The material resources and the related processes can be measured directly, but the direct measurement is not yet possible in case of immaterial resources. The case of knowledge is quite similar. The knowledge management has more aspects that involve a lot of human aspects and technical aspects. Grant (1996b) highlighted that the different knowledge types might have interrelations amongst each other.
The knowledge can be independent or dependent, if the organizations have to deal with more types of knowledge, then the interrelation might be of significance. The independent knowledge is isolated. In this point, it is not covered, just the connecting ones. Grant’s idea to take into consideration the knowledge connections has revealed that the different knowledge types can be handled similar to common goods.
Figure 14 - Substitute knowledge, Complementary knowledge Source: own edition (Varian, 2001)
x2
x1 x2
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On Figure 14, the dotted lines are the indifference curves, the dashed lines are the price offer curves (the substitute knowledge is on the left, the complementary knowledge is on the right). The related knowledge sources’ ‘price’ and availability influence the demand for them. If the knowledge is substitute, that means they can deliver the same outcome for the (internal) buyer, who is in the current case the organization itself, the substitute knowledge elements can compete with each other. On the other hand, there are complementary knowledge sources, these knowledge sources accompany, without each other, they cannot be used for the specific organizational goal.
This aspect is very important in the research, because the efficient knowledge management’s prerequisite is whether the owner of the problems are aware of the handled knowledge elements’ such characteristics, this perspective counts also.
A similar aspect is whether the KM is capable to reveal the real, complete knowledge within the system. The knowledge is available in distributed way in every case (where there are more human entities), the question is whether it can be absorbed in its actual reality, or there is just an approximation to it. Theoretically, the knowledge assessor should (if not supported by a sophisticated knowledge management system) be able to assess the knowledge of the human resources completely, this situation is a bit paradox, because a human entity is not able to explicitly codify neither his/her own knowledge. In practice, the knowledge management is often used to work allocation purposes, this assumes that the managers are able to identify the substitute knowledge (and the knowledge bearers), because these are those types that can be replaced by each other.
The research covers the rare- or unique knowledge elements, these are those elements that are somewhat isolated. Most of the organizations try to incorporate this type of knowledge, because they would not like to maintain permanently a situation, in which they directly depend on resources that might be temporarily or on long term unavailable.
Singh (1986) identified the slack resources as part of the total resources. In most of the organizations, slack is there, its optimal level is not easy to be determined. The slack within the system is a kind of buffering mechanism against variability (changes in demands, unexpected environmental issues, etc.), knowledge is also a kind of slack
resource. The knowledge and the knowledge bearers are not always completely utilized, the usage is mostly based on the demand.
The attention management (Simon, 1996) is also very important, since the current domain covers the knowledge and the human entities, it has to be considered what are the people’s capabilities. The humans have limited cognitive capabilities, e.g. the short-term memory can deal on average with four items (Cowan, 2001). In an information- and knowledge-intensive environment the information overload might be also an issue, similar is the situation with interaction overload (e.g. social network), multitasking, and interruption. The above-mentioned events can happen of course on individual or on group level.
The associates can be affected by multiple external impulses. In order to make the human resource able to reorient, there is a specific time allowance needed, otherwise the knowledge integration cannot happen. Even therefore, the slack resource is a must.
From psychological perspective, the cognitive dissonance (Festinger, 1957) is also of high importance. The individual who has to deal with two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas at the same time has an internal conflict (in special cases also a conflict of interest) and cannot decide to which he/she should give priority, this causes not just stress, but might end in a significant waiting time (from organizational perspective), especially if it happens on group or organization level. Argyris (1991) pointed out that the overskilled workforce can raise a substantial resistance towards changes and learning what can also raise unanticipated delays within the system.
Cultural differences might be also inputs for conflicting ideas, Hofstede (2005) defined the following dimensions of national cultures:
power distance,
individualism,
masculinity,
uncertainty avoidance,
long term orientation,
and indulgence.
These ruptures can arise easily even in small groups, so even if these are not in the core of the research, they are shortly introduced, because the knowledge management-culture can suffer a lot because of these, e.g. short term orientation might subserve the prompt business requests versus the learning.
An interesting and connecting outlook is Woolcock’s social capital model (Woolcock, 2001), this model is introduced because it gives a widely accepted background to the social variable. Woolcock identified three forms of social capital:
bonding: strong ties that exist among groups of people that share similar values, interests, and background,
bridging: bonds between different groups – between generations, cultural, ethnic, and religious groups. These are generally weaker, less intense, attachments,
linking: ties that connect people to local service providers and resources, this alludes to vertical relations that link people and communities to sources of power and resources that lie beyond the neighborhood in the wider society, notably in formal institutions.
This later aspect is connected to the channels of information dissemination and the knowledge sharing.
In the following section, the research methodology is introduced.
4 THE RESEARCH METHODLOGY – INTERRELATION OF THE BUSINESS PROCESSES AND THE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
In ‘Chapter 1’, the research, in ‘Chapter 2’ and ‘Chapter 3’, the relevant backgrounds are introduced.
The complete research domain is broaden; therefore, it was needed to narrow the focus of the research to the relevant interrelations of the BPM and the KM. The research relies on previous results of a similar analysis that took place in 2014. The earlier research ran amongst real business entities in order to acquire real information. Its outcome was utilized for building up the current research.
A questionnaire was collated for business entities in this case as well (not appended).
The collection of the questionnaires was followed by analyzing the data and a validatory step. Based on the feedback of the opponents of the dissertation, the focus was narrowed further (Appendix 6 – Core questions) in order to get a more coherent view. Just the relevant aspects are utilized, the original version of the questionnaire is used just for collecting background information.
The content of questionnaires grasps the most important recommendations of the researchers and the mandatory elements of the standards and methodologies. The sub-section 4.1 covers the BPM, the 4.2 the KM, and the 4.3 the renewal ability. The points’ content are in relations with the examined questions:
Question 1 – Can the application of knowledge management be defined at all?
What are the limitations of definability? (1.3.1)
Question 2 – Is organizational knowledge assessable with the process management tool and concept library and can it be evaluated? Under what circumstances can the assessment and the evaluation be realized? (1.3.2)
Question 3 – Can the level of knowledge management be defined? Under what circumstances is it possible to determine the levels? (1.3.3)
Question 4 – With what accuracy and relevance can the organizational
knowledge management be measured based on business process management?
(1.3.4)
‘Appendix 6’ shows the interrelations among the specific questions, the theories, the utilized standards, and the methodologies.