People-focused knowledge management

Objectives of Integrative Management
Integrative management provides capabilities and practices, with
resulting decisions and actions that implement enterprise strategy 
and directions effectively to ensure durable success. By introducing
long-term viewpoints and broad-based collaboration, systems 
perspectives, and methods, it expands decision making to include
considerations such as the business value of intangible benefits,
hidden costs, and overall life-cycle costs and benefits. Integrative
management surfaces shared needs and opportunities that may be
neglected in other environments. It also provides a stronger basis for
innovation and agility — for smart behavior. In short, integrative
management provides the foundation for a strong competitive 
enterprise. As indicated schematically in Figure 8-4, integrative man-
agement coordinates creative interactions between most internal and
external entities, which in some way affect the behavior and effec-
tive performance of the enterprise.
ch08.qxd 5/3/04 2:32 PM Page 270

---

People-Focused Knowledge Management Expectations
271
Integration of
Functional
Activities
Integrated
Short-Term
& Long-Term
Objectives
Integrated
Products
& Services
Culture
&
Motivation
Production
Operations
Purchasing
R&D
Marketing
Sales
Incentives
Employees
- Leadership -
- Incentives -
- Collaboration -
- Supportive Culture -
- Competitive Intelligence Assets -
Customers
Owners
Suppliers
INTEGRATIVE MANAGEMENT
Information
Services
Human
Resources
Finance
&
Accounting
Figure 8-4
Integrative management leads to coordination of many entities. 
Copyright © 2002 Knowledge Research Institute, Inc. Reproduced 
with permission.
It has always been obvious that integration is required between
codependent entities such as operating functions and scheduling
activities of different areas of production. Information services also
are typically well integrated with departmental activities. What is not
so obvious — as evidenced by problematic practices in many organi-
zations — is the need to integrate and coordinate daily activities and
future plans with marketing, R&D, culture, strategy, incentives, cor-
porate direction and intentions, the management of intellectual and
information capital, and the objectives of relevant stakeholders. In
the past, narrow foci have often led to problems. Two problem areas
come to mind: business process redesign (BPR) and enterprise-wide
information systems such as those provided by SAP, Oracle, and
others. The performance and success of many efforts have fallen short
of expectations, mostly because of pursuing narrow scopes. Dimen-
sions such as culture, people’s tacit work approaches and mental
styles, established networking and collaborating behaviors, and the
ch08.qxd 5/3/04 2:32 PM Page 271

---

272
People-Focused Knowledge Management
knowledge and expertise needed for competent delivery of intellec-
tual work products were often neglected.