People-focused knowledge management

Expected Result: Increased customer satisfaction and econo-
mics.
Next Step: Logistics director with the assistance of CSRs and
Accounting were to form taskforce to address inventory and
customer service issues.
As a result of this program, nine immediate actions and nine long-
term actions were implemented, with broad involvement of the whole
Asterix enterprise.
Notes
1. The problem of having the rank-and-file understand the enterprise strat-
egy is recognized as very serious for many, perhaps most, enterprises and
has led to both dissatisfying performance and business failures.
2. See Chapter 7 for a discussion of service paradigms.
3. Experts often require little but selective information to handle situations,
whereas people dealing with unfamiliar situations, such as novices,
require a much larger complement of information to handle them.
4. Sensemaking within the organization has been treated extensively by
Weick (1995) who emphasizes how disorderly — complex and ambigu-
ous — the organizational environment is. Weick provides insights into
how organizational sensemaking is created retrospectively and retroac-
tively, hence providing building blocks for both personal mental refer-
ence models and institutional reference models such as organizational
systems, procedures, and practices. Such sensemaking provides under-
standing of the World-That-Was and may not be valid for dealing proac-
tively with the World-That-Comes.
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7
P
EOPLE-
F
OCUSED 
K
NOWLEDGE
M
ANAGEMENT IN 
D
AILY 
O
PERATIONS
Premise 7-1: Knowledge Drives Enterprise
Performance
Knowledge is the primary driver of enterprise performance.
Knowledge affects performance by making it possible for people to
perform good and effective actions. Application of better knowledge
provides opportunities for better performance.
Premise 7-2: Knowledge Must Be Managed
The mechanism by which knowledge affects performance is
through people; hence, we must facilitate and strengthen the 
knowledge-related processes, activities, and practices that make it
possible for people and organizational entities to make effective
actions. The efforts to facilitate and organize knowledge production
and utilization is knowledge management.
Premise 7-3: Effective Knowledge Management
Must Be People-Focused
Enterprise performance is determined by knowledge-based people-
actions, and the effectiveness of actions results from knowledge uti-
lized to handle situations. It is clear that KM must be people-focused.
Premise 7-4: Six Factors Determine Personal
Knowledge-Related Effectiveness
The effectiveness of personal knowledge-related actions is directly
affected by (1) management philosophy and practices; (2) deliberate
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and systematic knowledge management; (3) knowledge and other
resources; (4) motivation and personal energy; (5) opportunities; and
(6) permission (as discussed in Chapter 2).
The Vigilant Knowledge Company Example
Paul Horner, chairman, president, and CEO of Palmera Corpora-
tion, was delighted with the performance of his company. Palmera
was the world’s leading manufacturer and supplier of high-
technology consumer goods and had been able to increase its com-
petitive lead through intelligence and dedication. The company was
known for its innovative research and development that often were
made into market-ready products faster than any of its competitors
could match. Yet, Palmera employees did not seem to work harder
than anyone else. Instead, they seemed to enjoy themselves and
achieved a balance between their work lives and private lives that
others could only dream about. How did they do it?
Palmera is a company with a century-long history of adapting to
new markets and challenges by proactive thinking and an internal
culture that has favored expertise, innovation and daring, flexibility,
fairness, and a strong sense of family. When Paul became CEO a
decade ago, he supported these values implicitly but decided to make
them explicit and provide business reasons to back them. On top of
his agenda he placed the goal for Palmera to be a combined global
market and product leader, which was ambitious since Palmera was
breaking into new products.
Paul, supported and assisted by his management team and Board
of Directors, stated Palmera’s intentions by outlining principles for
management beliefs and company and personal competence objec-
tives that can be summarized as follows.
Management Belief-Related Principles
The individual — whether an employee, business partner, or 
customer — should be respected, which entails open com-
munication, fairness, mutual trust, and learning from human
differences.
A balance is to be achieved between work content and personal
interests and needs; that balance has an impact on employee
well-being in order to maintain work-life balance according to
employees’ changing needs and life situations.
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Palmera will pursue approaches to treat people with dignity and
opportunities based on the strong evidence that organizations
experience a 30 to 40 percent productivity advantage when they
treat their people “right.”
The four fundamentals of the management philosophy are:
Palmera values, achievement-based recognition, professional
and personal growth, and work-life balance.
Stakeholders are: Palmera as an operational entity, employees
and their families, customers, shareholders, suppliers and 
other contractors, nongovernmental organizations, govern-
ments and authorities, and citizens in areas where Palmera 
operates.
Palmera’s impact on society comes with responsibilities that 
go beyond providing useful, safe, and quality products. By 
conducting business in a responsible way, Palmera can make a
significant contribution to sustainable development and provide
a strong foundation for economic growth.
Company and Personal Competence-Related Objectives
Employees are persuaded to develop an understanding of what
is expected from them, how their individual achievements
support Palmera’s overall strategy, and how they benefit and 
are rewarded as a result. Employees are motivated to be 
responsible for their own development and to take advantage 
of the available development opportunities that Palmera 
provides.
Continuous learning encourages employees to develop them-
selves and to find ways to improve their own and Palmera’s 
performance. Employees continuously look for ways to stay at
the forefront of technological development, share experiences,
take risks, and learn together.
Continuous learning is not just studying and training; it also
means that people support each other’s growth, develop and
improve their relationships through common exchanges, and
develop ideas in open discussion and debate. On-the-job learn-
ing is also heavily encouraged.
Coaching is regarded as a vital part of continuous learning and
provides role models and opportunities to build mental refer-
ence models.