Level Of Codification Research Articles

POM Forum: Transfer of Changing Production Know‐How

Even with the rich literature on knowledge management, we still don't know enough about how the rate of change in production‐know‐how affects the choice of mechanisms for its transfer. Codifying tacit know‐how helps, but codification becomes more challenging as the know‐how changes more frequently. Transfer of tacit know‐how becomes much more complicated when it changes often. We need more research in this area, particularly to help production and operations managers who must ultimately use the new know‐how and change their companies' production processes. The paper suggests a framework as a step in that direction. The framework focuses on the interplay between the level of codification and the rate of change of production know‐how, and identifies four zones for classifying production know‐how: “slow and codified,” “slow and tacit,” “fast and codified,” and “fast and tacit.” Examples from McDonald̂s, Club Med, Intel, and AOL are used to illustrate primary transfer mechanisms for each zone (manuals and systems, people, joint‐development, and projects, respectively). Appropriate absorptive capacities in the production units for each zone are also identified. Since the ultimate responsibility of operations managers is to improve (i.e., change) their production know‐how as fast as possible, they would be wise to adopt policies that are closer to those suited for the “fast and codified” zone. Intel and Toyota show good models.

Technological knowledge assets and innovation

The aim of this paper is to study the influence of technological knowledge assets with different levels of codification on innovation capability from the resource- and knowledge-based view of the firm. To that end, a study of 1444 Spanish industrial firms was performed between 1998 and 2000, based on information provided by the Survey of Business Strategies (SBS). The results show that technological knowledge assets exert different levels of influence depending on their character. Thus, tacit assets exert more influence on firm innovation than other technological knowledge assets. Specifically, technological knowledge capabilities are the most significant during the three-year period of analysis.

A knowledge framework for problem solving in the worldwide manufacturing competition

The complexity of manufacturing problems stresses the role of knowledge management in organisations. In fact, the global market competition forces companies to be not only fast and creative to face demand requirements, but also efficient and effective to coordinate the supply-chain flows. This article proposes a framework to analyse manufacturing problems according to a knowledge management perspective. The analysis is based on the main knowledge processes involved in problem solving, namely knowledge generation, memory, transfer and codification. Each of them can be assessed by variables such as uncertainty, space-dependence, time-dependence, and codification level, describing manufacturing problems in terms of, for instance, degree of coordination and integration, repetitiveness or uniqueness of the solution. The definition of the most suitable ICT to support problem solving in a specific manufacturing context is then provided, allowing the definition of possible actions to pursue performance improvement. Finally, some examples of the framework implementation in organisations operating in the automotive industry are described, to show the potentialities of the approach.

Facing the problem of unbalanced development of knowledge across sectors and fields: the case of the knowledge base in primary education

This paper aims at developing a framework to analyse the structure and the dynamics of the knowledge base in the education sector. The main purpose is to explain why the creation and circulation of knowledge do not work well and what kind of transformations should be implemented at the system level to improve the process of knowledge advances. Three main issues are at stake: the interface between science (in this case, the educational research) and technology (the practical knowledge used by teachers), the low level of codification, which hampers the access to and the expansion of the professional knowledge base and the incentive problems posed by the need for knowledge and innovation diffusion across classrooms and schools.

Codification and tacitness as knowledge management strategies: an empirical exploration

This paper develops four categories of knowledge management strategies used by multinational corporations (MNCs). Codification strategies involve the transformation of tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge in order to facilitate flows of organizational knowledge. Tacitness strategies keep organizational knowledge tacit in order to prevent flows of knowledge to competitors. Focused knowledge management strategies regulate knowledge flows by controlling the degree to which knowledge is encoded in forms that match the information intensity and ambiguity of their knowledge. Unfocused knowledge management strategies attempt to regulate knowledge flows by controlling the overall level of codification of knowledge without special consideration of the capabilities of specific forms of codification. Empirical analyses of the effects of these strategies on subunit performance in a sample of US and Danish subsidiaries suggest that the focused strategies are superior to the other strategies. Our results also indicate that different kinds of organizational knowledge require matching forms of codification in order to increase performance. The results give rise to a nested contingency model of knowledge management.

Organizations as Adaptive Systems in Complex Environments: The Case of China

This paper treats organizations as adaptive systems that have to match the complexity of their environments. The nature of this complexity is analyzed by linking an institutional Information-Space (I-Space) framework to the work of complexity theorists. The I-Space framework identifies the codification, abstraction, and diffusion of information as cultural attributes. Codification involves the assignment of data to categories, thus giving them form. Abstraction involves a reduction in the number of categories to which data needs to be assigned for a phenomenon to be apprehended. Information is diffused through populations of data-processing agents, thus constituting the diffusion dimension. Complexity theorists have identified the stability and structure of algorithmic information complexity in a way that corresponds to levels of codification and abstraction. Their identification of system parts and the richness of cross-coupling draws attention to the fabric of information diffusion. We discuss two modes of adaptation to complex environments: complexity reduction and complexity absorption. Complexity reduction entails getting to understand the complexity and acting on it directly, including attempts at environmental enactment. Complexity absorption entails creating options and risk-hedging strategies, often through alliances.The analysis, and its practical utility, is illustrated with reference to China, the world's largest social system. Historical factors have shaped the nature of complexity in China, giving it very different characteristics than those typical of Western industrial countries. Its organizations and other social units have correspondingly handled this complexity through a strategy of absorption rather than the reduction strategy characteristic of Western societies. Western firms operating in China therefore face a choice between maintaining their norms of complexity reduction or adopting a strategy of complexity absorption that is more consistent with Chinese culture. The specifics of these policy alternatives are explored, together with their advantages and disadvantages.The paper concludes with the outlines of a possible agenda for future research, focusing on the investigation of complexity-handling modes and the contingencies which may bear upon the choice between them.

Knowledge transfer and inter-firm relationships in industrial districts: the role of the leader firm

In the literature, knowledge transfer is widely emphasized as a strategic issue for firm competition. In this paper, the knowledge transfer is investigated referring to customer–supplier relationships in industrial districts. The knowledge transfer process is described and a framework is provided to define the main components of the process. A model is proposed to analyse how a leader firm of an industrial district can modify the knowledge nature and adopt different types of supply relationship to increase the effectiveness of knowledge transfer. The model stresses that, when the knowledge transfer has to be fast and reliable between customer and supplier, knowledge has to be codified. However, as the codification level increases, knowledge can be easily shared with other district competitors. Then, the leader firm can also try to control the knowledge transfer by the reduction of the number of suppliers. Referring to the case of an industrial district, some considerations are made to show the practical implications of the knowledge control by the district leader firm.

Age and academic-professional honors.

This report analyzes variations in the age distribution of individuals at selection to three prominent positions in the academic-professional community. Nobel prizewinner, president of a scientific or professional association, and president of a major research-oriented university. The mean ages of the individuals in each of the categories are compared with those of the presumed pool of scientists. The cross-sectional variations in age at selection seem to be correlated with variations in the levels of codification among the disciplines. There has been a tendency toward older selectees over time. The aging of the pool of scientists cannot fully account for this aging trend. A backlog of candidates for recognition seems to be implicated.