19.3 Developing a knowledge organization

The organization as a knowledge market

In organizations, new knowledge is created continuously as people learn and gain experiences. On the other hand, people are continuously seeking information and knowledge in order to solve specific problems. Knowledge moves through organizations, is exchanged, bought, forgotten, lost, found, generated and applied to work. We can therefore describe organizations as knowledge markets, which can help us to understand the driving forces and barriers to managing knowledge, and to develop effective enabling conditions and market mechanisms for generating and exchanging knowledge.12

The task of consulting in knowledge management or developing knowledge management in a professional service firm is therefore to develop a knowledge market. Following this metaphor, in any organization there are knowledge sellers, knowledge buyers, intermediaries such as knowledge brokers, and media through which sellers and buyers interact. In order to create knowledge markets and make them work, enabling conditions, principles and rules have to be defined and the supporting knowledge media and infrastructure have to be developed.

Enabling conditions for knowledge markets

The knowledge ecology approach holds that knowledge cannot be managed but that conditions that enhance knowledge flows can be created in organizations. Apart from the physical and IT infrastructures, these enabling conditions include “soft” factors such as strategic vision, values, attitudes, relationships, objectives and incentives. A corporate strategic vision should formulate clearly the contribution of knowledge and people to sustained corporate competitiveness. Values that create the right spirit for knowledge creation and exchange include trust, openness to change, professionalism, a passion for excellence, and the self-confidence to empower others in a boundary-free fashion.