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Generating Organizational Intelligence

6.5. Organizational Knowledge Generation

New organizational knowledge is generated as a result of the interaction of explicit and tacit knowledge of individuals within the organization. This process of interaction refers to the organizational learning process in which factors such as organizational culture, technology, structural aspects, and strategy are also effective. Organizational knowledge generation consists of six main stages. These stages are:

1. Development of individual knowledge 2. Sharing of tacit knowledge

3. Concept creation

4. Verification of concepts through testing 5. Building archetypes

6. Transmission and dissemination of knowledge in organizations (Kalkan, 2004: 403-406)

6.5.1. Development of Individual Knowledge

Individual knowledge, and particularly the tacit knowledge of individu-als, is the basic element in the organizational knowledge generation pro-cess. Therefore, tacit individual knowledge should be developed, which is of critical importance in generating cumulative knowledge. The quality of the tacit knowledge of individuals depends on primarily two factors, di-versity of the individual’s experience and the knowledge being in the na-ture of holistic experience knowledge. Knowledge having a nana-ture of be-ing based on holistic experience depends on the nature of the experience through which the individual acquired the knowledge. Such experience should be the product of a concentration both intellectually and physi-cally, nourished by a deep commitment; only this type of holistic acqui-sition will enable the development of knowledge through the utilization of tacit knowledge. On the other hand, for the tacit knowledge of indi-viduals to develop, the obstacles before the explicit knowledge acquisition should be removed and technological means should be employed to facil-itate this (Kalkan, 2004: 403-406).

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There are many people in an organization who have different pasts, knowl-edge accumulations, world views, intellectual structures, and motivations.

Knowledge generation cannot take place unless the tacit knowledge of these people, which constitutes the most valuable treasure for an organi-zation, is brought together. A common area is required to be able to share tacit knowledge. A common area refers to a conceptual combination of physical, virtual, and intellectual environments that enables experiencing the activities and sharing needed for a knowledge generation process. The cooperation in the common area should be efficient and as much inclusive as possible. Employees working at various levels can be helpful by making contributions to this area. Even the participation of actors from outside the organization in this contribution process may strengthen the genera-tion of knowledge. The management should support the process by allow-ing autonomy of the employees (Kalkan, 2004: 403-406).

6.5.3. Concept Creation

To create concepts, it will be necessary first to establish mutual trust and a common intellectual model as a result of the interactions and sharing in the common area. In this way, individuals will come to the point of being able to generate knowledge in collaboration. Various reasoning methods are used in the concept creation process. Employees may advance from sin-gle cases to general concepts. They can also move from numerous general data to single inferences to form the infrastructure of the concepts to be created. The process of concept creation is a process that employees work together to realize. Thus, it requires cooperation. The diversity among the employees enriches the knowledge generation process by conveying dif-ferent perspectives to the concept creation process. Presence of rich infor-mation accumulation in the organization also supports the concept cre-ation stage (Kalkan, 2004: 403-406).

6.5.4. Verification of Concepts through Testing

Verification of concepts through testing is the testing of concepts to see whether or not they render any meaning and value to the organization and society. Setting forth standards to measure the meaning and value of

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cepts is an important problem. Such standards may be qualitative as well as quantitative. For example, concepts and various outputs that stem from concepts such as a product can be valued by relating them to concrete cri-teria such as costs, profit margin, and growth rate. More subjective crite-ria may also be employed as standards. They usually relate to values, value systems, and organizational culture. The verification standards should be consistent within themselves. Such standards should also be in harmony with the objectives, vision, and strategy of the organization. Another im-portant factor is compliance with social values, because an organization should also consider social interests while trying to achieve its own objec-tives (Kalkan, 2004: 403-406).

6.5.5. Building Archetypes

At this stage, a concept, which has been tested and confirmed, is shaped into a concrete form and converted into a pilot product, an initial exam-ple, or, so to speak, an archetype. An archetype refers to a prototype if a new product development process is in question or a model of the oper-ational mechanism if it is an innovation in the services or organizoper-ational operation processes that is in question. In order to create a prototype in the new product development process in organizations, experts in the var-ious departments of the organization such as production, quality control, marketing, and R & D come together and contribute to the formation of the initial example of the new product. In the efforts to create a new service or organizational structure, experts should again come together to build the model. In these efforts, the roles of the departments or units in charge of the functions such as human resources and strategic plan-ning become more distinct as compared the product development efforts (Kalkan, 2004: 403-406).

6.5.6. Dissemination of Knowledge in Organizations

At this stage, the concept that has been created and tested, and whose initial example has been built during the knowledge generation process, is left free to circulate within and outside the organization. In this way, a new knowl-edge generation cycle is started on the ontological plane. Knowlknowl-edge gener-ation is handled as a process composed of successive stages. Although such staging is not incorrect in terms of conceptualization, in reality the stages

70 6. f ou rt h fact o r:

in the process may intersect with each other and returns or forward jumps omitting some stages may occur from time to time. Horizontal and vertical circulation of knowledge in an organization triggers a new organizational knowledge generation cycle. A better understanding of organizational learn-ing will enable organizational behavior and various vital processes of organi-zations to be understood better and will create an effect with the potential to improve organizational performance. This is possible when the process as a whole is understood, not only the bare fact of learning. The premises that make learning possible and the critical organizational outcomes brought about by learning are present in the entirety of the organizational learn-ing process. Figure 6.2 summarizes the organizational learnlearn-ing process by bringing together the basic elements and stages related to the concepts dis-cussed throughout this study.

It should be noted that what is shown in the figure is only a simplified display of the process. In reality, there is the decisiveness of complex in-teractions rather than following a straight line in organizational processes.

This fact represents human behavior resembling an aspect of the organi-zational processes. Specifically within the subject matter of this study, it is seen that the intersecting areas of intelligence, learning, and knowledge generation are considerably broad. This increases the complexity of

inter-Figure 6.2. The Organizational Learning Process (Kalkan, 2004: 405)

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actions. The subjects dealt with under each of these three headings inter-twine with each other from time to time. There is a close relationship be-tween the components of organizational intelligence and the cases dealt with by the learning process and organizational knowledge generation with learning process. Thus, the subject requires in depth exploration and clari-fication by further studies (Kalkan, 2004: 403-406).

Finally, this can be said: organizational intelligence is a prerequisite of organizational learning and organizational learning makes organizational knowledge generation possible.

6.6. Organizational Learning as a Source of Competitive Advantage