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CoP See Community of practice. Core Capabilities

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• Core Knowledge
• Core Rigidities
• Corporate Amnesia
• Corporate Culture
• Creative Abrasion

CoP See Community of practice. Core Capabilities Also called core competencies, core capabilities constitute a bundle of skills that together represent valuable knowledge which cannot be easily replicated. They form the basis for the competitive advantage of a firm. A firm’s knowledge strategy must be built around its core capabilities. The firm must develop knowledge in such a way that its core capabilities are strengthened. However, when there is a radical change in the industry or a new paradigm emerges, new kinds of knowledge with no link to the existing core capabilities may have to be developed. Core capabilities may, otherwise, become core rigidities. Core Knowledge The minimum scope and level of knowledge required for a firm to compete. While core knowledge may act as a basic barrier to entry, since such knowledge is held by all players it therefore does not provide a sustainable competitive advantage. (See also: Advanced Knowledge, Innovative Knowledge) Core Rigidities Erstwhile core capabilities which are no longer of value due to emergence or radical change or new paradigm in an industry. Thus, an organization’s strengths can also be its weaknesses. Over time, as organizations develop these strengths, they tend to focus on one kind of knowledge at the expense of others. If the existing strengths are not able to deliver value to customers, they may turn out to be a handicap. For example, Motorola’s strengths in analog technology became a core rigidity when digital technology took off. So core capabilities must be examined on an ongoing basis, to see how useful they are, in relation to current market needs. When the existing core capabilities have outlived their relevance, the focus must shift to building new core capabilities. Corporate Amnesia The loss of collective experience, embedded tacit knowledge, and accumulated skills, when many people leave a firm, for example due to down-sizing and layoffs. In India, this has happened in some public sector units because of voluntary retirement schemes. Corporate Culture Culture refers to the beliefs and values held by a group of people. The culture of the organization plays a key role in managing knowledge. In a positive knowledge sharing culture, problems, errors, omissions, and failures are shared; not penalized or hidden. Debate and healthy conflicts are encouraged as legitimate means of solving problems. Consequently, people are open to learning and applying new ways of solving problems. In dysfunctional cultures, people have a closed mindset. They tend to become defensive when mistakes are pointed out or the scope for improvement is identified. As a result, people in such organizations find it difficult to learn and change their behavior. The Gartner group has identified three types of cultures in the context of knowledge sharing. The first category includes balkanized organizations where people compete against each other in an atmosphere of mutual suspicion and information hoarding. The potential for knowledge sharing is low here in such cases. The second category consists of “monarchies” with top-down authoritarian rule. The potential for knowledge sharing is higher here. The third category consists of federations with local autonomy and democratic means of dispute resolution. Cooperation is based on enlightened self-interest. The potential for knowledge sharing is high here in such organizations. According to William Ives, Ben Torrey and Cindy Gordon42, various steps are involved in shaping a right culture for knowledge sharing. The first step is to identify knowledge sharing as a priority and then provide strong leadership and investment support. Leaders must display a strong sense of trust and integrity. Once trust is established, knowledge sharing must be embedded into the way of working. All project reviews should cover knowledge sharing and reuse of knowledge. Performance appraisals must take into account knowledge sharing. All newsletters and communications should provide links, where appropriate, to the knowledge management system. Equally, all training courses should leverage the knowledge management system. The company must also encourage collective inquiry into everyday experiences and sensitivity to the environment and willingness to change. Communities of practice must be actively encouraged and nurtured. (See also: Defensive Reasoning, Learning Organization) Creative Abrasion A term coined by Gerald Hirshberg, director of Nissan Design International. The concept has been further developed by Dorothy Leonard in her well known book, Wellsprings of Knowledge. Creative abrasion focuses on knowledge building at the work-group level within an enterprise as a result of arguments that occur when people with diverse backgrounds, experiences and skill sets come together to work on real business problems. A similar idea has been described by Richard T. Pascale in his book, Managing on the Edge: How the smartest companies use conflict to stay ahead. Innovation, as Dorothy Leonard and Susan Straus43 mention, takes place when different ideas, perceptions and ways of processing and judging information collide. That is possible only when people who see the world in inherently different ways come together. But often, the constructive conflicts that should take place, do not happen. Some managers avoid clashes by keeping in their team people who think as they themselves do. So nothing radically different or new emerges. In the rare cases where managers are bold enough to bring diversity into the team, not much is done to encourage constructive conflicts. Only a few managers know how to promote creative abrasion. They do so by actively considering various approaches and taking different perspectives and by encouraging people to respect the thinking styles of other team members. These managers lay down necessary ground rules to discipline the creative process. (See also: Productive Friction) Directory: books books -> The English Arrive in America books -> Active Vocabulary books -> Books we finished XIV books -> The theology of the balaam oracles: a pagan diviner and the word of god books -> The rhetoric of the father books -> Sra: Imagine It!, Themes, Taking a Stand, Ancient Civilizations Ecology, Great Expectations, Earth in Action, Art and Impact, Level 6 books -> You Can If You Try Unit 7 Nonfiction books -> The tregenza family books -> Unconditional hatred Download 0.91 Mb. Share with your friends: