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Leveraging Knowledge for Creativity Innovation and Competitive

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Leveraging Knowledge for Creativity Innovation and Competitive LEVERAGING KNOWLEDGE FOR CREATIVITY, INNOVATION AND COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE MANAGING KNOWLEDGE IN ORGANISATIONS “Does your organisation know what it knows?” It is estimated that more than 70% of all knowledge in organisations consists of tacit knowledge. Employees are the holders of this tacit knowledge, consisting of accumulated expertise, know-how, know-who and experience, but the challenge for organisations is to leverage it for competitiveness. Tacit knowledge is incredibly difficult to ‘manage’, however organisations can create the conditions necessary for employees to effectively share, seek, access and capture tacit knowledge that will lead to enhanced business performance. ASSK has developed the Knowledge Insights Inventory to help organisations evaluate their tacit knowledge readiness and identify the facilitators of, and barriers to effectively leveraging tacit knowledge. The Knowledge Insights Inventory provides organisations with a set of benchmark data that pinpoints their tacit knowledge readiness. It identifies barriers to knowledge exchange and is a starting point for organisations to address tacit knowledge issues on an individual and organisation basis. Leading on from this ASSK can identify practical actions that organisations can take to leverage tacit knowledge. The tables below offer an understanding of how tacit knowledge readiness contributes to employee and organisational performance, employee creativity and organisational innovation. Specifically, we outline some of our high-level findings to date based on our work with over 20 organisations in the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, healthcare, financial services and public sectors. HIGH LEVEL FINDINGS ON KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE Organisational norms are very influential in explaining the extent of tacit Role of Norms knowledge sharing and seeking. Organisational Organisational trust has a direct impact on the extent to which employees Trust will seek knowledge but less influential for knowledge sharing. Team climate while not directly impacting tacit knowledge seeking or sharing Team Climate influences the intentions of the employee to both share and seek knowledge. Internal-to-Team Internal tacit knowledge seeking helps employees to be creative when solving Knowledge Seeking complex problem solving. External-to-Team External tacit knowledge seeking is particularly important for team creativity. Knowledge Seeking Knowledge integration is a key benefit. Perceived value is particularly important in explaining whether employees will Perceived Value of Knowledge Sought seek knowledge from others. Motivation and opportunity focused HRM practices are more influential than Role of HR ability enhancing practices. Motivation enhancing practices are the most Practices significant in enhancing knowledge exchange. Intention to share and seek is a very strong predictor of actual knowledge Intention to Share exchange behaviour. Intention strongly predicted by attitude to share and and Seek seek, self-efficacy to share and seek and previous experience of sharing and seeking. Intrinsic rewards are more significant than extrinsic rewards. These include Organisational positive feedback for sharing and seeking, recognition for seeking and sharing Rewards efforts. The quality of work relationships is very important for knowledge seeking Work Relationships given the social risks involved in this component of knowledge seeking. Support for Supervisory and co-worker is support particularly important for seeking. Knowledge Exchange Organisational support is less significant for both sharing and seeking. Transformational Transformational leadership is particularly important for team level sharing Leadership and seeking. HIGH LEVEL FINDINGS KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE, CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION Supervisory support and co-worker support influence individual and team Role of Support creativity through their impact of employee knowledge sharing and seeking Transformational leadership influences process innovation in teams through Transformational Leadership its impact on team knowledge seeking. External-to-Team External-to-team knowledge seeking particularly important for product Knowledge Seeking innovation in R&D Teams. Motivation enhancing L&D practices such as developmental feedback, peer Motivation and supervisory coaching and mentoring processes, job autonomy and Enhancing L&D empowerment are valuable for both knowledge sharing and seeking which Practices leads to greater employee creativity. Opportunity enhancing learning and development practices include job Opportunity rotations, planned organisational experiences, international assignments, Enhancing L&D action learning sets and special project activities important for both sharing Practices and seeking which enhances individual and team creativity. Ability enhancing learning and development practices such as job training, training in networking and both knowledge sharing and seeking, expert Ability Enhancing presentational and lunch and learn sessions have a modest impact on L&D Practices knowledge exchange. Key message is that you also need the motivation and opportunity enhancing practices to realise gains in knowledge exchange. CONCLUSIONS The knowledge exchange process is increasingly recognised as a key part of 1 creativity and innovation Organisations should focus on creating the conditions where knowledge 2 exchange can happen Tacit knowledge is where the focus is in terms of the generation of 3 competitive advantage Organisations can take steps to manage many of the core organisational 4 readiness dimensions The Learning and Development function plays a key role in facilitating 5 knowledge exchange through its use of motivation and opportunity enhancing practices. Ability enhancing practices are foundational and by themselves they do not deliver. Becoming tacit knowledge ready is complex for any organisation, and the first step involves understanding your current position. Our Knowledge Insights Inventory will provide you with key insights and benchmarks in respect of that critical first step to Tacit Knowledge Readiness. www.assk.ie .
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