Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs, September, 2016

Welcome to September, 2016 edition of Carnival of Quality Management Articles and Blogs.

We have already taken up the following topics for the familiarization of different elements of new version of ISO 9001-

• December, 2015: the changes in the Revision of ISO 9001 (:2015)
• January, 2016: Process Approach in 9001:2015
• February, 2016: Risk-Based Thinking in 9001:2015
• March, 2016: Risk-Based Thinking – a general perspective
• April, 2016: Context of the Organization in ISO 9001: 2015
• May, 2016: The Relevant Interested Parties
• June, 2016: Leadership and Commitment.
• July, 2016 : ‘Leadership’ in the Other ISO Management Standards
• August,2016 : Change Management

For the present episode we will look at Organizational Knowledge, in general, and then move over to what ISO 9001: 2015 has to state on the subject.

Before we closely look at the subject of change in the ISO management system standards, let us quickly recapitulate a broader view of the subject and look at some randomly selected picks from the vast literature available on the subject on the internet.

What is Organizational Knowledge

1. Organizational knowledge is equated with professional intellect (Quinn, Philip, & Sydney, 1996). Organizational knowledge is a metaphor, as it is not the organization but the people in the organization who create knowledge

 Learn more in: Explicit and Tacit Knowledge: To Share or Not to Share

1. The body of knowledge contained, but not categorized, within the members of an organization.

 Learn more in: E-Learning Design for the Information Workplace

1. The organizational knowledge is created and transferred within the organizational context, is rooted in: (1) company and industrial atmosphere (King & Zeithaml, 2003), (2) tacit knowledge (Grant, 2002); and is fitted in firm culture (Saint-Onge, 1996).

Has the following properties: (1) is shared between the members of the organization (2) is connected to organization history, and (3) allows a common language.

 Learn more in: Critical Success Factors and Core Competencies

Defining Organizational Knowledge : The paper starts by defining what is meant by ‘knowledge’ and ‘knowledge management’, and follows on by presenting the knowledge processes which are at the basis of knowledge management practices.

Five Types of Organisational Knowledge : In Knowledge, Knowledge Work and Organisations: An Overview and Interpretation, Blackler builds on Polanyi’s distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge (in Polyani, 1967) and identifies five types of knowledge to be found in contemporary organisations. His ideas provide useful insights into the process of knowledge management. These conceptual distinctions were first suggested to explain the psychological and behavioural aspects of knowledge. They were later adapted to describe the different ‘images’ of knowledge within the organisation.

Knowledge Conversion : The organization should identify and nurture knowledge-building activities that expand and enhance its core competence.

Three Types of Organizational Knowledge:  Implications For The Tacit-Explicit AND Knowledge Creation Debates – Nancie Evans  and  Mark Easterby-Smith-  Lancaster University : The paper theorizes and represents organizational learning and knowledge management as a framework of organizational knowledge  consisting of three distinct knowledge types each with a tacit and explicit dimension.

Organizational Knowledge Sharing Practices : Organizational knowledge (vs. knowledge) has distinct characteristics given its action-centered, contextual and collective nature. It is composed of both explicit manifestations as well as intangible forms of knowledge. The choice of options to implement various knowledge sharing strategies, and enabling technologies, would depend on the forms of knowledge that are the most important to the organization.

Challenges in managing organizational knowledge : IBM Institute for Knowledge-Based Organizations has identified a number of important roadblocks that organizations typically face when implementing knowledge management programs. These roadblocks are:

• Failure to align knowledge management efforts with the organization’s strategic objectives
• Creation of repositories without addressing the need to manage content
• Failure to understand and connect knowledge management into individuals’ daily work activities
• An overemphasis on formal learning efforts as a mechanism for sharing knowledge
• Focusing knowledge management efforts only within organizational boundaries.

Journal of Organizational Knowledge Management is a full-fledged journal which covers

the topics of interest, but not limited to:

• Knowledge management empirical research
• Knowledge management case studies
• Knowledge management application is education
• Legislative issues

Here are two pictorial views TQM way and Life-Cycle Approach, respectively:

We now take up a few of the many articles available on internet dealing specifically with the subject w.r.t. ISO 9001: 2015.

ISO 9001:2015 Clause 7.1.6 Organizational Knowledge : By introducing the term “knowledge,” ISO 9001:2015 aims to raise organizations’ awareness of the management and linking of know-how in order to position them for the future.

ORGANIZATIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND ISO 9001-2015 – Raghu Malayanuru looks at other clauses where Organizational Knowledge is addressed, knowledge requirements of an organization, documents that may provide evidence of Organization Knowledge. Nacaro Williams in his studied comment, places more emphasis on reliance on the Notes to clause 7.1.6.

Organizational Knowledge Introduced in ISO 9001:2015  – Brian Reece –

ISO 9001:2015 defines requirements for the handling of organizational knowledge in the following four phases, which are analogous to the PDCA cycle:

1. Determine the knowledge necessary for the operation of processes and for achieving conformity of products and services
2. Maintain knowledge and make it available to the extent necessary
3. Consider the current organizational knowledge and compare it to changing needs and trends
4. Acquire the necessary additional knowledge.

ISO 9001:2015 and Effective Organizational Knowledge   – Andrew Holt analyzes the new organizational knowledge requirement in ISO 9001:2015 through the lens of SECI model.  

Image 1: The SECI Model (Nonanka & Takuchi, 1995).

What is Organizational Knowledge in ISO 9001:2015? – It will be imperative that an organization performs its due diligence through risk management when determining what knowledge is necessary and how it is maintained and made available.

ISO 9001: 2015 – Organizational Knowledge Management Requirements Webcast

In this new webcast, standards expert and active member of the U.S. Standards committees, shares some insights on the new elements of knowledge management within ISO 9001:2015, and provides tips for meeting the requirements of documenting, tracking, and making value-added knowledge available, for the health and continuous improvement of the organization.

How to meet the Knowledge Management requirement within ISO 9001

• As part of a Knowledge Management Strategy, you define your critical knowledge needs
• You create a Knowledge Management Framework for your organization that ensures knowledge is created, discussed, captured, synthesized, and re-used. This framework contains the four critical enablers; Roles, Processes, Technologies, Governance. The contents, scale and complexity of this framework will vary enormously – from very simple (in the case of a small company) to sophisticated and complex for major multinationals.
• You run a scan or audit of your critical knowledge topics, to ensure each of these is in an acceptably managed state

How to manage knowledge of the organization according to ISO 9001 – Mark Hammar – It is specific knowledge to the organization, generally gained by experience, which is used and shared to achieve the objectives of the organization. This can come internally, such as intellectual property, lessons learned from failure and successes, or the results of improvements; or it can come externally from conferences, customer knowledge, or supplier knowledge.

Knowledge Management and ISO 9001:2015 – This newsletter explores the implications of the ISO 9001:2015 knowledge clause, and how this can impact Knowledge Managers (and their Quality department colleagues) worldwide.

Organizational knowledge in ISO 9001:2015 – The ‘glass-half-full’ here is that Knowledge Management has started to appear in ISO 9001. The ‘glass-half-empty’ is that it is so very high-level in its stated requirement. It’s barely even a guideline.

7.1.6 Organizational knowledge – When implementing this clause or when explaining to the auditor, how this clause is implemented, some basic understanding of knowledge management can be useful.  Knowledge can be classified into two broad categories.

• Explicit Knowledge or Formal Knowledge is one that can be formally documented
• With Tacit Knowledge, people are not often aware of the knowledge they possess or how it can be valuable to others. Effective transfer of tacit knowledge generally requires extensive personal contact, regular interaction and trust. Example: how to ride bicycle.

Let us look at a few videos on the subject:

Organizational Knowledge

How to Manage Organizational Knowledge Effectively? by David Hershfield, SVP at Redcats

KM Audit & Measurement

Knowledge Management – Managing Tacit and Explicit Knowledge

ISO9001:2015 Transition Part 14: Organizational Knowledge, Job Insecurity, and Change Resistance

It appears to be quite an obvious case that the introduction of this subject as requirement has challenges at different levels, but is not yet fully deciphered as to how and to what it can be gainfully shown to have been implemented.  So, for the time being, we rest our discussions on the today’s topic here.

For the October, 2016 episode, we will take Control of Human Errors w.r.t. Quality Management, in the new versions of these management standards.

We will now turn to our regular sections:

ASQ CEO, Bill Troy in his ASQ’s Influential Voice ‘August Roundtable: Integrating Technical Quality and Human Management Systems’ has set the tone for our next month’s subject.

We now watch two of the latest ASQ TV  episode :

• Quality and Sports – Learn about the ever-growing connection between quality and sports: How assessing one’s ability to adjust to failure can lead to better performance in athletics—and beyond.

Jim L. Smith’s Jim’s Gems for the month of August, 2016 does not have any article.

I look forward to your active participation in enriching the blog carnival as we pursue our journey in exploring the happenings across quality management blogs…………

Note: The images depicted here above are through courtesy of respective websites who have the copyrights for the respective images.