Explicit and tacit knowledge

Tacit knowledge:​ is the kind of knowledge that is difficult to transfer to another person by
means of writing it down or verbalizing it.​ For example, that London is in the United
Kingdom is a piece of explicit knowledge that can be written down, transmitted, and
understood by a recipient. However, the ability to speak a language, ride a bicycle, play a
musical instrument, or design and use complex equipment requires all sorts of knowledge
that is not always known explicitly, even by expert practitioners, and which is difficult or
impossible to explicitly transfer to other people. Tacit knowledge can be defined as skill,
ideas and experience that people have but are not easily expressed.

Example of tacit knowledge:

Tips on dealing with a difficult challenge
Feedback from customers over the phone
Opinion expressed by management about why competitors are doing well

Explicit knowledge:​ ​ Expressed and recorded as words, numbers, codes, mathematical and
scientific formulate, and musical notation. It easy to communicate, store, and distribute and
is the knowledge found in books, on the web, and other visual and oral means. Opposite of
tacit knowledge. Example: data sheets, white paper, research report, etc.

Tacit knowledge can be distinguished from explicit knowledge in three major areas:
● Codifiability and mechanism of transferring knowledge:​ while explicit
knowledge can be codified, and easily transferred without the knowing subject,
tacit knowledge is intuitive and unarticulated knowledge that cannot be
communicated, understood or used without the 'knowing subject'. Unlike the
transfer of explicit knowledge, the transfer of tacit knowledge requires close
interaction and the buildup of shared understanding and trust among them.
● Main methods for the acquisition and accumulation: ​Explicit knowledge can be
generated through logical deduction and acquired through practical experience
in the relevant context. In contrast, tacit knowledge can only be acquired
through practical experience in the relevant context.
● Potential of aggregation and modes of appropriation: ​Explicit knowledge can be
aggregated at a single location, stored in objective forms and appropriated
without the participation of the knowing subject. Tacit knowledge in contrast, is
personal contextual. It is distributive, and cannot easily be aggregated. The
realization of its full potential requires the close involvement and cooperation of
the knowing subject.
The process of transforming tacit knowledge into explicit or specifiable knowledge is known
as codification, articulation (khop noi), or specification. The tacit aspects of knowledge are
those that cannot be codified, but can only be transmitted via training or gained through
personal experience. There is a view against the distinction, where it is believed that all
propositional knowledge (knowledge that) is ultimately reducible to practical knowledge
(knowledge how)

Knowledge economy
The sector of the economy which is increasingly based on knowledge-intensive activities,
creating a greater dependent on intellectual capital than physical input
The OECD state the knowledge economy is associated with:
- High-tech manufacturing (computer, electronics,..)
- Service sector industries, such as education, health care, software design
- Business service such as insurance, information and communication
Innovation and knowledge have always been important to the economy. In the past few
decade, the modern economy is becoming more knowledge-based. This is shown by the rise
in high-tech industries, the growth of service sector, rise in self-employment and an increase
in the number of patents.
Characteristics of knowledge economy:
- Knowledge and information key driver of productivity
- Growth in high technology investment and industries
- Growth in knowledge intensive service sectors such as education, communication
and information
- Knowledge is non-finite resource. Capital gets running out but knowledge is not
limited and can be shared without losing it. Sharing can help boost overall codified
(ma hoa) knowledge
- Growth in demand for higher skilled labour/University degrees
- Increased importance of tacit knowledge- the skill and ability to implement codified
knowledge
- Innovation is driven by both producers and users
- The spread knowledge from one industry to another
- Natural of knowledge economy related to the process of globalisation
- Increased automation of production process leading to rapid change in labour
market
Important of knowledge economy
- Help business be more efficient, dynamic and innovative
- Enables product innovation and customization
 - Greater role for human capital. Firms need to attract and retain workers adapted to
the new mode of economy
- Enhance knowledge distribution and benefit from new working practices
collaborative networks can help
- Increasing knowledge to provide new sources of economic growth and high level of
productivity
- Potentially greater demand for skill labour
Problem of knowledge economy
- Increase the gap between high skilled and low skilled workers due to the decline in
well-paid manual labour.
- More opportunities for those with high intellectual capacity, lower skills may find
work increasingly temporary and low-paid
Limitation of knowledge economy
- A limited number of high-skilled jobs.
- Low productivity growth in past decade

Organization maturity
Organizational Maturity is the level of organization’s readiness and experience in relation to people
process, technologies and consistent measurement
Strategic management maturity model (SMMM)
It designed for busy managers who need a quick assessment of where their organization stands in
terms of strategic management, to follow process in improving maturity of strategic management,
and to allow benchmarking across organizations, or departments within organization, in order to
identify best practice
Dimensions of strategic management maturity model:
- Leadership
- Culture and values
- Strategic thinking and planning
- Strategy adjustment
- Performance measurement
- Process improvement
- Sustainability of strategic management
Capability maturity model integration (CMMI)
Help to develop your organizational capabilities by learning new behaviours that can help you
improve performance, speed, quality, and profitability
Provide strong process management capabilities across the enterprise and translated to efficiency
Overall

Level 1 Level 2 Level 3 Level 4 Level 5

Performed Managed Established Predictable Optimizing

People Success Success Project groups A strong A strong sense

depends on depends on work sense of of teamwork
individual individuals and together, teamwork exists across
heroics. management perhaps as an exists within the
system integrated each project. organization.
“Fire fighting is
supports. product team.
a way of life.” Everyone is
Commitments Training is involved in
Relationships
are planned and process
between
understood provided improvement.
disciplines are
and managed. according to
uncoordinated,
roles.
perhaps even People are
adversarial. trained.

Process Few stable Documented Integrated Processes are Processes are

processes exist and stable management quantitatively continuously
or are used. estimating, and understood and
planning, and engineering and stabilized. systematically
commitment processes are improved.
processes are used across
at the project the
level. organization.
 Technology The Technology New New New
introduction of supports technologies technologies technologies
new technology established, are evaluated are evaluated are proactively
is risky. stable on a on a pursued and
activities. qualitative quantitative deployed.
basis. basis.

Measurement Data collection Planning and Data is Data Data is used to

and analysis are management collected and definition and evaluate and
ad hoc. data is used by used in all collection are select process
individual defined standardized improvements.
projects. processes. across the
organization
Data is
systematically Data is used
shared across to understand
projects. the process
qualitatively
and stabilize
it.

The Balanced Scorecard

Introduction
The balance scorecard is used as a strategic planning and a management technique. This is
widely used in many organizations, regardless of their scale, to align the organization's
performance to its vision and objectives.
The scorecard is also used as a tool, which improves the communication and feedback
process between the employees and management and to monitor performance of the
organizational objectives.
As the name depicts, the balanced scorecard concept was developed not only to evaluate
the financial performance of a business organization, but also to address customer
concerns, business process optimization, and enhancement of learning tools and
mechanisms.

The Basics of Balanced Scorecard

Following is the simplest illustration of the concept of balanced scorecard. The four boxes
represent the main areas of consideration under balanced scorecard. All four main areas of
consideration are bound by the business organization's vision and strategy.
The balanced scorecard is divided into four main areas and a successful organization is one
that finds the right balance between these areas.
Each area (perspective) represents a different aspect of the business organization in order
to operate at optimal capacity.
● Financial Perspective -​ This consists of costs or measurement involved, in
terms of rate of return on capital (ROI) employed and operating income of the
organization.
● Customer Perspective -​ Measures the level of customer satisfaction,
customer retention and market share held by the organization.
● Business Process Perspective -​ This consists of measures such as cost and
quality related to the business processes.
● Learning and Growth Perspective -​ Consists of measures such as employee
satisfaction, employee retention and knowledge management.
The four perspectives are interrelated. Therefore, they do not function independently. In
real-world situations, organizations need one or more perspectives combined together to
achieve its business objectives.
For example, Customer Perspective is needed to determine the Financial Perspective, which
in turn can be used to improve the Learning and Growth Perspective.

Features of Balanced Scorecard

From the above diagram, you will see that there are four perspectives on a balanced
scorecard. Each of these four perspectives should be considered with respect to the
following factors.
When it comes to defining and assessing the four perspectives, following factors are used:
● Objectives -​ This reflects the organization's objectives such as profitability or
market share.
● Measures -​ Based on the objectives, measures will be put in place to gauge
the progress of achieving objectives.
● Targets -​ This could be department based or overall as a company. There will
be specific targets that have been set to achieve the measures.
 ● Initiatives -​ These could be classified as actions that are taken to meet the
objectives.
A Tool of Strategic Management
The objective of the balanced scorecard was to create a system, which could measure the
performance of an organization and to improve any back lags that occur.
The popularity of the balanced scorecard increased over time due to its logical process and
methods. Hence, it became a management strategy, which could be used across various
functions within an organization.
The balanced scorecard helped the management to understand its objectives and roles in
the bigger picture. It also helps management team to measure the performance in terms of
quantity.
The balanced scorecard also plays a vital role when it comes to communication of strategic
objectives.
One of the main reasons for many organizations to be unsuccessful is that they fail to
understand and adhere to the objectives that have been set for the organization.
The balanced scorecard provides a solution for this by breaking down objectives and making
it easier for management and employees to understand.
Planning, setting targets and aligning strategy are two of the key areas where the balanced
scorecard can contribute. Targets are set out for each of the four perspectives in terms of
long-term objectives.
However, these targets are mostly achievable even in the short run. Measures are taken in
align with achieving the targets.
Strategic feedback and learning is the next area, where the balanced scorecard plays a role.
In strategic feedback and learning, the management gets up-to-date reviews regarding the
success of the plan and the performance of the strategy.
The Need for a Balanced Scorecard
Following are some of the points that describe the need for implementing a balanced
scorecard:
● Increases the focus on the business strategy and its outcomes.
● Leads to improvised organizational performance through measurements.
● Align the workforce to meet the organization's strategy on a day-to-day
basis.
● Targeting the key determinants or drivers of future performance.
● Improves the level of communication in relation to the organization's
strategy and vision.
● Helps to prioritize projects according to the timeframe and other priority
factors.
Conclusion
As the name denotes, balanced scorecard creates a right balance between the components
of organization's objectives and vision.
It's a mechanism that helps the management to track down the performance of the
organization and can be used as a management strategy.
It provides an extensive overview of a company's objectives rather than limiting itself only
to financial values.
This creates a strong brand name amongst its existing and potential customers and a
reputation amongst the organization's workforce.

Boundaryless Organization
by Nicole LaMarco; Updated December 10, 2018
A boundaryless organization is quite different from this. It is an organization where there
aren’t any major structures and the main approach to business is to allow information to
flow freely and ideas to be the driving force of efficiency, innovation, growth in the
company. Such a company is built to do one thing very well: to survive in a world that is
constantly changing.
The concept of a boundaryless organization was first formulated by the former chairman of
General Electric Jack Welch, who also happens to be an authority on the topic of
management. He wanted to break down barriers, or boundaries, that existed at the time
between different parts of the company. According to his philosophy, the most important
criteria of a boundaryless organization are flexibility and adaptability.
Another defining characteristic of boundaryless organizations is that they are quite
tech-savvy and will use the latest and greatest tools brought by technology to make it even
easier to break borders that would have traditionally been unbreakable. Flexible working
schedules and virtual collaboration are a couple of examples of such tools.
When it comes to the employees at boundaryless organizations, they often have their own
projects to work on and targets that they must meet. They are entirely responsible for their
own work and much work in the best way to achieve the results which are expected of
them. Employee freedom is much greater in such organizations as a result.
By their very definition, boundaryless organizations operate without boundaries. That
means that they often have a workforce that spans many different countries. The
employees will, therefore, come from different countries, with different cultures and
different backgrounds. Such employees should be brought together in order to work in a
peaceful, tolerant, and harmonious way in order to achieve the goals of the organization. As
a result, such an organization often contains very strong visions and core ethics and values
that glue employees together regardless of their individual differences.
The Characteristics of a Boundaryless Organization
One of the most interesting things about boundaryless companies is that there is very little
face to face communication between employees. Such an organization relies heavily on
technology. Employees mainly communicate using technology, such as via text, email, social
media, and various other virtual methods of communication. This makes it possible for them
to communicate with each other from wherever they without having to physically be in the
same vicinity.
Employees also frequently telecommute in a boundaryless organization, which is to say that
they don’t actually have to turn up at work. They could use video conferencing and virtual
collaboration software to communicate with each other and collaborate on projects. They,
therefore, do not have to deal with geographically imposed barriers to working together.
In such companies, since employees do not have to come to the office all the time, there are
usually flexible working schedules which allow employees to work at the time that is most
convenient for them, especially when they’re working from a different country in an entirely
different time zone. This makes it easier for the employees to achieve work-life balance.
Another characteristic of such companies is that the authority to make decisions is put
squarely in the hands of employees. They can make decisions and have complete
responsibility for the tasks and projects that are handed to them. This makes the company
much more efficient than a traditional one since it can change more quickly and adapt to
changing external factors.
What Are the Roles of the Employees in Such an Organization?
In boundaryless companies, employees, even though they do not have to be in the same
room together, do not work in isolation. They are usually part of a large team that works on
one of many projects.
Modern methods are applied in such companies such as better supply chain management,
just in time methods, and quality management at every step.
In order to be a successful employee in a boundaryless company, you should be able to feel
comfortable and at home in an environment that is ridden with chaos. Such workplaces are
quite free-form and have very little in the way of stiff rules and policies. Usually, decisions
are guided by a common vision and a strong sense of ethics.
You should also be an easy going person who can work with many people from different
backgrounds. There will be an enormous amount of networking and coordination involved
so you should be able to handle it.
Another characteristic of the employees that flourish in such organizations is that they are
highly independent thinkers and are self-motivated to set and achieve their own goals. One
of the defining characteristics of a traditional organization is that there are a lot of
hierarchies. Supervisors, managers, senior managers, directors, and so on. At every level,
you have someone telling you what to do and how to do it and your ability to make your
own decisions is limited and only gets less limited as you go further up the hierarchy.
In a boundaryless organization, however, there is very little supervision with very few
people to tell you what to do. Usually, the organizations allow enough free flow of
information that all the employees know what the large-scale and long-term goals of the
organization are. They are then briefed on what projects they are taking part in and what is
expected of them in those projects. That means they get full responsibility for figuring out
how best to achieve the results that are expected of them using their own methods, so long
as they align with the vision, ethics, and values of the company.
In such companies, the employees get to be managers of themselves and coordinators of
their own projects. This makes them prouder of their work and gives them confidence in
their abilities to adapt to the demands of a situation. It also develops a very strong work
ethic in them.
Types of Boundaryless Organizations
There are four main types of boundaryless organizations:
▪ Modular organizations.
▪ Strategic alliance organizations.
▪ Network organizations.
▪ Virtual organizations.
The modular and virtual organizations will outsource all functions that are not essential to
their core purpose and only focus on what matters.
Strategic alliance organizations are formed when two companies that are in the same or
related industries form an alliance that will benefit both of them.
Network organizations are similar to a modular or virtual organization in that they will
outsource their business function. However, while virtual and modular organizations will
only outsource what isn’t important, a network organization will outsource even the
important stuff, such as accounting and HR. This allows them to have a razor-sharp focus on
the core business of their company.
Considerations to Make
Even though they are called boundaryless, these organizations still need boundaries in
certain situations, such as when they need to build highly focused teams that work on
specific tasks. These activities will still be flexible, however, as they may need restructuring
with changing conditions.

Social capital
Social capital​ refers to connections among individuals, social networks and the norms of
reciprocity and trustworthiness that arise from them. Social capital recognise the important
property of social connections.

Varieties of social capital… There’s much debate over the various forms that social capital
takes, but one fairly straightforward approach divides it into three main categories:
Bonds: Links to people based on a sense of common identity (“people like us”) – such as
family, close friends and people who share our culture or ethnicity.
Bridges: Links that stretch beyond a shared sense of identity, for example to distant friends,
colleagues and associates.
Linkages: Links to people or groups further up or lower down the social ladder.
The potential benefits of social capital can be seen by looking at social bonds. Friends and
families can help us in lots of ways – emotionally, socially and economically. In the United
Kingdom, for example, a government survey found that more people secure jobs through
personal contacts than through advertisements. Such support can be even more important
in countries where the rule of law is weak or where the state offers few social services: clans
can fund the education of relatives and find them work, and look after orphans and the
elderly.
The concept of social capital has its critics. One argument that’s made is that Putnam got it
wrong when he said social engagement is eroding. Instead, it may just be evolving. Rather
than joining groups in our neighbourhoods, like bowling leagues, we’re now joining groups
made up of people who share our beliefs – fighting for envi- “... Access to information and
influence through social networks also confers private benefits on individuals and in some
cases can be used by individuals or groups to exclude others and reinforce dominance or
privilege.” The Well-being of Nations “... Social capital provides the glue which facilitates
co-operation, exchange and innovation.” The New Economy: Beyond the Hype 6. A Bigger
Picture 105 ronmental protection or gay rights, for instance – rather than our locality. These
groups – such as a branch of Greenpeace or Amnesty International – can exist in the “real”
world. But they may also exist only virtually on the Internet, which is arguably creating
whole new “communities” of people who may never physically meet but who share
common values and interests. Not everyone, however, is convinced that these new forms of
community have the same value as more traditional forms

Social accounting
Social accounting​ can be defined as a set of organisational activities that deals with the
measurement and analysis of the social performance of organisations and the reporting of
results to concerned groups, both within and outside the organisation.
Features of social accounting :
Social accounting is an expression of a company’s social responsibilities.

(ii) Social accounting is related to the use of social resources.

(iii) Social accounting emphasize on relationship between firm and society.

(iv) Social accounting determines desirability of the firm in society.

(v) Social accounting is application of accounting on social sciences.

(vi) Social accounting emphasizes on social costs as well as social benefits.

Benefit of social accounting:

(1) A firm fulfills its social obligations and informs its members, the government and the
general public to enables everybody to form correct opinion.

(2) It counters the adverse publicity or criticism leveled by hostile media and voluntary social
organisations.

(3) It assists management in formulating appropriate policies and programmes.

(4) Through social accounting the firm proves that it is not socially unethical in view of moral
cultures and environmental degradation.

(5) It acts as an evidence of social commitment.

(6) It improves employee motivation.

(7) Social accounting is necessary from the viewpoint of public interest groups, social
organisations investors and government.

(8) It improves the image of the firm.

(9) Through social accounting, the management gets feedback on its policies aimed at the
welfare of the society.

(10) It helps in marketing through greater customer support.

(11) It improves the confidence of shareholders of the firm.

Communities of practice
•Communities of practice are groups of people who share a concern or a passion for
something they do and learn how to do it better as they interact regularly. A community of
practice is a collection of people who engage on an ongoing basis in some common
endeavour.

Communities develop their practice through a variety of activities. Example:

- Problem solving
- Requests for information
- Seeking experience
- Building an argument
- Growing confident

The concept of community of practice is applied in business, organization design,

government, education. ​A number of characteristics explain this rush of interest in
communities of practice as a vehicle for developing strategic capabilities in​ ​organizations​:

● Communities of practice enable practitioners to take collective responsibility for

managing the knowledge they need, recognizing that, given the proper structure,

they are in the best position to do this.

● Communities among practitioners create a direct link between learning and

performance, because the same people participate in communities of practice and in

teams and business units.

● Practitioners can address the tacit and dynamic aspects of knowledge creation and

sharing, as well as the more explicit aspects.

● Communities are not limited by formal structures: they create connections among

people across organizational and geographic boundaries.

government ​organizations face knowledge challenges of increasing complexity and scale.

They have adopted communities of practice for much the same reasons, though the
formality of the bureaucracy can come in the way of open knowledge sharing. Beyond
internal communities, there are typical government problems such as education, health,
and security that require coordination and knowledge sharing across levels of government.
There also, communities of practice hold the promise of enabling connections among
people across formal structures. And there also, there are substantial organizational issues
to overcome.

The perspective of communities of practice affects ​educational practices​ along three

dimensions:

● Internally​: How to organize educational experiences that ground school learning in

practice through participation in communities around subject matters?

● Externally:​ How to connect the experience of students to actual practice through

peripheral forms of participation in broader communities beyond the walls of the

school?

● Over the lifetime of students:​ How to serve the lifelong learning needs of students by

organizing communities of practice focused on topics of continuing interest to

students beyond the initial schooling period?

The Implications to KM

Botha et al (2008) summarize the key factors regarding communities of practice as follows:

● Learning is a social phenomenon

● Knowledge is integrated into the culture, values, and language of the
community
● Learning and community membership are inseparable
● We learn by doing and therefore knowledge and practice are inseparable.
● Empowerment is key to learning: The best learning environments are created
when there are real consequences to the individual and his community of
practice.

Organization as system

What is a System?
Very simply, a system is a collection of parts (or subsystems) integrated to accomplish an
overall goal (a system of people is an organization). Systems have input, processes, outputs
and outcomes, with ongoing feedback among these various parts. If one part of the system
is removed, the nature of the system is changed.

Systems range from very simple to very complex. There are numerous types of systems. For
example, there are biological systems (the heart, etc.), mechanical systems (thermostat,
etc.), human/mechanical systems (riding a bicycle, etc.), ecological systems (predator/prey,
etc.), and social systems (groups, supply and demand, friendship, etc.).

Complex systems, such as social systems, are comprised of numerous subsystems, as well.
These subsystems are arranged in hierarchies, and integrated to accomplish the overall goal
of the overall system. Each subsystem has its own boundaries of sorts, and includes various
inputs, processes, outputs and outcomes geared to accomplish an overall goal for the
subsystem.

A pile of sand is not a system. If one removes a sand particle, you've still got a pile of sand.
However, a functioning car is a system. Remove the carburetor and you've no longer got a
working car.

Why is it Important to Look at Organizations as Systems?

The effect of this systems theory in management is that writers, educators, consultants, etc.
are helping managers to look at organizations from a broader perspective. Systems theory
has brought a new perspective for managers to interpret patterns and events in their
organizations. In the past, managers typically took one part and focused on that. Then they
moved all attention to another part. The problem was that an organization could, e.g., have
wonderful departments that operate well by themselves but don't integrate well together.
Consequently, the organization suffers as a whole.

Now, more managers are recognizing the various parts of the organization, and, in
particular, the interrelations of the parts, e.g., the coordination of central offices with other
departments, engineering with manufacturing, supervisors with workers, etc. Managers
now focus more attention on matters of ongoing organization and feedback. Managers now
diagnose problems, not by examining what appear to be separate pieces of the
organization, but by recognizing larger patterns of interactions. Managers maintain
perspective by focusing on the outcomes they want from their organizations. Now managers
focus on structures that provoke behaviors that determine events -- rather than reacting to
events as was always done in the past.

Systems Theory, Systems Analysis and Systems Thinking

One of the major breakthroughs in understanding the complex world of systems is systems
theory. The application of this theory is called systems analysis. One of the tools of systems
analysis is systems thinking. Very basically, systems thinking is a way of helping a person to
view the world, including its organizations, from a broad perspective that includes
structures, patterns and events, rather than just the events themselves. This broad view
helps one to identify the real causes of issues and know where to work to address them.

Systems Principles -- Some Examples

Systems theory has identified numerous principles that are common to systems, many of
which help us to better understand organizations. One of the best descriptions of systems
principles is in the booklet "Systems 1: An Introduction to Systems Thinking" by Draper L.
Kauffman, Jr., edited by Stephen. A. Carlton (from The Innovative Learning Series by Futures
Systems, Inc., 1980, Stephen.A.Carlton, Publisher, Minneapolis, MN (612) 920-0060). The
following is adapted from that booklet.

The system's overall behavior depends on its entire structure (not the sum of its various
parts).

The structure determines the various behaviors, which determine the various events. Too
often, we only see and respond to the events. That's why, especially in the early parts of our
lives, we can be so short-sighted and reactionary in our lives and in our work. We miss the
broader scheme of things.

Too often in organizations (and in management training programs), we think we can break
up the system and only have to deal with its parts or with various topics apart from other
topics. Systems theory reminds us that if you break up an elephant, you don't have a bunch
of little elephants.

There is an optimum size for a system.

If we try to make the system any larger, it'll try to break itself up in order to achieve more
stability. Too often in our organizations, we continually strive to keep on growing -- until the
reality of the system intervenes. At this point, we again only see the events, not the
behaviors or the structures that cause them. So we embark on short-sighted strategies to fix
events, often only causing more problems for ourselves and others.

There are numerous other systems principles, e.g.,

- Systems tend to seek balance with their environments

- Systems that do not interact with their environment (e.g., get feedback from customers)
tend to reach limits

A circular relationship exists between the overall system and its parts.

Ever notice how an organization seems to experience the same kinds of problems over and
over again? The problems seem to cycle through the organization. Over time, members of
the organization come to recognize the pattern of events in the cycle, rather than the cycle
itself. Parents notice this as they mature as parents. Over time, they recognize the various
phases their children go through and consider these phases when dealing with the specific
behaviors of their children.

Triple-loop learning is described as a higher order learning process that gives

members of an organization the ability to re-frame and “see things in totally
new ways”. Discuss the three different types of organizational learning and
your understanding of what the highest order of learning is to meta-theory.

Single-loop learning: (Following the rules)

People, organization or groups modify their actions according to the difference between expected
and reached outcome. In other words, when something goes wrong or does not happen like we
would like, most of us would consider how to situation could be fixed.

It can also have described like to be situation in we which we observe out present situation and face
problems, errors, inconsistencies or impractical problem. After that we adapt our own behavior and
actions to reduce and improve the situation accordingly.

There are few problems with single-loop learning. The biggest problem with it is that acting like that
we only remove the symptoms, while root causes are still remaining. That is not a good thing
because we will have new problems in the future. Instead of that we should examine, and find out
the root causes and also challenge our underlying beliefs and assumptions. By using only single-loop
learning we end up making only small fixes and adjustments. That is the main reason why we also
need double- and triple-loop learning. These two topics will be discussed later on this blog.

The other problem with single-loop learning is that it assumes problems and their solutions to be
close to each other in time and space. However, this is not true generally. In this kind of learning,
individuals or groups are primarily observing their own actions and methods. This will lead to small
changes in specific practices, behaviors or methods which are based on what has or has not been
working before.

In summary it can be said that single-loop learning is operative level and it answers to the question
“Are we doing things right?”

Double-Loop learning (Changing the rules)

focus correct or change the underlying causes behind the problematic action.

There could me many different underlying causes. Underlying causes may be, for example,
organizational norms, policies, ways to work or individuals’ motives, assumptions or even informal
and ingrained practices which prevent inquiry on these causes.

In double-loop learning (illustrated in figure 2 below) we are forced to think0 about our actions in
the framework of our operating assumptions. That is an important thing because we need to start
thinking and analyzing our own processes. We should ask ourselves “what is going on here?” and
“what are the patterns?”. That information is needed if we want to understand the pattern.
Double-loop learning will lead to deepen understanding of our assumptions and better
decision-making in our everyday operations. We also need to notice that double-loop learning leads
to organizational learning. That is very important because organizational learning is one of the most
important factors nowadays. Without organizational learning we have serious troubles.
 Basically, double-loop learning requires three skills:

1. self-awareness
2. honesty or candor
3. taking responsibility

At first we need self-awareness to identify what is often unconscious or habitual. After that we need
honesty or candor to recognize mistakes and discuss with other people to find out and establish
root-causes. Finally, we need to take responsibility for how we need to change our action or
methods and how we can learn from the incident. Chris Argyris himself is described the process of
single and double-loop learning in the context of organizational learning as follows:

“When the error detected and corrected permits the organization to carry on its present policies or
achieve its presents objectives, then that error-and-correction process is single-loop learning.
Single-loop learning is like a thermostat that learns when it is too hot or too cold and turns the heat
on or off. The thermostat can perform this task because it can receive information (the temperature
of the room) and take corrective action. Double-loop learning occurs when error is detected and
corrected in ways that involve the modification of an organization’s underlying norms, policies and
objectives.”

In summary, by using double-loop learning we examine the underlying assumptions behind the
actions and behavior and learn from those mistakes and incorrect methods. By doing this we are
able to remove the root causes that makes us to behave or action in a certain, poor or costly way.
While single-loop learning was more like an operative level, double-loop learning is rather a tactical
level. Double-loop learning should answer to question “Are we doing the right things?”.

Triple-loop learning

Triple-loop learning (illustrated in figure 3 below) we learn how to learn by reflecting how we
learned in the first place. In this kind of learning organizations, individuals or groups should reflect
on how they think about rules and not only think that rules should be changed. Triple-loop learning
 helps us to understand more about ourselves or our organization. One defining for triple-loop
learning is “double-loop learning about double-loop learning”.

All in all it can be said that triple-loop learning encompasses both single- and double-loop learning
and much more than that. This means that triple-loop learning focuses on the ability to utilize both
single- and double-loop learning. It challenges existing learning framework as well as models and
assumptions. The learning goes be beyond insight and patterns to context. With triple-loop learning
we get to known new ways of learning and new commitments.

This kind of learning challenges us to understand the overall picture and how the problems and
solutions are linked together even when separated widely by time and plaace. It is also important to
notice that with triple-loop learning we should able to understand how our previous actions created
the conditions that led us to our current situation and problems.

Organizations can benefit from triple-loop learning in many ways:

● The relationship between organizational structure and behavior will change fundamentally because
the organization learns how to learn
● Organization learn new ways to comprehend and change its purpose
● Organization get a better view of understanding of how to respond to its environment
● Get a deeper comprehension of why our organizations chose to do things we do

In summary, while single-loop learning all about correcting errors without questioning underlying
assumptions and double-loop learning detects errors, questions underlying assumptions behind the
actions and behavior and also learn from these mistakes, triple-loop learning is operating at a higher
level; it develops the organization’s ability to learn about learning. Triple-loop learning should
answer to question “how do we decide what is right?”

Overall
Robert Putnam described three types of social capital. Discuss the role of
governments in building social capital. You may divide your answer into two
parts. In the first, using a functional perspective distinguish the types of social
capital and which type of social capital the government can build. Using a
Radical Structuralist perspective, critically discuss why the government has
not been active in building social capital.

Three types of social capital

There are three types of social capital: bonding social capital, bridging social capital and
linking social capital.

Bonding social capital refers to the links between like-minded people, or the reinforcement
of homogeneity.” Bonding Social Capital indicates ties between people in similar situation. It
can be your neighbours, friends or even family.

Bridging social capital can be referred as building of connections between heterogeneous

groups, which are likely to be more fragile, but more likely also to foster social inclusion.”
Bridging social capital covers distant ties of like persons, such as workmates and fast friends.

Linking social capital which reaches out to unlike people in dissimilar situations, such as
those who are entirely outside of the community, thus enabling members to leverage a far
wider range of resources than are available in the community.

the high group has the highest level of trust in government in bridging social capital,
implying that government may need to pay more attention to the groups of bridging social
capital, who are more sociable, communicative and active in gathering information made
available by government efforts to provide a bridging ground or platform.

The important of social capital

- Social capital makes it easier for citizens to solve collective problems, people often
benefit if they work together to solve their jobs.
- When people believe and trust, social and business relationships will cost less
- When people lack contact with others, they will not be able to check the correctness
of their views, so they tend to be shaken by the lack of calm.

Putnam also offers a number of factors to determine social capital

1. Political and civil participation: such as voting rates, levels of political knowledge or
political trust (politial trust).

2. Unofficial social constraints: for example, in 1975 an American invited his friend home to
play 15 times a year, which in 1998 was reduced to half. Collective sports activities are also
declining.

3. Tolerance and trust: although Americans are more tolerant of others, they are less
trustworthy than others. Career opportunities for industries such as police, lawyers, and
personal protection have decreased in the 20th century.

Social capital and economic development

- Social capital helps solve "collective problems". Specifically, there are situations in
which everyone benefits if each person does a small job, but the (big) benefit is only
possible when everyone is doing that small job.
- Social capital saves transaction fees. All social and economic transactions will be less
risky if the parties involved imply that everyone follows a code of conduct
(self-esteem, fear of losing family values, keeping promises, for example)
- Social capital has an important influence on the quality and speed of accumulation of
other types of capital.
- A society with a high social capital is a society with little crime. When born in a
society where members trust each other, people are also easy to be kind to others.
Consequently, society will have less crime. Economic benefits are not small.
 - The society of the state is the flank, the element of legislation. The more social
capital, the more strong the judiciary, the more likely it is to enforce (thuc thi), the
less corruption (tham nhung), the more transparent (minh bach), easy to control,
and the more effective the administrative decision.
- Social media, in the form of trust, will increase the credibility of state officials,
especially when they declare economic and financial policies. Therefore social capital
will raise investment levels and other economic activities.
- A unified, less divided society will easily recover from economic shocks. According to
Rodrik (1999), these shocks require managing different interests in society. Social
capital helps harmonize conflicts that an economic crisis will expose. Lack of social
capital, the impact of economic shocks will be severe and more permanent

Social capital and economic development policy

- Therefore, policy planning requires, first of all, an institutional and social analysis to
identify all relevant components, and the relationship between them.
- Social capital must be considered as a resource like other resources in all
construction projects, development projects, from infrastructure, to education,
health, etc. Also remember that social capital is a kind of "public goods" and, like
other types of public goods, it will not be fully supplied by the market. State support
is needed.
- Therefore, the policy of "developing social capital" needs to be carefully selected,
specifically, including measures to connect communities. It cannot be a general
policy.
- Need to strengthen the organization and coordination of low-income people (but
can be very rich in social capital), and help collectives, social groups, link together.
- At each stage of development is an optimal combination of
capital-society-people-society and capital-society-state and, to the extent possible,
policy must be flexible. moving in sync with those changes.
Data, Information and Knowledge are not synonymous. Explain the differences
and whether it is important for organisational analysts to understand the
progression. In your answer, discuss and give examples of some tools that
would be used to assist in the analysis of each.

● Data is unprocessed facts and figures without any added interpretation or

analysis. "The price of crude oil is $80 per barrel."

● Information is data that has been interpreted so that it has meaning for the user.

"The price of crude oil has risen from $70 to $80 per barrel" gives meaning to the
data and so is said to be information to someone who tracks oil prices.

● Knowledge is a combination of information, experience and insight that may

benefit the individual or the organisation. "When crude oil prices go up by $10

per barrel, it's likely that petrol prices will rise by 2p per litre" is knowledge.

Data becomes information when it is applied to some purpose and adds value for the

recipient. For example a set of raw sales figures is data. For the Sales Manager tasked with

solving a problem of poor sales in one region, or deciding the future focus of a sales drive,
the raw data needs to be processed into a sales report. It is the sales report that provides

information.

In the first column below you'll see some examples of the ​huge amount of data that

managers may receive. The second column then shows how the various types of data could

be processed to create useful information.

Data Possible methods of converting data into information

Sales figures Plot charts and identify trends

Market and competition data Find average or typical values

Financial performance Present complex data as a chart or graph

Production output Monitor changes over time and forecast future values

Costs of resources or other inputs Compare figures and identify similarities or differences

Staff absences, holidays or sick leave Assess whether a result is significant or occurred by chance

Accident records Assess whether one thing is related to another

Collecting data is expensive and to merit the effort, you need to be very clear about why you
need it and how you plan to use it. One of the main reasons that organisations collect data

is to monitor and improve performance. Measure what matters might be a bit of a cliché

but if you are to have the information you need for control and performance improvement,

you need to:

● collect data on the indicators that really do affect performance

● collect data reliably and regularly

● be able to convert data into the information you need.

To be useful, data must also satisfy a number of conditions. It must be:

● relevant to the specific purpose

 ● complete

● accurate

● timely; data that arrives after you have made your decision is of no value

● in the right format; information can only be analysed using a spreadsheet if all

the data can be entered into the computer system

● available at a suitable price; the benefits of the data must merit the cost of

collecting or buying it.

The same criteria apply to information. Throughout this book you will repeatedly see the

importance of:

● getting the right information and

● getting the information right​.

A manager investigating poor punctuality of trains on a particular line needs information

showing all the arrival data on that line. Data on other lines is irrelevant, unless late

connections elsewhere are causing the problem. Just as important, the manager must use

the data correctly. One day of engineering works will have a major impact on a week's

results. Wrongly interpreting the results could identify a problem where no problem actually

exists.

Converting information to knowledge

Ultimately the tremendous amount of information that is generated is only useful if it can

be applied to create knowledge within the organisation. Building and managing knowledge

is one of the greatest challenges that faces organisations in the twenty first century. We

hear a lot about the knowledge economy and for many organisations it is their knowledge or

'know how' that defines their competitive advantage.

There is considerable blurring and confusion between the terms 'information' and

'knowledge'. It is helpful to think of knowledge as being of two types:

● Formal, explicit or generally available knowledge. This is knowledge that has

been captured and used to develop policies and operating procedures for

example.

● Instinctive, subconscious, tacit or hidden knowledge. Within the organisation

there are certain people who hold specific knowledge or have the 'know how' --

"I did something very similar to that last year and this happened….."

Clearly, both types of knowledge are essential for the organisation.

Information on its own will not create a knowledge-based organisation but it is a key

building block. The right information fuels the development of intellectual capital which in

turns drives innovation and performance improvement.