Design of 'Ba' for successful knowledge management: how enterprises should design the places of interaction to gain competitive advantage

  • Authors:

  • Takahiko Nomura

  • Affiliations:

  • Knowledge Dynamics Initiative, Fuji Xerox Co. Ltd, 2-17-22 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 107-0052, Japan

  • Venue:
  • Journal of Network and Computer Applications
  • Year:
  • 2002

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Abstract

This paper represents the framework, based on the study results of practical benchmarking and assessment of Knowledge Management, for designing 'Ba' where creative interaction generates. In organization, we can find various Ba, such as cyber space for Community of Practice to gather and open physical space for collaboration beyond divisions. Ba develops circulation of knowledge and which is the key to the improvement of competitive advantage of organization. When benchmarking was conducted to KM leading companies, we have found that the method of utilizing Ba was very logically adapted to the business strategy, which supported corporate culture for knowledge sharing. On the other hand, after assessing the workstyle of knowledge workers in detail, we have uncovered that although the style of knowledge work is different, the design of Ba for each department in a company is standardized and does not apply to the current situation. This is because, a guide for strategic design of Ba does not exist, even though the importance of Ba for interactions that go beyond organization is increasing, which is necessary for business that creates value added. In this paper, we propose a new framework for the design of Ba that applies to both knowledge strategy and the workstyle of each knowledge worker.