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building a knowledge management model at brazil s embrapa brazilian agricultural research corporation towards a knowledge-based view of organizations rivadávia correa drummond de alvarenga neto1 and job lúcio gomes vieira2 fundação dom cabral fdc brazil 2 embrapa brazil 1 rivadavia@fdc.org.br joblucio@sede.embrapa.br abstract this paper investigates and analyses the process of building a knowledge management km model at brazils embrapa the brazilian agricultural research corporation embrapa is a world class knowledge organization whose mission is to provide feasible solutions for the sustainable development of brazilian agribusiness through knowledge and technology generation and transfer the qualitative research strategy used was the study of a single case with incorporated units of analysis and two criteria were observed for the judgment of the quality of the research project validity of the construct and reliability multiple sources of evidence were used and data analysis consisted of three flows of activities data reduction data displays and conclusion drawing/verification the results revealed a robust km model made of four dynamic axes i strategy a strategic conception of information and knowledge use ii environment four different groups of enabling conditions social-behavioral information/communication cognitive/epistemic and business/managerial sine qua non conditions for successful implementation iii tool box ­ sets of it tools and managerial practices and iv results ­ in terms of outputs being both tangible and intangible assets the conclusions suggest that a collaborative building of a km model in a diverse and geographically dispersed organization is more likely to succeed than one that is build and implemented from the top-down perspective embrapas km model is more inclined to be a knowledge-based view of organization than merely a km model limitations of the study and suggestions for future research are also discussed keywords knowledge management enabling contexts knowledge-based view of organizations the set km model ba embrapa 1 introduction knowledge creation is a fragile organizational process particularly towards the nature of knowledge itself fluid dynamic intangible tacit and explicit embodied in individual and groups socially constructed and constrained by individual and organizational barriers von krogh et al.1997 2000 in this paper knowledge is approached through a constructionist perspective as human cognition is not an act of representation and not just a machine for information processing and logical reasoning in the constructionist perspective cognition is an act of construction and creation maturana and varela,1987 as well as knowledge is tacit explicit and cultural choo,1998 knowledge resides in ones cognition as well as in between creative heads with synergetic purposes alvarenga neto 2005 2008 organizational knowledge creation is generally associated with km which is a controversial complex and multifaceted subject in spite of the fact that the term km is not yet stable theres been a growing interest worldwide within the past two decades from academics to practitioners in the management of organizational knowledge and its related topics such as organizational epistemology tsoukas,2005 knowledge creation processes choo,1998 knowledge-based theory of the firm nonaka et al 2006 enabling context and conditions von krogh et al 2000 knowledge types blackler 1995 knowledge assets boisot 1998 knowledge taxonomies alavi and leidner 2001 and km implementation alvarenga neto et.al 2009 among others in our studies within the last ten years concerning the management of knowledge in world-class organizations similar topics and approaches have been discussed but above all weve stressed out four main concerns i a long standing misinterpretation that considers km and information management im as synonyms we shall call this information reductionism as the map is not the territory tsoukas 2005 im is just one of the components of km as km also incorporates concerns as to the creation sharing and enabling context/conditions for organizational knowledge creation ii a long overlooked topic in the km literature km implementation processes alvarenga neto et al 2009 iii an empirically under-explored concept the concept of ba or enabling context the ontological platform for knowledge creation alvarenga neto choo 2010 and finally iv organizational km models and the processes of building them issn 1479-4411 85 ©academic publishing international ltd reference this paper as de alvarenga neto r c d and vieira j l g building a knowledge management model at brazil s embrapa brazilian agricultural research corporation towards a knowledge-based view of organizations the electronic journal of knowledge management volume 9 issue 2 pp85-97 available online at www.ejkm.com

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electronic journal of knowledge management volume 9 issue 2 2011 as we tried to address the first three issues at the past icickm conferences since 2006 we decided to move on and focus our attention on organizational km models and the processes of building them what km models are organizations using how solid is their theoretical/conceptual backgrounds most important how are the processes of building km models being conducted is it a collective process or an imposition from the top-down perspective are we talking about km models or about knowledge based view of organizations what can we learn from the knowledge based views of the firm on that ground as we cant answer all of the questions above our main objective in this paper is to investigate and analyze the process of building a km model in a world-class organization for this purpose we have chosen brazils embrapa the brazilian agricultural research corporation embrapa is a world class knowledge organization whose mission is to provide feasible solutions for the sustainable development of brazilian agribusiness through knowledge and technology generation and transfer embrapa faces the problem of being a knowledge-intensive organization whose units are complex diverse and geographically dispersed over the brazilian territory the problems faced are well known as they seem to be widely discussed in the literature huge knowledge loss over time inability to locate knowledge constant re-invention of the wheel duplication of efforts rising costs among others for this reason embrapas top-administration wanted to think about organizational epistemology and thereafter build its own km model with full awareness of its identity culture history and peculiarities the psychologist george miller 1956 in his famous article the magic number seven plus or minus two some limits in our capacity for processing information suggested the inclination human beings have to classify things into seven due to the fact that this magic number reflects the chunks of information we are able to store in our short-term memories we too somehow serendipitously ended up in this paper with such a pernicious pythagorean coincidence mintzberg 1989 as it is structured around millers magical number i this introduction ii a theoretical/conceptual framework for km based on the set km model alvarenga neto 2005 2008 alvarenga neto et al 2009 and knowledge based views of organizations grant 1996 nonaka et al 2006 ­ which were utilized as starting points for the constitution of think-tanks within embrapa iii the studys approach and methodology iv results v conclusions and vi references the results shall be presented in the lines below 2 a theoretical/conceptual framework for km the theoretical/conceptual frameworks considered in this paper are based on two complementary perspectives that is to say 2.1 the set km model alvarenga neto 2005 2008 alvarenga neto et al 2009 and 2.2 knowledge based views of organizations grant 1996 nonaka et al 2006 ­ which were utilized as starting points for the constitution of think-tanks within embrapa we are fully aware of the many different perspectives presented by different authors pursuing knowledge­based views of organizations such as grant 1996 teece pisano 1994 prahalad hamel 1990 and nonaka et al 2000,2002,2006 but we have also learnt from scott 2003 that we should combine different perspectives in building our own models and views of the world therefore by utilizing and integrating different concepts ­ such as ba/enabling context enabling conditions the three axes of strategy-context-tool box common knowledge knowledge integration knowledge vision and incentives among others ­ we were able to revisit the literature in a comprehensive way to what the state of art is well explore each in the lines below before discussing the methodology used 2.1 the set km model as a dynamic model to unify the trinity of strategy knowledge vision environment enabling context toolbox action alvarenga neto 2005 2008 souza alvarenga neto 2003 and alvarenga neto souza barbosa neves 2008 proposed a km integrative conceptual mapping proposition as a result of their researches of multiple case studies in world class organization within the past decade the multiple case studies involved km initiatives of 23 international firms such as 3m dow chemical xerox pricewaterhousecoopers siemens ctc sugarcane technology center ernst young british telecom microsoft novartis and chevron among others this so called km integrative conceptual mapping proposition was further developed by one of the authors within his work at fundação dom cabral ­ a brazilian business school into a comprehensive km model used as theoretical framework for executive education and consulting services in many different best-in-class organizations within the brazilian organizational context such as embrapa anglo america mittal steel astra zeneca the linde group nec petrobras prosegur santander abn amro bank and local state governments among others henceforth this model is entitled the set km model a dynamic model to drive the www.ejkm.com 86 ©academic publishing international ltd

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rivadávia correa drummond de alvarenga neto et al km strategy into action by unifying the trinity istrategy knowledge vision knowledge as a potential to act and knowledge as a commitment to act iienvironment the enabling context for knowledge creation hereafter ba and iii toolbox the it tools and managerial practices used to drive the organizational knowledge strategy into action as mentioned above the set km model is grounded on three basic conceptions as for now explained in details that is to say i strategy ­ a strategic conception of organizational information and knowledge as proposed by choo 1998 in his knowing organization model ii environment the creation of an enabling context or ba the shared contexts in motion where organizational knowledge is created shared and utilized plus the enabling conditions that should be provided by the organizations to energize and support its different ba types care trust commitment lenience in judgment tolerance to honest mistakes openness to multiple and conflicting mind-sets etc as suggested by nonaka and konno 1998 von krogh et al 2000 and alvarenga neto 2005 2008 iii toolbox the provision of it tools and managerial practices/processes to drive the strategy into action intranets portals information systems processes for information management yellow pages best practices repositories places for face-to-face interaction front line contact with customers and other external environments actors informal circles storytelling communities of practice ojt and other practices of organizational learning among others these three conceptions will be thoroughly discussed below i the set km model part i a strategic conception for information and knowledge use in organizations choo 1998 asserts that the knowing organizations are those which use information strategically in the context of three arenas namely a sense making b knowledge creation and c decision making these three highly interconnected processes play a strategic role as to the unfoldment of the organizations knowledge vision its potential to knowledge creation and its commitment into taking knowledge creation to the utmost consequences concerning a sense making its long term goal is the warranty that organizations will adapt and continue to prosper in a dynamic and complex environment through activities of prospecting and interpretation of relevant information enabling it to understand changes trends and scenarios about clients suppliers competitors and other external environment actors organizations face issues such as the reduction of uncertainty and the management of ambiguity b knowledge creation is a process that allows an organization to create or acquire organize and process information in order to generate new knowledge through organizational learning the new knowledge generated in its turn allows the organization to develop new abilities and capabilities create new products and new services improve the existing ones and redesign its organizational processes this process reveals the organizations potential to act the third component of choos 1998 model involves c decision-making the organization must choose the best option among those that are plausible and presented and pursue it based on the organizations strategy decision making process in organizations is constrained by the bounded rationality principle as advocated by march simon 1975 many inferences can be made upon the decision making theory choo 1998 lists a few of them i the decision making process is driven by the search for alternatives that are satisfactory or good enough rather than seeking for the optimal solution ii the choice of one single alternative implies in giving up the remaining ones and concomitantly in the emergence of trade-offs or costs of opportunity iii a completely rational decision would require information beyond the capability of the organization to collect and information processing beyond the human capacity to execute the decision-making process results in the organization commitment for action its imperative to take choos 1998 strategic conception of the knowing organization model and place it in the context of organizational levels/structure as a way to incorporate it into organizational km or km models such as the set km model presented here as shown in figure 1 at the end of this section knowing what to do is not enough pfeffer sutton 2000 as the firm must turn its knowledge into action as one can note in figure 1 the tactical level stands/sits in between the strategic and operational levels our argument here is that in between the strategic intentions and visions of top-management and the chaotic reality of operational level workers the role of leadership www.ejkm.com 87 issn 1479-4411

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electronic journal of knowledge management volume 9 issue 2 2011 in the tactical level is to create an environment that not only enables but mainly energizes the creation and sharing of organizational knowledge hereafter the environmental conditions may be translated into the japanese concept of ba nonaka konno 1998 nonaka et.al 2006 therefore ba is the bridge that links strategy to action and this re-defines the role of leadership of middlemanagers in the means of knowledge enablers or knowledge activists this conception will be discussed as part ii of the set km model ii the set km model part ii environment the creation of ba or/and an enabling context for organizational knowledge creation and sharing the concept of ba was first introduced in the management literature by nonaka and konno 1998 and further developed and enhanced until nonakas et al 2006 inclusion of the concept into a comprehensive yet contested tsoukas 2005 snowden 2003 knowledge-based theory of the firm we argue that knowledge without a context is meaningless knowledge needs a context to be created and this context is ba according to nonaka et al 2006 ba is defined as a shared context in motion in which knowledge is created shared and utilized it can be physical office space dispersed business unit and/or virtual e-mail videoconference and/or mental shared ideals and ideas it can emerge in individuals working groups project teams informal circles and front-line contact with customers there are four types of ba originating interacting or dialoguing cyber or systemizing exercising each of which corresponding to each one of nonaka and takeuchis 1995 seci model of knowledge creation to the concept of ba knowledge activists should add the enabling conditions e.g care trust commitment lenience in judgment tolerance to honest mistakes manage conversations among others that must be provided by the organization to energize and support its different types of ba its a sine qua non condition to highlight the fact that ba and enabling conditions are not synonyms but rather complementary concepts the different types of ba need different types/combinations of enabling conditions the creation of organizational knowledge is in fact the augmentation of knowledge created by individuals once fulfilled the contextual conditions that should be supplied or enabled by the organization this is what von krogh et al 2000 call enabling conditions for knowledge creation and sharing alvarenga netos 2005 2008 definition of enabling context mirrors von kroghs et al 2001 and nonakas et al 2006 conceptions the propitious conditions created by the organization in order to favour stimulate and reward sharing learning upcoming of new ideas and innovation tolerance to honest mistakes and collaborative problem solving alvarenga neto 2005 2008 ts alvarenga netos 2008 argument that ba and enabling conditions are needed in the tactical level ­ and achieved through middle-managers leadership in order to bridge the existing gap between strategy and action in this context the understanding of the word management when associated with the word knowledge should not mean control but promotion of activities of knowledge creation and sharing in the organizational space hence km assumes a new hermeneutic perspective ­ from knowledge as a resource to knowledge as a capability from knowledge management to a management towards the context where knowledge emerges and is socially constructed nonaka takeuchi 1995 and von krogh et al 2000 also list other elements that shape the enabling context namely creative chaos redundancy layout organizational culture and human behavior leadership intention or vision of future and empowerment not to mention organizational structure and layout among others in a recent publication alvarenga neto choo 2010 explored the development of the concept of ba in a number of disciplines in order to understand its theoretical evolution and practical application their results point out to the identification of four major groups of enabling conditions ­ social/behavioral cognitive/epistemic informational and business/managerial which can be singly or freely combined into different knowledge processes ­ creation sharing/transfer and use ­ occurring in different levels of interactions ­ individual group organizational and inter-organizational based on these results alvarenga neto choo 2010 proposed a decision cube in the form of a framework for designing enabling contexts in knowledge organizations their work enhanced our conception of ba or enabling context iii the set km model part iii toolbox the provision of it tools and managerial practices/processes to drive the organizational knowledge strategy into action www.ejkm.com 88 ©academic publishing international ltd

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rivadávia correa drummond de alvarenga neto et al last but not least the toolbox metaphor assumes that knowledge workers need managerial practices/processes and it tools to leverage the knowledge that exists solely in ones cognition and in the magic space between creative heads in synergy of purposes and action we advocate that out of peoples heads and out of a context ba knowledge is not only meaningless but also equaled to information km encompasses in its aegis many themes managerial approaches/processes/practices and it tools that concern the use of information and knowledge in the daily activities of the knowing organization alvarenga neto 2005 2008 highlights a few of these processes and tools encompassed under km initiative/processes in the firms considered in his studies which he named the km umbrella metaphor strategic information management it intellectual capital organizational learning competitive intelligence communities of practice among others these knowledge tools in a knowledge toolbox are orchestrated ­ solo and collectively ­ in the daily and creative routines of firms committed to the management of knowledge the use and emphasis will vary depending on directions provided by the strategic level and coordinated/enabled by middlemanagers in the tactical level for example if an organization focuses its strategy in the sense making arena in order to collect and interpret information concerning the different actors of the external environment it can rely ­ at the operational level ­ in specific tools for achieving action coordination such as competitive intelligence or market research the same thing applies when the firm focuses on the strategic arena of knowledge creation ­ communities of practice and spaces/approaches to organizational learning practices are tools that drive the strategic concept knowledge creation into action its exactly the interrelation and permeability between those many themes that enable and delimitate the upbringing of a possible theoretical framework which can be entitled the set km model figure 1 illustrates the set km model as a multifaceted organizational process that involves i a strategy b the creation of an organizational environment or space for knowledge known as the enabling context or the japanese concept of ba which in its turn is quintessential to bridge the gap between organizational strategy and organizational action and iii an operational/action toolbox consisting of it tools and managerial practices to effectively put the strategy into action hereafter well substitute the tactical level for environment and the operational level for toolbox figure 1 the set km model source alvarenga neto 2008 figure 2 updates alvarenga netos 2005 2008 original set km model to enhance the concept of ba into four groups of enabling conditions going beyond the social-behavioral aspects as proposed by alvarenga neto choo 2010 www.ejkm.com 89 issn 1479-4411

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electronic journal of knowledge management volume 9 issue 2 2011 figure 2 the set km model updated based on alvarenga neto choos 2009 source adapted by alvarenga neto choo 2010 2.2 knowledge based-view of organizations grant 1996 suggests that a firm is conceptualized as an institution for integrating knowledge therefore he explores the coordination mechanisms through which firms integrate the specialist knowledge of their members in clear contrast to earlier literature ­ including nonakas ­ knowledge is viewed as residing within the individual and the primary role of the organization is knowledge application rather than knowledge creation grant 1996 grant 1996 also suggests four integrating mechanisms for integrating specialized knowledge i rules and directives ii sequencing iii routines and iv group problem solving and decision making although these four mechanisms for knowledge integration are necessitated by the differentiation of individuals stock of knowledge grant 1996 affirms that they all depend upon the existence of common knowledge for their operation different types of common knowledge fulfill different roles in knowledge integration e.g language and other forms of symbolic conversations shared meaning and recognition of individual knowledge domains among others theres a strong link here between grants view and one major group of enabling contexts ­ cognitive/epistemic identified by alvarenga neto choo 2010 nonakas et al 2000 2002 2006 propositions for a dynamic organizational knowledge creation theory are synthesized in figure 3 where ba or enabling context is one of the components of each organizational knowledge creation is defined as the process of making available and amplifying knowledge created by individuals as well as crystallizing and connecting it to an organization s knowledge system organizational knowledge creation theory proposes concepts and relationships regarding organizational enabling conditions and ba organizational forms as well as leadership that explain the conundrum of firm differences and hence provide the building blocks of a knowledge-based theory of the firm due to the inter-subjective nature of knowledge firms differ because organizational knowledge creation gives rise to unique organizational knowledge systems nonaka et al 2006 nonaka et al 2000 enhanced the idea of ba proposed by nonaka konno 1998 in order to understand the dynamic process in which an organization creates maintains and exploits knowledge for this they proposed a model of knowledge creation consisting of three elements i the seci process ii ba the shared context in motion for knowledge creation and iii knowledge assets www.ejkm.com 90 ©academic publishing international ltd

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rivadávia correa drummond de alvarenga neto et al appending to nonaka and konno 1998 they assert that knowledge needs a context to be created since there s no creation without place in knowledge creation generation and regeneration of ba is the key as ba provides the energy quality and place to perform the individual conversions and to move along the knowledge spiral knowledge is created through the interactions amongst individuals or between individuals and their environments ba is the context shared by those who participate in ba ba is the place where information is interpreted to become knowledge nonaka et al 2000 figure 3 synthesis of nonakas et al 2000 2002 2006 propositions towards a knowledge-based theory of the firm source adapted by the authors according to nonaka et al 2006 the context for knowledge creation is ba and a central purpose of organizational knowledge creating theory is to identify conditions enabling knowledge creation in order to improve innovation and learning alvarenga neto choo 2010 revisited the post concept of ba as discussed in the lines above to analyze and discus the development of the concept of ba in a number of disciplines in order to understand its theoretical evolution and practical application their findings suggest the emergence of five major categories as ways of grouping their research findings namely i conceptual/theoretical where the concept of ba was used for ­ or as a basis of/part of new conceptual or theoretical propositions discussions or papers where further theoretical and empirical support was proposed to the concept of ba by nonaka and colleagues ii social/behavioral related to norms and values that guides interactions and relationships such as trust care empathy attentive enquiry and tolerance to honest mistakes among others iii cognitive/epistemic related to common knowledge or shared epistemic values and commitments iv informational regarding im information management it information technology and is information www.ejkm.com 91 issn 1479-4411

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electronic journal of knowledge management volume 9 issue 2 2011 systems as well as information/communication processes and iv business/managerial related to general organizational issues such as strategy processes structure support resources and organizational culture among others we found this literature review to be satisficing for the establishment of think-tanks within embrapa as far as it goes this review served as a starting point for the development of a reasonable repertoire within embrapas employees 3 methodology the qualitative research strategy used was the study of a single case with incorporated units of analysis and two criteria were observed for the judgment of the quality of the research project validity of the construct and reliability multiple sources of evidence were used ­ semi-structured interviews documental analysis and direct/participant observation and data analysis consisted of three flows of activities data reduction data displays and conclusion drawing/verification eisenhardt 1989 miles huberman 1994 embrapas mission is to provide feasible solutions for the sustainable development of brazilian agribusiness through knowledge and technology generation and transfer from the very beginning on april 26 1973 embrapa has generated and recommended more than nine thousand technologies for brazilian agriculture reduced production costs and helped brazil to increase the offer of food while at the same time conserving natural resources and the environment and diminishing external dependence on technologies basic products and genetic materials networking through 38 research centers 3 service centers and 13 central divisions embrapa is present in almost all the states of the union each with its own ecological conditions there are 8,275 employees in embrapa of which 2,113 are researchers 25 with master s degrees and 74 with doctoral degrees embrapa coordinates the national agricultural research system which includes most public and private entities involved in agricultural research in the country embrapa maintains projects in international cooperation in order to perfect knowledge of technical and scientific activities or to share knowledge and technology with other countries www.embrapa.br figure 4 represents embrapas organizational structure figure 4 embrapas organizational structure source www.embrapa.br access june 3rd 2010 www.ejkm.com 92 ©academic publishing international ltd

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rivadávia correa drummond de alvarenga neto et al embrapas headquarters is located in brazils capital brasília as show in figure 5 figure 5 embrapas headquarters source www.embrapa.br access march 21st 2011 further documental analysis was helpful to understand the role and responsibilities of embrapas board of directors and central divisions as well as the organizations sensemaking as to what they call the great brazilian national challenges in agriculture the board of directors and the central divisions located at headquarters are responsible for the management of the institution which include planning supervising coordinating and controlling the activities related to agricultural research and agricultural policies the great brazilian national challenges in agriculture research and development r d strategic projects conducted a multiinstitutional complex array requiring a high volume of resources are the main features of the projects that compose 1 the macroprogram 1 great national challenges portfolio as part of the brazilian corporation for research in agriculture embrapa system of project management seg the seg was designed to provide the necessary tools to manage the whole life cycle of r d projects as they are planning financial resources release conduction follow ups and final evaluation it also provides embrapa with a better organizational flexibility and transparence in generating technology.the induction and financement of r d projects occur throught the macroprograms mp with the purpose to compose and manage a strategic portfolio of projects of high technical and scientific quality in order to accomplish the institutional goals.we present in this folders portfolio the 18 projects of mp1 representing the greatest themes into the brazilian research scenary capable to induce the establishment of large research nets each one of these projects comprises from 120 to 550 researchers from embrapa and collaborating institutes the research nets are clearly enhancing in a very organized way the scientific knowledge in agriculture www.embrapa.br macroprogram 1 is composed of 18 projects ­ listed below and the description of their strategy objectives highlights and impacts are publicly available at embrapas website 1 embrapas management system is composed of 6 macroprograms macroprogram 1 or simply mp1 relates to embrapas greatest national challenges www.ejkm.com 93 issn 1479-4411

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electronic journal of knowledge management volume 9 issue 2 2011 precision in agriculture environmental services in agricultural landscapes alternative agroenergy functional foods ­ adding value to health promoting foods important to brazilian agribusiness technologies for aquaculture bioseg biosafety on gm crops high quality beef science and technology for organic agriculture conserving the national genetic resources of brazil creating tools for plant protection forests for energy production measuring the environmental social and economic impacts of beef industry nanotechnology the power of the quasi-invisible sustainable production of sugarcane for energy purposes genomics technologies for the development of water-use efficient plants technologies for biodiesel production genomics for the advancement of animal breeding and production climatic risks zoning for small farming agriculture bioenergy and pastures embrapas utmost importance in the brazilian and world scenarios is attested by penteado filho avila 2009 who asses ­ through bibliometric analysis ­ the participation of embrapas research centers in the periodicals indexed in the web of science database from 1996 to 2006 their results indicate that embrapa is among the top ten leading brazilian institutions in the volume of articles published in indexed periodicals way ahead of the majority of brazilian universities its exactly for the statements and reasons above ­ that fact that embrapa is a knowing organization ­ that a km model was necessary to drive strategy into action the results of our study in the building of a km model at embrapa will be presented in the following section 4 results through documental research and participant observation ­ strategic plans macro-processes maps regional business units plans committees and meetings among others ­ we found out that km is a key-issue in embrapas strategy one of its strategic macro-processes points out km and competitive intelligence as key issues for strategy implementation for this reason a committee was established by top-administration to develop embrapas km model embrapas km committee was fully aware of other organizations experience and approach to km models when a km model was imposed from the top-perspective or proposed solely by a group of notables in the organization the results werent exactly inspiring this awareness was confirmed by semi-structured interviews conducted with strategic/tactical personnel at embrapa for this reason embrapas km committee opted for the involvement of the whole organization in the process of building a km model they knew that embrapa had the knowledge and experience to come to terms with an understandable yet simple/concise km model embrapas first km workshop took place in brazils capital brasilia in the second semester of 2009 during one week embrapas units chiefs r&d chiefs functional managers and directors got together in a hotel/convention center to discuss their strategic km and the building of a model to represent their collective understanding fundação dom cabral ­ a brazilian business school ­ was hired to mediate the process and offer a consistent methodology the proposition had originally three st different perspectives 1 an strategic axis converging to discussions related to strategic nd information/knowledge use and knowledge vision 2 a tactical axis focusing on implementation rd issues and 3 and operational axis ­ discussing the managerial practices and it tools that were sine qua non conditions to drive strategy into action all of the participants were split in 6 different groups to discuss their understanding of the three axes after they had finished they were all reunited in the www.ejkm.com 94 ©academic publishing international ltd

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rivadávia correa drummond de alvarenga neto et al main room to seek consensus uncertainty and ambiguity gave place to passionate debates that represented different views of a complex and dispersed organization after many rounds of social conflict and social consensus embrapas personnel agreed to a km model of 4 axes as represented on figure 6 below figure 5 embrapas km model source developed by the author the results revealed a robust knowledge management model made of four dynamic axes strategy ­ strategic knowledge procesess reflecting embrapas knowledge vision and strategy creation and generation codification of explicit knowledge and coordination of tacit knowledge sharing and protection ­ by defining different levels of interaction individual groups partnerships etc and understanding that its critical knowledge creation and r&d efforts must also be protected from external leaks in early stages use ­ use of knowledge to fulfill embrapa s mission as demanded by the brazilian society environment four different groups of enabling conditions social-behavioral information/communication cognitive/epistemic and business/managerial where adopted alvarenga neto choo 2010 sine qua non conditions for successful implementation the workshops participants stressed that special attention should be placed into the enabling conditions of social/behavioral and cognitive/epistemic tool box ­ sets of it tools and managerial practices that should be make operational all over the organization results ­ in terms of outputs being both tangible and intangible assets 5 conclusions this papers main goals were to investigate and analyze the process of building a km model at brazils embrapa instead of imposing a km model from the top-down perspective embrapas top www.ejkm.com 95 issn 1479-4411

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electronic journal of knowledge management volume 9 issue 2 2011 administration and km committee decided in favor of a collective building and proposition of a km model for more successful implementation the results pointed out for a collective proposal of a dynamic km model made of four different axes strategy implementation toolbox results featuring four different groups of enabling conditions for proper implementation embrapas km model is more inclined to be a knowledge-based view of organization than merely a knowledge management model we want to stress two main conclusions i managing knowledge in organizations is fundamentally about creating an environment in the organization that is conducive to and encourages knowledge creation sharing and use ii a collaborative building of a km model in a complex diverse and geographically dispersed organization is more likely to succeed than one that is build and implemented from the top-down perspective.organizations interested in pursuing km models may wish to be guided by embrapas experience our main conclusions suggest that our tentative conclusions coherently with our researches and studies within the past decade suggest that knowledge as such cannot be managed it is just promoted or stimulated through the creation of a favourable organizational context there is strong qualitative evidence of a major shift in the context of the organizations contemplated in this study and cited in this research from knowledge management to the management of ba and the enabling conditions that favours innovation sharing learning collaborative problem solution tolerance to honest mistakes among others our study is limited so far by a single-case study a few other cases are available in the brazilian organizational context like the one conducted by alvarenga neto et al 2009 and also presented in past icickm conferences no general conclusions can be made and as for future research we recommend the testing of this proposition in different organizations ­ of different size and industries acknowledgements dr rivadávia correa drummond de alvarenga neto wishes to thank fundaÇÃo dom cabral fdc and embrapa for the enabling conditions that resulted in this research report 6 references alavi m leidner d e 2001 review knowledge management and knowledge management systems conceptual foundations and research issues mis quarterly 251 107-136 march alvarenga neto r c .d 2008 gestão do conhecimento em organizações proposta de mapeamento conceitual integrativo [knowledge management in organizations an integrative conceptual mapping proposition são paulo editora saraiva saraiva publishers alvarenga neto r c .d 2005 gestão do conhecimento em organizações proposta de mapeamento conceitual integrativo [knowledge management in organizations an integrative conceptual mapping proposition tese [doctoral thesis in information science belo horizonte ppgci escola de ciência da informação da ufmg alvarenga neto r c .d souza r.r barbosa r.r neves j.t.r strategic knowledge management in search of a knowledge-based organizational model comportamento organizacional gestão vol.14 nº2 2008 alvarenga neto r c .d choo c w 2010 beyond the ba managing enabling contexts in knowledge organizations journal of knowledge management 2010 accepted for publication in the august 2010 edition alvarenga neto r c .d souza r.r queiroz j.g chipp h 2009 implementation of a knowledge management process within the brazilian organizational context the ons experience 6th international conference on intellectual capital knowledge management and organizational learning mcgill university montreal canada academic conferences ltd blackler frank 1995 knowledge knowledge work and organizations an overview and interpretation blackler organization studies 16 1021-1046 boisot m 1998 knowledge assets securing competitive advantage in the information economy oxford oxford university press choo c.w 1998 the knowing organization how organizations use information for construct meaning create knowledge and make decisions new york oxford press eisenhardt k.m 1989 building theories from case study research academy of management review v 14 n.4 532-550 embrapa the organization www.embrapa.br grant robert m 1996 toward a knowledge-based theory of the firm strategic management journal vol 17 special issue knowledge and the firm winter 1996 pp 109-122 march j simon h 1975 limites cognitivos da racionalidade [cognitive limits of rationality in teoria das organizações [organizational theory rio de janeiro:fundação getúlio vargas maturana h varela f 1987 the tree of knowledge boston ma new science library www.ejkm.com 96 ©academic publishing international ltd

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rivadávia correa drummond de alvarenga neto et al miles m b huberman a m 1994 qualitative data analysis an expanded sourcebook thousand oaks california sage miller g.h 1956 the magical number seven plus or minus two some limits on our capacity for processing information the psychological review 1956 vol 63 pp 81-97 mintzberg h 1989 mintzberg on management inside our strange world of organizations new york nonaka i takeuchi h 1995 the knowledge-creating company how japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation new york oxford university press nonaka i toyama r 2002 a firm as a dialectical being towards a dynamic theory of a firm industrial and corporate change 11 995-1009 nonaka i konno n 1998 the concept of ba building a foundation for knowledge creation california management review vol 40 no.3 pp.40-54 nonaka i toyama r konno n 2000 seci ba and leadership a unified model of dynamic knowledge creation long range planning 33 5-34 nonaka i von krogh g voelpel s 2006 organizational knowledge creation theory evolutionary paths and future advances organization studies 27 1179-1208 penteado filho r.c avila a.f.d.a 2009 embrapa brasil análise bibliométrica dos artigos na web of science 1997-2006 [embrapa brazil bibliometric analysis of papers published in the web of science 1997-2006 embrapa informação tecnológica brasília df pfeffer j sutton r.i 2000 the knowing-doing gap boston harvard business school press prahalad c.k hamel g 1990 the core competence of the organization harvard business review 903 79-91 scott r s 2003 organizations rational natural and open systems new jersey prentice hall snowden d 2003 managing for serendipity or why we should lay off best practice in knowledge management in journal of knowledge management ark may 2003 souza r r alvarenga neto r c d 2003 a construção do conceito de gestão do conhecimento práticas organizacionais garantias literárias e o fenômeno social [building the concept of knowledge management organizational practices literary warranties and the social phenomenon in km brasil nov 2003 são paulo anais são paulo 2003 teece d.j pisano g 1994 the dynamic capabilities of firms an introduction industrial and corporate change 3 357-56 the free press tsoukas h 2005 complex knowledge studies in organizational epistemology new york oxford university press von krogh g ichijo k nonaka i o 2000 enabling knowledge creation how to unlock the mystery of tacit knowledge and release the power of innovation oxford new york oxford university press von krogh g nonaka i ichijo k 1997 develop knowledge activists european management journal 15 475-483 www.ejkm.com 97 issn 1479-4411

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knowledge audit with intellectual capital in the quality management process an empirical study in an electronics company percy chi wai chan and w.b lee the hong kong polytechnic university hung hom kowloon hong kong percy.cw.chan@alumni.polyu.edu.hk wb.lee@inet.polyu.edu.hk abstract most of the intellectual capital ic assessment tools are based on a top-down approach which does not explore deeply into the particular business process and the specific knowledge needs those ic assessment tools generally measure the intellectual capital of an organization as the return on intangible assets covering human capital hc such as staff skills innovativeness and work experience structural capital sc such as it systems documents and patents and relational capital rc such as relationship with customers and suppliers traditional ic assessment tools with ic reporting deliverables aim at identifying useful knowledge that can create wealth for the organization in assessing the performance and value creation process in contrary a systematic knowledge audit is a process-oriented and stock-taking approach for evaluating the knowledge healthiness of an organization from the bottom-up there is potential to merge two methodologies into one integrated assessment tool to present a comprehensive ic reporting in an organization knowledge assets underpin the capabilities and core competencies of any organization the importance of a knowledge audit is the first step in determining how knowledge is handled in mission critical business processes in an organization quality management processes are the main subsets inside an organizations critical business processes a knowledge audit provides an evidence based assessment of the knowledge assets within an organization however there is a lack of a systematic approach in the way knowledge audits are conducted in addition there is no standard way of measuring intellectual capital ic through a better understanding of knowledge assets that are captured from a knowledge audit the two different streams of km and ic are complementary and provide the cornerstones for the definition of a managerial framework to identify assess exploit and manage organizational knowledge in view of the importance of the knowledge audit and the deficiencies in the standard ways of ic measurement a structured knowledge audit approach has been applied this paper presents an integration of knowledge audit and ic reporting approach which has been applied in a quality assurance qa department of an electronics company for knowledge assets stock-taking in six specified value added quality management processes vaqmp more than 74 staff over 4 corporate functions and 5 departments in two manufacturing plants from different work levels involving 6 quality management processes from each plant participated in the research 52 participants were provided with various knowledge audit forms to complete in order to provide information about the it tools/platforms documents implicit knowledge as well as the critical industrial technologies in each vaqmp process quantitative and qualitative analysis was then undertaken including stakeholder analysis and the identification of critical knowledge workers industrial technologies crucial documents implicit knowledge as well as the knowledge fountain and knowledge discovery points of the process the outcomes and effectiveness of the knowledge audit were evaluated in both km and ic aspects in most intellectual capital assessment tools the workflow of the business process and the specific knowledge needs are not taken into account on the other hand this structured knowledge audit helps to identify critical organizational knowledge that needs to be captured and transferred for the healthy operation and sustainability of the quality management processes in order to prevent quality crises finally after the consolidation of the explicit and implicit knowledge inventories as well as constructing an ic value tree an intellectual capital statement for the group quality assurance gqa department was produced keywords group quality assurance intellectual capital intellectual capital statement ic value tree taxonomy value added quality management processes 1 introduction in the knowledge economy for a company to maintain a competitive position for a long period of time regardless of its strength is not possible with the short life cycles of knowledge and ignorance of intellectual capital academics and practitioners have proposed a number of definitions of intellectual capital ic their common characteristic is that they all agree that ic consists of specific and organized information which can be used by a firm for a productive purpose edvinsson and sullivan 1996 among all the definitions edvinsson and sullivan 1996 brooking 1996 stewart 1997 roos et al 1997 bontis 1998 the commonly agreed definitions of intellectual capitalic is the importance of knowledge to the firms value creating process though optimization as a process is equally important in the knowledge economy it alone cannot create or maximize value the only way to create value in the knowledge economy is by adopting intellectual capital management icm as the core business process an organizations ability to create value depends on its value added issn 1479-4411 98 ©academic publishing international ltd reference this paper as chan p c w and lee w b knowledge audit with intellectual capital in the quality management process an empirical study in an electronics company the electronic journal of knowledge management volume 9 issue 2 pp98-116 available online at www.ejkm.com

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electronic journal of knowledge management volume 9 issue 2 2011 process its intellectual resources and the creativity of its workforce ­ its intellectual assets al-ali n a 2003 nevertheless most of the intellectual capital assessment tools are based on a top-down approach which does not explore deeply into the particular business process and the specific knowledge needs they measure the intellectual capital of an organization as the return on intangible assets covering human capital hc such as staff skills innovativeness and work experience structural capital sc such as it systems documents and patents and relationship capital rc such as relationship with customers and suppliers they aim at identifying useful knowledge that can create wealth for the organization and in assessing the performance and value creation process on the contrary stocks strategic tools to capture critical knowledge and skills is a processoriented and stock-taking knowledge audit approach that can be utilized for evaluating the knowledge healthiness of an organization it focuses mainly on the identification and assessment of the knowledge inside the processes which is concentrated in the explicit knowledge items e.g part of sc and part of the tacit knowledge items e.g part of hc and gives a more credible overview of the knowledge inventory including identification of knowledge workers the level of codification and relative importance and the level of diffusion within the organization such detailed information is usually not available in the intellectual capital assessment approach the stocks knowledge audit approach and the intellectual capital assessment methodologies serve different purposes but their functions can be complementary although stocks can only evaluate part of hc sc and rc the bottom-up approach of stocks supplements the top-down approach of intellectual capital assessment methodologies therefore there is a potential to merge the two methodologies into one integrated assessment tool to present a comprehensive picture of knowledge management and intellectual capital management in an organization in this study the knowledge audit results were positive in obtaining a pool of useful data the deliverables being the knowledge inventory stakeholders analysis distribution of explicit knowledge knowledge workers and knowledge in the tasks as well as the knowledge map intellectual capital ic indicators were identified by the utilization of the knowledge audit results from the knowledge inventories these ic indicators from the knowledge flow data can be used to reflect the healthiness of the studied km processes such a bottom­up approach in building an ic value tree and then ic reporting for the group quality assurance gqa department is a first in both academic and industrial worlds and is the main or most significant contribution in this paper 2 relationship between knowledge management and intellectual capital knowledge management should be the first competency that an organization develops for intellectual capital management meanwhile intellectual capital management and knowledge management differ from each other but also complement each other due to the similarities and complementary aspects zou and fink 2003 claimed that intellectual capital management and knowledge management should be linked to achieve added value and must be integrated by combining knowledge management activities with intellectual capital elements to maximize the effectiveness wiig 1997 proposed that intellectual capital management should be considered at the strategic and top management levels and edvinsson 1997 and wiig 1997 also mentioned the focus on value creation and extraction however knowledge management focuses on tactical and operational implementation of knowledge related activities in general knowledge management is concerned with knowledge creation capture transformation and use with an ultimate goal of developing an intelligent organization by creating and maximizing intellectual capital zhou and fink 2003 provided an example which explains the relationship between knowledge management and intellectual capital as shown in figure 1 in order to maximize the relational capital an organization might decide to develop an outstanding relationship with its customers which is achieved by superior products and services therefore the organization needs to keep ahead in the market by maintaining a program of continued discovery and innovation hence the organization might focus on developing a knowledge friendly culture to enable effective knowledge sharing as well as developing the best knowledge by developing the appropriate linkages knowledge management can be applied to contribute to the intellectual capital of an organization by linking with knowledge management the objective of maximizing intellectual capital can be achieved if knowledge activities are managed systematically and intensely roos et al 1997 mentioned that the systematic approach requires management and measurement so that organizations should measure what they want to manage as a part of the management agenda hence iazzolino g and pietrantonio r 2005 recommended knowledge audits which can effectively support organizations in managing their own knowledge achieving targeted objectives as well as favoring the creation of intellectual capital valuing the knowledge audit should focus on both the stock nature of knowledge as it constitutes the intellectual capital of www.ejkm.com 99 ©academic publishing international ltd

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