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440 Chapter 13

Box 13.1
An example: Siemens Medical Solutions

Gale (2002) describes the case of Siemens Medical Solutions and how they decided to
change their knowledge is power culture into one in which knowledge sharing was the
norm. The company wanted employees to have easy access to information and expertise
across business units so that they could do their jobs better and faster without reinventing
the wheel. The problem was that many employees associated sharing knowledge with
losing power. Busy employees also perceived taking the time to share information or to
coach someone in a new skill as a burden. Employees saw no value in this activity. In
order to change that attitude, employees had to see an immediate and personal advantage
to sharing information. To support the new environment, the company built three web-
based knowledge-sharing tools through which employees can collect and disseminate
useful information to the rest of the company. The fi rst, “ People of Med, ” is an online
database of employee profi les that includes each member ’ s contact information, experi-
ence, areas of expertise, and photograph. The second, “ Communities of Practice, ” is an
online meeting place where employees volunteer to host forums on specifi c topics, such
as ISO 9001 certifi cation challenges. Any employee interested in that topic can register
and participate in conversations and share materials that may be of value to the group.
The third knowledge-sharing tool is the “ Knowledge Square, ” an online database fi lled
with presentations, web sites, technical papers, specs, and any other materials that might
be of value to the company. Employees can search the database to quickly fi nd informa-
tion related to their area of interest. To encourage employees to take advantage of the
knowledge-sharing opportunities, they receive bonus points every time they use one of
the three tools. These can be used to purchase items from a gift catalog that includes
everything from T-shirts to vacations. Whether they store their profi les in People of Med,
participate in a community, or download information from the Knowledge Square, they
get rewarded. Community leaders are also encouraged to throw parties for their members
where they can share the stories of successful knowledge-tool users in company newslet-
ters, marketing materials, and broadcast e-mails.

Future Challenges for KM

What lies ahead for KM? There is one camp that predicts no future for KM, citing a
number of failures to deliver. However, this gloomy forecast can be mitigated some-
what. It is true that, as with all innovation, initial expectations were on the unrealistic
side. One of the reasons for this was underestimating the people component of KM
together with an overemphasis on the role of KM technology in KM solutions. As
Pollard (2003) notes, the reason for this failure was the unrealistic expectation that
human organizational behavior could be easily and rapidly changed. Of course, behav-