Knowledge Management: Beyond the Hi-Tech Hidebound Systems

"To conceive of knowledge as a collection of information seems to rob the concept of all of its life... Knowledge resides in the user and not in the collection. It is how the user reacts to a collection of information that matters."-- Churchman (1971, p. 10).

The current conceptualization of information technology (IT) enabled knowledge management suffers from the fallibility in imposing the traditional information-processing model on the strategic needs of contemporary organizations. The traditional knowledge management model emphasizes convergence and compliance to achieve pre-specified organizational goals. The knowledge management systems were modeled on the same paradigm to ensure adherence to organizational routines built into information technology. Optimization-based routinization of organizational goals with the objective of realizing greater efficiencies was suitable for an era marked by a relatively stable and predictable environment. However, this model is increasingly inadequate for an era characterized by increasing pace of discontinuous environmental change (Arthur, 1996, Nadler et al., 1995). The new era requires continual reassessment of routines embedded in organizational decision-making processes to ensure that underlying assumptions are aligned with the changing environment. Hence, the primary focus is not as much ondoing things right as it is ondoing the right things (Drucker, 1994b).

Current thrust of organizational knowledge management efforts is on archiving 'best practices' for later reference by other employees. It is popular belief that archival and subsequent observance of such practices would facilitate efficient problem-solving and prevent unnecessary allocation of sources to inefficient search processes.However, most such solutions represent “a temporary event, specific to a context, developed through the relationship of persons and circumstances" (Wheatley 1994, p. 151). Such recipes for specific problem based situations [with the implicit assumption of ceteris paribus] may turn out to be recipes for disaster when future solutions need to be either thought afresh or in discontinuation from past solutions (Landau 1973, p. 536). The dominant logic' often persists even after the underlying assumptions have changed fundamentally. Hardwiring of underlying assumptions in organizational knowledge bases may lead to “perceptual insensitivity” (Hedberg & Jonsson., 1978, p. 47-49) of the organization to the changing environment. Due to the changing business environment, such organizations may find themselves doing “more of the same” better and better, however, with diminishing marginal returns (Drucker, 1994b). The new business environment defeats the traditional organizational response of predicting and reacting based on pre-programmed heuristics. Instead, it demands more anticipatory responses from the organization members who need to play a more proactive role in the faster cycle of knowledge-creation and action (Brown & Eisenhardt, 1997; Nadler & Shaw, 1995).

The proposed model addresses the knowledge creation and dissemination processes that are "both participative and anticipative" (Bennis & Nanus 1985, p. 209). Instead of a formal step-by-step rational guide, this model favors a "set of guiding principles" for helping people understand "not how it should be done" but "how to understand what might fit the situation they are in" (Kanter 1984, p. 305- 306). This model assumes the existence of only a few rules, some specific information and a lot of freedom" (Wheatley, cited in Stuart, 1995). An illustration of such model is suggested by the practices of the retailer Nordstrom that has earned a reputation for unequalled quality of customer service. Surprisingly, this organization uses a one-sentence policy manual (Taylor 1994): "Use your good judgment in all situations. There will be no additional rules." The primary responsibility of most supervisors is to continuously coach the employees about this philosophy for carrying out the organizational pursuit of "serving the customer better" (Peters 1989, p. 379).

The proposed model then builds upon the strengths of the extant conceptualizations based on the archival, retrieval and dissemination capabilities afforded by advanced information technologies. The proposed model of knowledge management may be distinguished from the information- processing view based on four key characteristics of all organizational processes and activities: (a) playfulness in organizational choices (b) shift from error avoidance to error detection and correction, (b) strategic planning as 'anticipation of surprise,' and (d) creative chaos through organizational vision.

This excerpt is taken from "From Information Management to Knowledge Management: Beyond the 'Hi-Tech Hidebound' Systems Malhotra, Yogesh (2000). In K. Srikantaiah & M.E.D. Koenig (Eds.), Knowledge Management for the Information Professional. Medford, N.J.: Information Today Inc., 37-61. [Dr. Yogesh Malhotra is the founder and chief knowledge architect of @Brint.com portals and networks.] .”

Disaster ABC's

Richter Scale - Richter scale is an index of the seismic energy released by an earthquake (as contrasted to intensity that describes its effects at a particular place) expressed in terms of the motion that would be measured by a specific type of seismograph located 100 km from the epicentre of an earthquake.

MMScale - Modified Mercalli scale is another way of measuring earthquake size, magnitude based on instrumental readings and intensity based on qualitative effects of earthquakes, only intensity can be applied to pre-instrumental earthquakes. First used in 1931 in the United States, Modified Mercalli scale assigns a Roman numeral in the range I - XII to each earthquake effect.
(http://www.was.slu.edu )

Disaster Trivia: Cholera Epidemic in Lao PDR (1993-94)

Apart from floods, and droughts Laos suffers from periodic epidemic outbreaks like Cholera, Dengue etc. During 1993-94, there was a major outbreak of cholera occurred with alarmingly high cases of fatality rates. Given the prevalence of unsanitary conditions favouring that transmission of desease, the lack of supplies of drugs and the inappropriate staff training in cholera case management, the country faced serious difficulties in controlling outbreaks. In October 1994, there were over 8 000 suspected cases and 500 deaths reported from nine provinces, an unacceptably high case fatality rate ranging from 4 to 17 percent. The virus was identified as 'VIBRIO CHOLERAE 0139'. The outbreaks overlapped with the rainy season. The heavy rains and flooding caused major difficulties wiht transportation, delivery of supplies and equipment, and with overall accessibility to health services. Other contrainst included availability of safe water and relatively poor sanitary conditions and practices. Assistance was sought from several interanational and UN agencies to control the spread of the epidemic.

Distilled Water: A Potential Health Hazard

We are all aware of the dangers of drinking unfiltered tap water, but it may come as a surprise to us that drinking distilled water on a regular and daily basis is potentially dangerous to our health. Paavo Airola wrote about the dangers of distilled water way back in the 1970's when it first became a fad with the health food crowd.

Distilled water is free of dissolved minerals and, because of this, has the special property of being able to actively absorb toxic substances from the body and eliminate them. When it comes into contact with air, it absorbs carbon dioxide, making it acidic. The more distilled water a person drinks, the higher the body acidity becomes. Cooking foods in distilled water pulls the minerals out of them and lowers their nutrient value. The more mineral loss, the greater the risk for osteoporosis, osteoarthritis, hypothyroidism, coronary artery disease, high blood pressure and a long list of degenerative diseases generally associated with premature aging. Aging and disease is also said to be a direct result of the accumulation of acid waste products in the body. Correlation between the consumption of soft water (distilled water is extremely soft) and the incidence of cardiovascular disease is also found.

Thus the longer one drinks distilled water, the more likely the development of mineral deficiencies and an acid state. Over 3000 mineral evaluations using a combination of blood, urine and hair tests have been conducted by the author. Almost without exception, people who consume distilled water exclusively, eventually develop multiple mineral deficiencies. Those who supplement their distilled water intake with trace minerals are not as deficient but still not as adequately nourished in minerals as their non-distilled water drinking counterparts even after several years of mineral supplementation.

The ideal water for the human body should be slightly alkaline and this requires the presence of minerals like calcium and magnesium. Water filtered through reverse osmosis tends to be neutral and is acceptable for regular use provided minerals are supplemented. Water filtered through a solid charcoal filter is slightly alkaline. Ozonation of this charcoal filtered water is ideal for daily drinking. Longevity is associated with the regular consumption of hard water (high in minerals). Disease and early death is more likely to be seen with the long term drinking of distilled water. Avoid it except in special circumstances.

Extracted from the article Early Death Comes from Drinking Distilled Water by Zoltan P. Rona, MD, MSc http://chetday.com/distilledwater.htm

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Every month, we will feature one of our community members in this column. This will give us a chance to get to know and learn from each other’s experiences. Would you like to be next month’s featured personality? Email us so we can send you our questions.

Our Featured Personality

Dr. Le-Huu Ti, Office, Economic Affairs Officer, Water and Mineral Resource Section, Environment and Natural Resources Development Division, UNESCAP-Thailand
Dr Le-Huu Ti has been working with UNESCAP since February 1996 as an expert on water resources management and water-related disaster reduction. He has extensive experience in strategic planning and management having worked on projects related to strategic planning and management of water resources and capacity building on water-related disaster management, including coordination of activities of the Typhoon Committee and the Panel on Tropical Cyclones on disaster prevention and preparedness. Prior to UNESCAP, he worked for the Mekong River Commission for over 20 years in various positions including Senior Adviser on Policy and Planning. An AIT alumnus, Dr Ti completed his Doctor of Engineering in Water Resources Engineering in 1975.

1. How has UNESCAP integrated disaster management in their activities?
Initially disaster management was viewed from the context of natural resources management and sustainable development. With the recent changes in the structure of work, disaster management is now seen through three perspectives: (1) managing globalization (emphasis on environment and sustainable development, including climate change), (2) poverty reduction and (3) addressing emerging social issues. It should be noted that the core program of disaster management of UNESCAP has long been associated with water-related disaster management, particularly flood mitigation, since the establishment of the Bureau for Flood Control in 1949. As floods have continued to be one of the most severe hazards in the region, UNESCAP continues its efforts to build up the sub-regional networks to deal with water-related disaster management and contribute to building technical capacity of the developing countries in the region. Among the sub-regional networks established under the aegis of UNESCAP that can now sustain their operations include (1) the Mekong River Commission, formerly the Mekong Committee established in 1957, (2) the Typhoon Committee established in 1968 and (3) the Panel on Tropical Cyclones in 1971.

2. What are the positive changes you have seen in the past years with regards DM?
One of the most important changes with regards DM that I witnessed during the past several years is the new perception of DM, which calls for the development and acceptance of better results-based approaches in all phases of DM. This requires better planning (including public participation), more transparent operations and good accountability systems in management. In short, the concept of good governance has now taken roots in DM. However, in the region, the adoption of the new concept (good governance) varies from one country to another, from one community to another, depending on the cultural, political, social and economic conditions. In some countries, the concept of good governance in DM started at the top level and efforts are being made to develop "DM indicators" for better monitoring of performance. In other countries, it started at the community level, such as the case in the Philippines.

3. With your experience, what would you like to advice the disaster manager and CBDRM practitioners' in implementing their projects in DM?
Disaster management can be seen as a service sector. Disaster managers and CBDRM practitioners are service providers. Measuring quality of the services needs to be objective, taking into account all the constraints and prevailing circumstances. In such contexts, results-based approach is a learning process. The more one can understand each others the better the results can be accepted. In these learning processes, it is important to develop or adopt common tools for management and monitoring. For this very reason, PDR-SEA-2 introduced the strategic collaborative planning techniques for better integration of CBDRM into the socio-economic development process. I sincerely hope disaster managers and CBDRM practitioners would soon find the techniques useful and they would soon agree to set up a network to exchange information and experiences in the application of the techniques to help each other.

The Media and Climate: Building Partnerships Workshop, 26-27 July 2004, Bangkok, Thailand
An ADPC course, this workshop aims to strengthen and sustain partnerships between media and climate communities in Southeast Asia for the accurate and effective communication of the nature and implications of climate variability and change. Target participants are journalists from the print and broadcast media and representatives of national meteorological and climatological services from 10 Association of Southeast Asian (ASEAN) countries.
For more information, please contact Ms. Lolita Bildan lolita@adpc.net

Urban Flood Mitigation (UFM) Course, 23 August - 3 September 2004, Naga City, Philippines
Jointly organized by ADPC and the ITC Netherlands, the course will focus on urban flood mitigation issues, specifically on the impact of floods and the structural and non structural interventions available to mitigate urban impact. It aspires to integrate GIS application into the curriculum to enrich the course and to give hands-on experience to participants on application aspects. It is required that participants have prior exposure to GIS work.

Fourth Regional Training Course on Earthquake Vulnerability Reduction for Cities (EVRC-4), 3-9 October 2004, Jakarta, Indonesia
This course by ADPC, is particularly useful for those concerned with the reduction of vulnerability to earthquakes in urban areas. The course aims at enlightening the participants about the causes and effects of earthquakes as well as the possible strategies and approaches to reduce the damage and loss of life caused by these destructive events. The course content is outlined as follows: (i) Overview on Urbanization, Urban Hazards, Vulnerabilities, Risk and Disaster Management; (ii) Earthquake Hazard and Risk Assessment Methods; (iii) Earthquake Vulnerabilities; (iv) Earthquake Vulnerability Reduction Methods; (v) Planning for Vulnerability Reduction; and (v) Plan Implementation for Vulnerability Reduction.
For more details, contact Ms. Clarence Carlos clarence@adpc.net

Disaster Management Course 31 (DMC-31), November 6-26, Bangkok, Thailand
This course is a flagship course of ADPC and is designed for those who have agency, community, national or international disaster management responsibilities and is intended to enable professionals working in disaster management, development and donor agencies to effectively integrate disaster management into their development programs and policies. This will help facilitate within a development framework, valuable contributions in the important areas of: sustainable economic growth, poverty reduction, environmental conservation, overall risk reduction
For more information on the above courses, please contact Zorobabel Zuniga, ADPC Regional Course Manager at zbabel@adpc.net