Managerial heuristics for knowledge creation [Anastasios Karamanos, ISSS
1998 Paper Session, July 20/98]
These notes are a rough transcription,
prepared as each individual presenter and/or commentator spoke at the ISSS
1998 conference. Gaps and errors have likely occurred. For more accurate
citations, please consult the original presenters. These notes have been
contributed to the ISSS by David Ing, of the IBM Advanced Business Institute
(sabi@systemicbusiness.org).
[Paper session, July 20/98, 2:40 p.m.]
Anastasios Karamanos, Ph.D. student at City U., London
Observations on knowledge-intensive economy.
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Ambiguity, uncertainty, risk.
Knowledge creation can not be isolated, firms must interact with their
environment.
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Wanted to create a framework so that firms could be more absorbative.
Can similar today's environment as complex dynamic terrain.
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Institutions.
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Network ties on relationships.
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Network outcomes are emergent, and its the links between them which produce
them.
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Interpretation leads to action, which then feeds back.
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Observation, action, participation.
Need to shift attention from controlling outcomes to influencing processes.
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Only "degrees of fit" -- Black and Farias, 1996.
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Need self-organizing strategies
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Have to be at the edge of chaos, far from equilibrium, to fit to the new
order.
Need some restrictions or regulatory systems: internal processes which
force integration and equilibrium:
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The formal system.
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Also have an informal system, as a shadow system.
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To contain the system of instability, need knowledge about structure, patterns.
Mental models are made of processes called heuristics.
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Definitions:
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Spender
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McMaster
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Goldstein
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Wheatley
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Beinhocker
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Davenport and Prusak.
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[Comment by audience: Mental models originates from Jay Forrester, in the
Industrial Organization, 1961].
Creativity at the edge of chaos:
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Focus on boundary management.
Organizational identity:
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Start from a notion of market signals: intention from the actor.
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Can observe by looking at indices: cues.
Four categories of indices:
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Clients.
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Network of parties.
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Intermediaries
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Reputation for innovation.
With indices ...
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Promotes identifying partners who will fit: shapes social construction.
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