Knowledge Management and Intranet Technology - Udo Richard Averweg & Stella Anne Jory

Udo Richard Averweg - Information Services, eThekwini Municipality and University of KwaZulu-Natal

Stella Anne Jory - Afrika Leadership Development Institute

Abstract

Intranets are very much suited to use as a strategic tool in knowledge management (KM) due to their ability to support distribution, connectivity and publishing. The Intranet should be seen as integral to an organisation’s KM system and should be tailored to suit and enhance an organisation’s knowledge-sharing activities. The question arises: To what extent does an organisation’s existing Intranet facilitate knowledge-sharing? This question is explored by selection of a large organisation – the eThekwini Municipality, Durban South Africa – as the field of application. Derived from a mixed methodology approach, the results of a recent survey are presented.

Introduction

The validity of knowledge and the power of harnessing it, is widely embraced by empowered nations, vibrant industries and winning organisations. Currently and for the next decade at least, knowledge should be viewed as the most important and valuable resource. Industries and organisations of various sizes and forms, will find value in the realisation that in order to remain sustainable and to successfully supply to the increasing demands of the market, explicit management of intellectual processes, resources, capabilities and particularly knowledge, is crucial. A wide range of industries internationally today, recognise that corporate society rests on the verge of a new horizon in which intellectual capital (IC) is rapidly becoming the new currency in the work domain.

Upon reflection of this theme and within the related domain of Knowledge Management (KM), Michael Zack (1999: 125) describes “the primary focus of these efforts has been on developing new applications of information technology to support digital capture, storage, retrieval and distribution of an organisation’s explicitly documented knowledge”. When aligned, organisational strategy and technical competency provide a sound framework to support KM within an organisation. However, the question arises as to whether or not an organisation is making the best investment in its resources or whether (or not) it is managing knowledge in the right way.

To use this thought-provoking question as a point of departure, it is worthwhile to consider Tiwana and Ramesh (2001) who promote that the Intranet is well-suited to being used as a strategic tool within the domain of KM due to its ability to support distribution, connectivity and publishing. Furthermore, the Intranet should be seen as integral to an organisation’s KM system and should therefore be designed and tailored to enhance an organisation’s knowledge-sharing activities. From the above analogy, the question whether an organisation’s existing Intranet facilitates knowledge-sharing and KM processes arises. The exploration of this question sets a platform for an opportunity for research within a field of application that seems particularly appealing: a metropolitan municipality – eThekwini Municipality in Durban, South Africa. The appropriate context and appeal arose out of the fact that the first author is situated within the organisation’s Information Services department. Furthermore, given eThekwini Municipality’s Integrated Development Plan (IDP), this study was considered pertinent and relevant. In surveying the parameters of the question, the overriding premise was established as follows: If knowledge is used effectively, it may well provide meaningful utility to the organisation.

Background

Given that this research falls within the domain of KM and the field of application is eThekwini Municipality, the authors deem it necessary at this point to briefly explore the following concepts and realities: Knowledge, Knowledge Management, Information Technology (IT), Intranet Technology and eThekwini Municipality.

Knowledge

Significance of Knowledge in Corporate Society

Peter Drucker (1999: 81) suggests “there is still no history of work, but then also, despite the all the philosophies about knowledge, there is no history of knowledge either. Both should become important areas of study within the next decades, or at least within the next century”. Considering the theories of cognition (epistemology) around the history of science and work, it may be Drucker’s intention to create awareness about the idea that we have not looked carefully and closely enough at the world’s perception of knowledge and work. But whatever specifically he means, his analogy draws together the notions of work and knowledge and the aspiration that these should become “important areas of study”. Furthermore, as an introductory thought, Drucker sets a platform, which forms the theme of ‘Knowledge and Work’ or perhaps more appropriately ‘Work and Knowledge’.

Managing knowledge appropriately is at the centre of many discussions around competitiveness and sustainability. Much of the current theory and practices promote that knowledge (and the management of it) may prove useful if the scope and utility of knowledge is aligned with an organisation’s strategy. It also proposes that this should be set on a broader scale than merely IT. In other words, it is argued that the management of knowledge should go beyond a narrow technical focus and encompass other less tangible themes within an organisation. In relation to this, Zack (1996: 125) clarifies the intangible “as the knowledge existing within people’s heads, augmented or shared via interaction and social relationships”. For the purpose of this paper, the analogy draws on the ability to draw together the technology, the notion of shared interaction and the creation of an opportunity for knowledge transfer.

Concept of knowledge

From a review of the management of knowledge literature, there are many definitions of the concept of knowledge. If organisations are to effectively utilise knowledge and to formulate KM strategies, defining of knowledge for its unique purpose is necessary. Categorisation of the concept of knowledge is now presented:

Belief Description
“Justified true belief” (Goldman, 1991; Nonaka and Takeuchi, 1995: 58);
“Knowledge is understanding based on belief” (James, 1907); and
“Knowledge can be thought of as a body of understandings, generalizations, and abstractions that we carry with us on a permanent or semi-permanent basis and apply to interpret and manage the world around us …we will consider knowledge to be the collection of mental units of all kinds that provides us with understandings and insights” (Wiig, 1998).

Pragmatic Description
“The most essential definition of knowledge is that it is composed of and grounded solely in potential acts and in those signs that refer to them” (Cavaleri and Reed, 2000: 114);
“Knowledge is social acts” (Stacey, 1996); and
“Knowledge is the capacity for effective action” (Argyris, 1993: 2-3).

Communal Description
“Knowledge is experience or information that can be communicated or shared” (Allee, 1997: 27).

Contextual Description
“Information in context” (Aune, 1970);
“Knowledge, while made up of data and information, can be thought of as much greater understanding of a situation, relationships, causal phenomena, and the theories and rules (both explicit and implicit) that underlie a given domain or problem” (Bennet and Bennet, 2000: 19); and
“Knowledge is a fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information, and expert insight that provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information. It originates and is applied in the minds of knowers. In organisations it often becomes embedded not only in documents or repositories but also in organisational routines, practices and norms” (Davenport and Prusak, 1997: 5).

The pragmatic, communal and contextual categories of defining knowledge may be drawn on for the purpose of this research.

Knowledge Management

Precisely what is KM? Kwalek (2004: 23) suggests that “the literature on knowledge management is disjointed and disconnected”. Pfeffer and Sutton (2000: 22) indicate that KM “tends to treat knowledge as a tangible thing, as a stock or quantity, and therefore separates knowledge as some thing from the use of that thing”. Clearly there are different views on what KM is. From a review of the literature, some definitions of KM are given in Table 1.

Some definitions of Knowledge Management

• Ezingeard et al. (2000) - KM directs acquiring, storing, adding value to and deploying the intellectual capital of the organisation’s professionals

• Liebowitz (2000) - KM deals with creating, securing, capturing, co-ordinating, combining, retrieving and distributing knowledge
• Abell (2001) - KM is a discipline that promotes an integrated approach to the creation, capture, organisation, access and use of an enterprise’s IC on customers, markets, products, services and internal processes
• Mack et al. (2001) - KM refers to the methods and tools for capturing, storing, organising and making accessible knowledge and expertise within and across communities
• Gray (2006) - KM is the organisational process for acquiring, organising and communicating both tacit and explicit knowledge (so that people may use it to be more effective)

For the purposes of this paper, Gray’s definition (Gray, 2006: 118) will be adopted.

Honeycutt (2000: xvii) indicates that KM is a discipline that treats IC as a managed asset. KM is not a centralised database that contains all the information known by an organisation’s workers. It is the idea of gaining business insights from a variety of sources - including databases, websites, employees and business partners – and cultivating that information wherever it resides. Business insight emanates from capturing information and giving it greater meaning via its relationship to other information in the organisation. It should be stated that KM is not about making plug?and?play workers dispensable because all they know is recorded for the next person who fills their shoes – it is about delivering information to knowledge workers, business processes and technology to make organisations and people successful. Intranets, the “in house” version of the World Wide Web (“the Web”) browser based on Internet technology, create a common corporate communications and information sharing system (Brelade and Harman, 2003).

Information Technology

Given that advances in IT have made it easier to acquire, store or disseminate knowledge than ever before, many organisations are employing IT to facilitate sharing and integration of knowledge (Kankanhalli et al., 2003: 69). There is clearly a need for KM practices in the workplace to enable managers to promote the sharing of knowledge and allow the organisation to acquire and retain IC. For example, eThekwini Municipality is “committed to using Information Technology to make a real difference … municipal decisions have to be based on sound research and information management in order to ensure [service] delivery” (eThekwini Municipality, 2006: 28). KM initiatives in organisations are increasingly becoming important as organisations are making significant IT investments in deploying KM systems (Hahn and Subramani, 2000: 302).

Intranet Technology

Public and private organisations are beginning to view knowledge as their most valuable and strategic resource. It is increasingly recognised that organisations need to develop better techniques to manage their knowledge assets (Offsey, 1997). Intranets are often depicted as part of the effective solution for knowledge-sharing across departments, functions or geographical locations in organisations to facilitate information sharing and collaboration across departments, functions and different information systems (IS) within the organisation (Bernard, 1996).

An Intranet (or internal Web) is a network architecture designed to serve the internal information needs of an organisation using Web (Internet) concepts and tools - see Cortese (1996) and Averweg (2007: 46). Turban et al. (2005: 50-51) indicate that an Intranet is a private network that uses Internet software and TCP/IP protocols. Defined technically, Intranets are the application of Internet technology (and specifically the Web service) for a prescribed community of users (Scheepers and Rose, 2001).

An Intranet is a network designed to serve the internal informational needs of an organisation (eg. a municipality) using Internet concepts and tools (Turban et al., 2004: 130). The cost effectiveness of utilising Internet technology has opened the door for organisations to use this same technology to share information within the organisation (Botha, 2004). Technology thus plays an important role in organisations. The basic role of technology in KM can be briefly summarised in functional terms, into the areas of

• Facilitating communication;

• Enabling collaboration
• Collecting information;
• Storing information;
• Analysing information;
• Disseminating information; and
• Updating information (Brelade and Harman, 2003).

Intranets create a common communications and information sharing system. Brelade and Harman (2003) suggest Intranets can be used on a “push” basis – where information is presented to employees and on a “pull” basis whereby employees seek out and retrieve information for themselves:

“Push” technology is used when it is important that certain material is presented to employees at their workstation. It ensures that no other function takes place until all the information is correctly accessed; and “Pull” technology allows employees to decide when to pull down information from the Intranet that they wish to view. The “views of the end users are more important than in most other studies” (Skok and Kalmanovitch, 2005: 736).

To provide a seamless experience between viewing pages on the Web and viewing information on an Intranet, access is usually via a standard Internet browser. The commonly used Internet browser in eThekwini Municipality is Microsoft Internet Explorer.

eThekwini Municipality

eThekwini Municipality comprises six clusters/service units (Office of the City Manager, Treasury, Governance, Sustainable Development and City Enterprises, Corporate and Human Resources & Health, Safety and Social Services) and employs approximately 20,000 employees. The Information Services department is located in the Office of the City Manager. eThekwini Municipality has some 6,000 networked desktops (personal computers, thin clients and laptops) and electronic communication (ie. e?Mail) is via Novell’s GroupWise (Client version 6.5). A total of 6,654 GroupWise accounts exist in eThekwini Municipality. There are approximately 1,500 Internet accounts utilising either Microsoft Internet Explorer or Netscape Navigator web browsers.

Research Methodology

All research is varied. Hence disparate approaches are taken and shown in dissimilar research. For this research, a mixed methods research approach will be adopted:

• Knowledge claim – pragmatism;

• Strategy of inquiry - transformative procedures; and
• Methods of data collection and analysis - secondary data and analysis will be used. This data for eThekwini Municipality’s Intranet has recently been collected by an independent research company, Ask Africa. The rationale for using this secondary data is that (1) it is considered relevant to the study; and (2) there are savings of time and money by using this available data rather than collecting original data.

From the eThekwini Municipality Intranet report compiled by Ask Africa, the reported findings will inform this study. The data used in this research will be sourced from eThekwini Municipality Intranet research report (dated July 2006) compiled by Ask Africa.

Survey and Results

Extracted from the eThekwini Municipality Intranet report (Ask Africa, 2006), the reported results are now presented and explored. These findings serve as a base point to further identify shortfalls and possible opportunities for a more effective contribution to KM within eThekwini Municipality.

The ascending rank order of Agree/Strongly Agree responses to benefits the Intranet holds, is reflected in Table 2.

Table 2. Ascending rank order of Agree/Strongly Agree responses to benefits the Intranet holds

(Adapted from eThekwini Municipality Intranet report compiled by Ask Africa, 2006: 26)

Statement
Percentage (%) of Respondents (N=19)
Agree/ Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree
Useful platform to share and access inter-department information 87.0% 9.0% 4.0%
The Intranet is an effective way for organisational interaction 81.0% 14.0% 5.0%
Quickest focal point to disseminate and get organisational communication 77.0% 14.0% 9.0%
Enhances departmental communication 72.0% 5.0% 24.0%
Helps the organisation improve its service to customers 65.0% 15.0% 20.0%
Helps with productivity 63.0% 14.0% 23.0%
Using the Intranet is necessary for employees to perform my (sic) daily work functions 50.0% 5.0% 45.0%

From Table 2, the greatest perceived benefit that the Intranet holds for employees using it is as a platform to share and access inter?department (ie. clusters/service units) information. The second highest reported benefit was as “an effective way for organisational interaction”. van der Walt et al. (2004: 4) suggested the importance evaluating an organisation’s Intranet to ascertain its contribution to potential knowledge?sharing in an organization. The third highest reported benefit was as the quickest “focal point to disseminate and get organisational communication” The lowest reported benefit was for employees to use the Intranet for their daily work functions.

The ascending rank order of Agree/Strongly Agree responses to the design of the Intranet is reflected in Table 3.

Table 3. Ascending rank order of Agree/Strongly Agree responses to design of Intranet
(Adapted from eThekwini Municipality Intranet report compiled by Ask Africa, 2006: 34)

Statement
Percentage (%) of Respondents (N=21)
Agree/ Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree
I am happy with the text and font used on the site 86.0% 5.0% 10.0%
I am happy with the colours used on the site 81.0% 10.0% 10.0%
I am happy with the layout and organisation of the site 67.0% 19.0% 14.0%
I am happy with the images and pictures used on the site 62.0% 19.0% 19.0%
Overall I am happy with the design of the Intranet website 57.0% 33.0% 10.0%

From Table 3, it appears that most respondents surveyed were generally satisfied by the text, font and colours used but there was some disagreement on the images, pictures and overall design of the Intranet website. For respondents surveyed, this suggests that images and pictures used on the website require improvement for eThekwini Municipality employees to obtain user satisfaction (Ask Africa, 2006: 35).

The ascending rank order of Agree/Strongly Agree responses to the usability of the Intranet is reflected in Table 4.

Table 4. Ascending rank order of Agree/Strongly Agree responses to the usability of the Intranet
(Adapted from eThekwini Municipality Intranet report compiled by Ask Africa, 2006: 39)

Statement
Percentage (%) of Respondents (N=20)
Agree/ Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree

The drop down menus are easy to use 70.0% 20.0% 10.0%
Overall I am happy with the functionality/usability of the site 67.0% 10.0% 24.0%
I am happy with the site labeling 62.0% 19.0% 19.0%
I am happy with the speed of the site 62.0% 14.0% 24.0%
I am able to navigate quickly and easily 50.0% 20.0% 30.0%
The site is self-explanatory – it indicates where I need to go to find the information I am looking for 43.0% 29.0% 29.0%

From Table 4, it appears that navigation improvements are required. Furthermore while respondents surveyed agreed that they are able to navigate the Intranet website quickly and easily, they felt that there was no clear direction is provided. This suggests the navigation needs to be improved for Beginner users so that they have a better indication of where to go to find the information they are seeking (Ask Africa, 2006: 41).

The ascending rank order of Agree/Strongly Agree responses to the content of the Intranet is reflected in Table 5.

Table 5. Ascending rank order of Agree/Strongly Agree responses to the content of the Intranet
(Adapted from eThekwini Municipality Intranet report compiled by Ask Africa, 2006: 44)

Statement
Percentage (%) of Respondents (N=18)
Agree/ Strongly Agree Neutral Disagree
The information and content on the website is relevant 63.0% 11.0% 26.0%
The information on the website is reliable 61.0% 17.0% 22.0%
Overall I am happy with the quality of content on the website 57.0% 14.0% 29.0%
I am happy with the quality of the search process 57.0%14.0%33.0%
The content on the site is regularly updated 53.0% 11.0% 38.0%
There is a high likelihood of finding information I am looking for even though I do not know where to find it 52.0% 10.0% 38.0%

From Table 5, it appears that respondents surveyed felt that the information on the Intranet is relevant and reliable. However, improvements in the updating of information and the quality of information seeking are required. This suggests that while the information on the Intranet website is generally seen to be reliable, the regular updating of content and finding information that an employee is looking for, needs to be improved (Ask Africa, 2006: 45). An important use of most Intranets is to find documents that lead to employees who have knowledge because there is no other way that the organisation helps identify expertise and experience among its employees. Wells et al. (2000) indicate that less than 5.0% of employee knowledge is actually captured and accessible across the organisation. Intranet satisfaction is directly influenced by having the right content, features and design factors (Kaplan, 2001: 1).

Discussion of Results

From the survey results there appears to be areas for improvement in the Intranet design, usability and content areas. A post-study discussion describing why this may be the case, suggests that

• The Intranet be more widely accessible to employees;

• The Intranet encompasses a wider range of language options;
• User functionality may need improvement;
• Drop-down speeds should be increased;
• Intranet training programs may need to be implemented;
• Information should not be pocketed in silos of the organisation; and
• Recency of information needs to be addressed.

The above challenges arising from the existing Intranet and usage thereof provide an opportunity for synthesis with the existing literature (as outlined in Section 2). It is argued that this may lay a foundation for improving the utilisation of the Intranet and towards the transferring of knowledge within a given KM strategy. Table 6 reflects this challenge and action.

Table 6. Translating Challenges and Gaps into action

Improvement requirement

Functional role of technology
Knowledge translation -
Defining knowledge
Proposed activity solution
Increased access
Dissemination
Pragmatic: The capacity for effective action
Increase user access – more employees to have access
Wider range of language options
Facilitating communication
Communal: Knowledge is experience or information that can be communicated or shared
Translation options for shared narrations
Improved user functionality
Dissemination of information
Pragmatic: Potential acts
Training for beginners and technological improvements. Simplicity emphasis
Training to improve usability
Enabling collaboration
Contextual: Fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information and incorporating new experiences
Training
Increased usage expectation
Minimisation of fragmentation
Facilitating communication
Contextual: Greater understanding of a situation, relationships and causal phenomena – whole organisation
Better linkage between organisational silos
Recency of information
Updating information
Contextual: Information in context
Strategy for continual update

In using Gray’s (Gray, 2006) KM definition and its correlation with the extracted definitions of knowledge which promote effective action (pragmatic classification), shared experience and information (communal classification) and information in context (contextual classification), there is argument for the fact that better utilisation, a more effective design of the existing Intranet may contribute significantly to the knowledge-sharing activity in the organisation.

An Intranet may be classified as a KM application since it is capable of distributing knowledge. An Intranet is seen as a tool for the more efficient sharing and creation of knowledge within organisations using both “push” and “pull” technologies. However, in the case of eThekwini Municipality’s Intranet, it appears that far greater use is being made of the “pull” technology (as opposed to “push” technology). Furthermore the reported results tend to suggest there appears to be limited knowledge?sharing and/or KM in eThekwini Municipality.

Some Concluding Remarks

Given eThekwini Municipality’s IDP and its overall intent to respond to social and economic needs of citizenry, the value of knowledge to organisational effectiveness is crucial at this point. IT, with the enabling role of Intranet technology, should be seen as significantly important to enhance the management of knowledge within eThekwini Municipality. By doing so, it will serve to ensure that knowledge is used effectively by providing meaningful utility to the organisation and towards its KM strategy.

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