By Agustin Chevez & Laurie Aznavoorian
Edition 4 – September 2014 Pages 11-14
Tags: workplace • knowledge management
The Management of Knowledge
Organisations are increasingly starting to recognise that technology based competitive advantages are transient and that their employees’ knowledge is possibly the most sustainable advantage they have.
The management of knowledge (including creating, transferring and storing) within an organisation is considered to be a primary driver of a business’ sustainability.  Driven by changing demographics, businesses are recognising that valuable knowledge is lost when older employees leave the organisation or redundancies are made due to changing economic conditions. Geyer, an Australian design practice, undertook research to understand the role of the physical environment in knowledge management.
The aim of the research was to explore the kinds of environments and their attributes (if any) that could support the management of knowledge in an organisation. The research also aimed to expand the focus of existing knowledge management literature from information technology to workplace design.
The research was based on an online survey, alongside a series of  workshops, undertaken in Australia between November 2009 and March 2010. The survey measured various aspects of the relationship between knowledge and space including the perception of knowledge creation, transfer, storage and ownership.
A total of 94 responses were received from Australia (72) and overseas (22).The three most represented industries were engineering/design (31%) followed by finance (18%) and property (10%). A total of 34 people from legal, management, mining, government and education attended the face- to-face workshops.
13 Research Lessons
The research produced 13 lessons, discussed below.
1. Space as a time-saving tool:
The ability to observe and hear co-workers provides an opportunity to learn, even when those teaching do not always have the time to instruct. Spaces that foster learning by observation (e.g. open plan layouts) mimic the attributes found in a playground, where children learn by observing others. Open-plan environments were desired by time-poor organisations that struggle with finding the time to formally transfer knowledge.
2. Organisational structure:
The structure used to transfer company and industry knowledge is usually different from the one described in organisational charts, and often more complex, sometimes taking years to understand. Complex and secretive organisational structures of some (especially large) organisations were identified as a factor in knowledge transfer.
The literature refers to the scientific theory of complexity, to suggest that organisations naturally emerge out of the interaction of individual agents without any top-down control.
Understanding this structure is important because knowledge is best transferred through naturally constructed structures, rather than top-down de ned hierarchies. Given the adequate space and freedom, individuals will naturally organise in unpredictable ways, to adapt and, through experimentation, rise to higher levels of performance. In fact, not only does learning stimulate this process, but this self-organisation appears to be a learning process in itself.
3. Mentoring:
Participants singled out mentoring as one of the most successful vehicles for transferring knowledge. Mentoring is needed as an individual having regular dialogue with, and receiving advice from, a more experienced member of the organisation relating to the individual’s job and career development. Mentoring programs, especially those in the legal, accounting and financial institutions, often expand to provide guidance and introduction to new contacts and networks.
Space does not only allow people to learn from their mentors by observation as described above, but the literature suggests most mentor-learner relationships are accidental and do not arise from a formally constructed management development scheme where mentor and learner are deliberately paired. The physical space could assist by providing environmental conditions that help shape these relationships….