How IT can improve the productivity of an

organisationNadia Giuliani Brussels, 31 March 2010

FOUR FUNDAMENTAL WORDS

o Knowledge

o Information Technology

o Learning Organizations

o Productivity

AGENDA

1. My Knowledge vision2. IT and Organizations3. Capabilities & Productivity

1 MY KNOWLEDGE VISION

According to the Japanese philisopher Kitaro Nishida (1870-1945) the fundamental conditions for knowledge creation are based on the Japanese concept of “ba”, in English a shared “place” for emerging relationships, a context which harbours meaning.

Knowledge and ba concept

Final Dissertation of the Post Graduate Master in Open & Distance Learning – April 2009

Knowledge creation and SECI spiralConsequently, Ikujiro Nonaka and Noboro Konno conceptualized the circular knowledge creation into an interaction spiral of four conversion processes between tacit and explicit knowledge :

Socialization Externalization Combination InternalizationFinal Dissertation of the Post Graduate Master in Open & Distance

Learning – April 2009

Knowledge and SECI spiral

Socialization , tacit knowledge sharing among individuals living in physical proximity

Externalization, expression of tacit knowledge into forms that can be easily understood by others

Combination, conversion of explicit knowledge into more complex sets to be disseminated

Internalization, newly created knowledge becomes the organization’s tacit knowledge

SECI spiral according to Nonaka and Konno

Final Dissertation of the Post Graduate Master in Open & Distance Learning – April 2009

Knowledge and Cyber baThere are four types of “ba” matching the four spiral

processes : Originating ba , physical place where tacit knowledge is

transfered Interacting ba, where tacit knowledge is made explicit to be

easily understood by others Cyber ba, a place of interaction in a virtual world where new

knowledge is disseminated thanks to the Information Technology

Exercising ba, where the conversion process from explicit to tacit knowledge takes place and new knowledge is finally internalized by the community

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Final Dissertation of the Post Graduate Master in Open & Distance Learning – April 2009

Knowledge and IT revolution Thanks to IT revolution, cyber ba is fostered by the web where knowledge sharing is promoted and learning organizations are enhanced.

Peter Senge (1990) describes learning organizations as an “organization … where people are continually learning how to learn together” to switch from the

industrial paradigma to the learning organization.Industrial Paradigma Learning ParadigmaOrganizations are control systems

Organizations are systems to create knowledge

Organizations are a portfolio of products and services

Organizations are constellations of capabilities and competences

2. IT AND ORGANIZATIONS

IT and Organizations

• IT improves productivity in traditional and learning organizations in different ways (information transfer from top to down level Vs Enterprise 2.0)

• Traditional and learning organizations are ideal patterns: in reality organizations have a mix of tradition and innovation.

• IT programmes need to adapt to organizational context to improve learning capabilities.

Traditional organizations

• Strong hierarchy• Strong operations of rules• Heavy internal siloing• Strong organizational cultures

stressing control• Slow at adopting organizational

innovations and new IT

Learning organizations

• Capability of creating new knowledge• Good at experimentation• Can transfer knowledge to solve problems quickly• Teamwork and group problem solving• Innovative

IT and productivity

According to Asian Productivity Organization (APO) productivity is an effective and efficient use of input or resources to produce or represent output.

IT has a prominent role in driving productivity both in business and in the public sector through two mechanisms: •“capital deepening” – where the investment in IT improves the level of capital stock in the economy ;• enabling changes through the most effective application of the technology and skills, to improve efficiency.

IT and the European CommissionThe European Commission has set up and industry task force to foster the use ofIT, recommending possible policy responses.

In the UK, HM Treasury has identified five long term challenges in this direction:

demographic and socio-economic change, especially increasing numbers of old people and rising expectations of public services;global competition, with the rise of China and India and the intensification of cross border competition;the rapid pace of innovation and technological diffusion, transforming the way people live and the way services are delivered;global uncertainty through terrorism and poverty and increasing pressure on natural resources and global climate.

3. CAPABILITIES & PRODUCTIVITY

An Information disaster

On Sept 23 1999 NASA’s Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft disappeared. Scientists were stumped at first about what had gone wrong. It turned out that NASA contractor had submitted acceleration data in pounds of force instead of the metric equivalent, newtons. By not converting the pounds to the metric measurement, the spacecraft was lost.

A costly information disaster. And an embarrassing one.

With the advent of the World Wide Web, every professionalworker has become a searcher, but without eithersearch training or a roadmap of what he is searching. Without information training and skills, most people don’t know whereto look, how to ask for what they are seeking, or when it isokay to stop looking.

IT and Learning Capabilities in Training

Classroom training

Exercise bookQRC Validation Course

Card

Open-source e-learning platform developed for Expedia Italia

Learning Object on software platform usage

Post-course analysis

Thank you!Nadia Giuliani Brussels, 31 March 2010