Role of Technology in Protecting the Environment Essay

Introduction Over the past few decades, technologies have made a few great contributions to the environmental protection. Renewable technologies have reduced the demand of fossil fuel; computer technologies have enabled paperless office into reality and thus decreasing the number of trees used to produce paper. Therefore, I have come in to believe that technologies will serve as a major role in protecting the environment, both in the present and future. However, due to certain limitations like political agenda in the current globalized world, the role of technologies may be suppressed and may only be fulfilled in the future. Current Perspective One of the most significant technological advancement today that aimed to protect our†¦show more content†¦They have allowed us to glimpse the capability of today’s technologies to protect our environment through substituting other environmentally-unfriendly but yet essential products. Adding to that, the creation of recycling technologies such as Reverse Osmosis (RO) that separated human waste from the water and the Twin-Chamber Melting Furnace (TCF) that recycled aluminum has proven to us the potential these technologies have in minimizing the environmental threats. By utilizing these technologies, environments can be better protected from dangers such as arsenic pollution. But everything has two-dimensions and that is true for technology as well. One of the greatest problems to such inability of the current technologies to protect our environment is the insufficient energy generated from the renewable technologies. According to his book Sustainable Energy without Hot Air, David JC Mackay has made it clear that the amount of energy generated by renewable energy technologies can only satisfy the need for Britain if it were country-sized. This means that even developed country will rely heavily on burning of â€Å"black gold† such as oil and coal to produce energy for its daily consumption and so, it will be even more worrisome for the developing countries with a greater energy needs. Therefore, environmental issues such as acid rains andShow MoreRelatedFeeding the Growing World Population1411 Words   |  6 Pagesworld population while also protecting the environment. Although both believe alternative food systems could be the change of our futu re, each approach these subjects differently. Schonwald is not afraid to keep an open mind with the use of technology, while Nestle focuses on important choices one needs to make for the environment. Both of these come down to four factors that determine if alternative food systems should be accepted. 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Approaches to Knowledge Management Practice Free Essays

string(321) " intranet one can type in the key words for a specific knowledge domain — say, for example, knowledge about the design of optical pickup units for CD/DVD players and recorders — and the yellow pages will retrieve a listing of the people within Philips worldwide who have stated that they have such knowledge\." â€Å"Tacit Knowledge† versus â€Å"Explicit Knowledge† Approaches to Knowledge Management Practice by Ron Sanchez Professor of Management, Copenhagen Business School and Linden Visiting Professor for Industrial Analysis, Lund University Contact information: Department of Industrial Economics and Strategy Solbjergvej 3 – 3rd floor DK 2000 Frederiksberg, Denmark email: sanchez@cbs. dk Abstract This paper explains two fundamental approaches to knowledge management. The tacit knowledge approach emphasizes understanding the kinds of knowledge that individuals in an organization have, moving people to transfer knowledge within an organization, and managing key individuals as knowledge creators and carriers. We will write a custom essay sample on Approaches to Knowledge Management Practice or any similar topic only for you Order Now By contrast, the explicit knowledge approach emphasizes processes for articulating knowledge held by individuals, the design of organizational approaches for creating new knowledge, and the development of systems (including information systems) to disseminate articulated knowledge within an organization. The relative advantages and disadvantages of both approaches to knowledge management are summarized. A synthesis of tacit and knowledge management approaches is recommended to create a hybrid design for the knowledge management practices in a given organization. JEL code: Moo 1 Introduction Managers concerned with implementing knowledge management in their organizations today face a number of challenges in developing sound methods for this still emerging area of management practice. Both the growing literature on knowledge management and the advice offered by various knowledge management consultants, however, seem to advocate forms of knowledge management practice that often appear incomplete, inconsistent, and even contradictory. This paper suggests that the current lack of coherence in the diverse recommendations for knowledge management practice results from the fact that the development of both theory and practice in this emerging field is being driven by two fundamentally different approaches to identifying and managing knowledge in organizations. These two approaches are characterized here as the â€Å"tacit knowledge† approach and the â€Å"explicit knowledge† approach. This paper first clarifies how these two fundamental approaches differ in both their philosophical premises and derived recommendations for practice, and it summarizes the main strengths and weaknesses of each of the two approaches in practice. We then suggest that sound knowledge management practice requires a creative synthesis of the two approaches that enables the strengths of one approach to offset the inherent limitations of the other approach, and vice versa. . Tacit Knowledge versus Explicit Knowledge Approaches Even a casual review of the many articles and consulting recommendations on knowledge management practice today soon reveals a plethora of recommended processes and techniques. Unfortunately — especially for the many managers looking to researchers and consultants for insights to guide development of sound knowledge 2 mana gement practices — many of these recommendations seem unconnected to each other, and in the worst cases many seem to be quite at odds with each other. Close analysis of these recommendations, however, usually reveals that the many ideas for practice being advanced today can be grouped into one of two fundamentally different views of knowledge itself and of the resulting possibilities for managing knowledge in organizations. These two views are characterized here as the â€Å"tacit knowledge† approach and the â€Å"explicit knowledge† approach. Let us consider the basic premises and the possibilities for knowledge management practice implied by each of these two views (see Table 1 for a summary of the differences in the two approaches). The Tacit Knowledge Approach The salient characteristic of the tacit knowledge approach is the basic belief that knowledge is essentially personal in nature and is therefore difficult to extract from the heads of individuals. In effect, this approach to knowledge management assumes, often implicitly, that the knowledge in and available to an organization will largely consist of tacit knowledge that remains in the heads of individuals in the organization. 1 Working from the premise that knowledge is inherently personal and will largely remain tacit, the tacit knowledge approach typically holds that the dissemination of knowledge in an organization can best be accomplished by the transfer of people as â€Å"knowledge carriers† from one part of an organization to another. Further, this view believes that learning in an organization occurs when individuals come together under circumstances that encourage them to share their ideas and (hopefully) to develop new insights together that will lead to the creation of new knowledge. Recommendations for knowledge management practice proffered by researchers and consultants working within the tacit knowledge approach naturally tend to focus 1 Some writers and consultants have even gone so far as to argue that all knowledge is tacit in nature. The irony in trying to communicate to others the â€Å"knowledge† that all knowledge is tacit, however, should be obvious. 3 on managing people as individual carriers of knowledge. To make wider use of the tacit knowledge of individuals, managers are urged to identify the knowledge possessed by various individuals in an organization and then to arrange the kinds of interactions between knowledgeable individuals that will help the organization perform its current tasks, transfer knowledge from one part of the organization to another, and/or create new knowledge that may be useful to the organization. Let us consider some examples of current practice in each of these activities that are typical of the tacit knowledge approach. Most managers of organizations today do not know what specific kinds of knowledge the individuals in their organization know. This common state of affairs is reflected in the lament usually attributed to executives of Hewlett-Packard in the 1980s: â€Å"If we only knew what we know, we could conquer the world. † As firms become larger, more knowledge intensive, and more globally dispersed, the need for their managers to â€Å"know what we know† is becoming acute. Thus, a common initiative within the tacit knowledge approach is usually some effort to improve understanding of who knows about what in an organization — an effort that is sometimes described as an effort to create â€Å"know who† forms of knowledge. 2 An example of such an effort is the creation within Philips, the global electronics company, of a â€Å"yellow pages† listing experts with different kinds of knowledge within Philips’ many business units. Today on the Philips intranet one can type in the key words for a specific knowledge domain — say, for example, knowledge about the design of optical pickup units for CD/DVD players and recorders — and the yellow pages will retrieve a listing of the people within Philips worldwide who have stated that they have such knowledge. You read "Approaches to Knowledge Management Practice" in category "Papers" Contact information is also provided for each person listed, so that anyone in Philips who wants to know more about that kind of knowledge can get in touch with listed individuals. 2 Know-how, know-why, and know-what forms of knowledge can also be described (see Sanchez 1997). 4 An example of the tacit knowledge approach to transferring knowledge within a global organization is provided by Toyota. When Toyota wants to transfer knowledge of its production system to new employees in a new assembly factory, such as the factory recently opened in Valenciennes, France, Toyota typically selects a core group of two to three hundred new employees and sends them for several months training and work on the assembly line in one of Toyota’s existing factories. After several months of studying the production system and working alongside experienced Toyota assembly line workers, the new workers are sent back to the new factory site. These repatriated workers are accompanied by one or two hundred long-term, highly experienced Toyota workers, who will then work alongside all the new employees in the new factory to assure that knowledge of Toyota’s finely tuned production process is fully implanted in the new factory. Toyota’s use of Quality Circles also provides an example of the tacit knowledge approach to creating new knowledge. At the end of each work week, groups of Toyota production workers spend one to two hours analyzing the performance of their part of the production system to identify actual or potential problems in quality or productivity. Each group proposes â€Å"countermeasures† to correct identified problems, and discusses the results of countermeasures taken during the week to address problems identified the week before. Through personal interactions in such Quality Circle group settings, Toyota employees share their ideas for improvement, devise steps to test new ideas for improvement, and assess the results of their tests. This knowledge management practice, which is repeated weekly as an integral part of the Toyota production system, progressively identifies, eliminates, and even prevents errors. As improvements developed by Quality Circles are accumulated over many years, Toyota’s production system has become one of the highest quality production processes in the world (Spear and Bowen 1999). 5 The Explicit Knowledge Approach In contrast to the views held by the tacit knowledge approach, the explicit knowledge approach holds that knowledge is something that can be explained y individuals — even though some effort and even some forms of assistance may sometimes be required to help individuals articulate what they know. As a result, the explicit knowledge approach assumes that the useful knowledge of individuals in an organization can be articulated and made explicit. Working from the premise that important forms of knowledge can be made explicit, the explicit knowledge approach also beli eves that formal organizational processes can be used to help individuals articulate the knowledge they have to create knowledge assets. The explicit knowledge approach also believes that explicit knowledge assets can then be disseminated within an organization through documents, drawings, standard operating procedures, manuals of best practice, and the like. Information systems are usually seen as playing a central role in facilitating the dissemination of explicit knowledge assets over company intranets or between organizations via the internet. Usually accompanying the views that knowledge can be made explicit and managed explicitly is the belief that new knowledge can be created through a structured, managed, scientific learning process. Experiments and other forms of structured learning processes can be designed to remedy important knowledge deficiencies, or market transactions or strategic partnering may be used to obtain specific forms of needed knowledge or to improve an organization’s existing knowledge assets. The recommendations for knowledge management practice usually proposed by researchers and consultants working within the explicit knowledge approach focus on initiating and sustaining organizational processes for generating, articulating, categorizing, and systematically leveraging explicit knowledge assets. Some examples of knowledge management practice in this mode help to illustrate this approach. In the 1990s, Motorola was the global leader in the market for pagers. To maintain this leadership position, Motorola introduced new generations of pager designs every 12-15 months. Each new pager generation was designed to offer more advanced features and options for customization than the preceding g eneration. In addition, a new factory with higher-speed, more flexible assembly lines was designed and built to produce each new generation of pager. To sustain this high rate of product and process development, Motorola formed teams of product and factory designers to design each new generation of pager and factory. At the beginning of their project, each new team of designers received a manual of design methods and techniques from the team that had developed the previous generation of pager and factory. The new team would then have three deliverables at the end of their project: (i) an improved and more configurable next-generation pager design, (ii) the design of a more efficient and flexible assembly line for the factory that would produce the new pager, and (iii) an improved design manual that incorporated the design knowledge provided to the team in the manual it received — plus the new and improved design methods that the team had developed to meet the product and production goals for its project. This manual would then be passed on to the next design team given the task of developing the next generation of pager and its factory. In this way, Motorola sought to make explicit and capture the knowledge developed by its engineers during each project and to systematically leverage that knowledge in launching the work of the next project team. In addition to its tacit knowledge management practice of moving new employees around to transfer knowledge of its production system, Toyota also follows a highly Using modular product architectures to create increasingly configurable product designs, Motorola was able to increase the number of customizable product variations it could offer from a few thousand variations in the late 1980s to more than 120 million variations by the late 1990s. 7 disciplined explicit knowledge management practice of documenting the tasks that each team of workers and each individual worker is asked to perform on its assembly lines. These documents provide a detailed description of how each task is to be performed, how long each task should take, the sequence of steps to be followed in performing each task, and the steps to be taken by each worker in checking his or her own work (Spear and Bowen 1999). When improvements are suggested by solving problems on the assembly line as they occur or in the weekly Quality Circle meetings of Toyota’s teams of assembly line workers, those suggestions are evaluated by Toyota’s production engineers and then formally incorporated in revised task description documents. In addition to developing well-defined and documented process descriptions for routine, repetitive production tasks, some organizations have also created explicit knowledge management approaches to supporting more creative tasks like developing new products. In the Chrysler unit of DaimlerChrysler Corporation, for example, several â€Å"platform teams† of 300-600 development engineers have responsibility for creating the next generation platforms4 on which Chrysler’s future automobiles will be based. Each platform team is free to actively explore and evaluate alternative design solutions for the many different technical aspects of their vehicle platform. However, each platform team is also required to place the design solution it has selected for each aspect of their vehicle platform in a â€Å"Book of Knowledge† on Chrysler’s intranet. This catalog of developed design solutions is then made available to all platform teams to consult in their development processes, so that good design solutions developed by one platform team can also be located and used by other platform teams. Other firms have taken this explicit knowledge management approach to managing knowledge in product development processes even further. For example, GE 4 A platform includes a system of standard component types and standardized interfaces between component types that enable â€Å"plugging and playing† different component variations in the platform design to configure different product variations (see Sanchez 2004). 8 Fanuc Automation, one of the world’s leading industrial automation firms, develops design methodologies that are applied in the design of new kinds of components for their factory automation systems. In effect, instead of leaving it up to each engineer in the firm to devise a design solution for each new component needed, GE Fanuc’s engineers work together to create detailed design methodologies for each type of component the firm uses. These design methodologies are then encoded in software and computerized so that the design of new component variations can be automated. Desired performance parameters for each new component variation are entered into the automated design program, and GE Fanuc’s computer system automatically generates a design solution for the component. In this way, GE Fanuc tries to make explicit and capture the design knowledge of its engineers and then to systematically re-use that knowledge by automating most new component design tasks. 9 Advantages and Disadvantages of Tacit versus Explicit Knowledge Approaches Like most alternative approaches to managing, each of the two knowledge management approaches we have discussed has both advantages and disadvantages. We now briefly summarize the main advantages and disadvantages of the two approaches (these are also summarized in Table 2). Advantages and Disadvantages of the Tacit Knowledge Approach One of the main advantages of the tacit knowledge approach is that it is a relatively easy and inexpensive way to begin managing knowledge. The essential first step is a relatively simple one — identify what each individual in the organization believes is the specific kinds of knowledge he or she possesses. Managers can then use this knowledge to assign individuals to key tasks or to compose teams with appropriate sets of knowledge to carry out a project, to improve performance in current processes, or to try to create new knowledge in the organization. As Philips did with its intranetbased â€Å"yellow pages,† managers may also elect to create an open database listing the knowledge claimed by individuals in the organization to facilitate knowledge sharing between individuals. A tacit knowledge approach may also lead to improvements in employee satisfaction and motivation when an organization â€Å"officially† recognizes and makes visible in the organization the kinds of knowledge that individual workers claim to have. In addition, the tacit knowledge approach is likely to avoid some of the practical and motivational difficulties that may be encountered in trying to secure the cooperation of individuals in making their knowledge explicit (discussed under the explicit knowledge approach below). 10 A further advantage often claimed for tacit knowledge management approaches derives from the view that making knowledge explicit increases the risk that knowledge will be â€Å"leaked† from an organization, so that leaving knowledge in tacit form also helps to protect a firm’s proprietary knowledge from diffusing to competing organizations. (The potential disadvantages of leaving knowledge in tacit form are summarized below. ) Although relatively easy to begin, the tacit knowledge approach also has some important long-term limitations and disadvantages. One disadvantage in the tacit knowledge approach is that individuals in an organization may claim to have knowledge that they do not actually have or may claim to be more knowledgeable than they really are (Stein and Ridderstrale 2001). The knowledge that various individuals have is likely to evolve over time and may require frequent updating to correctly communicate the type of knowledge each individual in the organization claims to have now. In addition, if knowledge only remains tacit in the heads of individuals in an organization, then the only way to move knowledge within the organization is to move people. Moving people is often costly and time-consuming and may be resisted by individuals who fear disruptions of their careers or family life. Even when knowledgeable individuals are willing to be moved, an individual can only be in one place at a time and can only work so many hours per day and days per week, thereby limiting the reach and the speed of the organization in transferring an individual’s knowledge. Moreover, sometimes transferred individuals may not be accepted by other groups in the organization or may otherwise fail to establish good rapport with other individuals, and the desired knowledge transfer may not take place or may occur only partially. Most seriously, leaving knowledge tacit in the heads of key individuals creates a risk that the organization may lose that knowledge if any of those individuals becomes 11 incapacitated , leaves the organization, or — in the worst case — is recruited by competitors. Advantages and Disadvantages of the Explicit Knowledge Approach In general, the advantages and disadvantages of the explicit knowledge approach constitute an inverted â€Å"mirror image† of the advantages and disadvantages of the tacit knowledge approach. Whereas the tacit knowledge approach is relatively easy to start and use, but has important limitations in the benefits it can bring, the explicit knowledge approach is much more challenging to start , but offers greater potential benefits in the long term. Let us first consider the long-term advantages of the explicit knowledge management approach, and then the challenges that have to be overcome to start and sustain this approach in an organization. Perhaps the main advantage of the explicit knowledge approach is that once an individual articulates his or her knowledge in a document, drawing, process description, or other form of explicit knowledge asset, it should be possible through use of information systems to quickly disseminate that knowledge throughout an organization or indeed anywhere in the world. In effect, converting tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge creates an asset that is available 24/7 and is free from the limitations of time and space that constrain the dissemination of tacit knowledge by moving individuals. Moreover, knowledge that has been made explicit within an organization can often be more carefully codified and more effectively leveraged than tacit knowledge assets. To codify some forms of knowledge is to categorize and order the knowledge so that important interrelationships between different kinds of knowledge within the firm can 5 Of course, under patent, copyright, or trade secrecy laws, an organization may have intellectual property rights in the tacit knowledge developed by individuals in the organization, and these rights may discourage — though not entirely prevent — individuals from sharing such knowledge with other organizations. 12 be identified. For example, forms of knowledge that are related by sharing a similar theoretical or practical knowledge base can be identified, as can forms of (complementary) knowledge that are interrelated by being used together in an organization’s processes. Once the various forms of explicit knowledge in an organization are codified in this way, knowledge created in one part of an organization can be proactively leveraged through information systems to people and groups elsewhere in the organization that can benefit from having that knowledge. Moreover, by disseminating some instance of explicit knowledge to other individuals who have expertise in that knowledge domain, the explicit knowledge can be discussed, debated, tested further, and improved, thereby stimulating important â€Å"incremental† forms of organizational learning processes. Such processes also help to identify which individuals in the organization are actually capable of making significant contributions to the organization’s knowledge base, and which are not. An important further advantage of systematically articulating and codifying an organization’s knowledge is that this process makes an organization’s current knowledge base more visible and analyzable, and this helps an organization to discover deficiencies in its knowledge assets. In effect, by making an organization’s current knowledge base more visible, so that the organization can begin to see more clearly what knowledge it does have, it should be possible for an organization to begin to see more clearly what knowledge it does not have. Focused, structured, managed learning processes to remedy important knowledge deficiencies can then be launched and may lead to more â€Å"radical† forms of organizational learning. Once an organization establishes processes for articulating, codifying, and leveraging explicit knowledge assets, the systematic dissemination of explicit knowledge within the organization should minimize the risk that it will lose vital knowledge if key individuals become unavailable or leave the organization. 13 To obtain the potentially significant benefits of an explicit knowledge management approach, however, a number of organizational challenges must be overcome. These challenges arise primarily in assuring adequate articulation, evaluation, application, and protection of knowledge assets. Individuals may not have sufficient skill or motivation to articulate their useful knowledge. Individuals vary greatly in the precision with which they can state their ideas, and some individuals — perhaps many — may need organizational support to adequately articulate their knowledge into useful knowledge assets. 6 Providing organizational support to individuals to articulate their knowledge may have a significant financial cost and inevitably takes time. An even more fundamental challenge arises when an individual is capable of articulating his or her knowledge, but resists requests by the organization to do so. At the heart of such resistance is usually a belief that an individual’s job security or position of influence in an organization depends on the tacit knowledge that he or she has and that the organization needs. Such beliefs result in fear that full revelation of an individual’s important knowledge would be followed by dismissal or loss of influence in an organization, because — presumably — the individual would no longer be as necessary or important to the organization. Overcoming such fears is likely to require a profound rethinking of the employment relationship in many organizations, especially with regard to key knowledge workers. New employment norms may have to be defined and institutionalized that both seek and reward ongoing learning by individuals and their continuing contributions of explicit knowledge to the organization. 7 6 Of course, the more knowledge-intensive an organization’s work is, and the more an organization is populated by â€Å"knowledge workers† with advanced education and training in formally communicating their ideas, the less difficult the articulation of explicit knowledge within the organization should be. Further, not all knowledge of individuals will necessarily be worth more to the organization than it may cost the organization to help or to reward individuals who try to articulate their knowledge. Essentially, managers must try to understand when the marginal cost of articulating knowledge is becoming greater than the marginal benefit of 14 Organizations must also meet the challenge of adequately evaluating knowledge that has been made explicit by individuals. Individuals with different backgrounds, education, and organizational roles may have varying sets of knowledge, with resulting differences in their deeply held ideas about the most effective way to get something done. Such differences will be revealed in the process of making their ideas and knowledge explicit, and managers implementing explicit knowledge approaches must establish a process for evaluating the individual knowledge that has been made explicit and for resolving conflicting knowledge beliefs of individuals. Organizations with experience in managing this process have found that the people involved in such evaluation processes must be respected within the organization for their expertise, objectivity, and impartiality. In most organizations, the time of such people is usually both very valuable and in short supply, and involving such people in evaluating explicit knowledge in many forms may impose a significant cost on the organization (although the resulting benefits may far outweigh the costs). Since knowledge is useful to an organization only when it is applied in action, a further challenge in implementing explicit knowledge management approaches is assuring that knowledge articulated in one part of the organization is not rejected or ignored by other parts of the organization simply because they prefer to stay close to their own familiar knowledge base — i. e. , because of an intra-organizational â€Å"not invented here† syndrome. One approach to managing this concern is the implementation of organizational â€Å"best knowledge† and â€Å"best practice† practices. In this practice, the committee of experts responsible for a knowledge evaluation process (discussed above) examines both the theoretical knowledge and practical applications of knowledge articulated within the organization, and defines the â€Å"best extracting the next bit of knowledge from an individual. Since no one currently knows exactly how to make such a cost-benefit analysis at the margin, as a practical matter organizations that implement the explicit knowledge approach do not strictly try to optimize this process and tend to prefer to â€Å"err† on the side of articulating more -rather than less — knowledge. 5 knowledge† and â€Å"best practice† in applying that knowledge currently available within the organization. The various groups within the organization to whom this knowledge or practice applies are then required either to adopt and use the currently defined â€Å"best knowledge† and â€Å"best practice,† or to demonstrate con vincingly to the committee of experts that they have developed better knowledge or better practice in applying knowledge. If a group persuades the expert committee that their knowledge or practice is better than the currently defined â€Å"best knowledge† or â€Å"best practice† in the organization, the expert committee then modifies the current â€Å"best knowledge† or â€Å"best practice† for the organization in light of the new knowledge they have received from the group. Implementing such a rocess for assuring that an organization’s best knowledge and practice are actually used requires a high degree of organizational discipline in adhering to the organization’s current best knowledge and best practice, and such discipline will normally require building a high degree of organizational trust that the process of the expert committee for deciding best knowledge and best practice is objective, impartial, and transparent. Finally, an organization that creates explicit knowledge assets must take care that those assets remain within the boundaries of the organizati on and do not â€Å"leak† to other organizations, especially competitors. Security measures of the type most organizations now routinely use to protect their databases must be extended to provide security for the organization’s explicit knowledge base. 16 Conclusions As described above, the tacit and explicit knowledge management approaches involve quite different emphases and practices, and one might naturally be led to ask, â€Å"Which approach is right? † As with most alternative approaches to management issues, however, the answer is â€Å"Both are right — but in the right combination. As the discussion in this chapter has suggested, there are important advantages to be obtained through both the tacit and explicit knowledge management approaches, and in many respects, the advantages of each approach can be used to help offset the disadvantages of the other. In any organization, therefore, the goal is to create a hybrid design for its knowledge management practice that synthesizes the â€Å"right† combination and balance of the tacit and explicit knowledge management approaches. What the â€Å"right† combination and balance may consist of will vary with a number of factors — the technology the organization uses or could use, the market conditions it faces, the â€Å"knowledge intensity† of its strategies and operations, the current attitudes of its key knowledge workers toward the organization, the degree of geographical dispersion of its knowledge workers, the resources available to the organization to invest in developing infrastructure and processes for its knowledge management practice, and so on. However, some basic guidelines may be suggested. Organizations that have not implemented systematic knowledge management approaches should in most cases begin with tacit knowledge management practices of the type discussed in this chapter. Such practices are relatively inexpensive, fast to implement, and less challenging organizationally than full-blown explicit knowledge management practices, and they often create surprising organizational interest in and energy for developing more extensive knowledge management practices. In any event, implementation of tacit knowledge management practices should be seen and communicated within the organization as only the first step in an evolving management 17 process that will eventually include more formal and systematic explicit knowledge management practices. Achieving some initial organizational successes through use of tacit knowledge practices also helps to build confidence that the much greater organizational demands involved in implementing explicit knowledge management practices will be worth the effort. We have discussed here a number of reasons why in the long run organizations that manage to implement effective explicit knowledge approaches not only will be more effective at leveraging their knowledge, but will also become better learning organizations. When the respective advantages of tacit and explicit knowledge management practices can be combined, an organization should be able to develop and apply new knowledge faster and more extensively than organizations that do not try to manage knowledge or that use only tacit or only explicit knowledge management practices. Thus, the eventual goal for most organizations will be to devise and implement hybrid knowledge management practices in which explicit knowledge management practices complement and significantly extend their initial tacit knowledge practices. 18 References Sanchez, Ron (2004). â€Å"Creating modular platforms for strategic flexibility,† Design Management Review, Winter 2004, 58-67. Sanchez, Ron (2001). â€Å"Managing knowledge into competences: The five learning cycles of the competent organization,† 3-37 in Knowledge Management and Organizational Competence, Ron Sanchez, editor, Oxford: Oxford University Press. Sanchez, Ron (1997). â€Å"Managing articulated knowledge in competence-based competition,† 163-187 in Strategic Learning and Knowledge Management, Ron Sanchez and Aime Heene, editors, Chichester: John Wiley Sons. Spear, Steven, and H. Kent Bowen (1999). â€Å"Decoding the DNA of the Toyota Production System,† Harvard Business Review, September-October 1999, 97-106. Stein, Johan, and Jonas Ridderstrale (2001). â€Å"Managing the dissemination of competences,† 63-76 in Knowledge Management and Organizational Competence, Ron Sanchez, editor, Oxford: Oxford University Press. 19 Table 1 Basic Beliefs in Tacit versus Explicit Knowledge Management Approaches Tacit Knowledge Approach Explicit Knowledge Approach Knowledge is personal in nature and very difficult to extract from people. Knowledge can be articulated and codified to create explicit knowledge assets. Knowledge must be transferred by moving people within or between organizations. Knowledge can be disseminated (using information technologies) in the form of documents, drawings, best practices, etc. Learning must be encouraged by bringing the right people together under the right circumstances. Learning can be designed to remedy knowledge deficiencies through structured, managed, scientific processes. 20 Table 2 Advantages and Disadvantages of Tacit versus Explicit Knowledge Management Approaches Tacit Knowledge Approach Explicit Knowledge Approach Advantages: Advantages: Relatively easy and inexpensive to begin. Articulated knowledge (explicit knowledge assets) may be moved instantaneously anytime anywhere by information technologies. Employees may respond well to recognition of the (claimed) knowledge. Likely to create interest in further knowledge anagement processes. Important knowledge kept in tacit form may be less likely to â€Å"leak† to competitors. Codified knowledge may be proactively disseminated to people who can use specific forms of knowledge. Knowledge that has been made explicit can be discussed, debated, and improved. Making knowledge explicit makes it possible to discover knowledge deficiencies in the organization. Disadvantages: Disadvantages: Ind ividuals may not have the knowledge they claim to have. Considerable time and effort may be required to help people articulate their knowledge. Knowledge profiles of individuals need frequent updating. Ability to transfer knowledge constrained to moving people, which is costly and limits the reach and speed of knowledge dissemination within the organization. Organization may lose key knowledge if key people leave the organization. Employment relationship with key knowledge workers may have to be redefined to motivate knowledge articulation. Expert committees must be formed to evaluate explicit knowledge assets. Application of explicit knowledge throughout organization must be assured by adoption of best practices. 21 22 How to cite Approaches to Knowledge Management Practice, Papers

Action Research in Physical Education free essay sample

With the adjustment of teaching, teachers can rethink teaching methods, the use of cooperative teaching approach to students with moderate to severe disabilities in general education more sports programs. Twenty-six regular students and six self-contained special education students were took part in this study ninety minutes per week. The researcher was based on TeeBall to design a series of physical education activities for regular students and multiple disabilities students, including hitting different kinds of balls, ball throwing, running, and et al. Video, photograph and group discussion were carried out to know the educational effects and help improving the educational qualities. The activities or procedure of physical education were adapted based on the responses of the students. In addition, increased and adjusted human resources in special education to help the progress of inclusive adapted physical education at school. Overall, Adaptation of teaching methods can increase the regular class and special education students to participate in activities, and adapted physical education program should not focus only on the participation, but should also consider that student can have opportunity to establish sense of achievement and to obtain confidence. The activities should be interesting enough in order to increase the acceptance by peers for student with multiple disabilities. Finally, the sharing of practical experience through reflection can facilitate the teaching abilities in adapted physical education. Keywords : nclusive physical education 2. modify teaching method 3. special education students Introduction In the last a number of decades, several countries have enacted legislation to increased inclusion of individuals with disabilities into classrooms, schools, and communities. There was a key point since 1975 when Public Law 94-142 mandated that students with disabilities be educated in the least restrictive environment, schools have been required to make placement decisions for children with disabilities that are inclusive, educating these children in their home communities with same-age peers whenever possible (Kamens, 2007). Even though the term ‘inclusion’ appears nowhere in federal legislation governing the education of students with disabilities, it has been the subject of endless discussion (Friend, 2011). Friend thinks that inclusion is a belief system shared by every member of a school as a learning community about the responsibility of educating all students so that they reach their potential. That is to say, Inclusive education is not only an important issue and trend for all learners but also for teachers. In spite of inclusive education movement, there are still a variety of students with moderate to severe physical or intellectual disabilities placed in self-contained classes for their school day (Block, Taliaferro, Campbell, Harris amp; Tipton, 2011). The researcher is a self-contained class special educator, who teaches in the elementary school, having some inclusion experience with general class. Students in a self-contained class are difficult to study with general students, especially in academic studying such as language, mathematics or science. Although they rarely have opportunities to study in general classes due to cognitive disorders, most of them can participate in physical activities. Physical education offer vast opportunities for students to engage in activities and development at very different levels of ability. Many students who struggle with reading, writing, and mathematics, for example, will often excel in sports (Peterson amp; Hittie, 2010). In other words, physical education is a good way to conduct inclusive education for those students and must adjust the activities to match their variety of abilities. P. L. 4-142, Education for All Handicapped Children Act â€Å"identified physical education as a direct service required for students with disabilities† (Auxter, Pyfer, amp; Huettig, 2001, p. 12). What is more, amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) (Public Law 108–446, 2004) defined special education as †¦ specifically designed instruction, at no cost to parents, to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability, including-instruction conducted in the classroom, in the home, in hospitals and institutions, and in other settings; and instruction in physical education. Research had been shown that appropriate physical activity experiences improve one’s ability to learn (Changeux, 1997; Ericksson et al. , 1998; Mears, 2003; Van Praag, Kempermann, amp; Gage, 1999), whereas insufficient physical activity appears to limit one’s ability to learn (Howard, 2000; Mears, 2001). In addition, physical activity regulates the balance of neurotransmitters and hormones that enhance one’s ability to learn and lessens the need for chemical or drug intervention for attention disorder, depression, panic disorders, and many other personality/mental and behavior disorders (Jensen, 2000). However, in many cases these students are not included in general physical education programs, and they receive their adapted physical education (APE) only with peers from theirself-contained class (Block, Taliaferro, Campbell, Harris amp; Tipton, 2011). Traditional physical education by definition is no different than adapted physical education, in which the primary focus is on offering an individualized developmentally appropriate education based on cognitive, motor, and personal–social development (Etzel-Wise amp; Mears, 2004). Inclusive physical education means providing all students with disabilities the opportunities to participate in regular physical education with their peers, with supplementary aides and support services as needed to take full advantage of the goals of motor skill acquisition, fitness, knowledge of movement and psyco-social well-being, toward the outcome of preparing all students for an active lifestyle appropriate to their abilities and interests (Goodwin, Watkinson, amp; Fitzpatrick, 2003). Some esearchers have found that students with and without disabilities demonstrated favorable attitudes toward peers, coaches, and teachers as a result of inclusion (Obrusnikova, Valkova, amp; Block, 2003). Children with disabilities will often demonstrate more confidence and increased active participation when their peers are also engaged in the same activity (Etzel-Wise amp; Mears, 2004). Moreover, when game are appropriately modified to create successful experience for all learners, students with and without disabilities are more receptive to accommodating students with disabilities (Kalyvas amp; Reid, 2003; Obrusnikova et al. 2003). Using peer tutors has also been determined to have a positive effect on students with disabilities who are included in general physical education. Think that current educational reforms are challenging school systems in similar ways to make the general curriculum accessible to all learners. It is only when teachers are willing to plan ahead and analyze their curriculum, instruction, rules, equipment, and environment that children with disabilities will have a chance at full participation in general physical education (Lieberman amp; Houston-Wilson, 2009). For students with significant disabilities, special educators may collaborate with physical therapists, general educators or adapted physical education teachers who may provide support in integrating students with special needs into the class, helping them improve physical functioning. Successful teaching frequently depends on the provision of appropriate support services. Support services might be quite varied and might involve teaching assistants, paraprofessionals, related service professionals, adapted physical educators, volunteers, students, and others (Winnick, 2011). Hence, a co-teaching model allows general and special education teachers to share their skills and knowledge, to face difficulties and solve problems together enabling them to respond more effectively to the diverse needs of their students (Luckner, 1999), facilitate their access to learning (Jimenez-Sanchez amp; Antia, 1999; Kirchner, 1994), and as such promote ‘inclusive thinking’ (Argyropoulos amp; Nikolaraizi, 2009). Co-teaching is defined as when â€Å" two or more professionals jointly deliver substantive instruction to a diverse, or blended, group of students in a single physical space† (Cook amp; Friend, 1995, p. ). The practice provides teachers with an opportunity to share professional expertise each other. In most instances, general educators are considered masters of content, and special educators are viewed as masters of access (Villa, Thousand, amp; Nevin, 2008). It is beneficial to all learners, if we can come together dissimilar expertise and design activities to mach their abilities. A quality program in adapted physical education and sport depends to a great extent on the availability of quality human resources and the ability of involved personnel to perform effectively within a group. To provide high-quality services for adapted physical education and sport, the teacher must work with various school and IEP committees (Winnick, 2011). Effective communication is key to navigating professional relationships, whether teachers are thrown together or have time to get to know each other (Sileo, 2011). In addition, teachers can involve students in developing adaptations to games that allow students with significant disabilities to participate (Peterson amp; Hittie, 2010). Sometimes activities or games must to adjust to meet students’ needs. A good adaptation does the following: promotes interaction and interplay, meets the needs of all students in the class, improves or maintains self-esteem, provides physical activity, and provides a safe experience for all (Winnick, 2011). Modifications to conduct the adaptation of physical activities have been directly or indirectly categorized in many ways. Lieberman and Houston-Wilson (2009) suggest four modification areas for adapting activities: equipment, rules, environment, and instruction. Each modification area involves a change or variation so that students with unique needs might be better able to participate in skills or games. Besides, the instruction or environmental cue is an event a learner responds to (Collier, 2011). Thus, when conducting inclusive physical education, there are many factors, such as class size, place, and time, must take into account. The educators of this study designed many Tee-ball related activities to achieve inclusive physical education. Tee Ball or T-Ball is a sport based on baseball and is intended as an introduction for children to develop baseball skills and have fun. The game is the entry sport to baseball and softball for young players, generally four to eight years old. Members of two teams take turns hitting a ball off a batting tee set on home plate. Batters try to get on base and advance to home; fielders try to prevent that from happening. The elimination of pitching allows children to participate without the fear of being hit by a pitched ball. Tee ball develops the primary baseball skills of hitting, running, fielding and throwing. The players gain an understanding of the fundamental rules, which allows minimally competitive league play at all age levels (http://www. eeballusa. org). The researcher and his colleagues used the rules of Chinese Taipei Happy Ball association to develop many related activities. At the same time, we adjusted many rules, material, and activities to meet students’ abilities, and mapped out different goals and objectives for general students and self-contained class students. For example, we may focus on stepping with opposite foot to shift weight, follow-through, be more forceful swing for students with moderate to severe disabilities. Although there are many researchers, textbooks authors, and educational policy makers recommend co-teaching or modification may an inclusion strategy for students with disabilities, there is little research supporting these recommendations in physical education. The purpose of this study was to put into practice an inclusive physical education by adjusting a variety of teaching methods, so self-contained special education students and regular students can also join the general physical education. The following research questions were explored: 1. How to design the inclusive physical education curricular or adjust the activities in order to meet all learners’ needs under co-teaching? What had been changed between general and self-contained students after participating in adapted physical education? Method The researcher used an action research design to examine how teachers collaborate with each other and find out how to modify the course for all learners. Action research is a methodology that fulfills two important onditions; one is that it seeks the improvement of teachers’ practice in order to improve their students’ understanding, using any appropriate tool, and the other is that it seeks and understanding of the educational setting and context in general (Feldman amp; Minstrell, 2000; Kemmis amp; McTaggart, 1988). For the sake of this reason, the researcher believed that the framework of action research was the best choice to shape inclusive practice, in order to solve problems together enabling teachers to respond more effectively to the diverse needs of students. According to Kemmis and McTaggart (1988) there is a group of four fundamental aspects in action research: planning, acting, observing and reflecting. They highlight the dynamic complementarity of the four aspects in action research which end up in a cycle, and ultimately in a spiral of such cycles (Argyropoulos amp; Nikolaraizi, 2009). These aspects were present in the project of the present study and converged to the fulfillment of the ultimate target of action research which is ‘change’. Participants The researcher and his colleague invited a general class teacher at four grade and related personnel to join this project and organized a team to implement it. The collaborative action research group included 3 physical education teachers, 1 general class teacher, and 1 teaching assistant in the elementary school in Pidigan Central School. Two of three physical education teachers have dual certification (i. e. , general elementary education and special education), and the researcher (also have dual certification) had teaching experience in general class. Participation was voluntary. The cooperating teachers that participated in this project were 3 female and 2 male, with an average of 8. 5 years of teaching experience (see Table 1). In addition, there were 6 self-contained class students and 26 general class students at four grade also involved in this study. Students, who studied in self-contained class, were all moderate to severe disabilities and three of six students had inclusion experience before this study.