Knowledge Management book review by Wilma Garvin

Title: The Human Factor
Author: Rolf Habbel
Publishers: Palgrave
ISBN: 1-4039-0195-3

Outline

‘The success of a knowledge-based organisation will always depend on the willingness of its people to share their knowledge and expertise.   There is a dependence on the human factor.' Elizabeth Lank (1997) then Programme Director for Knowledge Management at ICL.

In his book, ‘The Human Factor', Dr Habbel, Vice President and Partner of Booz Allen Hamilton, based in Munich, has chosen to focus on the human factor in business and explains how management needs to convince its employees that the company has a long-term future by innovating to secure this future and its dependence on its customers for its existence.   He aims to chart an ethical roadmap for successful management in the 21st century.   He clearly states in the Foreword that the book is not intended to offer a template for the successful manager but rather attempts to make connections between global trends, key entrepreneurial challenges and success factors .   This book presents a thoughtful discussion on the challenges facing businesses in the 21st century – globalisation, the internet, new technological developments, the competitive environment, the role of knowledge and social change.  

Dr Habbel covers the I-World and how the virtual world has had such an impact on life and business.   He argues that leadership and the human factor are being overlooked and that unless companies can convince employees and customers that they are going in the right direction then they will have no chance to survive.  

When the book was published as Faktor Menschlichkeit (the Human Factor) in German, it received the Best Business Book of the Year (2001) award from the Financial Times in Germany.   In his consultancy work, Dr Habbel specialises in worldwide market strategies, innovative business strategies, and efficiency programmes in the telecommunications and information industry.

Analysis

In discussing knowledge management, Dr Habbel covers the importance of ‘competence networks'.   He defines ‘competence' as ‘the result of an intelligent, active combination of knowledge, experience and personal networks'.   This could be compared with the work of Etienne Wenger on ‘communities of practice' when he discusses mutual engagement, joint enterprise and shared repertoire.   According to Dr Habbel, ‘competence networks' support the productivity of knowledge workers; the flexibility and adaptability of the organisation; the development of employees as individuals; innovation management; a more profound understanding of the market; management of core competences; the quality of customer service; networking beyond the boundaries of the organisation and preparation of the organisation for e-business.

The recent work of Saint-Onge and Wallace might also be considered, describing ‘communities of practice' as having the knowledge base, processes and procedures that inform a collection of actions in the delivery of a product or service; practitioners who join together to find ways to rebuild capability required to realise strategies and the knowledge base, skills, abilities, attitudes, brands, processes and relationships that result in the ability to undertake actions within the practice; the ‘link' between strategy and performance.

Underpinning the role of knowledge management and the human factor, Dr Habbel covers leadership and he presents the leadership framework – leadership for change that is represented as the Think- Talk – Do Matrix.   Under the ‘Do', he recommends acting consistently with principles, recognising and rewarding appropriate behaviour, punishing inappropriate behaviour, initiating key processes, leading by example, encouraging input outside the hierarchy, being flexible with tactics but inflexible on principles and finally, delegating, empowering….and getting out of the way.   This view on leadership put forward in ‘The Human Factor'   could be put against Greenberg and Robertson's 1999 study for Accenture, ‘The Evolving Role of Executive Leadership', in which they defined fourteen dimensions of leadership – shared vision, developing and empowering people, appreciating cultural diversity, building teamwork and partnerships, embracing change, showing technical savvy, encouraging constructive challenge, ensuring customer satisfaction, achieving competitive advantage, demonstrating personal mastery, sharing leadership and living the values.  

Readership

The Human Factor would be informative for senior managers who are considering the strategic impact of knowledge management initiatives and in considering how people are important to the organisation with regard to innovation and in customer relationships.     It is also interesting to find a European book that discusses knowledge management when, probably, the majority of books on knowledge management originate in North America.    This could present an insight for companies with business links with companies from German-speaking countries.

Verdict

Overall, this book covers the major challenges of the 21st century - globalisation, the internet, new technological developments, the competitive environment, the role of knowledge and social change.   It looks at these from the European perspective and includes references from senior managers from German-speaking companies.   Dr Habbel also introduces research into what the book refers to as implicit and explicit knowledge from Dr Leopold K. Fara of the Paderborn Institute for Applied Psychology who differentiates between individual, implicit knowledge (that which is present but unavailable) and explicit and available knowledge.   This could be a useful perspective on knowledge, as represented by the work of Nonaka and Takeuchi and Cook and Brown.

Bibliography

Cook SDN and Brown JS, Bridging Epistemologies: The Generative Dance between Organisational Knowledge and Organisational Knowing, the Institute of Operations Research and the Management Sciences (1999)

Greenberg C and Robertson A, The Evolving Role of Executive Leadership, the Andresen Consulting Institute for Strategic Change (1999)

Nonaka I and Takeuchi H, The Knowledge-Creating Company, Oxford University Press (1995)

Saint-Onge H and Wallace D, Leveraging Communities of Practice for Strategic Advantage, Butterworth Heinemann (2003)

Wenger Etienne, Communities of Practice, Cambridge (1998)   

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