etc.
Another form of organizational design for KM that requires even less of a permanent
commitment to this approach is the establishment of a KM committee or a
KM community 292 . In this case, a group of employees, regularly from different
organizational units, e.g., from strategic development, various functional departments
and the department of IT/organization, together develop a KM vision and
promote the effort.
In many organizations, the structural organization of KM has developed in certain
stages. KM had started out as a group of interested employees that informally
defined a KM initiative which later was turned into one or more KM project(s). In
many organizations, especially in large organizations, either one KM project was
later switched into a permanent organizational unit or one unit was established to
coordinate all the KM projects and activities throughout the organization.
The structural organization of the KM function will be studied with the help of
the following list of design alternatives ordered from a formal, lasting approach to
an informal, temporary approach:
separate organizational unit: as a functional or service unit,
project,
no separate organizational unit: as a community or a committee.
It is expected that those organizations that institutionalize a separate organizational
unit staff it with more employees and also invest more in KM 293 than those
organizations that set up a KM project or have an entirely decentralized, informal
approach with no separate organizational unit. Therefore, the following hypothesis
will be tested:
292. See also section 6.1.3.3 - “Communities” on page 180.
293. Investment is measured in terms of non-salary expenses; see also section 8.1 -
“Expenses and funding” on page 397.