Journal of Scientific amp Industrial Research Vol 59 August-September 2000 pp 683-688

Knowledge Management A Learning Perspective At NIIT

Krishna K Bhardwaj Strategic Initiatives in Development of Education (STRIDE) Centre for Research on Cognitive Systems(CRCS)

Indian Institute of Technology Campus New Delhi 110016 India

The present paper discusses the importance of knowledge management and views it from the earning perspective of a knowledg~ corporatIon The process of knowledge acquisition information distribution and information interpretation in the context of knowledge creatIon has been discussed Further the paper discusses the importance of learning infrastructure and the In-house organlzatJon learning structures that are critical for knowledge creation and knowledge sharing in the context of a knowledge intensIve organizatIOn The paper also discusses various attempts to build forums for the collaborative encodin a

sharing and creation of ~nowledge which requires multidisciplinary expertise and mutual learning in order to achieve a compl~ ~ynthesls o~ kn~wledge intensIve business envIronment It also discusses cultural issues of knowledge sharing among members In an orgamzatl~n to ~romote orgamzatlOnal achIevements rather than individual achievements Nonetheless the paper leans towards tacIt or Impilclt knowledge In an organization that is not amenable to codification and retrieval processes rather than

explicit knowledge which can be codified stored and retrieved with the help of IT tools

Knowledge Management Hype

Knowledge Management (KM) suddenly is the new kid on the block Everyone is talking about it There are over a dozen conferences on the subject there are several books and journals on the topic Strangely one of the archaic meanings of the word knowledge is copushylation We shall take the word knowledge to mean the range of what has been perceived discovered or inferred Its synonyms include learning information and wisdom The traditional view of knowledge management focuses on information whereas the knowledge ecology adds the context synergy and trust necessary for translating such information into actionable knowledge I In a simshyplistic sense KM is the process of identifying capturshying and leveraging knowledge Hence the central foshycus of KM is leveraging human capital Nonaka and Tekeuchi2 have emphasized that only human beings can take the central role in knowledge creation they are of the view that computers however great their informashytion-processing capabilities are mere tools In a similar view Sveiby and Lioyd3 have observed that the confushysion between knowledge and information has caused organizations to invest billions of dollars in technology ventures that have yielded marginal results They are of the opinion that unlike information knowledge is emshybedded in people and knowledge creation occurs in the process of social interaction

Reasons for KM gaining prominence

One of the reasons knowledge management is beshycoming very important is that there is an increasin o real-Igt

ization about the importance of knowledge in the global economy A decade ago Drucker4 called attention to the primacy of knowledge assets in the future success of companies With the easy access to technology and inshyformation worldwide organizations are finding it diffishycult to compete in the global market without much difshyferentiation from competing products Knowledge may be very handy in creating the difference Further with the use of information technology knowledge manageshyment is more feasible than everbefore However there is a very real danger of the IT dimension of knowledge management gaining prominence at the expense of the others Weick5 warns us that as they do more pDP orgashynizations will progressively bump up against the limits of human-processing capacity The key to overcoming these limits is meaning it increases processing capacity And meanings that free up capacity usually originate outside the data processing system in the form of differshyent assumptions and contexts Information itself is the meaning we assign to data in a specific context Inforshymation cannot be interpreted without its context There are two kinds of knowledge declarative knowledge and procedural knowledge The latter is sometimes also called contextual knowledge

684 J SCI INO RES VOL 59 AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2000

Organizations can no longer be assured of success in the future based on what they know today Therefore processes for creating knowledge are extremely imporshytant Rose and Nicho1l6 talk about fast learning and clear thinking as the key 21 s l century skills for individuals At the risk of anthropomorphism they suggest that for orshyganizations too these skills will be the key for survival Marshall et al 7 squarely blame the spectacular downfall of Barings one of the oldest banks of UK to its failure to recognize and resolve the insufficiency of the knowlshyedge base in a critical area of its operations The aushythors go on to say that in financial services risk manshyagement is knowledge management Is it any surprise then that Knowledge Management is already a multishybillion dollar industry They go on to propose a frameshywork for knowledge management that integrates the firms culture the skills of its employees and their dayshytoday actions into an effective risk management compeshytence

One of the most important issues in KM is the issue of implicit versus explicit knowledge Over the last few decades the exponential increase in the explicit codified knowledge has been accompanied by an increased hushyman propensity to deal in symbols numbersand figures Things have reached a stage where instead of land and natural resources we have come to view knowledge as key to human growth and survival A knowledge revoshylution is on However as it becomes a red-hot fad there are going to be practical problems that everybody will face in implementing KM in the workplace

KM and Instructional Design

KM is concerned with the best use of an organizations collective knowledge in order to fulfill its mission or gain a competitive edge Knowledge is the most imporshytant asset of an organization The process of organizashytional learning is linked to knowledge acquisition inshyformation distribution information interpretation and organizational memoryN Educationin general and inshystruction in particular are devoted to the inculcation of knowledge in individuals and instructional design is the method that fashions instructional materials for use in learning and instructional systems Organizations learn through individuals acting as agents and are facilitated or inhibited by an ecological system of factors that may be called an organizational learning system~

Knowledge and learning are inextricably linked and can be confused Knowledge is a resource whereas

learning is an ongoing activity 10 Learning infrastructure ought to be in place if people are to access interpret and apply knowledge effectively to business challenges For the organization to benefit learning must be pertishynent to the mission of the organization and be shared and developed into learning systems that enable the orshyganization to act in a smarter fashion as a pay-off from its investment in learning

The corporate virtual university (CVU) is an instrucshytional system that caters to all these aspects of an orgashynizational learning system It is for this reason the CVU is attracting much attention for its ability to use technolshyogy to reach out to members located at distant geograshyphies to engage them in knowledge-related activities and facilitate their development and growth Organizashytions need to create in-house organization learning strucshytures that build on and share this knowledge and transshyform them into learning organizations Creation of a CVU includes a concerted effort to develop programs that recognize and accredit this learning provide access to the generic base of published literature together with the experience and opinions of those outside the organishyzation

KM at NUT

KM at NIIT has been driven by the attempts to come to grips with shortening cycle for meeting customer reshyquests growth of the Internet relative inability of large monolithic factory systems to transform into sense-andshyrespond systems to meet challenges of accelerating change and the emergence of small effective players who took on the challenge of providing services that customshyers want in double quick time About one-fifth ofNIITs business comes from creation of learning materials where modularity has recently become all-important because time to market can be reduced through modularity The trend was shifting from building CD-ROM titles to buildshying Learning Objects on the web There also seemed to be a trend away from building for a specific platform like Windows 31 to building for a cross-platform audishyence because of uncertainties about which platform wi II dominate NIITs Learning Technologies Business struggled to transform its static structure assumptions

and paradigms to dynamic ones successfully

NUTs Culture

KM includes an organization s shared beliefs its vishysion of the future expectations created in shareholders

BHARDWAJ LEARNING PERSPECTIVE AT NIIT 685

etc The organizational culture is therefore a part of the scope of KM It is important also to realize that knowlshyedge is distributed across the organization in almost anyshything that you can think of the structure the stories the old timers etc As far as NUTs experience is concemed the organizational culture provides a fair amount of tacit knowledge that emphasizes the spirit of doing new things pioneering technology and the importance of making mistakes in the interests of leaming These are imporshytant because they are a vital input into an individuals actions besides the knowledge constructed by an indishyvidual from organizational knowledge

Walsh and Ungson l2 define organizational memory as interpretations of the past decisions problems solved and their consequences embedded into groups and orgashynizational artifacts like systems They make two imporshytant points in this regard First only individuals have the cognitive capability to fully understand the why of a decision in the context of an organizations history even though it decays and distorts as it goes from one person to another as a part of the organizationS culture Secshyondly they emphasize supra-individual collectivity conshysistent with Durkheims proposition (1938) that sharing in groups helps them retain knowledge in a way that goes far beyond the cognitive capability of a single individual Organizational artifacts like structures transformations and ecology inhabit an organizationS response to a deshycision stimulus A lot of it is the tacit or implicit knowlshyedge

Walsh and Ungson l2 also talk about misuse of organishyzational memory when automatic or controlled retrieval of information is applied to shape a routine or non-roushytine response inappropriately They also go on to proshypose that the self-serving manipulation of organizational memorys acquisition retention and retrieval processes by an organizations members will enable their autocratic entrenchment and thus compromise the organization S sustained viability And such process comprises sharshying and collaborating through interactions of individushyals

There are cultural issues of sharing of information because most organizations promote individual achieveshyment There are no incentives for sharing of informashytion Therefore information hoarding occurs and there is reluctance to share the so-called secrets Not only is the world becoming too complex for the single individual to deal with it all by himself there are also issues of organization being ieft in the lurch when this person re-

signs Trust in these cases is a very important paradigm Systems need to be devised for ensuring that informashytion sharing is rewarded and does not go unrecognized Ability to share information freely should be considered an important leadership trait and would normally indishycate long-term vision and securityof the individual

Tools for facilitation of knowledge creation abound Discussion forums facilitate collaborative generation of knowledge Such collaborative ongoing mutual learnshying by the team is required because of the complexities involved in learning material creation and innovation that characterize knowledge intensive firms are unsolvable by anyone person and require insights from various pershyspectives It requires a process of mutual perspective taking where distinctive individual knowledge is exshychanged evaluated and integrated with that of others in the organization 13

Similarly group-ware helps both collaboration and access of knowledge In a paper on Knowledge Intenshysive Firms Starbuc l4 talks about it being difficult to disshytinguish between creating and applying knowledge We would like to discuss the creation of an organization called Stride where the author works as an exemplifishycation of this concept NUT is not merely a knowledge intensive firm Half of its business has to do with applyshying its knowledge of the software industry to its clients problems (software solutions business) and the remainshying half has to do with sharing its knowledge of softshyware with individuals and corporations to equip them with the ability to solve their problems The organizashytional model deals with learning as a part of ongoing projects for customers followed up by application and addition of value A recent cover story on NIIT in a leading business magazine of India covered NIIT as a knowledge corporation

Evolution of NUT as a Knowledge Corporation

NUT was founded as a company in 1981 The founders envisioned the absence of software expertise as a key impediment to the growth of the computer inshydustry in India of which they were a part Having deshycided to launch the courses for individuals using mateshyrial bought from an international training firm they quickly felt the need to adapt it to Indian conditions This was the companys first brush with the field of in-

686 J SCI IND RES VOL 59 AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2000

structional design They held the first International Comshyputer Based Training conference jointly with lIT Delhi in 1983 recognizing the need for acquiring this expershytise Gradually their students began to get jobs in the corporate sector and many companies began to approach NIIT for training their employees This led to acquisishytion and application of knowledge on corporate trainshying As the corporate sector came within the ambit of NlITs customers and the need for outsourcing software development arose they asked NlIT if it could handle that In the process NIIT learned about issues of softshyware quality software process management software project management and a myriad other issues related to contract software development With the diversificashytion of the customer base this ultimately led to the comshypany becoming one of the largest software exporters of India with SEI Level 5 rating

The training half of the company followed a similar path where customers began to demand customization of existing IT courses and in some cases new developshyment of training courses based on their own subject matshyter expertise This led to the need for consolidating and refining of the instructional design skills and since India did not have expertise in this area part of the knowlshyedge acquisition need for this was fulfilled by getting a Professor (Late Glenn Knudsvig) of The University of Michigan to run training programs

A formal instructional design methodology was creshyated and NIIT became one of the first companies to get ISO 9001 certification for the processes for design and development of multimedia learning materials In time clients across the world demanded material in non-Inshystructor Led formats and NIIT created its own authoring engines to build learning materials in Interactive Video Disk based CD-ROM based and Web based formats on DOS and Windows platforms

In the processNlIT became one of the largest sites for development of learning materials worldwide) and developed hundreds of multimedia titles under its own brand and for other American brands At this stage the Learning Solutions Business was structured as a set of factories doing large-scale production of learning mateshyrials The growing base of knowledge regarding the clients needs standards requirements checklists methshyodology etc began to be embedded through training programs procedures and project plans Also there was an attempt to build forums for collaborative encoding

sharing and creation of knowledge Many tools and utilities were built to reflect the growing knowledge about the work being done for the client Similarly there was a factory that was building the materials under NlITs own brand of CD-ROM titles and it had its own methodshyology deadlines processes checklists tools training etc Another group built the classroom training for NIIT to sell worldwide At one stage NIIT realized that there was no cross-pollination of knowledge between the difshyferent groups Especiallysince NlITs business was knowledge creation and sharing redundancies in this process harmed productivity and prevented marketing of products across media NIIT did path-breaking work in the area of single-parsing instructional design for buildshying learning materials across media Fordoing this NUT consulted with some leading figures in instructional deshysign again from an American University A paper in an academic journal on this effort was awarded the best paper of the year in its International Section6

NUT created a special RampD group called STRIDE to bridge the gap between work being done in research laboshyratories across the world in the area of learning and the learning experience being provided in the market place by the leading vendors NIIT being one of them This group was given a charter named fifty-fifty rule and had the unenviable job of improving learning effectiveness by a factor of two while improving the productivity of development and delivery by a factor of two This group evolved a new learning architecture called MCLA (Model Centered Learning Architecture) to improve learning effectiveness of NlITs materials and created ELMS a new enterprise learning management system They also built tools for creations and deployment of multimedia learning materials

STRIDE was responsible for creating new knowledge in the area of learning thereby piloting and provi ng imshyprovements in development of learning materials NIIT created an interdisciplinary core team of about 25 people comprising programmers project managers instructional designers and graphic designers etc Upon completion of a prototype or demonstration a project team from other parts of the organization would be assembled for trying the new method or environment or software out in a real project

Once that was concluded a full-fledged methodolshyogy environment or software would be built and run through beta programs before full-scale deployment in

BHARDWAJ LEARNING PERSPECTIVE AT NIIT 687

the factories This modus operandi ensures smooth transshyfer of knowledge across large-scale assembly lines Structurally this seems to be in sync with what Nonaka and Takeuchi2 call a HyperText organization except that these project teams are housed in the ambit of a specific permanent organizational entity called STRIDE

KM in Courseware Development

In knowledge intensive firms like NUT competitive advantage and product success are a result of collaborashytive ongoing learning Success depends not only on how effectively the diverse individuals are able to organize and develop their unique knowledge competences but also how they can integrate and utilize their distinctive knowledge both effectively and synergistically 17IX

The NUT method of KM for courseware development consists of identification of SMEs (Subject Matter Exshyperts) Two kinds of SMEs are identified one kind is a practitioner and the other kind is a content SME Exshyamples of a practitioner kind of SME would be a Web Designer or System Administrator Content SME could be someone who is reviewing the web application deshyvelopment environments including that identified as subshyject matter eg Visual Studio From the SMEs we gather the knowledge about roles that are played in the business entity in the specific domains These roles conshysist of a set of tasks to be done These tasks are aggreshygated into task domains from which specific work modshyelsare developed In each work model a set of business problems is identified For each set of homogeneous business problems we identify foundational knowledge that helps prepare the ground for problem solving to begin This is what helps create a context for appreciatshying the problem being solved Then there is a decision stimulus or trigger that arrives in the form of e-mail or a phone call or whatever SMEs reveal the planning steps and any related in-step knowledge that goes into prepashyration for solving the problem They reveal the inforshymation that needs to be gathered and from what sources while planning the solution to the problem Similar steps happen when the implementation of the solution and verishyfication come up for capture Text graphics notes reshyview comments can all be captured at any of these stages What is important to realize at this stage is that once all the nodes are filled up completely or even before that is done you can take out manifestations of the stored knowledge as printed material as presentation slides as web based output CD-ROM based output etc This fashycilitates access of the material anywhere anytime

The world of instructional design is moving towards learning objects This brings it closer to the world of KM as it gets away from the paradigm of courses that instructional development has focused on so far Stanshydards like IMS have begun to take root and will soon affect development storage retrieval and access of knowledge (see their website at wwwimsprojectcom for details) A crucial component ofIMS is specification of metadata that enables knowledge from mUltiple vendors or sources to be combined In our view there are times when the metadata for a piece of knowledge may be more important than the knowledge itself simply because it is the metadata that facilitates appropriate use of the knowledge

Another interesting issue arises as the knowledge base is developed Often experts find that the process of demshyonstrating and articulating their expertisein fact makes their invisible expertise visible sometimes even to themshyselves So the methodology is one way of making the tacit knowledge explicit Michael Polanyi talks of the crucial importance of this tacit knowledge and any knowlshyedge management system that focuses on only the exshyplicit part of knowledge is missing the bus almost enshytirely as far as value to an organization is concerned

Frequently NUT demonstrates the methodology and the tools for capturing the knowledge to clients to demshyonstrate expertise in this area There are complex issues of monopolies here since there are frequent demands from clients for buying the methodology and the tool s There is some measure of arm-twisting too that happens middot when a customer asks for these as a package deal along with the services for design and development of the learnshying materials NUT has to consider doing this and even sharing the intellectual property even though this might neutralize their competitive edge sometimes

Conclusion The features of NIIT outlined above in our opinion

seem to characterize much of what goes on in a learning organization A critical feature of knowledge work is that it requires multidisciplinary expertise and mutual learning in order to achieve a complex synthesis of highly specialized state-of-the-art technologies and knowledge domains 17

bull Unlike explicit knowledge- which can be codified stored and retrieved with the help of an IT tool - tacit or implicit knowledge is distributed in an organization and is not amenable to codification and reshytrieval processes However it can be shared and people

684 J SCI INO RES VOL 59 AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2000

Organizations can no longer be assured of success in the future based on what they know today Therefore processes for creating knowledge are extremely imporshytant Rose and Nicho1l6 talk about fast learning and clear thinking as the key 21 s l century skills for individuals At the risk of anthropomorphism they suggest that for orshyganizations too these skills will be the key for survival Marshall et al 7 squarely blame the spectacular downfall of Barings one of the oldest banks of UK to its failure to recognize and resolve the insufficiency of the knowlshyedge base in a critical area of its operations The aushythors go on to say that in financial services risk manshyagement is knowledge management Is it any surprise then that Knowledge Management is already a multishybillion dollar industry They go on to propose a frameshywork for knowledge management that integrates the firms culture the skills of its employees and their dayshytoday actions into an effective risk management compeshytence

One of the most important issues in KM is the issue of implicit versus explicit knowledge Over the last few decades the exponential increase in the explicit codified knowledge has been accompanied by an increased hushyman propensity to deal in symbols numbersand figures Things have reached a stage where instead of land and natural resources we have come to view knowledge as key to human growth and survival A knowledge revoshylution is on However as it becomes a red-hot fad there are going to be practical problems that everybody will face in implementing KM in the workplace

KM and Instructional Design

KM is concerned with the best use of an organizations collective knowledge in order to fulfill its mission or gain a competitive edge Knowledge is the most imporshytant asset of an organization The process of organizashytional learning is linked to knowledge acquisition inshyformation distribution information interpretation and organizational memoryN Educationin general and inshystruction in particular are devoted to the inculcation of knowledge in individuals and instructional design is the method that fashions instructional materials for use in learning and instructional systems Organizations learn through individuals acting as agents and are facilitated or inhibited by an ecological system of factors that may be called an organizational learning system~

Knowledge and learning are inextricably linked and can be confused Knowledge is a resource whereas

learning is an ongoing activity 10 Learning infrastructure ought to be in place if people are to access interpret and apply knowledge effectively to business challenges For the organization to benefit learning must be pertishynent to the mission of the organization and be shared and developed into learning systems that enable the orshyganization to act in a smarter fashion as a pay-off from its investment in learning

The corporate virtual university (CVU) is an instrucshytional system that caters to all these aspects of an orgashynizational learning system It is for this reason the CVU is attracting much attention for its ability to use technolshyogy to reach out to members located at distant geograshyphies to engage them in knowledge-related activities and facilitate their development and growth Organizashytions need to create in-house organization learning strucshytures that build on and share this knowledge and transshyform them into learning organizations Creation of a CVU includes a concerted effort to develop programs that recognize and accredit this learning provide access to the generic base of published literature together with the experience and opinions of those outside the organishyzation

KM at NUT

KM at NIIT has been driven by the attempts to come to grips with shortening cycle for meeting customer reshyquests growth of the Internet relative inability of large monolithic factory systems to transform into sense-andshyrespond systems to meet challenges of accelerating change and the emergence of small effective players who took on the challenge of providing services that customshyers want in double quick time About one-fifth ofNIITs business comes from creation of learning materials where modularity has recently become all-important because time to market can be reduced through modularity The trend was shifting from building CD-ROM titles to buildshying Learning Objects on the web There also seemed to be a trend away from building for a specific platform like Windows 31 to building for a cross-platform audishyence because of uncertainties about which platform wi II dominate NIITs Learning Technologies Business struggled to transform its static structure assumptions

and paradigms to dynamic ones successfully

NUTs Culture

KM includes an organization s shared beliefs its vishysion of the future expectations created in shareholders

BHARDWAJ LEARNING PERSPECTIVE AT NIIT 685

etc The organizational culture is therefore a part of the scope of KM It is important also to realize that knowlshyedge is distributed across the organization in almost anyshything that you can think of the structure the stories the old timers etc As far as NUTs experience is concemed the organizational culture provides a fair amount of tacit knowledge that emphasizes the spirit of doing new things pioneering technology and the importance of making mistakes in the interests of leaming These are imporshytant because they are a vital input into an individuals actions besides the knowledge constructed by an indishyvidual from organizational knowledge

Walsh and Ungson l2 define organizational memory as interpretations of the past decisions problems solved and their consequences embedded into groups and orgashynizational artifacts like systems They make two imporshytant points in this regard First only individuals have the cognitive capability to fully understand the why of a decision in the context of an organizations history even though it decays and distorts as it goes from one person to another as a part of the organizationS culture Secshyondly they emphasize supra-individual collectivity conshysistent with Durkheims proposition (1938) that sharing in groups helps them retain knowledge in a way that goes far beyond the cognitive capability of a single individual Organizational artifacts like structures transformations and ecology inhabit an organizationS response to a deshycision stimulus A lot of it is the tacit or implicit knowlshyedge

Walsh and Ungson l2 also talk about misuse of organishyzational memory when automatic or controlled retrieval of information is applied to shape a routine or non-roushytine response inappropriately They also go on to proshypose that the self-serving manipulation of organizational memorys acquisition retention and retrieval processes by an organizations members will enable their autocratic entrenchment and thus compromise the organization S sustained viability And such process comprises sharshying and collaborating through interactions of individushyals

There are cultural issues of sharing of information because most organizations promote individual achieveshyment There are no incentives for sharing of informashytion Therefore information hoarding occurs and there is reluctance to share the so-called secrets Not only is the world becoming too complex for the single individual to deal with it all by himself there are also issues of organization being ieft in the lurch when this person re-

signs Trust in these cases is a very important paradigm Systems need to be devised for ensuring that informashytion sharing is rewarded and does not go unrecognized Ability to share information freely should be considered an important leadership trait and would normally indishycate long-term vision and securityof the individual

Tools for facilitation of knowledge creation abound Discussion forums facilitate collaborative generation of knowledge Such collaborative ongoing mutual learnshying by the team is required because of the complexities involved in learning material creation and innovation that characterize knowledge intensive firms are unsolvable by anyone person and require insights from various pershyspectives It requires a process of mutual perspective taking where distinctive individual knowledge is exshychanged evaluated and integrated with that of others in the organization 13

Similarly group-ware helps both collaboration and access of knowledge In a paper on Knowledge Intenshysive Firms Starbuc l4 talks about it being difficult to disshytinguish between creating and applying knowledge We would like to discuss the creation of an organization called Stride where the author works as an exemplifishycation of this concept NUT is not merely a knowledge intensive firm Half of its business has to do with applyshying its knowledge of the software industry to its clients problems (software solutions business) and the remainshying half has to do with sharing its knowledge of softshyware with individuals and corporations to equip them with the ability to solve their problems The organizashytional model deals with learning as a part of ongoing projects for customers followed up by application and addition of value A recent cover story on NIIT in a leading business magazine of India covered NIIT as a knowledge corporation

Evolution of NUT as a Knowledge Corporation

NUT was founded as a company in 1981 The founders envisioned the absence of software expertise as a key impediment to the growth of the computer inshydustry in India of which they were a part Having deshycided to launch the courses for individuals using mateshyrial bought from an international training firm they quickly felt the need to adapt it to Indian conditions This was the companys first brush with the field of in-

686 J SCI IND RES VOL 59 AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2000

structional design They held the first International Comshyputer Based Training conference jointly with lIT Delhi in 1983 recognizing the need for acquiring this expershytise Gradually their students began to get jobs in the corporate sector and many companies began to approach NIIT for training their employees This led to acquisishytion and application of knowledge on corporate trainshying As the corporate sector came within the ambit of NlITs customers and the need for outsourcing software development arose they asked NlIT if it could handle that In the process NIIT learned about issues of softshyware quality software process management software project management and a myriad other issues related to contract software development With the diversificashytion of the customer base this ultimately led to the comshypany becoming one of the largest software exporters of India with SEI Level 5 rating

The training half of the company followed a similar path where customers began to demand customization of existing IT courses and in some cases new developshyment of training courses based on their own subject matshyter expertise This led to the need for consolidating and refining of the instructional design skills and since India did not have expertise in this area part of the knowlshyedge acquisition need for this was fulfilled by getting a Professor (Late Glenn Knudsvig) of The University of Michigan to run training programs

A formal instructional design methodology was creshyated and NIIT became one of the first companies to get ISO 9001 certification for the processes for design and development of multimedia learning materials In time clients across the world demanded material in non-Inshystructor Led formats and NIIT created its own authoring engines to build learning materials in Interactive Video Disk based CD-ROM based and Web based formats on DOS and Windows platforms

In the processNlIT became one of the largest sites for development of learning materials worldwide) and developed hundreds of multimedia titles under its own brand and for other American brands At this stage the Learning Solutions Business was structured as a set of factories doing large-scale production of learning mateshyrials The growing base of knowledge regarding the clients needs standards requirements checklists methshyodology etc began to be embedded through training programs procedures and project plans Also there was an attempt to build forums for collaborative encoding

sharing and creation of knowledge Many tools and utilities were built to reflect the growing knowledge about the work being done for the client Similarly there was a factory that was building the materials under NlITs own brand of CD-ROM titles and it had its own methodshyology deadlines processes checklists tools training etc Another group built the classroom training for NIIT to sell worldwide At one stage NIIT realized that there was no cross-pollination of knowledge between the difshyferent groups Especiallysince NlITs business was knowledge creation and sharing redundancies in this process harmed productivity and prevented marketing of products across media NIIT did path-breaking work in the area of single-parsing instructional design for buildshying learning materials across media Fordoing this NUT consulted with some leading figures in instructional deshysign again from an American University A paper in an academic journal on this effort was awarded the best paper of the year in its International Section6

NUT created a special RampD group called STRIDE to bridge the gap between work being done in research laboshyratories across the world in the area of learning and the learning experience being provided in the market place by the leading vendors NIIT being one of them This group was given a charter named fifty-fifty rule and had the unenviable job of improving learning effectiveness by a factor of two while improving the productivity of development and delivery by a factor of two This group evolved a new learning architecture called MCLA (Model Centered Learning Architecture) to improve learning effectiveness of NlITs materials and created ELMS a new enterprise learning management system They also built tools for creations and deployment of multimedia learning materials

STRIDE was responsible for creating new knowledge in the area of learning thereby piloting and provi ng imshyprovements in development of learning materials NIIT created an interdisciplinary core team of about 25 people comprising programmers project managers instructional designers and graphic designers etc Upon completion of a prototype or demonstration a project team from other parts of the organization would be assembled for trying the new method or environment or software out in a real project

Once that was concluded a full-fledged methodolshyogy environment or software would be built and run through beta programs before full-scale deployment in

BHARDWAJ LEARNING PERSPECTIVE AT NIIT 687

the factories This modus operandi ensures smooth transshyfer of knowledge across large-scale assembly lines Structurally this seems to be in sync with what Nonaka and Takeuchi2 call a HyperText organization except that these project teams are housed in the ambit of a specific permanent organizational entity called STRIDE

KM in Courseware Development

In knowledge intensive firms like NUT competitive advantage and product success are a result of collaborashytive ongoing learning Success depends not only on how effectively the diverse individuals are able to organize and develop their unique knowledge competences but also how they can integrate and utilize their distinctive knowledge both effectively and synergistically 17IX

The NUT method of KM for courseware development consists of identification of SMEs (Subject Matter Exshyperts) Two kinds of SMEs are identified one kind is a practitioner and the other kind is a content SME Exshyamples of a practitioner kind of SME would be a Web Designer or System Administrator Content SME could be someone who is reviewing the web application deshyvelopment environments including that identified as subshyject matter eg Visual Studio From the SMEs we gather the knowledge about roles that are played in the business entity in the specific domains These roles conshysist of a set of tasks to be done These tasks are aggreshygated into task domains from which specific work modshyelsare developed In each work model a set of business problems is identified For each set of homogeneous business problems we identify foundational knowledge that helps prepare the ground for problem solving to begin This is what helps create a context for appreciatshying the problem being solved Then there is a decision stimulus or trigger that arrives in the form of e-mail or a phone call or whatever SMEs reveal the planning steps and any related in-step knowledge that goes into prepashyration for solving the problem They reveal the inforshymation that needs to be gathered and from what sources while planning the solution to the problem Similar steps happen when the implementation of the solution and verishyfication come up for capture Text graphics notes reshyview comments can all be captured at any of these stages What is important to realize at this stage is that once all the nodes are filled up completely or even before that is done you can take out manifestations of the stored knowledge as printed material as presentation slides as web based output CD-ROM based output etc This fashycilitates access of the material anywhere anytime

The world of instructional design is moving towards learning objects This brings it closer to the world of KM as it gets away from the paradigm of courses that instructional development has focused on so far Stanshydards like IMS have begun to take root and will soon affect development storage retrieval and access of knowledge (see their website at wwwimsprojectcom for details) A crucial component ofIMS is specification of metadata that enables knowledge from mUltiple vendors or sources to be combined In our view there are times when the metadata for a piece of knowledge may be more important than the knowledge itself simply because it is the metadata that facilitates appropriate use of the knowledge

Another interesting issue arises as the knowledge base is developed Often experts find that the process of demshyonstrating and articulating their expertisein fact makes their invisible expertise visible sometimes even to themshyselves So the methodology is one way of making the tacit knowledge explicit Michael Polanyi talks of the crucial importance of this tacit knowledge and any knowlshyedge management system that focuses on only the exshyplicit part of knowledge is missing the bus almost enshytirely as far as value to an organization is concerned

Frequently NUT demonstrates the methodology and the tools for capturing the knowledge to clients to demshyonstrate expertise in this area There are complex issues of monopolies here since there are frequent demands from clients for buying the methodology and the tool s There is some measure of arm-twisting too that happens middot when a customer asks for these as a package deal along with the services for design and development of the learnshying materials NUT has to consider doing this and even sharing the intellectual property even though this might neutralize their competitive edge sometimes

Conclusion The features of NIIT outlined above in our opinion

seem to characterize much of what goes on in a learning organization A critical feature of knowledge work is that it requires multidisciplinary expertise and mutual learning in order to achieve a complex synthesis of highly specialized state-of-the-art technologies and knowledge domains 17

bull Unlike explicit knowledge- which can be codified stored and retrieved with the help of an IT tool - tacit or implicit knowledge is distributed in an organization and is not amenable to codification and reshytrieval processes However it can be shared and people

BHARDWAJ LEARNING PERSPECTIVE AT NIIT 685

etc The organizational culture is therefore a part of the scope of KM It is important also to realize that knowlshyedge is distributed across the organization in almost anyshything that you can think of the structure the stories the old timers etc As far as NUTs experience is concemed the organizational culture provides a fair amount of tacit knowledge that emphasizes the spirit of doing new things pioneering technology and the importance of making mistakes in the interests of leaming These are imporshytant because they are a vital input into an individuals actions besides the knowledge constructed by an indishyvidual from organizational knowledge

Walsh and Ungson l2 define organizational memory as interpretations of the past decisions problems solved and their consequences embedded into groups and orgashynizational artifacts like systems They make two imporshytant points in this regard First only individuals have the cognitive capability to fully understand the why of a decision in the context of an organizations history even though it decays and distorts as it goes from one person to another as a part of the organizationS culture Secshyondly they emphasize supra-individual collectivity conshysistent with Durkheims proposition (1938) that sharing in groups helps them retain knowledge in a way that goes far beyond the cognitive capability of a single individual Organizational artifacts like structures transformations and ecology inhabit an organizationS response to a deshycision stimulus A lot of it is the tacit or implicit knowlshyedge

Walsh and Ungson l2 also talk about misuse of organishyzational memory when automatic or controlled retrieval of information is applied to shape a routine or non-roushytine response inappropriately They also go on to proshypose that the self-serving manipulation of organizational memorys acquisition retention and retrieval processes by an organizations members will enable their autocratic entrenchment and thus compromise the organization S sustained viability And such process comprises sharshying and collaborating through interactions of individushyals

There are cultural issues of sharing of information because most organizations promote individual achieveshyment There are no incentives for sharing of informashytion Therefore information hoarding occurs and there is reluctance to share the so-called secrets Not only is the world becoming too complex for the single individual to deal with it all by himself there are also issues of organization being ieft in the lurch when this person re-

signs Trust in these cases is a very important paradigm Systems need to be devised for ensuring that informashytion sharing is rewarded and does not go unrecognized Ability to share information freely should be considered an important leadership trait and would normally indishycate long-term vision and securityof the individual

Tools for facilitation of knowledge creation abound Discussion forums facilitate collaborative generation of knowledge Such collaborative ongoing mutual learnshying by the team is required because of the complexities involved in learning material creation and innovation that characterize knowledge intensive firms are unsolvable by anyone person and require insights from various pershyspectives It requires a process of mutual perspective taking where distinctive individual knowledge is exshychanged evaluated and integrated with that of others in the organization 13

Similarly group-ware helps both collaboration and access of knowledge In a paper on Knowledge Intenshysive Firms Starbuc l4 talks about it being difficult to disshytinguish between creating and applying knowledge We would like to discuss the creation of an organization called Stride where the author works as an exemplifishycation of this concept NUT is not merely a knowledge intensive firm Half of its business has to do with applyshying its knowledge of the software industry to its clients problems (software solutions business) and the remainshying half has to do with sharing its knowledge of softshyware with individuals and corporations to equip them with the ability to solve their problems The organizashytional model deals with learning as a part of ongoing projects for customers followed up by application and addition of value A recent cover story on NIIT in a leading business magazine of India covered NIIT as a knowledge corporation

Evolution of NUT as a Knowledge Corporation

NUT was founded as a company in 1981 The founders envisioned the absence of software expertise as a key impediment to the growth of the computer inshydustry in India of which they were a part Having deshycided to launch the courses for individuals using mateshyrial bought from an international training firm they quickly felt the need to adapt it to Indian conditions This was the companys first brush with the field of in-

686 J SCI IND RES VOL 59 AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2000

structional design They held the first International Comshyputer Based Training conference jointly with lIT Delhi in 1983 recognizing the need for acquiring this expershytise Gradually their students began to get jobs in the corporate sector and many companies began to approach NIIT for training their employees This led to acquisishytion and application of knowledge on corporate trainshying As the corporate sector came within the ambit of NlITs customers and the need for outsourcing software development arose they asked NlIT if it could handle that In the process NIIT learned about issues of softshyware quality software process management software project management and a myriad other issues related to contract software development With the diversificashytion of the customer base this ultimately led to the comshypany becoming one of the largest software exporters of India with SEI Level 5 rating

The training half of the company followed a similar path where customers began to demand customization of existing IT courses and in some cases new developshyment of training courses based on their own subject matshyter expertise This led to the need for consolidating and refining of the instructional design skills and since India did not have expertise in this area part of the knowlshyedge acquisition need for this was fulfilled by getting a Professor (Late Glenn Knudsvig) of The University of Michigan to run training programs

A formal instructional design methodology was creshyated and NIIT became one of the first companies to get ISO 9001 certification for the processes for design and development of multimedia learning materials In time clients across the world demanded material in non-Inshystructor Led formats and NIIT created its own authoring engines to build learning materials in Interactive Video Disk based CD-ROM based and Web based formats on DOS and Windows platforms

In the processNlIT became one of the largest sites for development of learning materials worldwide) and developed hundreds of multimedia titles under its own brand and for other American brands At this stage the Learning Solutions Business was structured as a set of factories doing large-scale production of learning mateshyrials The growing base of knowledge regarding the clients needs standards requirements checklists methshyodology etc began to be embedded through training programs procedures and project plans Also there was an attempt to build forums for collaborative encoding

sharing and creation of knowledge Many tools and utilities were built to reflect the growing knowledge about the work being done for the client Similarly there was a factory that was building the materials under NlITs own brand of CD-ROM titles and it had its own methodshyology deadlines processes checklists tools training etc Another group built the classroom training for NIIT to sell worldwide At one stage NIIT realized that there was no cross-pollination of knowledge between the difshyferent groups Especiallysince NlITs business was knowledge creation and sharing redundancies in this process harmed productivity and prevented marketing of products across media NIIT did path-breaking work in the area of single-parsing instructional design for buildshying learning materials across media Fordoing this NUT consulted with some leading figures in instructional deshysign again from an American University A paper in an academic journal on this effort was awarded the best paper of the year in its International Section6

NUT created a special RampD group called STRIDE to bridge the gap between work being done in research laboshyratories across the world in the area of learning and the learning experience being provided in the market place by the leading vendors NIIT being one of them This group was given a charter named fifty-fifty rule and had the unenviable job of improving learning effectiveness by a factor of two while improving the productivity of development and delivery by a factor of two This group evolved a new learning architecture called MCLA (Model Centered Learning Architecture) to improve learning effectiveness of NlITs materials and created ELMS a new enterprise learning management system They also built tools for creations and deployment of multimedia learning materials

STRIDE was responsible for creating new knowledge in the area of learning thereby piloting and provi ng imshyprovements in development of learning materials NIIT created an interdisciplinary core team of about 25 people comprising programmers project managers instructional designers and graphic designers etc Upon completion of a prototype or demonstration a project team from other parts of the organization would be assembled for trying the new method or environment or software out in a real project

Once that was concluded a full-fledged methodolshyogy environment or software would be built and run through beta programs before full-scale deployment in

BHARDWAJ LEARNING PERSPECTIVE AT NIIT 687

the factories This modus operandi ensures smooth transshyfer of knowledge across large-scale assembly lines Structurally this seems to be in sync with what Nonaka and Takeuchi2 call a HyperText organization except that these project teams are housed in the ambit of a specific permanent organizational entity called STRIDE

KM in Courseware Development

In knowledge intensive firms like NUT competitive advantage and product success are a result of collaborashytive ongoing learning Success depends not only on how effectively the diverse individuals are able to organize and develop their unique knowledge competences but also how they can integrate and utilize their distinctive knowledge both effectively and synergistically 17IX

The NUT method of KM for courseware development consists of identification of SMEs (Subject Matter Exshyperts) Two kinds of SMEs are identified one kind is a practitioner and the other kind is a content SME Exshyamples of a practitioner kind of SME would be a Web Designer or System Administrator Content SME could be someone who is reviewing the web application deshyvelopment environments including that identified as subshyject matter eg Visual Studio From the SMEs we gather the knowledge about roles that are played in the business entity in the specific domains These roles conshysist of a set of tasks to be done These tasks are aggreshygated into task domains from which specific work modshyelsare developed In each work model a set of business problems is identified For each set of homogeneous business problems we identify foundational knowledge that helps prepare the ground for problem solving to begin This is what helps create a context for appreciatshying the problem being solved Then there is a decision stimulus or trigger that arrives in the form of e-mail or a phone call or whatever SMEs reveal the planning steps and any related in-step knowledge that goes into prepashyration for solving the problem They reveal the inforshymation that needs to be gathered and from what sources while planning the solution to the problem Similar steps happen when the implementation of the solution and verishyfication come up for capture Text graphics notes reshyview comments can all be captured at any of these stages What is important to realize at this stage is that once all the nodes are filled up completely or even before that is done you can take out manifestations of the stored knowledge as printed material as presentation slides as web based output CD-ROM based output etc This fashycilitates access of the material anywhere anytime

The world of instructional design is moving towards learning objects This brings it closer to the world of KM as it gets away from the paradigm of courses that instructional development has focused on so far Stanshydards like IMS have begun to take root and will soon affect development storage retrieval and access of knowledge (see their website at wwwimsprojectcom for details) A crucial component ofIMS is specification of metadata that enables knowledge from mUltiple vendors or sources to be combined In our view there are times when the metadata for a piece of knowledge may be more important than the knowledge itself simply because it is the metadata that facilitates appropriate use of the knowledge

Another interesting issue arises as the knowledge base is developed Often experts find that the process of demshyonstrating and articulating their expertisein fact makes their invisible expertise visible sometimes even to themshyselves So the methodology is one way of making the tacit knowledge explicit Michael Polanyi talks of the crucial importance of this tacit knowledge and any knowlshyedge management system that focuses on only the exshyplicit part of knowledge is missing the bus almost enshytirely as far as value to an organization is concerned

Frequently NUT demonstrates the methodology and the tools for capturing the knowledge to clients to demshyonstrate expertise in this area There are complex issues of monopolies here since there are frequent demands from clients for buying the methodology and the tool s There is some measure of arm-twisting too that happens middot when a customer asks for these as a package deal along with the services for design and development of the learnshying materials NUT has to consider doing this and even sharing the intellectual property even though this might neutralize their competitive edge sometimes

Conclusion The features of NIIT outlined above in our opinion

seem to characterize much of what goes on in a learning organization A critical feature of knowledge work is that it requires multidisciplinary expertise and mutual learning in order to achieve a complex synthesis of highly specialized state-of-the-art technologies and knowledge domains 17

bull Unlike explicit knowledge- which can be codified stored and retrieved with the help of an IT tool - tacit or implicit knowledge is distributed in an organization and is not amenable to codification and reshytrieval processes However it can be shared and people

686 J SCI IND RES VOL 59 AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2000

structional design They held the first International Comshyputer Based Training conference jointly with lIT Delhi in 1983 recognizing the need for acquiring this expershytise Gradually their students began to get jobs in the corporate sector and many companies began to approach NIIT for training their employees This led to acquisishytion and application of knowledge on corporate trainshying As the corporate sector came within the ambit of NlITs customers and the need for outsourcing software development arose they asked NlIT if it could handle that In the process NIIT learned about issues of softshyware quality software process management software project management and a myriad other issues related to contract software development With the diversificashytion of the customer base this ultimately led to the comshypany becoming one of the largest software exporters of India with SEI Level 5 rating

The training half of the company followed a similar path where customers began to demand customization of existing IT courses and in some cases new developshyment of training courses based on their own subject matshyter expertise This led to the need for consolidating and refining of the instructional design skills and since India did not have expertise in this area part of the knowlshyedge acquisition need for this was fulfilled by getting a Professor (Late Glenn Knudsvig) of The University of Michigan to run training programs

A formal instructional design methodology was creshyated and NIIT became one of the first companies to get ISO 9001 certification for the processes for design and development of multimedia learning materials In time clients across the world demanded material in non-Inshystructor Led formats and NIIT created its own authoring engines to build learning materials in Interactive Video Disk based CD-ROM based and Web based formats on DOS and Windows platforms

In the processNlIT became one of the largest sites for development of learning materials worldwide) and developed hundreds of multimedia titles under its own brand and for other American brands At this stage the Learning Solutions Business was structured as a set of factories doing large-scale production of learning mateshyrials The growing base of knowledge regarding the clients needs standards requirements checklists methshyodology etc began to be embedded through training programs procedures and project plans Also there was an attempt to build forums for collaborative encoding

sharing and creation of knowledge Many tools and utilities were built to reflect the growing knowledge about the work being done for the client Similarly there was a factory that was building the materials under NlITs own brand of CD-ROM titles and it had its own methodshyology deadlines processes checklists tools training etc Another group built the classroom training for NIIT to sell worldwide At one stage NIIT realized that there was no cross-pollination of knowledge between the difshyferent groups Especiallysince NlITs business was knowledge creation and sharing redundancies in this process harmed productivity and prevented marketing of products across media NIIT did path-breaking work in the area of single-parsing instructional design for buildshying learning materials across media Fordoing this NUT consulted with some leading figures in instructional deshysign again from an American University A paper in an academic journal on this effort was awarded the best paper of the year in its International Section6

NUT created a special RampD group called STRIDE to bridge the gap between work being done in research laboshyratories across the world in the area of learning and the learning experience being provided in the market place by the leading vendors NIIT being one of them This group was given a charter named fifty-fifty rule and had the unenviable job of improving learning effectiveness by a factor of two while improving the productivity of development and delivery by a factor of two This group evolved a new learning architecture called MCLA (Model Centered Learning Architecture) to improve learning effectiveness of NlITs materials and created ELMS a new enterprise learning management system They also built tools for creations and deployment of multimedia learning materials

STRIDE was responsible for creating new knowledge in the area of learning thereby piloting and provi ng imshyprovements in development of learning materials NIIT created an interdisciplinary core team of about 25 people comprising programmers project managers instructional designers and graphic designers etc Upon completion of a prototype or demonstration a project team from other parts of the organization would be assembled for trying the new method or environment or software out in a real project

Once that was concluded a full-fledged methodolshyogy environment or software would be built and run through beta programs before full-scale deployment in

BHARDWAJ LEARNING PERSPECTIVE AT NIIT 687

the factories This modus operandi ensures smooth transshyfer of knowledge across large-scale assembly lines Structurally this seems to be in sync with what Nonaka and Takeuchi2 call a HyperText organization except that these project teams are housed in the ambit of a specific permanent organizational entity called STRIDE

KM in Courseware Development

In knowledge intensive firms like NUT competitive advantage and product success are a result of collaborashytive ongoing learning Success depends not only on how effectively the diverse individuals are able to organize and develop their unique knowledge competences but also how they can integrate and utilize their distinctive knowledge both effectively and synergistically 17IX

The NUT method of KM for courseware development consists of identification of SMEs (Subject Matter Exshyperts) Two kinds of SMEs are identified one kind is a practitioner and the other kind is a content SME Exshyamples of a practitioner kind of SME would be a Web Designer or System Administrator Content SME could be someone who is reviewing the web application deshyvelopment environments including that identified as subshyject matter eg Visual Studio From the SMEs we gather the knowledge about roles that are played in the business entity in the specific domains These roles conshysist of a set of tasks to be done These tasks are aggreshygated into task domains from which specific work modshyelsare developed In each work model a set of business problems is identified For each set of homogeneous business problems we identify foundational knowledge that helps prepare the ground for problem solving to begin This is what helps create a context for appreciatshying the problem being solved Then there is a decision stimulus or trigger that arrives in the form of e-mail or a phone call or whatever SMEs reveal the planning steps and any related in-step knowledge that goes into prepashyration for solving the problem They reveal the inforshymation that needs to be gathered and from what sources while planning the solution to the problem Similar steps happen when the implementation of the solution and verishyfication come up for capture Text graphics notes reshyview comments can all be captured at any of these stages What is important to realize at this stage is that once all the nodes are filled up completely or even before that is done you can take out manifestations of the stored knowledge as printed material as presentation slides as web based output CD-ROM based output etc This fashycilitates access of the material anywhere anytime

The world of instructional design is moving towards learning objects This brings it closer to the world of KM as it gets away from the paradigm of courses that instructional development has focused on so far Stanshydards like IMS have begun to take root and will soon affect development storage retrieval and access of knowledge (see their website at wwwimsprojectcom for details) A crucial component ofIMS is specification of metadata that enables knowledge from mUltiple vendors or sources to be combined In our view there are times when the metadata for a piece of knowledge may be more important than the knowledge itself simply because it is the metadata that facilitates appropriate use of the knowledge

Another interesting issue arises as the knowledge base is developed Often experts find that the process of demshyonstrating and articulating their expertisein fact makes their invisible expertise visible sometimes even to themshyselves So the methodology is one way of making the tacit knowledge explicit Michael Polanyi talks of the crucial importance of this tacit knowledge and any knowlshyedge management system that focuses on only the exshyplicit part of knowledge is missing the bus almost enshytirely as far as value to an organization is concerned

Frequently NUT demonstrates the methodology and the tools for capturing the knowledge to clients to demshyonstrate expertise in this area There are complex issues of monopolies here since there are frequent demands from clients for buying the methodology and the tool s There is some measure of arm-twisting too that happens middot when a customer asks for these as a package deal along with the services for design and development of the learnshying materials NUT has to consider doing this and even sharing the intellectual property even though this might neutralize their competitive edge sometimes

Conclusion The features of NIIT outlined above in our opinion

seem to characterize much of what goes on in a learning organization A critical feature of knowledge work is that it requires multidisciplinary expertise and mutual learning in order to achieve a complex synthesis of highly specialized state-of-the-art technologies and knowledge domains 17

bull Unlike explicit knowledge- which can be codified stored and retrieved with the help of an IT tool - tacit or implicit knowledge is distributed in an organization and is not amenable to codification and reshytrieval processes However it can be shared and people

BHARDWAJ LEARNING PERSPECTIVE AT NIIT 687

the factories This modus operandi ensures smooth transshyfer of knowledge across large-scale assembly lines Structurally this seems to be in sync with what Nonaka and Takeuchi2 call a HyperText organization except that these project teams are housed in the ambit of a specific permanent organizational entity called STRIDE

KM in Courseware Development

In knowledge intensive firms like NUT competitive advantage and product success are a result of collaborashytive ongoing learning Success depends not only on how effectively the diverse individuals are able to organize and develop their unique knowledge competences but also how they can integrate and utilize their distinctive knowledge both effectively and synergistically 17IX

The NUT method of KM for courseware development consists of identification of SMEs (Subject Matter Exshyperts) Two kinds of SMEs are identified one kind is a practitioner and the other kind is a content SME Exshyamples of a practitioner kind of SME would be a Web Designer or System Administrator Content SME could be someone who is reviewing the web application deshyvelopment environments including that identified as subshyject matter eg Visual Studio From the SMEs we gather the knowledge about roles that are played in the business entity in the specific domains These roles conshysist of a set of tasks to be done These tasks are aggreshygated into task domains from which specific work modshyelsare developed In each work model a set of business problems is identified For each set of homogeneous business problems we identify foundational knowledge that helps prepare the ground for problem solving to begin This is what helps create a context for appreciatshying the problem being solved Then there is a decision stimulus or trigger that arrives in the form of e-mail or a phone call or whatever SMEs reveal the planning steps and any related in-step knowledge that goes into prepashyration for solving the problem They reveal the inforshymation that needs to be gathered and from what sources while planning the solution to the problem Similar steps happen when the implementation of the solution and verishyfication come up for capture Text graphics notes reshyview comments can all be captured at any of these stages What is important to realize at this stage is that once all the nodes are filled up completely or even before that is done you can take out manifestations of the stored knowledge as printed material as presentation slides as web based output CD-ROM based output etc This fashycilitates access of the material anywhere anytime

The world of instructional design is moving towards learning objects This brings it closer to the world of KM as it gets away from the paradigm of courses that instructional development has focused on so far Stanshydards like IMS have begun to take root and will soon affect development storage retrieval and access of knowledge (see their website at wwwimsprojectcom for details) A crucial component ofIMS is specification of metadata that enables knowledge from mUltiple vendors or sources to be combined In our view there are times when the metadata for a piece of knowledge may be more important than the knowledge itself simply because it is the metadata that facilitates appropriate use of the knowledge

Another interesting issue arises as the knowledge base is developed Often experts find that the process of demshyonstrating and articulating their expertisein fact makes their invisible expertise visible sometimes even to themshyselves So the methodology is one way of making the tacit knowledge explicit Michael Polanyi talks of the crucial importance of this tacit knowledge and any knowlshyedge management system that focuses on only the exshyplicit part of knowledge is missing the bus almost enshytirely as far as value to an organization is concerned

Frequently NUT demonstrates the methodology and the tools for capturing the knowledge to clients to demshyonstrate expertise in this area There are complex issues of monopolies here since there are frequent demands from clients for buying the methodology and the tool s There is some measure of arm-twisting too that happens middot when a customer asks for these as a package deal along with the services for design and development of the learnshying materials NUT has to consider doing this and even sharing the intellectual property even though this might neutralize their competitive edge sometimes

Conclusion The features of NIIT outlined above in our opinion

seem to characterize much of what goes on in a learning organization A critical feature of knowledge work is that it requires multidisciplinary expertise and mutual learning in order to achieve a complex synthesis of highly specialized state-of-the-art technologies and knowledge domains 17

bull Unlike explicit knowledge- which can be codified stored and retrieved with the help of an IT tool - tacit or implicit knowledge is distributed in an organization and is not amenable to codification and reshytrieval processes However it can be shared and people

688 1 SCI IND RES VOL 59 AUGUST-SEPTEMBER 2000

can collaborate to exploit its potential through various processes Like other organizational processes these processes take time to evolve into the culture of an orgashynization that believes in collaboration and sharing through interactions of individuals for building synergy

References I Malhotra Yogesh Toward a Knowledge Ecology for Orshy

ganizational White-Waters Keynote Presentation at the Knowledge Ecology Fair 98 Beyond Knowledge Manshyagement February 2-27 1998 hupwwwbrintcomJpashypersecologyhtm

2 Nonaka I amp Tekeuchi H The Knowledge-Creating Comshypany How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovaticn(Oxford University Press Oxford) 1995

3 Sveiby K E amp Lloyd T Managing Knowhow (Bloomsbury London) 1987

4 Drucker P The Coming of the New Organization Harvard Business Rev 66 (No I) (January-February 1998) pp 45-

53 5 Weick K E Sensemaking in Organizations (Foundations

for Organizational Science (Sage Publications) 1995 6 Rose C amp Nicholl M J Accelerated Learning for the

21 st Century The Six-Step Plan to Unlock Your MastershyMind ( Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group Inc New York) 1997

7 Marshall Chris Prusak Larry amp Shpilberg David Finanshycial Risk and the Need for Superior Knowledge Manageshyment Calif Manage Rev 38 (No3) (1996)

8 Huber G P Organizational Learning The Contributing Processes and the Literatures Organiz Sci 2 (1991) pp 88-115

9 Argyris C amp Schoen D Organizational Learning A Theory of Action Perspective( Addison Wesley Readshying MA) 1978

I 0 Coulson-Thomas C J The Future of the Organization Selected Knowledge Management Issues J Knowledge Manage 1( No 1)( September 1997) pp 15-26

II Sandelands Eric Developing a Robust Model of the Virshytual Corporate University J Knowledge Manage 1 (No3) ( 1998) ppl-8

12 Walsh J P amp Ungson G R Organizational Memory Acad Manage Rev 16(No I) (1991) pp 57-91

13 Tenkasi R V amp Boland R J Exploring Knowledge Dishyversity in Knowledge Intensive Firms A New Role for Information Systems J Syst Knowledge Managel1lent January 1988 httpwwwmcbcoukijournalsiknowledge issue I article4htm

14 Starbuck W H Learning by Knowledge-intensive Firms J Manage Stud 29(No 6) (1992) pp 713-40

15 Bhardwaj K K Chandran P ONeal A F amp Gibbons A S Large Scale Development of Learning Materials Critical Issues Educat Technol Res Dev 46( No2) (1998) pp 101-110

16 Gibbons A S Bhardwaj K K amp Richards R The Singleshyparse Method of Design for Problem-Based Instruction Educat Teemol Res Dev 46 (No2) (1998) pp 110-116

17 Dougherty D Interpretive Barriers to Successful Product Innovation in Large Firms Organi Sci 3 (1992)pp 179-202

18 Nonaka I A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowlshyedge Creation Organiz Sci S(No I) (1994) pp 15-37

About the author Krishna K Bhardwaj having completed B TechfrolllllT and MBA from 11M Bangalore joined the Reserve Bank of India He currently heads the STRIDE (Strategic Initiatives in Development of Education) Department in the Centerfor Research on Cognitive Systems (CRCS) of the NIIT located inside the Campus of liT Delhi He is responsible for managing NIIT~ RampD initiatives in the development and delivery of edtCalion and training He has published several research papers in international journals He can be contacted al kkbniitcom or kkbstrideusanet