SKILLS FOR KNOWLEDGE ENVIRONMENTS.

AT THE CORE

THIS ARTICLE EXAMINES:

* Importance of knowledge management (KM) in organizations

* Information literacy skills for a knowledge environment

* Research findings about roles of information professionals in KM

The knowledge economy is a reality in the Western world. Before the term knowledge management (KM) was coined, many organizations examined alternative ways of doing business and restructuring themselves. Information and communications technology (ICT) had widened their internal and external networks, which enabled different and more flexible arrangements with staff, suppliers, and clients. Theoretically, they could increase their capacity to innovate and respond to their markets. However, this technology provided the same advantages to current competitors and lowered the cost of entry to new competitors.

Organizations found that their environments were subjected to rapid change and that survival depended on their being able to recognize and harness the change. Successful private sector organizations needed to operate in a fast-moving and global marketplace where their customers were knowledgeable, where those customers had a rich landscape of choice, and where the relationships between supplier and client were changing.

Public sector organizations recognized that they faced competition as well, whether it was for funding or from alternative services. The message was that the customer was central to operations and that meeting their requirements and exceeding their expectations were the road to success. Corporate capability -- the ability to meet market need as well as develop and expand it -- was the key, and this capability was made up of more than the ability to implement and use the latest technology.

As organizations faced the challenge of reinventing themselves in radically changing environments, a series of management writers, academics, and consultants influenced views on adaptive cultures, stakeholders, business processes, knowledge sharing, learning organizations, and benchmarking other elements of organizational development. Culture and identity, involvement and commitment, process and flexibility, learning and sharing, creativity and innovation, and trust and respect were aspects of the changes advocated, the best practices rehearsed, and the lessons learned through case study. Of the management themes developed and explored in the last 25 years, five have been particularly influential in changing the way that people and organizations work. These are:

* total quality management

* business process reengineering

* intangible assets

* learning organizations

* knowledge management

These themes are not mutually exclusive nor are they exhaustive, and their common themes have fed and enlarged them. They have been responsible for a significant portion of business language. Their common thrust is away from using the balance sheet and financial accounting as the main tool of management and more toward a broader understanding of what creates value and sustainable business success. At the core sits the crucial interaction between the people of an organization -- its customers, suppliers, and partners -- and the structures that underpin the organization.

Emergent Centrality of the Knowledge Worker

KM concepts and strategies are making their mark on organizations of all sizes and in all sectors. In a number of surveys, chief executives placed KM high on their list of priorities.

For organizations to compete effectively in the knowledge economy, they need values that focus on creating and using intellectual assets. For individuals working in these organizations, the ability to navigate and use information, learn new skills, and feel comfortable in ambiguous work situations has become as important to success as academic achievement. To be successful in these environments, individuals need to acquire new combinations of skills. In particular, they need to learn skills that enable them to find, acquire, manage, share, and apply information and knowledge -- they need information literacy skills.

By developing a stimulating environment, what some have called an information ecology, where intellectual assets are created and used efficiently and effectively, organizations can increase their corporate capability. By acquiring and applying information literacy skills, individuals can increase their individual capability. Increasing both corporate and individual capability is the primary and necessary success factor in the knowledge economy.

This focus on intellectual assets and information literacy requires new approaches to the management of information and knowledge and to the environment in which it is created and used. It requires a new combination of the skills that embrace every aspect of our complex information world.

The business strategies of many organizations depend on their staffs working together and communicating effectively and creatively and on their ability to innovate and respond to the marketplace. KM facilitates this marketplace success. While one may question the label knowledge management, knowledge worker-based knowledge initiatives reflecting KM concepts are rapidly becoming a way of life. Such initiatives are becoming the next phase of the continuous process of improving business performance.

Objectives and Techniques of the Research

The KM philosophy states that no single department or function alone can deliver corporate objectives. Corporate capability is created by the following:

* skills and expertise of staff

* staff's ability to learn and to build knowledge from learning

* processes that enable the staff's skills and evolving knowledge to be applied and shared

* culture and values that encourage knowledge building and sharing

* an infrastructure (technology and physical) that supports knowledge building, flow, and sharing

* intellectual assets the organization builds, organizes, maintains, and exploits

Information is a necessary and foundational precursor to knowledge. Individuals -- rather than organizations -- identify and acquire information. Then they combine it with experience and additional information. In the right environment and circumstances, this nurturing process may lead to new knowledge that the person can share with others and benefit the organization.

Although information management (including records management, archives management, librarianship, and information systems) is very much part of the KM environment, it is but one part, and it is only truly effective when applied with an understanding of the full KM picture.

Information Literacy Skills: A Research Initiative

Beginning in 1996, TFPL, an information services and consulting company headquartered in London, began researching the skills needed by information professionals in creating and using information in organizations to further KM objectives.

In 1998, the U.K.'s Library and Information Commission (LIC) joined the effort to identify the roles that information skills may play in a knowledge environment by commissioning a research project called "Underpinning Skills for Knowledge Management." The project, awarded to TFPL, was to identify training implications in order to

* gain an understanding of KM and the roles, skills, and competencies needed by information professionals

* assess the implications for the library and information profession if its practitioners are to play a significant role in KM

* assess the routes available to people wishing to develop KM skills

* examine the need for information literacy throughout KM environments

The term information literacy is an offshoot of the older term computer literacy. Computer literacy, by definition, restricts itself to learning how to understand and use computers. Information literacy includes computer knowledge but is broader in that it also encompasses an awareness of the value of the information potential of books, journal articles, technical reports, maps, records, and files (digital or paper-based) created and received by an organization, and that information most prized by archivists -- documents of all types having permanent historical value.

The research enabled both LIC and TFPL to examine issues related to their interests and communities. It was based on wide consultation with KM practitioners, representatives from KM environments, and KM experts and groups. Techniques included a mix of research, interviews, surveys, case studies, workshops, and market testing. The research team identified organizations implementing KM initiatives in Europe and North America. Working with these firms, they mapped emerging KM related roles and the skills and backgrounds of people recruited to undertake those roles.

From Knowledge Management to Knowledge Activities

Although by 1999 knowledge management had become a common term, large KM programs were seldom a reality. The most common approach to KM was the introduction of a number of identifiable and achievable KM activities. These quick wins were selected because they were important to the main business of the company and were likely to have impact. Their cumulative effect often contributed to changing behavior and attitudes as well as sharing and building knowledge. These findings have been validated by further research, practical experience, and many conference papers.

Skills Needed by Information Professionals

The LIC/TFPL research uncovered a great deal of interest in the area of skills required to nurture knowledge-based environments and management skills. The fact that there is a significant overlap between recognized management competencies and those required for successful knowledge practitioners emerged from the research. KM skills are essentially those most often associated with change and project management. The ability to influence attitudes, to work in complex organizations, cross boundaries, and navigate political waters is characteristic of KM players. Teams and communities are also common in KM approaches, making team-building skills, consensus development, and community understanding increasingly important.

Building multi-disciplinary teams to achieve KM objectives requires people skills and management skills. Making those teams effective calls for leadership and facilitation skills. Coaching, training, and mentoring have become increasingly important in developing KM communities and teams, supporting KM activities, and developing information-handling skills throughout the organization.

Research findings also emphasize the importance of information skills in KM environments, but the findings also suggest that people employing these skills effectively in a knowledge environment do not necessarily come from the more established and culturally aligned disciplines (e.g., librarianship, archives management). Many traditional information management skills, such as those for research support, are invaluable but need to be applied in a new context and linked to business processes, core operations, and managerial concepts and values. Employers demand that staff understand the organizational context in which to apply professional skills. Understanding the business and its processes is crucial for KM players, whether they are strategists, planners, facilitators, or day-to-day practitioners of an information discipline. Today, information must be fused with management.

Communication is also at the heart of the KM environment, and several skills in this area are represented by the catch-all phrase "communication skills." Verbal, written, and presentation skills are all required in order to influence, persuade, negotiate, and share knowledge.

An understanding of the complex information flows that underpin any enterprise is a prerequisite for designing information strategies to support a KM environment. Figure 1 represents the relationship between the core professional or technical competencies, the survival/organizational skills required to be successful in increasingly complex organizations, and KM-enabling skills.

Skills for the KM Environment

Figure 1

Core                                               Organizational
competency      KM enabling skills and             skills and
building        competencies                       competencies

Continuing      Business process identification    * Communications
professional    and analysis                       * Team working
and technical                                      * Negotiation
education and   Understanding the knowledge        * Persuasion
training;       process within the business        * Facilitation
                process                            * Coaching
                                                   * Mentoring
Business,                                          * Business
sector,         Understanding the value,             processes
and work        context, and dynamics of
experience      knowledge and information

                Knowledge mapping and flows

                Change management

                Leveraging ICT to create KM
                enablers

                An understanding of support and
                facilitation of communities
                and teams

                Project management

                Information structuring and
                architecture

                Document and information
                management and work flows

                An understanding of information
                management principles

                An understanding of publishing
                process

                An understanding of
                technological opportunities

                Professional, technical and
                craft skills and education

Information Professionals in KM environments

Information professionals already possess many of the skills identified in Figure 1. However, the research findings point to a problem of applying those skills that is even more fundamental than any simple skills map may suggest.

Corporate information flows are complex, and organizations are increasingly recognizing that it is crucial to understand and manage their own information. However, the history of treating different types of information as discrete entities means that there is no single profession or function that understands or addresses the whole information universe. Librarianship, for example, has focused largely on the acquisition and distribution of published information from external sources (e.g., publishers). Although desktop access to information resources has expanded their focus, the librarian often continues to operate with rigidly defined information-category boundaries.

Other disciplines are also part of a fragmented and specialized information professions arena. Records and information management, which is gaining a higher profile in KM environments, has developed its own particular discipline. Document management has evolved primarily from information technology (IT) and workflow routes.

At the same time, many other functions have developed focused information management capability. Market research, strategic planning, and competitive intelligence departments are examples of information-rich areas that often set up their own information systems. Equally, those involved in customer relations, sales, technical support, and research and development all use tools to manage information. IT professionals are particularly strong on key KM skills, such as project management.

A range of skills can contribute to the KM information picture, and the KM environment can certainly exploit the experience of those with diverse backgrounds who represent different aspects of information management. In addition, new corporate roles are attracting a range of professionals, such as journalists and writers, who help capture best practices. A breed of proactive and can-do people, who relate more strongly to opportunities than performing functions and who are attracted to KM roles, is emerging.

In contrast, the library profession appears to have had little impact on KM organizations. While it is true that a few mature KM environments are actively integrating library skills into their KM teams, many are late in discovering that these skills even exist. Some organizations see a limited involvement for library professionals despite the development of imaginative and relevant courses in academic departments (e.g., business intelligence, strategic information resources). This view continues because of the perception that librarianship is a profession that seldom engages with "the business." Still more disturbing is that the wealth of information theory in the literature of library and information science directly relevant to KM concepts is seldom, if ever, acknowledged in the KM literature.

To make an impact in organizations of all sizes and in all sectors, individual information professionals need to understand more fully the potential of their skills in terms of the business objectives of the organizations that need them. Records and information professionals, whose information focus has been largely internal and on records of transactions, need a revised professional agenda that includes the broader range of skills required to manage complex corporate information -- whatever its source or type.

Enterprise-wide Information Literacy

In the U.K., the Royal Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce has included management of information as a recommended core competency for school-age children. A significant amount of work is being done in the academic sector, particularly in the United States, in developing information literacy. There has been little or no work, however, focusing on the need for information literacy within corporate environments.

The KM approach, with its focus on sharing and utilization of information, has highlighted the requirement of everyone within an organization to be able to access, organize, share, and understand information. The research project identified the beginnings of a real concern in this area. Desktop access, the Internet, e-mail, corporate networks -- all present opportunities and problems to individuals and organizations. Successful KM requires a minimum, although quite sophisticated, level of information expertise throughout the organization.

The skills and competencies required throughout a KM organization were, at the time of the LIC/TFPL research, key discussion topics in KM and are becoming a key issue for many organizations. The central question is, do all individuals have the ability to operate in an information and knowledge-rich environment? This ability requires that the individual be able to

* use information and knowledge tools on their desktop

* navigate and interrogate information sources

* assess and evaluate information found or knowledge shared

* create, record, and store information

* identify the potential value of relevant information

Clearly, an understanding of information literacy principles is required throughout the organization. Development of corporate taxonomies, a type of classification of information, indicates a recognition that the organization of knowledge through structure is key to accessing relevant, filtered information. Similarly, the mechanisms in place to assist in the recording of information, the sharing of knowledge, and the navigation of electronic resources need to be fully understood by those using them in order to maintain quality and demonstrate benefit.

Computer literacy has had a high priority for a number of years; the same attention to information literacy and sound management practices is required. The concepts of information sharing, utilization, and creation imply a level of information handling skill that has been taken for granted, but as yet has not been defined or explored in any depth. Arguably, the concept of literacy should be expanded to encompass the ability to read, write, communicate effectively -- and access and make sense of information. This broader form of literacy will likely overtake and subsume computer literacy. (See Figure 2)

[Figure 2 ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

Work with organizations since the research indicates that this requirement is growing rather than receding. At a basic level, there is a need of all staff to be able to

* use sophisticated information and communications technology without being overwhelmed by the volume of data and information

* share and communicate relevant and significant information as part of the work process without feeling threatened by the degree of selection and synthesis required

* organize their own information

* access relevant information

* evaluate and appraise the quality of information -- regardless of source

Various papers have outlined the process that students go through when using information. Research and subsequent work have suggested that the processes can be equally relevant and valuable in a corporate setting.

Recommendations for the Knowledge Economy

The objective of the LIC/TFPL research was to make positive recommendations to improve the impact of the library and information professions in KM environments. The recommendations of the research are discussed below. Although there have been some notable advances by individuals in this area since the research was completed, the messages remain substantially the same.

1. It is recommended that information literacy become a core part of the national education and training framework.

Computer literacy has been recognized as a core skill necessary for all members of society if they are to benefit fully as information technology is used in more and more aspects of daily life. As information and communications networks have begun to influence the way that we work and live and as all areas of living become increasingly information-centric, the need for everyone to be able to navigate information sources and to evaluate information from diverse sources is becoming equally important. The advent of KM in corporate bodies demonstrates that computer skills alone will not enable employees to be effective and to develop comfortably in their workplace. Information literacy -- encompassing computer literacy -- has become an essential life skill.

2. It is recommended that a national framework be developed to encourage the integration and synergy between information professions.

Successful KM organizations use a mix of skills and competencies from many disciplines, functions, and professions. Included in these is a wide range of information skills. These skills are necessarily diverse, reflecting the complexity of information underpinning corporate bodies, and they often work in discrete functional areas. While there is an overlap in the technical skills required, many of these have been developed in isolation by the different professions and functions. Few people have developed a comprehensive view of corporate information needs, flows, and assets, plus an understanding of complementary skills and disciplines. The tension that has become commonplace between IT departments and business unit applications is one example; library and information units focusing entirely on external information -- with little influence on its integration into internal systems and use -- is another.

3. It is recommended that organizations give priority to the development of corporate information literacy as a core competency.

The impact and exposure of the KM philosophy has caused organizations to reconsider the core capabilities required by an organization and its staff. The introduction of KM activities requires that all members of the organization are computer- and information-literate. That is, that they can use the systems and tools that are provided, can create and evaluate information, and are able to apply and build knowledge.

Many KM programs have concentrated on activities to facilitate sharing and collecting knowledge. Few have developed sound information management techniques to ensure that

* knowledge collection does not result in vast silos of information collecting dust

* information dissemination and flow does not result in information overload and noise barriers

* information systems aid and encourage the creation and use of knowledge rather than the dumping of facts

4. It is recommended that organizations ensure that sound information management techniques are included in all KM initiatives and solutions.

A range of information literacy skills has been identified as KM-enabling skills. Many of these are core components of library and information science, and these disciplines have a body of academic theory and practical application highly applicable to the capture, structuring, dissemination, protection, and evaluation of knowledge. These skills have been poorly applied outside the arena of external information management because many of the practitioners have not been perceived as core to the business.

5. It is recommended that organizations review the availability of such skills, their use in KM environments, and the development routes required for library and information professionals to use such skills to greater effect.

Recommendations for the Library and Information Professions

KM concepts and activities have raised the awareness of information and management issues of organizations in all sectors. For probably the first time, senior management is concerned with managing and maximizing what it perceives as possibly its key resource -- knowledge. Information has moved center stage and has therefore created opportunities for those who are able to contribute and apply the appropriate skills and expertise. The research has shown that while the information profession now has the potential to make a significant impact in corporate environments, there still are significant changes and developments to be made. The current window of opportunity will not last forever; waiting for radical change before taking any action generally means missing the boat. The recommendations of the research have therefore been categorized as immediate -- and medium-term. The immediate objectives are as follows:

1. To further develop within the library and information professions an understanding of

* KM concepts and strategies

* the skills and competencies needed for KM and the context in which they are applied

* opportunities for personal and professional development within knowledge environments

2. To demonstrate the potential value of professional information skills in KM environments, it is therefore recommended that

* a program of workshops, experiential learning, and other events be developed to update the professions on KM concepts and associated management ideas. Such a program should include input from public and private sector educators and employers.

* training and distance learning materials for people already at work be developed. Such materials and events could be used by those providing education for information literacy. This may include partnerships with commercial organizations or grants to develop mindsets, learning games, and simulations.

* partnerships between associations for library and information professionals and those professional bodies representing broad information concerns be developed for two-way skills transfer

* mentoring networks for those information professionals wishing to extend their areas of influence and expertise be facilitated

* articles by a wide range of library and information professionals about their involvement in knowledge activities be published in the KM press

* a program of awareness activities be developed that target corporate sector organizations to demonstrate the range of professional information skills available, their potential in KM environments, and the body of information management work relevant to KM available in the academic library and information sector

Since publication of the research results, it has become evident that information professionals are getting actively involved in KM programs. However, current research also suggests that in most cases the level of that involvement is still limited to the supply of external information. While knowledge coordinators, navigators, and stewards are being recruited or developed in many functions and industries, the library and information profession is not the natural place to look for them. They still come from "the business" or are recruited for "a business function," and many of them need to acquire information skills along the way.

So the question remains: Are information professionals really knowledge management professionals in disguise -- a disguise so good that few people manage to recognize them? Or, are information professionals part of a KM process and the label doesn't matter as long as they are part of it? Or, are they just missing the boat?

Past and present research suggests that the requirement for information literacy skills is high and will continue to increase. The opportunity is unique and will be seized by those who understand the language and business of the organizations that understand the value and impact of information management skills. KM is valued for its contribution to business outcomes, and many professions understand this concept from the outset. Perhaps information professionals also understand, but, if so, the research indicates that they are not effectively communicating that message.

The LIC research was carried out in Europe and the United States in 1998-99. Since then, things may have changed. But it is perhaps significant -- and troubling -- that current research indicates that the majority of senior KM contacts do not come from the library and information profession, but, rather, come from a diverse range of other professions.

Conclusion

Research indicates that information skills are at a premium in the knowledge economy -- so much so that people from many backgrounds are eager to acquire them. Information professionals have a unique opportunity to participate and to make an impact in this field provided that they

* understand the environment in which they are working, with its drivers and processes

* understand and articulate the value of their skills to that environment

* grasp the opportunity to transfer skills to their environment -- rather than hoard and protect them

The role of information professionals in these environments is that of counselor, coach, and facilitator. The power of the information intermediary shifts to the knowledge coordinator (who is from the business, knows the business, and is here to learn and move on). Genuine influence, however, rests with the knowledge architecture that makes knowledge gathering, transfer, and use both possible and desirable.

REFERENCES

Skills for Knowledge Management: Building a Knowledge Economy, TFPL. September 1999.

Angela Abell is director of TFPL Ltd., in London. She can be reached at [e-mail].