1. Organisational culture, leadership and knowledge management
Chapter 14
Organisational culture, leadership and knowledge management
Copyright © 2010 Tilde University Press

2. Knowledge as an asset Three basic resources – time, money & knowledge
Knowledge has to be created, learned, and maintained
A unique resource
A complex resource needing careful management
Data
Information
Encoded knowledge
Embedded knowledge
Embodied knowledge
Encultured knowledge

3. A systems approach – see Figure 14.1
Legitimate system
Strategic planning
Check current knowledge (e.g., in standing plans)
New knowledge needed
Operational planning
Standing plans
Single use plans
Organisation control systems
Negative feedback loops
Performance appraisal
Selection
The four stages of HRD
Potential problems

4. Workplace learning Supervisor is the key actor
The worksite is the crucible for learning
Unique space in knowledge management
spans both the legitimate system and the shadow system
Well managed workplace learning curriculum then moves seamlessly into the creative process of the shadow system

5. A systems approach (cont)
Shadow system
Emergent strategic plans
Creativity
Draws organisation towards inequilibrium
Individuals in relationships
Self-organising groups and communities of practice
Networks
Learning partnerships

6. Bounded instability
Both systems have sufficient and appropriate power to undertake their roles
The responsibility of the shadow system
Select or create SOGs
Develop SOGs
Use political processes
The responsibility of the legitimate system
Avoid defence mechanisms
Use embedding process
A seamless transition
One system morphs into the other

7. The paradox Good organisational governance is based on a paradox
the need for conformity and creativity.
To achieve the state of bounded instability
Accessibility of the leader
Encourage employees to have a noteworthy and practical input
Negate status and power
Establish informal spaces for all staff

8. Organisational culture
Patterns of basic assumptions
Invented or discovered by the group
To cope with external adaptations and internal integration
Worked well over a long period of time;
Taught to new members
Formed, over time, by a number of influences
philosophy and values founding members
strategic orientation
primary function and technology
Size
beliefs and values of the current senior management/key staff
Organisational culture eats strategy for lunch

9. Organisational culture (cont)
Elements of organisational culture
Level 1: Artefacts and creations
Level 2: Espoused values
Level 3: Basic underlying values
Web of factors
Routine behaviours & Processes
Rituals
Stories
Symbols
Power structures
Control systems
Organisation structure

10. Types of organisational culture
Determining factors
degree of risk
speed of feedback
process (from flexibility to control)
focus (internal to external)
Four types – see Figure 14.2
Teamwork
Entrepreneurial
Bureaucratic
Premeditative.

11. Four types of organisational culture
Team work
Focus on the group and creativity
Attention is on the internal environment
Flexibility and participation in decision making
Speed in feedback to staff is essential
Ensure staff are empowered
Social events used to enhance morale
Cohesion achieved by commitment to the group
Produce volume - at the expense of quality?

12. Four types (cont) Entrepreneurial
Creativity as well as innovation and agility
Focused on the demands of the external environment
Risk taking, individual freedom, and initiative
Quick feedback, but only at the informational level
Flexibility, resource acquisition, continual adaption to the external environment, and individual competition
Internal conflict and intense pressure is often the norm
Star performers are highly valued
Aim for the organisation to be at the leading edge
Can cause a non-cohesive and erratic culture, with a lack of trust and high staff turnover

13. Four types (cont) Bureaucratic Focus on the internal environment
Control, particularly the control of the individual
Explicit standing plans, associated control systems and routine
Clear structure, with power distributed accordingly
Authority centralised
Emphasis is on low risks and slow feedback
Attention to minor detail, formality, and technical perfection
Maintain stability and predictability
Assumes close-to-certainty external environment

14. Four types (cont) Premeditative
Focuses on the external, clearly understanding of client needs
Strong control over processes
Competition between individuals and groups is encouraged
Stresses achievement of well defined goals being
Sense of deliberateness
Values clarity in tasks, achieving goals, quality, and efficiency
Large-stake decisions with high risk but slow feedback
Hierarchical system of authority, with decisions from the top
Desire to be market leader through high-quality inventions and scientific breakthroughs
Culture is vulnerable to short-term fluctuations

15. The multi-dimensional view
One culture for the legitimate system
PLP had a premedative culture
Another culture for the shadow system
PLP had a teamwork culture
Culture should link the two sub-cultures
PLP “don’t let colleagues down”

16. Leadership Transactional leadership Transformational leadership
Uses negative feedback loops and single-loop learning
Most useful in situations
Under near-to-certainty conditions
When facing clear, familiar tasks
That is, operating in the legitimate system
Transformational leadership
Appeal to the emotional, motivational and developmental needs
Reframe stressful situations as opportunities
Provides necessary support (e.g., positive feedback)
Theory-in-Use Model II
That is, operating in the shadow system

17. Judicious amalgamation
Of leadership
medium level of transactional leadership maximises the positive effects of transformational leadership
Of culture
Multi-dimensional approach needed
Different but supporting cultures for legitimate and shadow systems
Of leadership and culture - For example
Will need transactional for bureaucratic and transformational for teamwork