Section: the linear file
Information professionals have a passionate belief in the motto Knowledge Is Power. For years this rallying cry has been used to encourage clients, students, and library patrons to fully exploit the electronic information sources available to them. Sometimes the information professional wants to do the searching on an intermediary basis. Increasingly, information professionals are enticing their end-users with self-service research programs.
Vendors of electronic research products are, if anything, even more vociferous in their advocacy of equating knowledge with power. Individual vendors are, of course, out to convince both information professionals and end-users not just that knowledge is power, but that the particular knowledge to be gleaned from their databases will give researchers more power than that offered by their competitors.
UNDERLYING PREMISES
Two fundamental elements underlie the Knowledge Is Power motto. One is the military model. Winning battles depends upon military intelligence. Knowing the opponent's battle plan, resources, and strike capabilities gives tremendous advantage, as does preventing the opponent from knowing the same for your forces. This military metaphor carries over to the business world--marketing campaigns are waged, target companies are acquired by conquering companies, and markets are won or lost.
Then there's primal fear. Students are afraid of doing poorly on examinations and research papers. Scientists are afraid their primary research efforts will be invalidated by prior research documented in the secondary literature. The general public is afraid of purchasing shoddy goods and of overpaying for products they want. To counteract these fears, individuals rely upon electronic information using the Internet and commercial databases. One of the best things about the Internet is its empowerment of the general public to find out for themselves how much power there is in knowledge.
SHARE THE WEALTH
Some believe the Knowledge Is Power rallying cry is outmoded. The new discipline of knowledge management is out to convince both the public and private sectors that Knowledge Sharing Is Power. Companies that pool their knowledge, create a central knowledge base, and reward employees for sharing knowledge gain a competitive edge. Institutionalizing knowledge transfer, collaborative work habits, and learning from both successes and failures benefits companies and can have a direct impact on the bottom line. There are many ways to foster knowledge sharing. Some organizations encourage personal home pages on their intranets and reward for the number of hits received. Others celebrate achievements gained as a direct result of knowledge sharing. Note the emphasis on non-monetary motivation factors. Research shows that personal recognition of individuals rather than financial recompense is key to creating an environment where knowledge sharing is so deeply in-grained no one considers not sharing. One example is CMG, Inc., the company creating a knowledge management system for the UK's Department of Trade and Industry. This company is so open that every employee's personnel record, including salary figures, is readily available. Large consulting firms are also in the forefront, pooling information about individual practice areas and customers.
There are many organizations, however, where I can imagine the concept of knowledge sharing is a hard sell. Although the effort is laudatory and clear benefits derive to companies and governmental agencies that effectively practice knowledge sharing, primeval forces of self-interest are still extant. Take a company whose sales force has overlapping territories. These people can be in competition with each other for the same customers, giving them no incentive to share customer knowledge. Companies with a "slash and burn" mentality are similarly unlikely to be successful at convincing employees to share knowledge. Although a common knowledge base might benefit the company, there is no guarantee that long-term rewards will accrue to the knowledge sharer. In these days of intense corporate mergers and acquisitions, many employees remain wary about their career advancement and are prone to hoard knowledge rather than share.
Those wishing to change people's underlying conviction that Knowledge Is Power to the more challenging Knowledge Sharing Is Power will need patience and a clear reward system. They will need to appeal to people's sense of self-interest and make explicit what's in it for those asked to share their knowledge. More than that, they will need the trust of all those involved--employees, customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders. Without trust, knowledge management cannot be successful.
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By Marydee Ojala, Editor, DATABASE