This document outlines a study that aims to develop a storytelling framework to support knowledge management processes. It discusses the background of using storytelling for knowledge transfer in organizations. The study has two parts: the first investigates existing storytelling practices in an organization, while the second examines how to construct knowledge-embedded stories through a workshop with students. The document presents the research objectives, questions, methodology, findings and contributions of the study, which include developing a process framework for constructing knowledge stories.
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The Development of a Storytelling Framework to Support Knowledge Management Processes
1. THE DEVELOPMENT OF A STORYTELLING FRAMEWORK
TO SUPPORT KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT PROCESSES
Khairul Shafee Kalid (G1050413), PhD Information Technology
Supervisor: Assoc. Prof Ahmad Kamil Bin Mahmood
Internal
2. Outline
Internal
Background of Study
Problem Statement
Research Objectives
Research Questions
Research Methodology
Research Design
Data Collection
Data Analysis
Findings
Limitations of Study
Contribution of Study
Conclusion
3. Background of Study
Internal
Knowledge-based view of the firm considers knowledge as an important
strategic asset in organization (Grant, 1996).
Knowledge is defined
Knowledge is defined as justified belief that increases an entity’s capacity for effective
action (Huber, 1991;Nonaka, 1994)
Knowledge is defined as understanding gained through experience or study (Schubert
et al, 1998)
A fluid mix of framed experience, contextual information, values and expert insight that
provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and
information (Davenport and Prusak, 1998)
Knowledge increases an individual capacity to take effective action (Alavi &
Leidner, 2001)
Knowledge management (KM) involves people, process, activities and
technology and the broader environment that enable the identification,
creation, communication or sharing, and use of organizational and individual
knowledge (Lehaney et al, 2004).
4. Background of Study
Internal
One of the approaches to support KM processes is storytelling.
Storytelling is seen as an effective way of transferring knowledge
(Denning, 2000;Swap, 2001)
Reason?
Most fundamental communication method (Widrich, 2012)
A study found that social topics accounted for 65 percent of speaking time
among people in public places, regardless of age or gender. (Hsu, 2008)
Stories represent a significant form of knowledge due to the design of the
human brain to automatically organize information into stories. (Reamy, 2002)
Narratives allow seekers to explore deeper into the experts thought processes
(Klien cited in Monroe, 2006).
5. Background of Study
Internal
Organizations that uses storytelling to share knowledge.
Xerox (Cox, 2007)
NASA (Post, 2002;Bailey, 2005)
3M (Shaw, 1998)
Shell (The Opal Team, 2001)
Kumba Resource (Tobin, 2006)
6. Problem Statement
Internal
Storytelling is a knowledge transfer tool but it has never become a
major focus (Reamy, 2002) and rarely explored (Haghirian &
Chini,2002)
Lack of understanding on the role of storytelling in KM.
Waste of time (Reamy, 2002)
Lack of a storytelling culture and the failure of the management to understand
the purpose of stories and its benefits to organization (Ioffreda & Gargiulo,
2008)
Unfamiliar with the concept of storytelling and its used in knowledge transfer
(Kalid & Mahmood, 2008)
There is a sparseness of empirical support for many assertions claimed
for narrative approaches in KM (Connell, 2007).
Internal
7. Problem Statement
12/5/2015Internal7
There is limited consideration has been given to ways in which
storytelling can increase knowledge users' understanding of the
creation and dissemination of knowledge in organizations (Connell,
2007)
Lack of framework to guide in the implementation of KM storytelling in
organization.
According to Herschel et al (2001), many chief knowledge officers (CKO) are
advised that using narrative is the best approach in converting expert’s tacit
knowledge to explicit knowledge but lack of advice was given on how to
construct such narrative.
There is a need to understand how stories work so that experts are able to
become better to write and communicate stories (Peters and Franz, 2012).
8. Research Objectives
Internal
To develop a KM storytelling
framework that guides organization in
implementing storytelling as part of its
KM initiatives.
1. To investigate existing KM storytelling
practices in an organization.
2. To examine the perception of
knowledge workers on the use of
storytelling as a KM tool.
3. To identify the issues that affects the
implementation of a KM storytelling
initiative in an organization.
4. To develop a process framework that
guides the construction of a knowledge
embedded story.
STUDY 1 STUDY 2
9. Research Question
Internal
1. To investigate existing
KM storytelling practices
in an organization.
2. To examine the
perception of knowledge
workers on the use of
storytelling as a KM tool.
3. To identify the issues that
affects the
implementation of a KM
storytelling initiative in an
organization.
4. To develop a process
framework that guides
the construction of a
knowledge embedded
story.
1.How storytelling is used as KM tool in an
organization?
2.How do knowledge workers perceive the
concept of storytelling in the context of KM?
3.How do knowledge workers perceive the use
of storytelling as a KM tool?
4.What the issues that affect the implementation
of a KM storytelling initiative in an
organization?
1.What are the phases and roles involved in
constructing a knowledge embedded story?
2.What are the components, structure, attributes,
concept of a knowledge embedded story?
STUDY
1
STUDY2
Research
Objective
11. Research Methodology
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The study adopts a qualitative research design.
The study adopts an interpretive research paradigm.
The basic principle of interpretive is that knowledge is gained through social
constructions such as language, consciousness and shared meanings (Klein &
Myers, 1999)
Understand phenomena through accessing the meanings people assign to that
phenomena (Orlikowski & Baroudi,, 1991).
The study adopts hermeneutics of the mode of analysis
Interpret and understand the meaning of the text rather than explains it (Myers,
1997)
12. Research Design
12/5/2015Internal12
Convenience (with
criteria) Sampling
Knowledge
Management
students
4 academic staff and
9 non-academic staff
Group
Interviews,
Documents
Interviews
Thematic
coding
STUDY 1
KM Storytelling
Practices
STUDY 2
KM Storytelling
Construction
Process
STUDY SAMPLING
METHOD
PARTICIPANTS DATA
COLLECTION
METHODS
DATA
ANALYSI
S
13. Study 1 - Unit of Analysis
12/5/2015Internal13
The sample group of Study 1 consists of 13 participants.
The participants were invited to participate through email.
The participants include
9 staff from the information technology department
4 academic staff from the information technology faculty.
Participants use knowledge in work.
The participants have an average of 10 years of experience in their
jobs.
Education level
All of the non-academic participants have at least a bachelors degree and all of
the academic participants have a Masters degree.
14. Study 1 - Data Collection
Internal
Semi structured interviews
Average 45-50 minutes face to face interview.
Participants were briefed about the study and also the concept of KM
storytelling.
The interviews covers:
job scope
perception on the use of storytelling in their line of work
stories in their department
views on a KM storytelling session in the department.
Interviews were video recorded and transcribed to Nvivo 8.
Memos were written during interview to record analysis, thoughts,
interpretations questions and directions for further data collection (Corbin &
Strauss, 1998)
15. Study 2 - Unit of Analysis
12/5/2015Internal15
The sample of Study 2 consists of 19 KM major students being group
into 4 groups.
The participants were invited to participate through email.
The participants understand and appreciate the concept of knowledge
management.
16. Study 2 - Data Collection
12/5/2015Internal16
Data were collected through a workshop.
A total of 5 groups with each group has between 4-5 participants.
The workshop was held in the university’s library discussion room.
Workshop overview
The groups are required to construct a story that demonstrates a knowledge
source. Each group took about 45-60 minutes to construct the stories
A total of 9 stories were constructed.
Groups were interviewed to discuss on their insights and the methods that they
use in constructing the story.
Groups were interviewed again to obtain insights on the story that has
been created.
Each group were interviewed for 20-30 minutes.
17. Study 2 - Data Collection
12/5/2015Internal17
Flow of the Story Construction Workshop
18. Data Analysis For Study 1 and Study 2
Internal
Qualitative Analysis in the Views of Miles and Huberman (1994)
21. Study 1
Internal
The content of a knowledge-embedded stories (KES) are job related. It
is realistic and experiential.
KES provides contextual information to the problem.
KES prompts interaction between members in a group thus facilitates the
knowledge transfer process.
KES are used as a source of lessons learned
KES has a purpose that is determined by the intention of the knowledge
owners.
KES is relevant to knowledge recipients through title of the story,
summary or tags.
22. Study 1
Internal
KES are shared in a setting that is informal and social.
KES are constructed in group settings because group settings
promotes interaction among group members. Thus, contributing in
building up of the story.
Issues in implementing storytelling as part of KM initiative is similar to
any studies on knowledge sharing or knowledge transfer.
Surroundings
Trust
Motivation
Time constraint
Perceived comfort
Relevancy
24. Knowledge Type – Story Construction
Episodic Declarative Procedural
Description Experiential Conceptual, know-what Process, stages, know-
how
Story
construction
Unit
Time Concept Phases
Story role Actual knowledge source complement Complement
Constructing
Difficulty
Easy Depends on complexity Depends on complexity
Embedded
Knowledge
Conflicts, lessons learned Contextual information Contextual information
Point of view 1st view 3rd view 3rd view
Structure Begin – conflict
Middle – events
End – solutions, actions taken
Begin – purpose
Middle – events
End – reflection
Begin – purpose
Middle – events
End – reflection
26. Limitations of Study
The knowledge stories constructed are written-based therefore the
process framework could be limited towards written knowledge story.
For Study 2, the participants of this study are students. Thus the story
is limited to educational organizations.
The type of knowledge that was 'storytized' in this study are limited to
experiential, declarative and procedural.
27. Contribution of Study
This study contributes in the understanding of the role storytelling in
knowledge transfer and the challenges that organization faces in
implementing KM storytelling initiative.
a response to the report by Iofredda and Gargiulo (2008) on the findings of a
2006 survey conducted by the International Association of Business
Communications (IABC) on storytelling in organization.
Study contributes to the conceptualization of knowledge embedded
story and KM storytelling.
Currently, existing literature does not provide insufficient explanation on the
concept of KM storytelling.
definition, components and characteristics of KM storytelling
28. Contribution of Study
Internal
This study contributes in the construction of a knowledge embedded
story.
component, structure, roles. and process to construct KES.
The process framework provides a more structural approach in
constructing the content of a KES.
The process framework can be used by organization or integrated into
storytelling applications such as digital storytelling, knowledge sharing
system etc).
Internal
29. Conclusion
Internal
Study 1
Participants acknowledged KM storytelling as an effective KM tool and it can be
used in the organization but there is a lack of proper platform in which such
stories can be exchanged.
There are issues such as surroundings, trust, motivation, time constraint,
perceived comfort, relevancy.
Study 2
identifies the characteristics of knowledge embedded story such as its
structure, content, attributes and knowledge elements that a story can
represent.
identify the process framework of constructing a knowledge embedded story.
This framework includes the phases and the roles responsible for each phase.
Study 2 also corroborates Study 1 particularly in identifying the
characteristics of the story and the type of knowledge that the story
represents.
30. Output (Papers Published)
Internal
1. Kalid, K. S. (2010). Transfer knowledge using stories: A malaysian university case study. In M. Al-Shammari (Ed.),
Knowledge management in emerging economies: Social, organizational and cultural implementation () IGI Global
snippet.
2. Kalid, K. S., & Mahmood, A. K. (2008). Government Employees Perception on the Usage of Storytelling Approach
to Share Knowledge in Organisation Environment. Proceedings of Knowledge Management International
Conference, Langkawi, Malaysia.
3. Kalid, K. S., & Mahmood, A. K. (2008). A proposed organization storytelling conceptual framework for the purpose
of transferring tacit knowledge. Information Technology, 2008. ITSim 2008. International Symposium on
Information Technology, Kuala Lumpur. , 3. pp. 1-8.
4. Kalid, K. S., & Mahmood, A. K. (2009). The use of storytelling in sharing tacit knowledge in government
organizations. Public Sector ICT Management Review, 3(1), 52-58.
5. Kalid, K. S., & Mahmood, A. K. (2010). Using stories to share knowledge: A Malaysian organization case study.
Journal of Knowledge Management Practice, 11(1)
6. Kalid, K. S., & Mahmood, A. K. (2011). The development of a knowledge management storytelling process
framework for the purpose of transferring knowledge. Research and Innovation in Information Systems (ICRIIS),
2011 International Conference on, pp. 1-5.
7. Kalid, K. S., & Mahmood, A. K. (2012). A Process Framework to Capture Tacit Knowledge Using Storytelling.
Knowledge Management International Conference (KMICe) 2012, Johor Bharu. pp. 328-334.
8. Kalid, K. S., & Mahmood, A. K. (2014). A Qualitative Assessment of a Knowledge Story Construction Process
Framework. Knowledge Management International Conference (KMICe) 2014, Langkawi.
Internal
31. References
Internal
Alavi, M., & Leidner, D. E. (2001). Review: Knowledge management and knowledge management systems: Conceptual foundations
and research issues. MIS Quarterly, 25(1), 107-136.
Huber, G. P. (1991). Organizational learning: The contributing processes and the literatures. Organization Science, 2(1), 88-115.
Nonaka, I. (1994). A dynamic theory of organizational knowledge creation. Organization Science, 5(1), 14-37
Davenport, T. H., & Prusak, L. (1998). Working knowledge: How organizations manage what they know Harvard Business School
Press.
Lehaney, B., Clark, S., Coakes, E., & Jack, G. (2004). Beyond knowledge management. Hershey, PA: Idea Group Publishing.
Denning, S. (2001). The springboard : How storytelling ignites action in knowledge-era organizations. Boston: Butterworth-
Heinemann.
Swap, W., Leonard, D., Shields, M., & Abrams, L. (2001). Using mentoring and storytelling to transfer knowledge in the workplace.
Journal of Management Information Systems, 18(1), 95-114.
Post, T. (2002). The impact of storytelling on NASA and EDUTECH. Knowledge Management Review, 5(1), 26-29.
Gabriel, Y. (2000). Storytelling in organizations: Facts, fictions, and fantasies. London: Oxford University Press.
Monroe, J. (2006). Expert: Knowledge lies in narrative. Retrieved May 30, 2009, from http://fcw.com/articles/2006/04/20/expert-
knowledge-lies-in-narrative.aspx?sc_lang=en
Bailey, T. (2005). The story of JPL stories. Retrieved September 12, 2009, from
http://askmagazine.nasa.gov/issues/11/special/index.html
Cox, A. (2007). Reproducing knowledge: Xerox and the story of knowledge management. Knowledge Management Research &
Practice, 5(1), 3-12.
Shaw, G., Brown, R., & Bromiley, P. (1998, May/June). Strategic stories: How 3M is rewriting business planning. Harvard Business
Review, , 41-50.
Tietze, S., Cohen. L.and Musson, G.,(2003), Understanding Organizations Through Language, Sage Ppublications, London
32. References
Internal
The OPAL Team, (2001), “Stories from the Edge: Managing Knowledge through New Ways of Working within Shell's Exploration and Production Business”,
Availabe at: http://www.providersedge.com/docs/km_articles/Managing_K_Thru_Ways_of_Working_Within_Shell.pdf (accessed 17 July 2009)
Tobin, P. (2008), “Once upon a time in Africa: a case study of storytelling for knowledge sharing”,Aslib Proceedings: New Information Perspectives Vol. 60
No. 2, pp. 130-142
Reamy, T. (2002), “Imparting knowledge through storytelling”. KM World, Vol. 11 No.7 available at:
http://www.providersedge.com/docs/km_articles/Imparting_Knowledge_Through_Storytelling.pdf (accessed 20 July 2009)
Haghirian, P. and Chini, T. C. (2002). Storytelling: Transferring tacit corporate knowledge in different cultures. Proceedings of EURAM (European Academy
Management) Conference, Stockholm, Sweden.
Connell, N. (2007) Organisational storytelling as a knowledge management medium. In, Jennex, Murray E. (ed.) Knowledge Management: Concepts,
Methodologies, Tools and Applications (6 volumes). Hershey, USA, Information Science Reference, 171-178.
Ioffreda, A., & Gargiulo, T. (2008). who's telling stories? An IABC survey shows that communicators are using storytelling in their work, but obstacles remain.
COMMUNICATION WORLD-SAN FRANCISCO-, 25(1), 37.
Kalid, K. S., & Mahmood, A. K. (2008). Government employees perception on the usage of storytelling approach to share knowledge in organisation
environment. Proceedings of Knowledge Management International Conference, Langkawi, Malaysia.
Herschel, R. T., Nemati, H., & Steiger, D. (2001). Tacit to explicit knowledge conversion: knowledge exchange protocols. Journal of knowledge management,
5(1), 107-116.
Peters, S., & Franz, N. K. (2012). Stories and storytelling in Extension work. Journal of Extension, 50(4), 4FEA1.
Klein, H. K., & Myers, M. D. (1999). A set of principles for conducting and evaluating interpretive field studies in information systems. MIS Quarterly, 23(1),
67-93
Orlikowski, W. J., & Baroudi, J. J. (1991). Studying information technology in organizations: Research approaches and assumptions. Information Systems
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Hinweis der Redaktion
For over 27,000 years, since the first cave paintings were discovered, telling stories has been one of our most fundamental communication methods.
This objective includes identifying the roles and phases involved in constructing a knowledge embedded story.
Refer to Research Methodology Slides in Google Drive
And http://www.slideshare.net/DrNaomiMangatu/dissertation-oral-defense-presentation?related=1
Despite being convenience, the participants should acknowledge the importance of knowledge in his/her workplace and appreciate the role of KM in the organization.
Experiential Knowledge
Convey conflict, failures, lessons learned and contextual information
Enhance awareness and change mental model
Easier to construct
Procedural Knowledge
Provides contextual information to the phases
Constructing the story can be challenging
Declarative Knowledge
Simplify complex concepts
Constructing the story is quite challenging. Requires understanding on the subject.
This study contributes to the conceptualization of KM storytelling. Previous studies have not properly defined KM storytelling and knowledge embedded story.
The concept of KM storytelling
Definition
KM storytelling is the use of stories for the purpose of facilitating KM processes. The knowledge, in any form and type, is encapsulated (or wrapped) into a narrative form.
The content of a knowledge-embedded story revolves around jobwhich is based on experience (or occurrence) .
A knowledge embedded story is constructed from a source (of any type or any form)
Characteristics
Social interaction
Group settings
Have to relate contribution with problem statement.
This study contributes to the understanding of KM storytelling in organization settings.
}The concept of KM storytelling
}Definition
}KM storytelling is the use of stories for the purpose of facilitating KM processes. The knowledge, in any form and type, is encapsulated (or wrapped) into a narrative form.
}The content of a knowledge-embedded story is about work related practices which is based on experience (or occurrence) .
}A knowledge embedded story is constructed from a source (of any type or any form)
}Characteristics
}Social interaction
}Group settings
Journal non indexed = 2
Book chapter = 1
Conference = 5