KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

MODULE-6
LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS
1Q
What is a balanced scorecard (BSC)?
The balanced scorecard is a management system aimed at translating an
organization's strategic goals into a set of organizational performance
objectives that, in turn, are measured, monitored and changed if necessary to
ensure that an organization's strategic goals are met.

A key premise of the balanced scorecard approach is that the financial

accounting metrics companies traditionally follow to monitor their strategic
goals are insufficient to keep companies on track. Financial results shed light
on what has happened in the past, not on where the business is or should be
headed.

The balanced scorecard system aims to provide a more comprehensive view to

stakeholders by complementing financial measures with additional metrics that
gauge performance in areas such as customer satisfaction and product
innovation.

The business performance management framework was laid out in a 1992

paper published in the Harvard Business Review by Robert S. Kaplan and
David P. Norton, who are widely credited with having developed the balanced
scorecard system.

What are the four balanced scorecard perspectives?

The balanced scorecard approach examines performance from four
perspectives.

• Financial analysis, which includes measures such as operating

income, profitability and return on investment.
 • Customer analysis, which looks at investment in customer service
and retention.

• Internal analysis, which looks at how internal business

processes are linked to strategic goals.

• The learning and growth perspective assesses employee

satisfaction and retention, as well as information system.
Why use the balanced scorecard?
Kaplan and Norton cited two main advantages to the four-pronged balanced
scorecard approach.

• First, the scorecard brings together disparate elements of a company's

competitive agenda in a single report.

• Second, by having all important operational metrics together, managers

are forced to consider whether one improvement has been achieved at
the expense of another.
 • Even the best objective can be achieved badly," the authors stated in
their 1992 treatise. Faster time to market, for example, can be achieved
by improving the management of new product introductions.

• It can also be accomplished, however, by making products that are only

incrementally different from the existing ones, thus diminishing the
company's competitive advantage in the market long term.

Elements of a balanced scorecard

In their 1993 paper, Kaplan and Norton offered guidance on how to build a
balanced scorecard. The process they discussed applies to business units and
describes what they refer to as "a typical project profile" for developing balanced
scorecards.

In brief, here are the eight actionable steps they list.

1. Preparation. The organization identifies the business unit for which a

top-level scorecard is appropriate. Broadly defined, this is a business
unit that has its own customers, distribution channels, production
facilities and financial goals.

2. The first round of interviews. A balanced scorecard facilitator

interviews senior managers for about 90 minutes each to obtain input
on strategic goals and performance measures.

3. First executive workshop. Top management convenes with the

facilitator to start developing the scorecard by reaching a consensus
on the mission and strategy and linking the measurements to them.
This can include video interviews with shareholders and customers.

4. The second round of interviews. The facilitator reviews,

consolidates and documents input from the executive workshop and
interviews each senior executive to form a tentative balanced
scorecard.

5. Second executive workshop. Senior management, their

subordinates and a larger number of middle managers debate the
vision, strategy and the tentative scorecard. Working in groups, they
discuss the measures, start to develop an implementation plan and
formulate "stretch objectives for each of the proposed measures."

6. Third executive workshop. Senior executives reach a consensus on

the vision, objectives and measurements hashed out in the prior two
workshops and develop stretch performance targets for each
measure. Once this is complete, the team agrees on
an implementation plan
 7. Implementation. A newly formed team implements a plan that aims to
link performance measures to databases and IT systems, to
communicate the balanced scorecard throughout the organization and to
encourage the development of second-level metrics for decentralized
units.

8. Periodic reviews. A quarterly or monthly "blue book" on the balanced

scorecard measures is prepared and viewed by managers. The balanced
scorecard metrics are revisited annually as a part of the strategic planning
process.
4Q.innovation management
Innovation management is the process of managing an organization's innovation
procedure, which helps increase competitive advantage and drives business
growth.

Innovation management involves the process of managing an organization's

innovation procedure, starting at the initial stage of ideation, to its final stage of
successful implementation. It encompasses the decisions, activities and practices
of devising and implementing an innovation strategy.

According to Gartner, an IT research and consultancy company, innovation

management is a business discipline that aims to drive a sustainable innovation
process or culture within an organization. Oftentimes, these innovation
management initiatives utilize a disruptive method of change to transform
business.

In the age of digital transformation, organizations are faced with the need to
innovate more and innovate quickly. Innovation drives business growth and helps
organizations stay ahead of their competitors. Innovation management helps in
generating new business models and creates new products, services and
technologies designed for the changing market. Proper innovation management
also boosts customer satisfaction and employee engagement.

Innovation management methods

Broadly speaking, innovation can be incremental, breakthrough or disruptive.

 • Incremental: In an era where businesses are required to constantly
reinvent themselves, incremental innovation helps them thrive by
constantly improving current products, services, processes or methods.
• Breakthrough: A breakthrough innovation refers to technological
advancements that can boost the level of a product or service, within an
existing category, ahead of its competitors.
• Disruptive: Disruptive innovations are ideas that are capable of
radically changing the market behavior after being implemented.

Achieving innovation management success

For innovation management process to be successful, it is essential that the

company support an innovation culture and make employees feel valued. This
will encourage employees to generate quality ideas in return.

Organizations today are leveraging collaborative technology like social

networking to get feedback, which helps in generating a steady stream of ideas
from stakeholders both within and outside the company.

To make innovation management a routine part of business, many organizations

follow a disciplined and cyclic approach. Ideation is the first step to innovation
and incentives and feedbacks help encourage a steady flow of ideas. The next step
in a well-managed innovation process is to identify the most valuable and viable
ideas. Companies can then move forward to create prototype products based on
the shortlisted ideas and implement them to see how they work. In the final step
of full implementation, it is important to evaluate the outcome to see whether the
desired business goals were met once the ideas were implemented.
 It is also necessary to engage the C-suite in discussion about innovation
management to make sure that the ideas generated are in line with business
goals. Organizations are also increasingly looking for innovation
managers, who are equipped with specific skills, to drive innovation and
oversee the innovation management process.

5Q.What is continuous learning?

Continuous learning is the process of learning new skills and knowledge on an

on-going basis. This can come in many forms, from formal course taking to
casual social learning. It involves self-initiative and taking on challenges.

Continuous learning can also be within an organization, or it can be personal,

such as in lifelong learning.
Why is continuous learning important for organizations?

Staying competitive in today’s global marketplace means that organizations need

to be innovative, adaptive, and ever-changing. Achieving this depends on the skill
and knowledge of the workforce. But how do you get this kind of workforce to
begin with?

To innovate, to try a new process, or to do something new all requires learning.

People need to learn new knowledge or skills in order to see things in a new light
and take that next leap.

When organizations do not support a continual process of learning, innovation

does not happen, processes remain unchanged, and nothing new is ever
accomplished.

Employees need to be able to challenge themselves in order to obtain new

knowledge, ideas, and skills. Learning needs to be on a flexible, on-demand and
continual basis in order to contribute this kind of cutting-edge performance.

Benefits of continuous learning

Benefits for the organization

Creating a learning culture within the organization is an effective way to improve

performance and innovation, as mentioned earlier, but also employee satisfaction
and retention. Here’s why:

1.Knowledge is power - The more employees know and the more they can do,
the more they can contribute to the organization.
2.More cost effective - Investing in the development of employees is less
expensive than rehiring and retraining new employees.

3.Show that employees are valued - Support of continuous learning indicates

that employees are worth the investment and that the organization is genuine
about employee career development.
Benefits for the individual

Continuously updating knowledge or skills can help an employee in both their

professional life and personal life for a number of reasons. Here’s why:

1.Top Performer - Developing new skills and knowledge can increase personal
performance or competence on the job.
2.Career development - Additional training, education, or skilldevelopment can
help achieve goals for those pursuing a career path or wanting to rotate into a new
position.
3.Licenses or Certifications - Pursuing additional learning is also important for
those employees who need to obtain or update professional licenses or
certifications.
4.Promotions or incentives - Spending time to learn a new skill or obtain new
knowledge can benefit work performance and influence future promotion or
financial incentives.
5.Personal enrichment - Often a person’s interests extend beyond thejob they
do on a daily basis. Pursuing extracurricular interests can lead to insight and
developments that open the door to new, future opportunities.
6.Stay marketable - Staying current in the trends and advances of one’s
profession can help an employee stay marketable in their profession should
anything change.
6Q.The RICE Scoring Model
One preferred system in the product management world is the RICE scoring
model. As highlighted by Intercom and Lazaro Ibanez, the name stands for:

R = Reach. This is an estimate of the number of people who will be reached by

the endeavor. In product management, this is typically a number of customers. In
other kinds of projects, it may still be customers – say, those reached by a
particular marketing campaign or service update – but you may need to redefine
this based on context.

I = Impact. This can be quantitative or qualitative – a number of clients who

converted after being reached by the campaign, for example, or an improvement
in user experience based on a website redesign. Lazaro Ibanez recommends using
a numeric scale in which the highest number (say, 5) represents the highest impact
and vice-versa.
C = Confidence. This should be a percentage, in order to account for the
respective subjectivity or objectivity of your previous two estimates. If you’re
100% confident, it means you probably have lots of data to back up your Reach
and Impact estimates. A lower percentage might mean you’re basing your
previous estimates on intuition rather than evidence. You’ll multiply this by the
first two estimates.
E = Effort. This is the amount of work you’ll need to put in to achieve the desired
Impact and Reach. It is usually measured in “person-months,” or the number of
resources required for the work of one team member in one month. Because
you’re dividing R x I x C by E, you can see how the higher the value of E – i.e.,
the more effort a task requires – the lower the Reach and Impact will be per
amount of work.

When you put it all together, it should look like:

(Reach x Impact x Confidence) / Effort = RICE Score

Ideally, you would perform the RICE formula on each task you wish to prioritize.
You can then rank all scores from highest number (highest impact per amount of
effort) to lowest (lowest impact per amount of effort).

7Q.What is Knowledge Networks

1.
According to Du Preez (cited in Perry et al., 2010 ), knowledge networks imply
a number of actors and resources, where the relationships between them bring
about knowledge capturing, knowledge transfer and knowledge creation for the
purpose of creating value. Du Preez elaborates further on this notion by
maintaining that “integrated knowledge networks span all domains,
communities, and trust relationships with the goal of fostering sustainable
innovation that will continue to promote the competitiveness of its users” (p. 79).
Although a knowledge network has the same composition as a social
network, knowledge networks are as a rule more complex and
dynamic. Knowledge networks aim to facilitate the flow and sharing
of knowledge as well as to create new knowledge and to ensure the application
thereof ( Denner, 2012 ). Knowledge networks differ from social networks in
that they accentuate joint value creation by its members–shifting from
information sharing to knowledge creation; it reinforces its members’ innovation
and communication skills; it implements strategies in order to engage decision
makers more directly ( Creech, 2001 ). Hence, knowledge networks could be
described as social networks from a KM perspective. These networks form with
the purpose to collect and implement knowledge—mainly
via knowledge creation and knowledge sharing processes—in order to create
value. Learn more in: Understanding Knowledge Networks Through Social
Network Analysis
2.
Usually knowledge network is the term given to different types of team or
social networks and communities that are recognized to add significant value to
the creation, dissemination and application of knowledge. In the scope of our
research on processes of knowledge creation is a conceptual and structural device
that reflects how individuals deal with problems, situations, and make sense of
phenomena; they are the epistemic conduits by which circulates the know-how
(and know-why) that individuals call on to accomplish their work. Learn more in:
Knowledge Networks in Higher Education
3.
Formally set up mechanisms, structures, and behavioral patterns that
connect knowledge agents who were not previously connected because of
functional, hierarchical, or legal boundaries between organizations.