How to Get the Most Out of

Conclusion

“It is relatively easy for a company to adopt a sophisticated information technology architecture but is even easier for competitors to neutralize or even leap frog that architecture. Creating a social ecology that is free of pathologies, . . . is a much more difficult challenge. It requires building a whole eco-system of complementary and mutually reinforcing organizational mechanisms. . . . Any company can acquire a new piece of hardware but not every company can overcome the difficulties and build an effective social ecology.”

Advanced Knowledge

The type of knowledge that is more likely to generate sustainable competitive advantage. For instance, there are world class consumer electronics companies galore but Sony is ahead of them because it has developed unique capabilities in miniaturization. Similarly, in the software industry IBM has developed an advanced knowledge of middleware.

(See also: Core Knowledge, Innovative Knowledge)

Agent

Software programs that search for available information and filter incoming information based on specified characteristics. Intelligent agents can work without direct human intervention to carry out specific, repetitive and predictable tasks. Agents support gathering, delivering, categorizing, profiling information, or notifying the knowledge seeker about the existence of changes in an area of interest. Many agents can perceive, reason and act in the environments in which they operate. Some agents can learn from past mistakes. Essentially, an agent uses a limited built-in or learned knowledge base to execute tasks or take decisions. Agents can be programmed to execute various tasks — delete junk e-mail, schedule appointments or search for the lowest airfare.

Agents can be of three types — static in the client, static in the server and mobile. The most useful are the mobile agents that can move from one server to another to locate information. Such agents can either report results periodically or if they find something relevant. According to Amrit Tiwana³³, agents embody the push model. They can disseminate news, bulletins, warnings and notifications. Agents operate in asynchronous mode. They can monitor information at the source without being dependent on the system from which they originate. Agent technology has grown in sophistication and capabilities in recent years. In supply chain management, agents can improve the coordination among different entities. For example, P&G has been using agents to cut logistics costs by optimizing scheduling processes.

(See also: Knowledge Base)

Agile Methodology

A useful compromise between no process and too much process. Processes are meant to impose discipline on the way people do their work in an organization. The danger with such methodologies is that they may stifle creativity. Agile methods are adaptive and thrive on change. They are people oriented rather than process oriented. Agile methods take into account that a process cannot compensate for the skills of team members. The role of a process is to support the team. While managing knowledge, too much of a process orientation may sometimes backfire. The “practice” of knowledge workers, i.e. how they actually do their work, is as important as “process” which is about how they should be doing their work. Agile methodology is a term associated with Martin Fowler (For more information, visit his website: www.martinfowler.com)

AI

See Artificial Intelligence.

Application Service Provider (ASP)

A business that delivers and manages applications and computer services from a few centers to multiple users using the Internet or a private network. Instead of buying software, customers can effectively rent the same. The payment may be on subscription or transaction basis. The customer typically interacts with a single entity, not an array of technologies and service vendors. ASP contracts usually guarantee a level of service and support to ensure that the software is working and available at all times.

Argyris, Chris

Behavioral issues play a key role in organizational learning. The work of Chris Argyris has influenced thinking in this area. People have mental maps with regard to how to act in situations. It is these maps that guide people’s actions rather than the theories they explicitly espouse. What is more, few people are aware of the maps or theories they do use. Argyris and Schön³⁴ suggest that two theories of action are involved. There are theories that are implicit in what we do as practitioners and managers, and those which we use to explain our actions to others. The former can be described as theories-in-use. They govern actual behavior and tend to be tacit. The words we use to convey what we, do or what we would like others to think we do, can be called espoused theory.

When people are asked how they would behave under certain circumstances, the answer they usually give is their espoused theory of action for that situation. However, the theory that actually governs their actions is the theory-in-use. For example, managers might mention that they rushed out of the office because an urgent meeting with a client had come up. Actually the managers may have become bored and tired by the paper work and viewed the customer meeting as a welcome change.

A key role of reflection is to reveal the theory-in-use and to explore the nature of the “fit”. Managers must identify the gulf between espoused theory and theory-in-use. This gulf is not bad by itself. Provided the two remain connected, the gap facilitates reflection and dialogue. But if it gets too wide, it can create problems.

A key aspect of learning is detecting and correcting errors. Where something goes wrong, many people look for another strategy that will work within the governing variables. In other words, the given goals, values, plans and rules are operationalized rather than questioned. Argyris and Schon call this single-loop learning. An alternative response is to subject the governing variables themselves to critical scrutiny. Called double-loop learning, this may then lead to an alteration in the governing variables and, thus, a shift in the way in which strategies are framed.

(See also: Defensive Reasoning, Organizational Learning, Single-Loop Learning, Double-Loop Learning)

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