the development of a storytelling framework to support knowledge management processes

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THE DEVELOPMENT OF A STORYTELLING FRAMEWORK TO SUPPORT KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PROCESSES

Khairul Shafee Kalid (G1050413), PhD Information TechnologySupervisor: Assoc. Prof Ahmad Kamil Bin Mahmood

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Outline Background of Study Problem Statement Research Objectives Research Questions Research Methodology Research Design Data Collection Data Analysis Findings Limitations of Study Contribution of Study Conclusion

Background of Study

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Knowledge-based view of the firm considers knowledge as an important strategic asset in organization (Grant, 1996).

Knowledge is defined Knowledge is defined as justified belief that increases an entity’s capacity for effective action

(Huber, 1991;Nonaka, 1994) Knowledge is defined as understanding gained through experience or study (Schubert et al,

1998) A fluid mix of framed experience, contextual information, values and expert insight that

provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information (Davenport and Prusak, 1998)

Knowledge increases an individual capacity to take effective action (Alavi & Leidner, 2001)

Knowledge management (KM) involves people, process, activities and technology and the broader environment that enable the identification, creation, communication or sharing, and use of organizational and individual knowledge (Lehaney et al, 2004).

Background of Study

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One of the approaches to support KM processes is storytelling. Storytelling is seen as an effective way of transferring

knowledge (Denning, 2000;Swap, 2001) Reason?

Most fundamental communication method (Widrich, 2012) A study found that social topics accounted for 65 percent of

speaking time among people in public places, regardless of age or gender. (Hsu, 2008)

Stories represent a significant form of knowledge due to the design of the human brain to automatically organize information into stories. (Reamy, 2002)

Narratives allow seekers to explore deeper into the experts thought processes (Klien cited in Monroe, 2006).

Background of Study

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Organizations that uses storytelling to share knowledge. Xerox (Cox, 2007) NASA (Post, 2002;Bailey, 2005) 3M (Shaw, 1998) Shell (The Opal Team, 2001) Kumba Resource (Tobin, 2006)

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Problem Statement Storytelling is a knowledge transfer tool but it has never

become a major focus (Reamy, 2002) and rarely explored (Haghirian & Chini,2002)

Lack of understanding on the role of storytelling in KM. Waste of time (Reamy, 2002) Lack of a storytelling culture and the failure of the management to

understand the purpose of stories and its benefits to organization (Ioffreda & Gargiulo, 2008)

Unfamiliar with the concept of storytelling and its used in knowledge transfer (Kalid & Mahmood, 2008)

There is a sparseness of empirical support for many assertions claimed for narrative approaches in KM (Connell, 2007).

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Problem Statement There is limited consideration has been given to ways in which

storytelling can increase knowledge users' understanding of the creation and dissemination of knowledge in organizations (Connell, 2007)

Lack of framework to guide in the implementation of KM storytelling in organization. According to Herschel et al (2001), many chief knowledge officers

(CKO) are advised that using narrative is the best approach in converting expert’s tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge but lack of advice was given on how to construct such narrative.

There is a need to understand how stories work so that experts are able to become better to write and communicate stories (Peters and Franz, 2012).

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Research Objectives

To develop a KM storytelling framework that guides

organization in implementing storytelling as part of its KM

initiatives.1. To investigate existing KM storytelling practices in an organization.

2. To examine the perception of knowledge workers on the use of storytelling as a KM tool.

3. To identify the issues that affects the implementation of a KM storytelling initiative in an organization.

4. To develop a process framework that guides the construction of a knowledge embedded story.

STUDY 1 STUDY 2

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Research Question

1. To investigate existing KM storytelling practices in an organization.

2. To examine the perception of knowledge workers on the use of storytelling as a KM tool.

3. To identify the issues that affects the implementation of a KM storytelling initiative in an organization.

4. To develop a process framework that guides the construction of a knowledge embedded story.

1.How storytelling is used as KM tool in an organization?

2.How do knowledge workers perceive the concept of storytelling in the context of KM?

3.How do knowledge workers perceive the use of storytelling as a KM tool?

4.What the issues that affect the implementation of a KM storytelling initiative in an organization?1.What are the phases and roles involved in constructing a knowledge embedded story?

2.What are the components, structure, attributes, concept of a knowledge embedded story?

STU

DY

1ST

UDY

2

Research Objective

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Research Methodology

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Research Methodology The study adopts a qualitative research design. The study adopts an interpretive research paradigm.

The basic principle of interpretive is that knowledge is gained through social constructions such as language, consciousness and shared meanings (Klein & Myers, 1999)

Understand phenomena through accessing the meanings people assign to that phenomena (Orlikowski & Baroudi,, 1991).

The study adopts hermeneutics of the mode of analysis Interpret and understand the meaning of the text rather than

explains it (Myers, 1997)


Research Design

Convenience (with criteria)

Sampling

Knowledge Management students

4 academic staff and 9 non-academic staff

Group Interviews, Documents

Interviews

Thematic coding

STUDY 1 KM

Storytelling Practices

STUDY 2KM

Storytelling Construction

Process

STUDY SAMPLING METHOD

PARTICIPANTS DATA COLLECTION

METHODS

DATA ANALYSI

S


Study 1 - Unit of Analysis The sample group of Study 1 consists of 13 participants. The participants were invited to participate through email. The participants include

9 staff from the information technology department 4 academic staff from the information technology faculty.

Participants use knowledge in work. The participants have an average of 10 years of experience in

their jobs. Education level

All of the non-academic participants have at least a bachelors degree and all of the academic participants have a Masters degree.

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Study 1 - Data Collection Semi structured interviews Average 45-50 minutes face to face interview. Participants were briefed about the study and also the concept of KM

storytelling. The interviews covers:

job scope perception on the use of storytelling in their line of work stories in their department views on a KM storytelling session in the department.

Interviews were video recorded and transcribed to Nvivo 8. Memos were written during interview to record analysis, thoughts,

interpretations questions and directions for further data collection (Corbin & Strauss, 1998)


Study 2 - Unit of Analysis The sample of Study 2 consists of 19 KM major students being

group into 4 groups. The participants were invited to participate through email. The participants understand and appreciate the concept of

knowledge management.


Study 2 - Data Collection Data were collected through a workshop. A total of 5 groups with each group has between 4-5 participants. The workshop was held in the university’s library discussion room. Workshop overview

The groups are required to construct a story that demonstrates a knowledge source. Each group took about 45-60 minutes to construct the stories

A total of 9 stories were constructed. Groups were interviewed to discuss on their insights and the methods that

they use in constructing the story. Groups were interviewed again to obtain insights on the story that

has been created. Each group were interviewed for 20-30 minutes.


Study 2 - Data Collection

Flow of the Story Construction Workshop

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Data Analysis For Study 1 and Study 2

Qualitative Analysis in the Views of Miles and Huberman (1994)

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Data Analysis – Coding Process

The Coding Process

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Findings

Study 1 and Study 2

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Study 1 The content of a knowledge-embedded stories (KES) are job

related. It is realistic and experiential. KES provides contextual information to the problem. KES prompts interaction between members in a group thus facilitates

the knowledge transfer process. KES are used as a source of lessons learned

KES has a purpose that is determined by the intention of the knowledge owners.

KES is relevant to knowledge recipients through title of the story, summary or tags.

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Study 1 KES are shared in a setting that is informal and social. KES are constructed in group settings because group settings

promotes interaction among group members. Thus, contributing in building up of the story.

Issues in implementing storytelling as part of KM initiative is similar to any studies on knowledge sharing or knowledge transfer. Surroundings Trust Motivation Time constraint Perceived comfort Relevancy

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Study 2 – KES Construction Process

Knowledge Type – Story ConstructionEpisodic Declarative Procedural

Description Experiential Conceptual, know-what

Process, stages, know-how

Story construction Unit

Time Concept Phases

Story role Actual knowledge source complement ComplementConstructing Difficulty

Easy Depends on complexity

Depends on complexity

Embedded Knowledge

Conflicts, lessons learned Contextual information

Contextual information

Point of view 1st view 3rd view 3rd viewStructure Begin – conflict

Middle – eventsEnd – solutions, actions taken

Begin – purposeMiddle – eventsEnd – reflection

Begin – purposeMiddle – eventsEnd – reflection

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KM Storytelling Framework

Limitations of Study The knowledge stories constructed are written-based

therefore the process framework could be limited towards written knowledge story.

For Study 2, the participants of this study are students. Thus the story is limited to educational organizations.

The type of knowledge that was 'storytized' in this study are limited to experiential, declarative and procedural.

Contribution of Study This study contributes in the understanding of the role

storytelling in knowledge transfer and the challenges that organization faces in implementing KM storytelling initiative. a response to the report by Iofredda and Gargiulo (2008) on the

findings of a 2006 survey conducted by the International Association of Business Communications (IABC) on storytelling in organization.

Study contributes to the conceptualization of knowledge embedded story and KM storytelling. Currently, existing literature does not provide insufficient explanation

on the concept of KM storytelling. definition, components and characteristics of KM storytelling

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Contribution of Study This study contributes in the construction of a knowledge

embedded story. component, structure, roles. and process to construct KES.

The process framework provides a more structural approach in constructing the content of a KES.

The process framework can be used by organization or integrated into storytelling applications such as digital storytelling, knowledge sharing system etc).

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Conclusion Study 1

Participants acknowledged KM storytelling as an effective KM tool and it can be used in the organization but there is a lack of proper platform in which such stories can be exchanged.

There are issues such as surroundings, trust, motivation, time constraint, perceived comfort, relevancy.

Study 2 identifies the characteristics of knowledge embedded story such as its structure,

content, attributes and knowledge elements that a story can represent. identify the process framework of constructing a knowledge embedded story.

This framework includes the phases and the roles responsible for each phase. Study 2 also corroborates Study 1 particularly in identifying the

characteristics of the story and the type of knowledge that the story represents.

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Output (Papers Published)1. Kalid, K. S. (2010). Transfer knowledge using stories: A malaysian university case study. In M. Al-

Shammari (Ed.), Knowledge management in emerging economies: Social, organizational and cultural implementation () IGI Global snippet.

2. Kalid, K. S., & Mahmood, A. K. (2008). Government Employees Perception on the Usage of Storytelling Approach to Share Knowledge in Organisation Environment. Proceedings of Knowledge Management International Conference, Langkawi, Malaysia.

3. Kalid, K. S., & Mahmood, A. K. (2008). A proposed organization storytelling conceptual framework for the purpose of transferring tacit knowledge. Information Technology, 2008. ITSim 2008. International Symposium on Information Technology, Kuala Lumpur. , 3. pp. 1-8.

4. Kalid, K. S., & Mahmood, A. K. (2009). The use of storytelling in sharing tacit knowledge in government organizations. Public Sector ICT Management Review, 3(1), 52-58.

5. Kalid, K. S., & Mahmood, A. K. (2010). Using stories to share knowledge: A Malaysian organization case study. Journal of Knowledge Management Practice, 11(1)

6. Kalid, K. S., & Mahmood, A. K. (2011). The development of a knowledge management storytelling process framework for the purpose of transferring knowledge. Research and Innovation in Information Systems (ICRIIS), 2011 International Conference on, pp. 1-5.

7. Kalid, K. S., & Mahmood, A. K. (2012). A Process Framework to Capture Tacit Knowledge Using Storytelling. Knowledge Management International Conference (KMICe) 2012, Johor Bharu. pp. 328-334.

8. Kalid, K. S., & Mahmood, A. K. (2014). A Qualitative Assessment of a Knowledge Story Construction Process Framework. Knowledge Management International Conference (KMICe) 2014, Langkawi. Internal

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