A UNIFIED MODEL OF KNOWLEDGE CREATION AND BUSINESS ETHICS –

IMPLICATIONS FOR ENTERPRISE 2.0 AND ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT

EDUCATION

 

Presenter: Paul Wu Horng Jyh, PhDNanyang Technological University

Outline• Knowledge Management: SECI Knowledge Creation 

Model• Case Study of Professional Seminar • Business Ethics: Multi-Stakeholders Learning Dialogue 

(MSLD)• A Unified Model of Communicative Dynamics• Implications for 

– Enterprise 2.0– Engineering Management Education 

• Concluding remarks

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SECI Model of Knowledge Creation

1. Nonaka, I and Konno, N. (1998)The concept of `ba': building a foundation for knowledge creation, California Management Review 40(3), pp 1-152. Nonaka, I., Toyama, R. and Konno, N. (2000). ‘SECI, Ba, and leadership: a unified model of dynamic knowledge creation’. Long Range Planning, 33, pp 5-34.

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Constructivist Pedagogy

• Tradition along education reformists: Piaget, Vygotsky, and Dewey– Human construct knowledge and meaning from their experiences– Active and innovative learning styles

• Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) and Scaffolding• Specific Ingredients

– Eliciting prior knowledge – Creating cognitive dissonance– Application of knowledge with feedback– Reflection on learning

Baviskar, S.N., Hartle, R. T., &d Whitney, T. (2009). Essential Criteria to Characterize Constructivist Teaching: Derived from a review of the literature and applied to five constructivist-teaching method articles. International Journal of Science Education. 31(4). P541 — 550

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SECI & Constructivist Pedagogy

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AuthenticatingEliciting prior knowledge

RationalizingEncounter cognitive dissonance

NormingApplication of knowledge

with Feedack

PositioningReflection and Learning

Professional Seminar – A Case of Constructivist Pedagogy

• A core course for Master of Science students, with majors in Information Studies, Information Systems, and Knowledge Management since 2005 Division of Information Studies of NTU

• The number of students is 230 from very diverse backgrounds– Demography:  range of age, culture, language and professional background– Learning objectives: ranging from interest of new career in information, career 

advancement in existing work, exposing themselves in international learning environment, to self-enrichment and life-long learning. 

• To take advantage of this complexity, one of the essential tasks to be achieved, then, is to orient and guide the students in forming a coherent and vibrant learning community, as content-specific courses will tend to suit one group but disfranchise another.

– be conducive for students to forge collaboration and share knowledge by cross-fertilizing their diversity that naturally complements each others’.

• Thus, the goal of this core course: cultivating students’ soft skills, such as leadership, communication, critical/creative thinking, and entrepreneurship, and ethics

Professional Seminar Structure

• Typical Professional Courses on Weekends

Online Discussions

Group Reports

Wiki Entries

Final Reflection Report

SOCIALIZATION

EXTERNALIZATION

COMBINATION

INTERNALIZATION

Interact with one another and the speakers (Cohort level)

Share and exchange views on seminar takeaways with group members (Sub-group level: quiz challenge, moderation duties)

Articulate arguments with the larger

community of peers for review, extension

and expansion (Cohort level)

Consolidate the group knowledge gained through activities above (Sub-group level: consolidation of moderation report)

Build a common repository of peer reviewed, collective knowledge (Sub-

group level: consolidation of moderation duties approach; sub-

group level programme: 1200 words reports and presentation slides for external panelists’ presentations).

)

Reflect on collective knowledge by making connections with the individual experiences

Blog Entries

Presentation

Break-Out Sessions

Seminar

Reaching out to the external community (Sub-group level by programmme)

Online ComponentOffline Component

SECI and Blended Learning Environment

Relaxed, but intellectually challenging

• No classrooms, but– Seminars, Break-out Discussions and Panels

• No exams, but– Full attendance (for all three seminars) – Group report of 1200 words as wiki entry, based on topics 

from Session 2, and 20 minute presentation to panels through a selection process 

– Final individual report of 500 words (reflection of what you have learned)

– Online posting and participation is essential (see later)

Proactive in sharing the work

• Once in the seminar, a sub-group will perform moderation duty for a discussion session where the rest of the students in the group participate 

• The responsibilities, as a team, include: – Facilitating small group discussion– Documenting, summarizing and reporting the discussion 

and findings of the group – Posting summarized report in the group’s discussion forum 

– can be basis for the 2000 words group report– Etc. 

Plugging into cyberspace- continue your interaction online!

• Each individual student is to actively participate in blog, forum and wiki on our eLearning platform edveNTUre: http://edventure.ntu.edu.sg

• Online posting essential to your reports– Group report considered a remix of postings in the online 

space– A portfolio of individual postings need to be included as 

evidence in the final individual report

Conversations before , after and in – between seminars (Tea Break)

EdBlog

EdWiki

EdForum

Panel/Break-Out discussions

Consolidation through Moderation

Cascade Mode of Communication (CMC) based on Blogs, Forums and Wikis for SECI

Socialization Externalization

Combination

Internalization (Reflective Reports; Portfolio)

Significant New Findings

• Active and collaborative  learning • Overcome long recognized barriers: breaking down social, culture, language barriers as one’s complement the other’s. 

• Establish the balancing point between extrinsic and intrinsic motivations– Completion of SECI spirals– Reflexive learning

Student-centered Teaching • Shift the focus of activity from the teacher to the learners:

– active learning: students solve problems, answer questions, formulate questions, discuss, explain, debate, or brainstorm during class

– cooperative learning: work in teams on problems and projects under conditions that assure both positive interdependence and individual accountability

– inductive teaching and learning, in which students are first presented with challenges (questions or problems) and learn the course material in the context of addressing the challenges. Inductive methods include 

• inquiry-based learning • case-based instruction• problem-based learning • project-based learning • discovery learning • just-in-time teaching

Richard Felder's Home Page “RESOURCES IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING EDUCATION” URL:http://www4.ncsu.edu/unity/lockers/users/f/felder/public/

Cascading Modes of Communication

SECI Space Physical and Web 2.0 Spaces

Criteria of High Quality Knowledge

Communication Modes (Speech Pattern)

Socializing Blog/Social Network Authenticity This, X, is truly what I believe/feelExternalization Forum Rationality This, X, I agree/disagree/need to clarify, because of Y

Combination Wiki Universality Regardless of what I said, this, Z, is what most of us believe/feel.

Internalization Final Report Intentionality Given Z, what am I to do about X.

Blog/Social Network Forum

WikiReflection Report

Modeling Professional Seminar as an Activity System

• Subjects: Who is involved in carrying out the activity?• Activity (Model): What sort of activity is of interest?• Object: What are the shared objects produced from activity?• Tools: By what means are the subjects performing the activity?• Rules and regulations: Are there any cultural norms, rules or regulations 

governing the performance of the activity?• Division of labor: Who are responsible for what, when carrying out activity 

and how are those roles organized? • Community: What is the environment in which this activity is being carried 

out?• Outcomes: What is the desired outcome from carrying out this activity?

Engestrom, Y. (1987). Learning by expanding: An activity theoret. approach to developmental research. Helsinki: Orienta Konsultit Oy

Professional Seminar Activity System

Online (Cascading Mode of Communication) & Offline (Seminar, Break-out Discussion)

Speakers, Students, Facilitator, & Teacher

Posting Blog, Forum, Wiki sReflective Reports

Professional Seminar/MSc IS, IT, and KM

AuthenticGolden RuleNet EtiquetteNOR, NPV

Sense of CommunitySense of EfficacySense of Knowledge Quality(Knowledge Ready for Action- Praxis)

Grouping/Sub-grouping

SECI Spirals

Business Ethics• Issue of concern: social responsibility v.s. profitability• Instrumental reasoning approach to decision making

– Value-neglect orientation – Calculus of power, urgency, and legitimacy to fit a unitary system of 

control– Screen out discordant stakeholder voices as being value laden, and 

hence a likely threat to unitary control

• Ethical reasoning approach to decision making – Value-attunement orientation – Communicative ethics based on mutual respect among insiders and 

stakeholder groups in the community– Knowledge creation spirals to engage and enlarge community of 

practice

Calton, J. M., & Payne, S. L. (2003). Coping With Paradox: Multistakeholder Learning Dialogue as a Pluralist Sensemaking Process for Addressing Messy Problems. BUSINESS AND SOCIETY. 42, 7-42.

Communicative Action

• Communicative action is a concept associated with the German philosopher-sociologist Jurgen Habermas, who is also one major thinker on “Public Sphere.”– used to describe cooperative action undertaken by individuals based 

upon mutual deliberation and argumentation. He develops the concept in his work The Theory of Communicative Action. 

• It is a critic to the structural-functional tradition of sociology which likens human organizations to a reified system driven by instrumental reasoning – like an Iron Cage or a colonized Life-world, where human interests flourish. 

• Practical wisdom is needed: regulation and rules thwarts moral skills and incentive diminish moral wills.

Multi-Stakeholders Learning Dialogue (MSLD)Dissensus

Consensus

Global/

CollectiveT

ruth

Quadrant III

Postmodern criticsDeconstructTexts narrated byContending voices

Quadrant II

Many voices seek sharedmeanings from narrativescomposed in local communitiesof interpretation

Quadrant IV

Many voices seek to integrate and reconstruct meanings via reflective Dialogue inquiry

Quadrant I

Expert voices seek toConstruct universal meanings from the specialized study of Facts or values

Multi-Stakeholders Learning Dialogue (MSLD)Dissensus

Consensus

Global/

CollectiveT

ruth

Quadrant III

Postmodern criticsDeconstructTexts narrated byContending voices

Quadrant II

Many voices seek sharedmeanings from narrativescomposed in local communitiesof interpretation

Quadrant IV

Many voices seek to integrate and reconstruct meanings via reflective Dialogue inquiry

Quadrant I

Expert voices seek toConstruct universal meanings from the specialized study of Facts or values

Socialization Externalization

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Unified Model of Communicative Dynamics (UMCD) and Ying-Yang of Dialectic Process

• Teacher and students are objects of mutual attraction in a spiral of progress (teach to learn and learn to teach) and are all agents, having the same propensities for

– Consensus v.s. Dissensus– Tacit v.s. Explicit– Individual/Local v.s. Collective/Global

Leader/Facilitator(Yang: collective/explicit/consensus)

Agents/Creators(Ying: individual/implicit/dissensus)

The Analects of Confucius ( 論語 )

• 顏淵第十二 : 季康子问政于孔子曰： "如杀无道，以就有道，何如？ "孔子对曰： "子为政，焉用杀。子欲善，而民善矣。君子之德风，小人之德草，草上之风，必偃。“

• Book 12: Chi K'ang asked Confucius about government, saying, "What do you say to killing the unprincipled for the good of the principled?" Confucius replied, "Sir, in carrying on your government, why should you use killing at all? Let your evinced desires be for what is good, and the people will be good. The relation between superiors and inferiors is like that between the wind and the grass. The grass must bend, when the wind blows across it.“

• Note:  德 =virtue, which unfortunately is not translated

Confucius, . (1938). The Analects of Confucius. Translated and annotated by Arthur Waley. New York: Vintage Books

Tao Te Ching (道德经 )• 第四十二章 : 道生一，一生二，二生三，三生万物。万物负阴 (YIN)而抱阳 (YANG)，冲气以为和。

• Chapter 42: The Tao produced One; One produced Two; Two produced Three; Three produced All things. All things leave behind them the Obscurity (YIN) (out of which they have come), and go forward to embrace the Brightness (YANG) (into which they have emerged), while they are harmonized by the Breath of Vacancy.

• One = the same Virtue for both those who bend (YIN) and those who blow (YANG)

Unified Model of Communicative Dynamics (UMCD) and Ying-Yang of Dialectic Process

• Teacher and students are objects of mutual attraction in a spiral of progress (teach to learn and learn to teach) and are all agents, having the same propensities for

– Consensus v.s. Dissensus– Tacit v.s. Explicit– Individual/Local v.s. Collective/Global

Leader/Facilitator(Virtue: Blow)

Agents/Creators(Virtue: Bend)

Record of Studies  学记 - Disciples of Confucius (551 – 479 BC)

• 学然后知不足，教然后知困。知不足，然后能自反也；知困，然后能自强也。故曰教学相长也。

• Learning leads to one’s realization of lack of knowledge, teaching lead to one’s realization of perplexities of knowledge. Knowing one’s own inadequacy facilitates learning; understanding the perplexities facilitates self-invigoration. Hence teaching and learning are an ever progressing joint development

• Are we a model for students, relentless open to share and learn?

Implications for Enterprise 2.0 (I)

• Def: Enterprise 2.0 is the use of "Web 2.0" technologies within an organization to enable or streamline business processes while enhancing collaboration - connecting people through the use of social-media tools

• Achievable if leaders and members possess the same virtue and goal: openness and trust, on the one hand and ethical behaviors, on the other.

• Cascade modes of communication of social-media tools (blog/social-network/forum/wiki/reflection reports) helps create high quality knowledge

Implications for Enterprise 2.0 (II)

• Need to be further facilitated to overcome sense of disorientation in the cyberspace  - i.e., the discussion of noise and signal  McAfee’s SLATES methodology for Enterprise 2.0– Search– Link– Author– Tag– Extension– Signal 

McAfee, A. P. (January 01, 2006). Enterprise 2.0: The Dawn of Emergent Collaboration - Do we finally have the right technologies for knowledge work? Wikis, blogs and group-messaging software can make a corporate intranet into a constantly changing structure built by distributed, autonomous peers that reflects the way work really gets done. Mit Sloan Management Review, 47, 3, 21.

Implications for Engineering Management Education (I)

• Discipline cross exercise can be beneficial as it creates more opportunities for collaboration

• All relevant background knowledge should be brought to bearPre-requisites Fundamentals Specialization Emerging Areas

Technology-centred subjects

(TBS) Human Computer Interface Design Enterprise Information System Information Visualization and Presentation 

Social InformaticsVisualization and Advanced Computer Graphics 

Virtual Reality Technology

Technology-related management procedures

(TBS) Quality ManagementProject Management

Safety & Security Compliance Management

Managing Technological Breakthroughs

Corporate functions Business Research Method and Case Study

Financial Accounting; Community of PracticeMarketing for Decision Making Economic AnalysisManaging Business Operations

IP Management Accounting for Decision Making and ControlCorporate and Business Strategy Leadership and Organizational Behavior

Knowledge Management Creativity & InnovationVenture Capital Investment in High-tech Industrie

Supporting disciplines LanguageLogic

Ethics (TBS) (TBS)

Implications for Engineering Management Education (II)

• Diversity of skills needed–  Problem solving, Communication, Team work, Self-assessment, Life-long learning, and Change Management

• Need to maintain ideal balance between– Upstream R&D v.s. Downstream Industry– Specialized v.s. Generic Skills– Coverage v.s. Synergy– Global v.s. Local Contexts– Community v.s. Expert

Concluding Remarks

• Unification of models of knowledge creation and business ethics defies rigidity and highlights the importance of dynamic roles and balance in a community of practice and learning.

• Roles are critical, but are subject to change through dialogue.• Balance is to be guided by ethics and maintained through an 

ever progression of changes with the evolving common grounds of the community.

• Human and technology may interface differently to increase productivity however there is need to counter side-effects and regain seamlessness of interface.

• Synthesis of disciplines creates opportunity however learning must be guided by background knowledge.

Thank You

Dr. Paul Wu Horng-Jyh paulhjwu@gmail.com 

• “Ahh… Professional Seminar. Must be a breeze. Just three Saturdays, listen to the speakers and then times up!... I had the impression that it would be one of the seminars where I just listen to talks from renowned speakers from the industry.”

• “Yes, indeed, this Professional Seminar course did give me the opportunities to discover my strengths and weaknesses. I have reflected quite a lot and that surprised me. In the past, I would never think of taking up the role of group leader through the course . I realized that my strengths in the ability to focus on the tasks when I took up the ownership. On the other hand, the weaknesses kick in when I am overloaded with work, studies and socialize activities which deviates my focus.”

• “I have learnt a lot during the Professional Seminar. The speakers gave insightful and interesting talks. The group discussions were an eye opener. I could actually mirror some of the characters and experiences I had in the real corporate world.”

• “After the professional seminar, I and my group decided we were going to find answers to the quiz given. We shared the work between us in the group in such a way that division of labor will be ensued. *Student A* decided to collate the story while *Student B* and others decided to find answers to the puzzles via the internet and books so to say.”

• “Before researches became an option, we thought of using a very funny technique as we decided to act the drama posed in the questions given. We decided to tie *Student C*’s, *Student D* and *Student E*’s face and from there we coined out something related to the answer.”

• “It’s true that knowledge sharing is power. No matter the cultural, lingual or ethical difference between groups of people knowledge sharing still fosters growth and so things are done faster and effectively than when knowledge is hoarded”

• “*Studente F* came up with the answer to one of the question but unfortunately, it came in Mandarin and it was sent to my email; I requested for the translation and thereafter *Student B* translated it.”

The entire lecture hall was silenced as it dawned upon the subgroups that we would have to reform into three groups according to our field of study: Information Studies, Information Systems and Knowledge Management. Didn't see that one coming. One of the leaders (from Information Systems) emerged from the rubble of assignments, term reports and tests, providing the beacon of light that led the way into the darkness. "GO!" He pointed onward, "Split thyselves into thy listed groups and follow the way of the mailing list. Most importantly, stay attuned to the final report details of which shall be heading your way like a speeding missile. Ow! You have been warned!"

 Thanks to him, no one will be under the misguided impression that IT people have no leadership or communication skills (Steve Jobs: "You think?!")

 It should have been smooth sailing for the Information Studies group from here on - the chosen ones in the mission of helping users with information seeking behaviour. Besides, having 15 people write 1200 words should be a pleasant walk in Yunnan park right? But of course, if common sense rules the day, there would be world peace and Singapore would finally be satisfied with a beauty queen who is boomz.

 Between active participation in the online forums and the hailstorm of assignments, the report was suffering from severe hunger pangs. "Feed me!" It cried out for attention. And then a kind lady leapt into action proving that girl power is a reality not to be denied by anyone; by decisively proposing new frontiers of work division and topics. It was the Force we needed. Something that goes like "OI!!! WAKE UP YOUR IDEAS!". Within a short period, everyone had chosen their favourite subtopic to write on with some even volunteering new ones. Editors got to the fore and did what they did best, which was to edit. A lone kind soul created the much needed wikis for online collaboration.

 Everyone tapped into their inner writer and contributed with a vengeance. A week later.... The report was more than 1200 words. It ate too much. Did we give up? NO! Thankfully, our fearless leader and volunteer editors jumped in with pen (and lightsaber) in hand, trimming the fat away and sculpting the

beauty that was left. We had our final report. Presentation slides. Presenters. Wow. Upon reflection, it was a strange affair as the process of writing the essay reflected quite a bit of its contents. When we needed it most,

each of us demonstrated different skill sets, managed the information overload and collaborated ethically, respecting copyright boundaries without crossing into North Korea. Weren't these the topics we wrote about?

Blog Post

Forum Discussion (Signals v.s. Noises)

Wiki Entry