Asian innovation starts with good organizational knowledge, K: K could be in the form of people talent, processes, technology, and the social web of an organization. How then does one manage K? We inspect the sources, blockages, catalysts, routes, techniques, and processes of K in modern organizations.

Knowledge, if mismanaged, literally “walks out the door” : highly skilled and knowledgeable people quit and take their good ideas away. Less obvious is that people who stay might be creating knowledge, only for it to be wasted (like excess energy) because people fail to store it, nurture it, communicate it—even identify it as knowledge. KM is therefore key to not only competitiveness, but continued existence of a company. It is literally the DNA of a company; without it, the company collapses.
Where does knowledge reside? First, in the heads of people in organizations. Managing knowledge seems to be a perennial problem of retaining human talent, whether backroom operators or frontliners. You do your best to keep the good ones, let go the non performers, and outsource for the rest. Second, knowledge lives in the “memory” of the organization: the company’s standards and practices; specific work procedures (how to sell, how to produce, how to deliver); in the stories and folklore and culture. Third, knowledge lies in team and group interactions, and in relationships with suppliers, competitors, and customers.

KM is how we set up to capture or create, store, map, search, share, and reuse people knowledge, organizational memory, and connections. KM goes beyond training: how can we make an organization self-training, or learning? How do you “pull the trigger” and take action? How do you use knowledge to respond to crises? Finally, another problem with K is that it is hard to measure--so how can it be managed? When you move knowledge to action, you get true benefits to the organization.

Participants will learn about the concepts and frameworks about knowledge:

Learning organizations
Nonaka and Takeuchi’s model: the K-spiral
Teams and psychological safety
Social Networks
Communities of practice
Knowledge Technologies

*本学の教育ミッションを具現化する形で設定されています。

By the end of the course, you will be able to:

1. Identify best practices of hiring and retaining knowledge talent.
2. Set up practices of good KM.
3. Leverage networks of knowledge
4. Capture and store knowledge

教育手法 Teaching Method		% of Course Time
インプット型 Traditional		0 %
参加者中心型 Participant-Centered Learning	ケースメソッド Case Method	100 %
	フィールドメソッド Field Method	0 %
合計 Total		100 %

The course is a combination of a few lectures and many class discussions. I will grade participation in both class discussions and learning team breakout rooms. How actively do you participate by sharing your ideas with others, collaborating with teams, and contributing insights to the group? This is 70% of your grade.

There are no prerequisite subjects. Students should read the short articles from the web for each class, as well as prepare the cases. There will be a final paper due one week after the last class. Instructions TBA during class. Email electronic PDFs direct to lim_ricardo@nucba.ac.jp. The paper is 30% of your grade.

*成績は下記該当項目を基に決定されます。
*クラス貢献度合計はコールドコールと授業内での挙手発言の合算値です。

講師用内規準拠 Method of Assessment	Weights
コールドコール Cold Call	0 %
授業内での挙手発言 Class Contribution	70 %
クラス貢献度合計 Class Contribution Total	70 %
予習レポート Preparation Report	30 %
小テスト Quizzes / Tests	0 %
シミュレーション成績 Simulation	0 %
ケース試験 Case Exam	0 %
最終レポート Final Report	0 %
期末試験 Final Exam	0 %
参加者による相互評価 Peer Assessment	0 %
合計 Total	100 %

評価の留意事項　Notes on Evaluation Criteria

• 配布資料

OPTIONAL READINGS:

Team of Teams, by Stanley MacChrystal (McChrystal, G. S. A., Silverman, D., Collins, T., & Fussell, C. (2015). Team of teams. Portfolio Penguin) or read the summary at https://www.grahammann.net/book-notes/team-of-teams-general-stanley-mcchrystal

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management

http://johnseelybrown.com/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_reliability_organization

I offered KM in the Fall semesters the past three years. The course received average ratings of 4.65, 4.70, and 4.70 from 2021 to 2023, respectively. Here were some student comments:

"The participation was very easy in this course as the teacher enabled us to talk a lot. He was very enthusiastic and participants raised very interesting topics and subjects. Activities were interesting and the final project with our group was valuable too."
“Practical examples from the instructor on the class content.”
“The way of Professor asking paved the way of discussion to a deeper level, the class helped us to understand the nature of Knowledge Management.”
“Lots of useful examples of knowledge management which I can apply at my own workplace.”
“The knowledge models and how they are applied to actual organizations. The different steps of knowledge creation and how its stored and distributed throughout an organization was very interesting.”

There were some negative comments:

“Some cases (are) a little old, if we can discuss latest case will be better.”
“While the cases provided this opportunity, it would have been interesting to see the application of the whole knowledge model on a specific/actual context to bring the generalization back to something concrete.”
"Some cases were not discussed in depth, even though we were required to read all of them."

I will be updating the case selection for future versions of the course.

Refereed Articles

• (2023) Determinants of Conspicuous Consumption in Smartphones. Asia Pacific Journal of Information Systems 33(3): 2288-5404
• (2023) A Study of Satisfaction and Loyalty for Continuance Intention of Mobile Wallet in India. International Journal of E-Adoption (IJEA) 15(1): 1937-9633
• (2021) Developing and Testing a Smartphone Dependency Scale Assessing Addiction Risk. International Journal of Risk and Contingency Management 10(4): 2160-9624
• (2021) Business Model Innovation: A Study of Empowering Leadership. Creativity and Innovation Management 1467-8691
• (2021) The Effect of Reciprocity on Mobile Wallet Intention: A Study of Filipino Consumers. International Journal of Asian Business and Information Management 12(2): 1947-9638