Organizational Storytelling discussed in class November 8, 2012.

Organizational storytelling is a detailed narrative of management actions, employee interactions, and other intraorganizational events that are communicated informally within the organization (Dalkir 107).  It differs from regular storytelling in that it is storytelling with a business purpose, supported by hard data, and is authentic and true (Naidu).  It is significant because it is part of the first phase of the knowledge management cycle which is knowledge capture and stories are excellent for capturing and coding tacit knowledge (Dalkir 107). 

Organizational storytelling is a very effective method of communication and is part of culture and history.  Within an organization, it can be part of the organizational culture.  A good organizational story is one you can understand, remember, and that you are able to retell (Naidu).   Storytelling is important to developing communities of practice and help gives meaning.  “The more emotionally, physically, and cognitively engaged participants are in the community of practice, the greater the need for storytelling as a way to make sense of the new activities” (Fiol 601).  Storytelling can be used as a leadership tool and not as a goal in itself and needs to be focused on business objectives.  Stories can be used to “win support for disruptive change (Denning 132).  Denning also suggests stories have a simple narrative pattern, are true and actually happened, are positive in tone, and have a happy ending.   

In the context of a library, organizational storytelling is an “emerging management technique” that can help librarians “improve their organizations through the power of narrative (Bartlett 1).   Stories can be used to teach the corporate culture, to “navigate the organizational environment” and help people deal with “workplace anxiety and uncertainty” as well as “entertain and build morale” (Bartlett 1).

Baker believes that storytelling is as an effective way to communicate and to enhance organizational communication and performance.  The strengths of storytelling lie in the fact that all humans are storytellers that send and receive messages establishing a common ground among the participants and quickly establish a social relationship (Baker 302).  “With this existing support for the cross-cultural power of storytelling and its business application, and the critical need for a communication tool addressing the organizational diversity continuum, it follows that storytelling is a viable solution to promote cogent communication and assist in the development of organizational understanding, building stronger employee relationships and therefore increasing business productivity” (Baker 303).  “Storytelling is effective in bringing about a sense of community—that in which listeners can easily understand and find common ground with their fellow listeners” (Baker 306).  Baker uses the following diagram to illustrate the Storytelling Model of Organizational Communication (Baker 302):

Works Cited

Baker, Randolph and Kim Gower.“Strategic Application of Storytelling in Organizations: Toward Effective Communication in a Diverse World.”  Journal of Business Communication, Jul2010, Vol. 47 Issue 3, p295-312, 18p, 2 Diagrams; found on p302.

Bartlett, Jennifer A.1, jen.bartlett@uky.edu. "New And Noteworthy: A Natural Fit: Organizational Storytelling In The Library." Library Leadership & Management 25.4 (2011): 1-3. OmniFile Full Text Mega (H.W. Wilson). Web. 13 Nov. 2012.

Dalkir, Kimiz.  Knowledge Management in Theory and Practice.  Cambridge: MIT Press, 2011. Print.

Denning, Stephen. "Stories In The Workplace." Hrmagazine 53.9 (2008): 129-132. OmniFile Full Text Mega (H.W. Wilson). Web. 13 Nov. 2012.

Fiol, C. Marlene and Elaine Ramanelli. “Before Identity: The Emergence of New Organizational Forms.” Organization Science 23.3 (2012): 597-611. Print.

Naidu, Yamini.  “Organisational Storytelling with Yamini Naidu.” YouTube. CPAustralia, 3 May 2009. Web. 13 November 2012.   

Data Mining as a Knowledge Management Tool discussed in class November 1, 2012.

Data mining is an extraction activity with the goal of discovering hidden facts contained in databases (Dalkir 465).  Using “machine learning, statistical analysis, modeling techniques and database technology, it can reveal patterns of behavior that will allow future behavior to be predicted (Dalkir 272).  It is significant in the areas of “market segmentation, customer profiling, fraud detection, evaluation of retail promotions, and credit risk analysis” (Dalkir 465).  I liked the example in our text of the relationship between the purchase of beer and diapers by new fathers.

Large numbers of inputs over long periods of time can be used to forecast future results and can be as simple as a decision tree or regression analyses or can be very complex models (Dalkir 272).   I think the issue of privacy and data mining is an interesting one.  Shoppers are happy to give up their privacy to stores with free rewards memberships.  Stores then know when and where you shop, what you buy, and how much you spend in exchange for small discounts.  I don’t think that shoppers understand how much information can be collected and stored about them.  I watched a YouTube video from SAS, a company that does data mining and analytics for business solutions.  It makes the point about the huge amounts of data available about your “stakeholders, operations, suppliers, and customers”.  They promise to “chew through data” to discover “trends, patterns, and relationships” and apply analytics so you can make business decisions based on facts (SAS).  The comments after the video were interesting in that a person points out that data mining can also be used for spyware, malware and virus based activities. 

Other uses for data mining have been in the area of health care.  The HIPAA or Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 addressed, among other things, the privacy of health information that became possible only after data mining methods made it possible to discover and patients had not consented to the disclosures.  One current related issue has resulted in a lawsuit by customers against Walgreens for selling prescription information to data mining companies even though it no longer identified individuals (Harlow).  I think there was fear that individuals could later be re-identified and that the people had not consented to allow Walgreens to disclose their health information.  

I read about another interesting use of data  mining in a story run by the Associated Press in August that revealed that Mitt Romney was using a “secretive data-mining project to identify new and wealthy donors” (Politico).  The information was from consumers and the data was used like businesses looking for sales leads based on past consumer activity.    With the large amounts of information in the world today, data mining will continue to be an important method of managing knowledge. 

Works Cited

Dalkir, Kimiz.  Knowledge Management in Theory and Practice.  Cambridge: MIT Press, 2011. Print.

Harlow, David. “Pharmacies Selling Prescription Information to Data Mining Companies.” MedPageToday. 30 June 2011. Web. 7 Nov. 2012.

Politico. “Mitt Romney Uses Secretive Data-Mining.” Politico.com 8 August 2012.  Web.  8 November 2012.

SASsoftware. "Manage the Data Deluge with Data Mining and Predictive Analytics." Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 5 Aug. 2011. Web. 10. Nov. 2012.

Organizational Learning discussed in class October 18, 2012.

Our text defines organizational learning as “a process involving human interaction, knowledge claim formulation, and validation by which new organizational knowledge is created.  The ability of an organization to learn from past behavior and information and improve as a result.  The capture and use of organizational knowledge to make organizational decision making more efficient and effective” (Dalkir 472).  We discussed in class how Organizational Learning (OL) is significant because it can give an organization competitive advantage, early recognition of mistakes, personal development, and helps achieve change, creativity and innovation. 

Organizational learning is defined by the lessons learned or key success and failures of an organization and its capture and reuse (Dalkir 377).  Organizations learn from the top down, when management passes down important knowledge, and from the bottom up, or lessons learned when actual tasks are accomplished and the results are good or bad (Dalkir 378). In class we discussed the process of organizational learning which includes knowledge acquisition, information, distribution, information interpretation, and organizational retention.  Organizations must learn and remember.  Organizations are composed of individuals that learn and the organization learns from all individuals.  It is hard to learn across different cultures within the organization such as operators, engineers, and executives that don’t understand each other. 

Peter Senge wrote a book on OL and founded The Society for Organizational Learning that has publications and workshops (Senge Fifth Discipline).   He believed that organizations capable of learning will be more efficient, effective, competitive and more viable than those who cannot learn.  His Five Disciplines are core competencies of a learning organization; mental models, shared vision, personal mastery, team learning, and systems thinking (Dalkir 368).  I watched a short video that previewed the Systems Thinking in Action that mentions how important systems thinking is to world health and education (Senge 2010).  I think it is interesting that he is applying his principles beyond corporations to larger world problems.  “Organizational learning is the process of applying knowledge from the past to present day challenges” (Dalkir 390) so OL should be able to be applied  in a global world problem context.  I also find it interesting to discuss how organizations learn as compared to individual learning theories as discussed in my User Instruction class. 

Works Cited

Dalkir, Kimiz.  Knowledge Management in Theory and Practice.  Cambridge: MIT Press, 2011. Print.

Senge, Peter.  The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. New York: Doubleday, 1990.  Print.

Senge, Peter. "Peter Senge: 2010 Systems Thinking in Action Conference Preview." Online video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 15 Apr. 2012. Web. 20. Oct. 2012.

Communities of Practice discussed in class September 13, 2012.

Our text defines Community of Practice as “an affinity group or information network that provides a forum where members can exchange tips or generate ideas; a group of professionals who try to face common problems to solve and who strive to improve their profession thereby themselves.  An informal network or forum where tips are exchanged and ideas generated.  A group of professionals, informally bound to one another through exposure to a common class of problems or in a common pursuit of solutions, and thereby themselves embodying a store of knowledge.  A group of practitioners held together by shared practices and common beliefs” (Dalkir 463).  CoP’s are significant because they enable knowledge sharing. 
In class we learned there are many different ways CoPs can be applied; organizations, government, education, associations, social sector and international development.  They are important because they connect people with a shared context and allow them to collaborate or generate new processes.  CoPs decrease the hours needed to solve problems by decreasing the learning curve and by decreasing the need to rework or reinvent knowledge and by decreasing mistakes.  They also increase organization, innovations, and speed of response.  Our text points out the key roles needed in CoPs for knowledge sharing to take place; a knowledge sponsor, champion, facilitator, practice leader, KSO, membership manager, discussion moderator, knowledge editor, librarian, archivist, usage analyst, and knowledge broker (Dalkir 176).  Knowledge librarians help organize and manage information.   

CoPs are developing virtually in the online environment.  This may seem difficult since community implies social interaction and this can social connection be lost in a virtual setting.  Our text gives the example of the CoPs where social connections can be made to recommend books or music you might enjoy or in letting you know who else in online with you in an online environment (Dalkir 168).

In special libraries, CoPs among librarians are especially useful according to Cohen’s article in Information Outlook.  He suggests that “special librarians who leverage the concept of communities of practice are more likely to realize their potential for growth within their organization” (Cohen).  Cohen encourages special librarians to use CoPs to manage the exponential growth of data, develop social capital and enable the “creation, sharing, and use” of knowledge.  He also says the digital age and virtual library will be supported by CoPs that librarians manage since a library is “both a service and a space” (Cohen).  The Learning to Fly, communities of practice are described as “stewards of the knowledge and competence” and that they “help each other to develop the competence to contribute individually within their own department (Collision 205).  I find this to be true in the Law Library where I work.  We often work in a CoP in the public services department to deal with reference questions that are repeated.  This keeps us from repeating the same research for the same question asked by different students.

 Works Cited

Cohen, Alex. “Libraries, Knowledge Management, and Communities of Practice.” Information Outlook 10.1 (2006) Web. 18 Sept. 2012.

Collision, Cchris and Geoff Parcell.  Learning to Fly. England: Wiley, 2010. Print.

Dalkir, Kimiz.  Knowledge Management in Theory and Practice.  Cambridge: MIT Press, 2011. Print.