The Dissemination and Adoption of Knowledge Management Practices Behavioural Model

124 Pages·2010·3.95 MB·English

The Dissemination and Adoption of Knowledge Management
Practices Behavioural Model
Raul M. Abril
Henley Management College, UK
[email protected]

Abstract: Moving a global consulting organisation from an attitude based on individuals’ “knowledge is power” to the
advocated principles of knowledge sharing is a challenge that requires facilitation. This paper studies a real global
consulting organisation that recognised that important firm resources like processes, technology and capital were not
enough in order to drive the required attitudinal change. Details are presented about the lessons learned from a couple of
unsuccessful past knowledge management programs and from a successful implementation of a knowledge enablement
program involving agents as facilitators of attitudinal change. Some of the lessons learned were that (i) action research
components were of help harvesting knowledge assets from tacit knowledge, (ii) perceived value moderates the
motivation of associates to participate in the knowledge enablement program, and (iii) knowledge practice owners should
perform their agentic task as consultants. A topic for discussion is if the prior knowledge of knowledge practice owners
on a given knowledge domain is a requirement to facilitate an attitudinal change.

Keywords: driving attitudinal change, knowledge practice owners, ethnography, knowledge enablement, global
consulting organisation, action research

1. Introduction
1.1 The organisation
This paper addresses a subject of business and
DataCon is the fictitious name of a real business
academic relevance: How to implement a
unit of a big IT firm. DataCon has a global
behavioural change in a professional services
presence (i.e. over 100 countries), a world-class
organisation that is perceived as having an
customer list with more than 800 customers in
excellent performance delivering projects? The
industries like banking, telecommunications, retail.
question has embedded a subtle distinction
DataCon customer base includes firms in the top
between behaviour and performance. If it is
ten ranking in Fortune 500 (e.g. 90% of top global
performing, why we should touch it? The
communication service providers, 50% of top
counterargument is that it is better to focus firm
global retailers). DataCon’s technological
scarce resources in changing behaviour in areas
solutions are delivered by 2,500 professional
that are not performing as expected. The
service consultants and produced revenue of
compelling business reason for implementing
$1,500M in 2005. Market analysts consider
behavioural change in a professional services
DataCon as the dominant leader of decision-
organisation that is perceived as performing well it
making solutions (e.g. customer management,
is essentially of competitive nature (e.g.
financial management, profitability analytics,
sustainability of a leadership position).
supply chain management, demand chain

management), which includes professional
Past experiences and the lessons learned
services.
implementing knowledge management practices

are presented with a narrative style. All the field
The professional services are organised on
observations were made using a combination of
territorial bases. Professional services managers
case study research and action research
report to a sales vice-president. Consultants in the
(Remenyi, Williams, Money, and Swartz 1998). A
professional services organisation have strong
number of working hypotheses are articulated
billable time objectives and their delivery
driving behavioural change towards the adoption
approach is the traditional consulting project team
of knowledge management practices. A research
applying project management techniques (e.g.
model is suggested for discussion that explains
Project Management Institute 2000). Deliverables
the hypothesed relationships among the drivers
are produced in most of the cases in local
for behavioural change and adoption of
language with some remarkable exceptions. For
knowledge management practices as the
example, in Scandinavia and Middle East it is
dependent variable. Knowledge Management
common to deliver in English. In terms of
Antecedents
language, Europe, Middle East and Africa
professional services organisations demand that
best-in-class assets are translated to English.
However, Asia-Pacific and Japan professional

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Reference this paper as:
Abril, R.M (2007) “The Dissemination and Adoption of Knowledge Management Practices Behavioural Model” The
Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management Volume 5 Issue 2, pp 131-142, available online at www.ejkm.com
Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management Volume 5 Issue 2 2007 (131 -142)
services organisations demand that best-in-class ̇ A number of generic objectives (e.g. improve
assets are translated to their country languages. margin and profit, improve use of
The territory is clustered by location and demand. practitioners, decrease risk)
So, in areas like Middle East, a professional ̇ Investment in a technology program to
organisation covers more than one country and develop and deploy an environment that
for all industries. However, in US, professional would support this vision. This program was
organisation are segmented by industry covering named as Knowledge and Asset Manager
a number of estates (e.g. South East states and (KAM).
for retail industry).
KAM was released last quarter 1998 and globally

deployed to all the organisations. KAM used a
Project teams are the organisational links among
web interface and, optionally a Lotus Notes client
the professional consultants. Consultants on “the
interface. KAM web interface provided search and
bench” (i.e. not assigned to a project) use to have
submission capabilities of knowledge assets. The
a virtual office. Most of the projects are done at
Lotus Notes client interface provided capabilities
the customer site. This means that project team
for manipulating knowledge assets produced in
members travel to the locations where the
the context of customer facing engagements. In
customer premises are located and they keep
parallel, it was recognised the need for having
communication links with the rest of DataCon
processes documenting the knowledge asset flow
using phone and e-mail when possible. The
with KAM. Expectation was that the professional
implementation phase of a project might last
organisations delivering projects and the RandD
anything between a few weeks for a basic
and marketing organisations would make KAM as
business intelligence reporting to several months
the single centralised tool and repository of
for a full data warehouse implementation.
knowledge assets. KAM had limited support
Consultants enter and leave the project as
resources in the field and they focussed their
dictated in the project plan. It is not uncommon to
action to promote the usage of KAM with generic
have a consultant at the customer site for six to
presentations about the value of using KAM. KAM
twelve weeks. The exception is the project
technology received an acceptable level of
manager who usually has on site presence during
adoption from the RandD and marketing
the entire project. Contact access is easy through
organisations. This was visible in the form of
mobile telephony. However, e-mail access and
documentation and sales assets available in KAM.
internet access is not a standard even in areas
Unfortunately, there was little adoption in the
like US. It is not uncommon to find customers that
professional services organisations. Acceptance
do not allow the consultants to gain external
of processes and technology (e.g. Davis 1989)
access to internet. This means that these
has been frequently studied in the literature in
consultants only have access to corporate work
relation behavioural constructs like usage.
environments when they are in their hotel rooms
Frequent complains were: cumbersome access to
after their long working hours. Furthermore, being
assets and few or lack or relevancy for the task at
at the customer site, their traditional way of
hand. KAM was discontinued in October 2002.
sharing assets is via memory sticks and the

assets are dispersed among the laptops of the
By last quarter 2002, a number of intranet sites
consultants.
had been operational for few years and they
1.2 Knowledge management antecedents became the prime mechanism of outbound
communication. Each intranet site targeted a
Knowledge management practices (e.g.
function (e.g. sales, support, professional
Edvisnsson, Buzan, and Truch 2004) had been in
services). There was a clear conviction that
place in a few local organisations. In this
knowledge assets had a prime user and it was not
environment, knowledge did not flow cross local
needed to grant access to associates in other
organisations in a smooth way. In fact knowledge
functional areas. Submissions of assets were
was located in organisational local silos. DataCon
under control and not generally available to every
recognised that knowledge was a firm resource
associate. Again, this technology received an
(e.g. Barney 1991, Huang, Lee, and Wang 1998)
acceptable level of adoption from the RandD and
and define a corporate vision towards knowledge
marketing organisations and a little adoption in the
management characterised by the following
professional services organisations. Furthermore,
constructs:
the volume of assets grew and the need for
̇ A generic definition of knowledge
accessing knowledge assets cross functional
management based in reference material (i.e.
areas became an issue. From a technology stand
“Knowledge Management is the discipline that
point, this issue was addressed by (i) removing
promotes an integrated approach to
most of the access restrictions that were
identifying, managing, and sharing all of an
associated to each role and (ii) with the
enterprise’s information objects”
development of a search engine exploring all the
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Raul M. Abril
intranets. In parallel, to these search engines behaviour is strongly influenced by such
cross intranets, DataCon considered that the objectives. There were no explicit/implicit
active involvement of the practitioners was a knowledge management objectives for
requirement for the success of knowledge professional services and this did not favour their
management. The hope was that by actively attention for adopting enthusiastically KAM.
making the practitioners players they would start Knowledge growth was enabled by training
adopting their dedicated intranet site. This idea courses and mostly by experiential learning (e.g.
was operationalised promoting communities of Kolb 1984). In fact, any average senior consultant
interests. The management action focussed in (e.g. a logical data modeller, an architect, a
communicating the message to the filed trying to project manager) required a considerable learning
persuade practitioners to organise themselves curve measured in years. It was not unusual to
into communities covering one specific subject. require between three and five years to reach
proficiency and once this level was reached it was
These communities of interest were organisational not uncommon to think that “knowledge is power”.
structures characterised in reality by their informal So, as some consultants said “why should I
nature (loosely coupled systems (e.g Weick, K.E. submit my templates and lessons learned?”.
2001), voluntary assignments, and not regular
meetings). The hope was that the exchange of An almost only technologic approach to
knowledge in these communities of interest would knowledge management, as the KAM initiative
drive the usage among the participants of the represented, did not enable a significant
professional services intranet. Unfortunately, few knowledge management enhancement in
communities of interest were constituted and they DataCon. Professional services organisations did
never were really operational. Of course, there not have the attitudes of a classical consulting
were standard advocated processes for company were knowledge is the life-blood of the
conducting projects and, in fact, there was a organisation and where turnaround in the junior
considerable effort in the organisation developing levels is measure in months. Another lesson
best in class processes. All this explicit knowledge learned was that an appropriate level of human
impacted positively and had business significant resources is needed to support a technologic
impact in terms of risks reduction and quality approach like KAM. It was clearly not enough to
improvement. However, these artifacts (i.e. offer presentations talking about the functionalities
processes, tools, templates, KAM) had some of KAM and arguing that usage of KAM was
holes in terms of detail (e.g. not enough to deliver synonymous of good corporate citizenship. This
being a junior consultant), in terms of subject (e.g. few resources acted as tool administrators and in
released applications by RandD with no explicit their charter there was not any role in driving
knowledge on how to implement them), and in change. The intranets sites became technologic
terms of situations (e.g. how to design a logical environments providing pulling capabilities of
data model that can be physically populated with knowledge assets. Furthermore, such assets were
the existing data sources versus a theoretical systematically final versions of released
logical data model that might be almost empty in documents. For example, the few knowledge
the implementation). Knowledge management assets that some one could expect to find in the
needs on the “front line” of customer professional services intranet were uploaded
engagements were addressed by using personal when the project was closed (e.g. statements of
networks of contacts and broadcasting e-mails to work, project plans, requirements documents,
discussion forums requesting for help. These technical specifications, post-mortem lessons
discussion groups were very popular among the learned). Most of the flow of documents during a
practitioners and represented a just-in-time normal project implementation among the project
access to mostly explicit knowledge in some part team members happened via e-mail. E-mail
of the organisation. servers became the critical tool for disperse
project teams and the inbox folder of the project
1.3 Lessons learned from the KAM and
manager was the central repository for all the
intranet experiences
knowledge assets in the project team. From a
The generic objectives (e.g. improve margin and corporate standpoint, this is an unsatisfactory
profit, improve use of practitioners, decrease risk) situation to be corrected. The need for
were never formally endorsed by the field collaborative environment was identified in order
professional services management. So, they to allow that work-in-progress assets are
became more a set of corporate values than a set exchanged among the team members.
of operational objectives to be measured for
guiding management attention and action. Furthermore, confusion was identified between
Consultants in the professional organisations are access rights and the location of the assets. The
very focussed on their yearly objectives and their implementation of dedicated intranet sites granted
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Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management Volume 5 Issue 2 2007 (131 -142)
access rights by segregating assets cross- 2006). The theorised conclusion was that “There
functional areas. DataCon recognised that are unfavourable attitudes and they influence
knowledge is ubiquitous through assets and that professional services behaviour which results in
segregation of assets in dedicated intranet sites low adoption of knowledge management practices
was in fact breaking knowledge that could be in the professional services organisation” (e.g.
formed cross assets just jumping from asset to (Davis 1989) (Abril 2006)). If DataCon wanted to
asset. achieve a remarkable dissemination (e.g. Schulz
2001) and adoption of knowledge management
The implementation of the communities of interest principles in professional services then significant
did not have the desired adoption by the management action had to be taken changing the
professional services organisations because two attitudes driving such behaviour. This problem
factors (i) there was not enough motivation for the statement embedded a holistic approach to
consultant to participate in these forums and (ii) knowledge management. It was not enough to
consultants already satisfied their individualistic formulate a vision, a set of generic objectives and
needs for knowledge on just-in-time bases by to invest in a technological work environment. It
broadcasting requests for help via e-mails. Of was needed to fundamentally remove all the
course, a lot of the explicit knowledge (e.g. aspects that were barriers to the dissemination
customer deliverables) was under the control of and adoption of knowledge management
the delivery local organisation but not under the principles. Another implication of this problem
control of the business unit. Not mentioning that statement was the need for a focus on execution.
the consultants primarily held the tacit knowledge. Change would not happen alone. DataCon would
Overall, there was not an understanding of the need to assign expensive resources and for a
overall knowledge that was out of control. The considerable time in order to enforce change.
suspect was that DataCon could be leaking Consequently, a broader solution approach was
knowledge without being aware of it. Probably, the needed. A contingent solution plan (e.g. Payne,
hardest lesson learned was the frustrating Bettman, and Johnson 1993) was formally defined
understanding that outstanding management and approved. This solution plan adopted
action would be needed in order to enforce the basically the shape of a change management
adoption of knowledge management practices by plan. A subtle change was introduced framing the
professional services organisations. Interestingly, effort. Instead of targeting “managing” knowledge,
the knowledge management initiatives were DataCon moved to “enabling” knowledge (e.g.
funded at the business unit level and there was a Day 1994). This new frame wanted to envelop the
limited authority enforcing such initiatives among objective of providing the appropriate resources
the professional services organisations because for disseminating and adopting knowledge
these organisations were mostly aligned to the management practices by the entire organisation.
sales territorial organisations. Therefore, This “enabling” construct fully covered the desire
management communication of the goodness of of managing knowledge assets (e.g. measure
knowledge management benefits in this impact) and enriched it with the recognition that
organisational context was not enough to get dissemination and adoption of knowledge
adoption by the professional services management practice would require facilitation for
organisations. “What do we need to do in order to a considerable period of time.
bring them on board?” this was the question in
2.2 Research question and research
order to transition to an acceptable level of
method. Action research for the
knowledge capturing, sharing, and reusing.
formulation of the hypotheses in
2. From knowledge management
the change management plan
to knowledge enablement
The following research question was formulated
2.1 Enabling knowledge as opposed to “What are the drivers that will favour positive
managing knowledge attitudes that will enable a behavioural change
towards the adoption of knowledge management
In 2004 a new push to knowledge management
practices (in a professional services organisation
was launched in DataCon. The lessons learned
that is perceived as having an excellent
from the KAM and intranet experiences were
performance delivering projects)?” Once these
framed in a problem statement (e.g. Dutton,
drivers would be identified, then the change
Fahey, and Narayanan 1983, Dutton and Jackson
management plan should be constructed
1987), a theorised conclusion and in a solution
identifying specific actions aligned to such drivers.
approach. The problem statement was enacted as
A research design was decided for addressing the
“low adoption of knowledge management
research question. The unit of analysis was the
practices in the professional services organisation
individual member of professional services
after a number of unsuccessful initiatives” (Abril
organisations. The research method was action
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Raul M. Abril
research and not, as wrongly presented in (Abril The identified drivers for an attitudinal change in
2006), ethnographic. This aspect deserves DataCon towards the dissemination and adoption
explanation. The main criticism characterising as of knowledge management practices in the
“ethnographic” the conducted research is that the professional organisations were: personalised
researcher asked questions looking for value, executive sponsorship, effective training,
clarifications. This fact (i.e. asking questions) enabling support organisation, and incremental
according to the literature means that the perceived successes.
researcher is not a passive neutral observer and
2.3 The personalised value driver
therefore, just by the fact of asking clarifications, it
might influence the observations because the Individual behaviour is strongly influenced by
question might impact the behaviour of the motivation according to expectancy theory (e.g.
observed individuals. The feedbacks from the Vroom 1964). The benefits of knowledge
experts attending the conference were we management practices would be aligned to the
presented our findings (see (Abril 2006)) made us business objectives that professional services
to revisit the research method that we used. organisations had. Professional services
Furthermore, we consider very difficult to conduct managers were identified as the key influencers
ethnographic research for knowledge on the dissemination and adoption of knowledge
management in organisational environments as management practices. They fire and hire
supported in (Kane, H., Ragsdell, G. and consultants. They negotiate the yearly objectives
Oppenheim, C. 2006) with the consultants. The hypothesis was that
“consultants’ change of behaviour towards a
In essence, the objective of the action research dissemination and adoption of knowledge
was to observe the members of the professional management practices would be positively
organisations and formulate a set of hypotheses associated with a perception of the value of such
addressing the research question. This prior adoption by their direct managers”. A knowledge
declaration was key in order to identify which demand-supply approach was deployed were the
findings would count as knowledge acquired value was articulated in terms of effectiveness
(Checkland and Holwell 1998). Data was gathered and efficiency filling the knowledge gaps for the
by asking about the lessons learned of past project teams. Two types of scenarios were
experiences and by embedding researchers in identified: Presales and implementation. In
project teams. This means that researchers were presales situations it is not uncommon the need
not independent of research as frequently they for tacit knowledge in order to increase credibility
asked questions. One of the tactics used by and or reduce risks closing deals. This knowledge
researchers was “shadowing” subject matter needs had to be filled in by the project team with
experts in their daily regular field jobs. the involvement of the professional services
Observations were captured in the form of “a day- manager by broadcasting requests for help via e-
in-the-life” storyboards (e.g. (Girard and Lambert mail and with lengthy follow up calls assessing the
2006)) for the main roles in the professional responses. In this presales scenario the
services organisations. Careful attention was knowledge sources use to be in the form of tacit
dedicated to the knowledge needs of the knowledge. Therefore, the key aspects in this
professional services consultants. The research scenario are in the identification and qualification
started in July 2005 and ended in December of the sources of the required knowledge and
2005. As a result of this research a number of linking such sources with the team looking for
drivers were identified. The label “drivers” was knowledge. From the professional services
used to transmit the sense of the more academic manager perspective, an increase in the
construct “critical success factor”. This means, availability of tacit knowledge options (i.e.
that such drivers were identified as necessary, all effectiveness) and the reduction in time and effort
of them, for the successful dissemination and looking for it (i.e. efficiency) were easily perceived
adoption of knowledge management practices as value.
among the professional services organisations.
Failure in just one of such drivers would imply that In implementation scenarios, it is common to find
attitudinal change would not happen. cases that are considered best-in-class
Furthermore, success implementing all the drivers implementations. Unfortunately, the explicit
would not imply success in the dissemination and knowledge assets produced in such great
adoption of knowledge management practices implementations have a limited reusability power
among the professional services organisations because their specific details in terms of customer
because an underidentification issue (e.g. Hair Jr., references, industry or implementation
Black, Babin, Anderson, and Tatham 2006) could particularities. Consultants do no use to have time
have happen with the drives. for making reusable their knowledge assets.
When they finish a project, they use to move to
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Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management Volume 5 Issue 2 2007 (131 -142)
another project, or in the few occasions when the professional services organisations. The rational
go to the “bench” they enroll in training courses. goes in the following way “if value has been
Therefore, in the next project that a similar task perceived by the professional services
has to be performed, consultants use and anchor organisations in the adoption of knowledge
and adjustment heuristic (Tversky and Kahneman management practices then a measurable
1974). Consultants search for a past successful business value contribution should exist and be
knowledge asset (i.e. the anchor) and depending measured”. Unfortunately, measuring such
on the specific requirements introduce appropriate business contribution has been a difficult exercise
adjustments. From the professional services that the literature on knowledge management has
manager perspective, a future increase in the addressed with very limited consensus on the
availability of explicit knowledge options (i.e. right approach (e.g. Marr, Schiuma, and Neely
effectiveness) and the promise of reduction in 2004). The knowledge management literature has
time and effort looking for it (i.e. efficiency) were an endless list of papers with suggestions on how
easily perceived as an enough expectant value as to measure the organisational impact of
to agree that it was of worth to invest time in knowledge management. Unfortunately there is
reusability at the time that the assets were no dominant paradigm on how to do it.
produced (i.e. investing now to get the pay off Nevertheless, there is a considerable stream of
tomorrow). research suggesting that perceptions of value are
the best proxy to the construct value. This
Overall, reusability of knowledge assets covers measurement is operationalised through surveys.
both explicit and tacit knowledge assets. Theoretically, benchmarking successive
Reusability of explicit knowledge assets includes measurements it would be possible to measure
diverse aspects as removing customer value contribution (e.g. Moslehi, Mohaghar, Badie
references, translation to, for example, English (in and Lucas 2006).
Europe) or from English to a local language in
Asia Pacific, and cross-industry generalisation Although in the existing organisational context
(e.g. from financial to retail). Reusability of tacit professional services managers were identified as
knowledge, in general, it requires considerable the key influencers on the dissemination and
effort and time and includes making it explicit adoption of knowledge management practices, an
knowledge. Making explicit knowledge from what alternative working hypothesis was formulated as
was just tacit knowledge it was definitively “change of consultants’ behaviour towards the
perceived as value by the professional services dissemination and adoption of knowledge
managers. Lessons learned and white papers are management practices would be positively
examples of assets with a high perceived value by associated with recognitions and rewards”. The
the professional services managers. It is also change management plan defined and executed
remarkable to mention that the value of adoption programs (e.g. “best asset in the month”, regional
of knowledge management practices was knowledge champion in the year”) pursuing this
articulated in terms of instrumental utility with alternative working hypothesis. These initiatives
quality improvement initiatives of interest for the have been in place for one year and the evidence
professional services organisations. For example, gathered so far is that there are applications and
professional services managers understood that nominations. Consultants are interested in getting
knowledge management practices were of value a personal compensation in terms of value and or
for them as they will help their organisations in recognition but the business impact of these
achieving Capability Maturity Model level 2 (i.e. programs is marginal.
repeatable) (e.g. Software Engineering Institute
2.4 The executive sponsorship driver
1980).
The ideal situation would be that knowledge
The change management plan has been management practices would be institutionalised
executing initiatives in relation to the personalised across all organisations. This means that all levels
value driver for one quarter in 2006 and anecdotic of management should enforce dissemination and
evidence suggests support to the working adoption. In the existing organisational
hypothesis that consultants’ change of behaviour management by objectives context (e.g. Drucker
towards the dissemination and adoption of 1954) the hypothesis was that “the inclusion of
knowledge management practices would be knowledge management objectives at the
positively associated with a perception of the leadership team levels would be positively
value of such adoption by their direct managers. associated with the consultants’ change of
This initial evidence has had an unexpected behaviour towards an adoption of knowledge
consequence, although reasonable, “management management practices”.
stress” for measuring the impact of the adoption of The rationale for this working hypothesis was that
knowledge management practices by the in a hierarchical organisation personal objectives
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Raul M. Abril
are aligned across the different levels. Therefore, change, the learning materials had to have a
a contingent effort will be performed by the practical utilisation on the daily activities of the
consultants towards their personal objectives (e.g. consultants. This implied the design of learning
Payne, Bettman, and Johnson 1993). Examples of courses per each specific role (e.g. project
knowledge management objectives at the managers, solution architects). Additionally, basic
leadership team level were “searches for existing elements of business research had to be included
assets”, “submissions of reusable asset”, and in the learning courses. For example, learning
“operational communities of practice”. In how to perform efficient searches is assessed as
December 2005, knowledge management a behavioural change with respect broadcasting
objectives were formally included in the leadership an e-mail asking for related assets. Another
team members and cascaded down to all the example, filling the appropriate metadata (e.g.
levels in the professional services organisations. context, industry, things did not work well)
An unexpected challenge happened framing such describing the lessons learned after a project has
objectives (e.g. Dutton et al 1983, Dutton and concluded is assessed as a behavioural change
Jackson 1987). They should lead action towards a with respect doing nothing or describing just the
change in the behaviour of consultants with title of the referred lessons learned. Overall,
respect knowledge management practices careful balance had to be considered addressing
indicating a clear adoption. This implied that a set the different aspects of the knowledge
of standard language was recommended in order management system in DataCon. Hard lessons
to keep the essence of the objectives. The two from the past, suggested that a focus in just
quarter 2006 reviews since the change technology did not provide the desired results,
management plan has been executed in relation therefore, many aspects had to be considered in
to the executive sponsorship driver suggests the learning courses (e.g. the processes, the
support to the working hypothesis that “the contact individuals facilitating the dissemination
inclusion of knowledge management objectives at and adoption of knowledge management
the leadership team levels would be positively practices).
associated with the consultants’ change of
behaviour towards an adoption of knowledge Delivery mechanism of the training course was a
management practices”. Nevertheless, the next relevant factor. It was unrealistic to expect
step is the assessment of the intensity of such presence of all the consultants in class rooms.
behavioural change, which potentially will lead to Flexibility was a critical success factors. Most of
a new set of objectives. Remarkably, the the courses were designed to be delivered on
objectives in relation behavioural change with demand via internet and via scheduled seminar
respect the dissemination and adoption of via telephonic conferences. Tracking the
knowledge management practices were not attendance helped in the control of the training
framed in terms of value contribution to the plans objectives. Objective of attendance was
business (e.g. performance improvements). This agreed with the professional services managers.
distinction avoided confusion between behavioural One of the variables considered for measuring the
attitudes and business impact. dependent variable behavioural change in the
working hypothesis “the level of trained
2.5 The effective training driver
consultants in the day-in-the-life knowledge
Knowledge management practices involve management principles would be positively
management disciplines. In general, the associated with the consultants’ change of
components of knowledge management systems behaviour towards an adoption of knowledge
involve processes, technology, individuals and management practices” was usage of the
assets. There is a difference between adopting available technological infrastructure. A basic
knowledge management practices and adopting monthly analysis provided evidence of positive
with proficiency knowledge management practices association between the level of training and
(e.g. Gist 1989). Learning processes were usage.
designed in order to allow a holistic learning on
2.6 The enabling support organisation
the knowledge management principles in
driver
DataCon. The hypothesis was that “the level of
trained consultants in the day-in-the-life DataCon recognised that enabling means (e.g.
knowledge management principles would be Day 1994) should be deployed in order to drive
positively associated with the consultants’ change change in the professional organisations towards
of behaviour towards an adoption of knowledge the adoption of knowledge management
management practices”. The rational for this principles. These resources were funded and
working hypothesis was the aggregation of a owned by a central Knowledge Management
number of arguments. Because the learning Office. As mentioned earlier, professional services
outcome had to be reflected in a behavioural organisations did not have a reporting link with
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Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management Volume 5 Issue 2 2007 (131 -142)
this Knowledge Management Office. A couple of of such consultants. Because consultants perform
enabling resources contemplated in the change their job in the context of project teams,
management plan deserve attention: a “knowledge practice owners” were embedded in
collaborative work environment for project teams such teams while performing the “shadowing”
and the agentic role (Jensen and Meckling 1976) exercise. This experience took all 2006.
of knowledge practice owners. Enabling
knowledge would include providing a collaborative Knowledge practice owners were instrumental
infrastructure that would allow collaborative effort articulating the personalised value driver
of project teams. This infrastructure would be a mentioned earlier. Framing the value of the
mean and not and end towards knowledge dissemination and adoption of knowledge
management. This collaborative environment was management practices in the terms than
implemented using technology available in the professional services organisation use was
market. The hypothesis was that “the usage of the assessed as fundamental. This meant that
collaborative environment for all the projects knowledge practice owners took the consulting
would be positively associated with the practices of the field for performing their agentic
consultants’ change of behaviour towards an task. For example, a knowledge practice owner
adoption of knowledge management practices”. approached a new project team as their
The rational for this working hypothesis was that customers. He had to “sell” the value for the team
there was an expectation in that once all the of adopting knowledge management practices
intermediate, work in progress project assets were and obtain their acceptance to be embedded in
stored in a project folder in the referred the project team. The project manager was the
collaborative environment then it would be owner/approver of the action performed by the
relatively easy to promote some of them as knowledge practice owner. A knowledge
knowledge assets that should be catalogued as assessment gap analysis had to be conducted in
reusable. This environment has been operational order to identify the knowledge gaps in the project
for just one quarter and there is not enough plan before the implementation phase would start.
evidence to confirm or disconfirm this working As a consequence, a knowledge action plan was
hypothesis. produced and included as part of the quality
assurance project plan. During the project
Knowledge practice owners are agents funded by implementation, the assigned knowledge practice
the knowledge management office. Their role owner would support the team executing his/her
consists in facilitating the dissemination and knowledge action plan until the end of the project.
adoption of knowledge management practices by Knowledge assets harvested by the knowledge
the professional services organisations. This practice owner would be approved/accepted by
agentic role includes acting on behalf of the the project manager. The rational for the working
professional services organisations as if they were hypothesis “the agentic action of knowledge
members of such organisations in the context of management practitioners would be positively
customer facing projects. The hypothesis was that associated with the consultants’ change of
“the agentic action of knowledge management behaviour towards an adoption of knowledge
practitioners would be positively associated with management practices” was that professional
the consultants’ change of behaviour towards an services organisations would perceive value in the
adoption of knowledge management practices”. action of knowledge practice owners and this
The action of knowledge practice owners included would provide a vicarious input in their self-
facilitation of communities of practice, setting efficacy believes (e.g. Bandura 1986) performing
collaboration environments for project teams, ad- knowledge management practices. This agency
hoc support making reusable assets, linking approach of knowledge practice owners has been
sources and demand of tacit knowledge that were operational for just one quarter. The evidence
globally disperse, and training. Action research gathered suggests support to the working
components (Remenyi et al 1998) were of help hypothesis. A limitation of this agency approach in
harvesting knowledge assets from tacit terms of the intensity of its impact it is the number
knowledge. Although the academic term “action of project teams that can be enabled. There is a
research” was not used in DataCon, this is what it limitation of the number of teams than a
was done. The terms used were “shadowing a knowledge practice owner can support
subject matter expert” and “be embedded in the concurrently (e.g. three to five).
project teams”. Each knowledge practice owners
2.7 The incremental perceived
shadowed a consultant in his/her regular field job.
successes driver
As a result of these observations a day-in-the-life
storyboard was created for the main roles in the DataCon is a public (in US terms) successful
professional services organisations. Careful organisation that reviews performance quarter by
attention was dedicated to the knowledge needs quarter. This introduces a considerable
www.ejkm.com 138 ©Academic Conferences Ltd
Raul M. Abril
“management stress” that has considerable the context of a community of practice, availability
beneficial aspects and some undesirable bias of explicit knowledge assets for identified critical
towards the time horizon of each program. A basic released products, relevancy of retrieved assets in
project management lesson learned says that risk a search, and intensity of usage of the
is positively associated with the duration of a collaboration environment. Examples of agreed
project. Unfortunately, behavioural change in a definitions of performance success were revenue
geographically and attitudinally diverse increase, margin increase, risk reduction, and
professional services organisation takes some project time reduction. The change plan
time. Not being able to borrow from the literature a implemented a reporting system to periodically
model to predict how much time for a given track and communicate metrics about behavioural
organisation it is needed for implementing a change. As expected, the difficulties measuring
behavioural change a set of incremental subgoals value from a performance perspective makes that
were established in order to favour a belief of the available evidence for reporting is based on
continuous achievements (e.g. Gist and Mitchell anecdotic interpretative assessments of the
1992) and the hypothesis was that “incremental performance.
perceived successes would be positively
associated with the consultants’ change of The rational for the working hypothesis
behaviour towards an adoption of knowledge “incremental perceived successes would be
management practices”. positively associated with the consultants’ change
of behaviour towards an adoption of knowledge
It is very popular the said that “perception is management practices” was that professional
reality”. This means that considerable resources services organisations would be motivated by the
would be needed in order to influence the results/consequences of their adoption of
perception of key stakeholders about the knowledge management practices. This
successes increasing the adoption of knowledge incremental approach was operational for the last
management practices by the professional quarter in 2006 and there is not enough evidence
services organisations. If a success is not to confirm or disconfirm support for the working
perceived as such then it is not of worth for the hypothesis.
change plan. Another aspect of the language of
3. General discussion
this hypothesis is that it refers to incremental. This
means that the change plan included a roadmap The lessons learned from past experiences
of small successes during a three-year period. An deploying knowledge management practices and
assigned program manager in the knowledge the evidence gathered executing a change plan
management office monitored this program. The towards the dissemination and adoption of
term “success” implies that there is an agreement knowledge management practices in DataCon
on the meaning of success. Examples of agreed suggest support to the dissemination and
definitions of behavioural success were usage of adoption of knowledge management practices
explicit knowledge assets by other project teams, behavioural model (TDAKM) showed in Figure 1
meeting the expectations of a knowledge action (Abril 2006).
plan, gathering requirements for new features in

Figure 1: The dissemination and adoption of knowledge management practices behavioural model (TDAKM)
www.ejkm.com 139 ISSN 1479-4411
Electronic Journal of Knowledge Management Volume 5 Issue 2 2007 (131 -142)

TDAKM hypothesises interdependencies among enabler of knowledge management value and the
the independent variables. Obviously, TDAKM professional services organisations are adopting
requires validation and it is suggested that it is knowledge management practices.
done through empirical positivistic research both
case and large-scale surveys. One limitation of 4. Conclusion
this model is that organisational context is not
visible as a moderating variable. All the This paper was produced considering the
hypotheses in TDAKM consider an organisational feedback from participants in the 3rd International
context where (i) there is not institutionalised Conference on Intellectual Capital, Knowledge
attitudes towards knowledge management Management and Organisational Learning to
practices, (ii) there is a geographically and (Abril 2006). Researchers in Knowledge
attitudinally diverse global professional services conducting research. We concluded that
organisations, (iii) there is not a hierarchical ethnographic research might not be a suitable
reporting line between the knowledge research design for knowledge management in an
management office and the professional services organisational environment. TDAKM was the
organisations, and (iv) professional services outcome learning of the conducted action
organisations are strongly driven with a research and this model was tested for one year
management by objectives style. TDAKM neglects in 2006. Although evidence is not conclusive,
a debate around the issue of if the prior there is no refutation so far to it. The
knowledge of knowledge practice owners on a interdependences among the independent
given knowledge domain moderates the adoption variables highlight their nature as critical success
of knowledge management practices. Arguments factors (i.e. it is postulated that you need all of
in favour suggest that trust is an important enabler them) with the caveat that further research is
of a good relationship with the project teams and needed in order to check the parsimony in
that prior knowledge of the knowledge practice TDAKM (e.g. underinformed model missing
owner (e.g. as a “doer”) will allow him/her to be relevant variables) From a knowledge
respected as a value contributor. Arguments management practitioner’s perspective, TDAKM is
against suggest that what matters is the ability a reference model that can be used planning a
persuading the project team members on the change management plan towards the adoption
value of knowledge management practices. and dissemination of knowledge management
Overall, TDAKM suggest an underpinning ‘quid practices in professional services organisations.
pro quo’ between the knowledge management The possible generalisation of TDAKM to other
office and the professional services organisations type of organisations exceeds the scope of this
where the knowledge management office is an paper.
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