Yuan Lin, my doctoral student, and I have a paper accepted for presentation at the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management in San Antonio, Texas (August 12-16, 2011).

Individuals’ Knowledge Transfer Behaviors and Social Networks: A Co-evolution Framework

The boom of the network concept in organizational research has resulted in a growing interest in the interplay between organizational members’ knowledge transfer and their social network structure. This paper treats such interplay as a co-evolution process and lay out a theoretical framework, CO-evolution of Individuals and Networks (COIN), to facilitate its modeling. Using a simplified example, we identify the components of a co-evolution model that should be constructed based on substantive theories: cross-level causal mechanisms, network structural factors, individual heterogeneity and autonomy, the relationships among model assumption, inputs and outputs. COIN synthesizes theoretical or empirical evidence that can help construct these components from multiple disciplines (e.g., organizational research, statistics, physics, economics, and sociology). It decomposes the co-evolution process into key constructs and mechanisms and organizes existing theories around them. It also exposes gaps in related work which once filled can facilitate studies on network-behavior co-evolutio

Lin, Y.A., and Desouza, K.C. “Individuals’ Knowledge Transfer Behaviors and Social Networks: A Co-evolution Framework,” In Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, San Antonio, TX (August 12-16, 2011).

I just returned from a wonderful trip to Chicago. During my visit, I had the opportunity to talk with senior leaders of the University of Illinois at Chicago. At a special event called Celebrating the College of Business Administration (CBA), I was honored by being inducted into the Alumni Leadership Academy (ALA) as part of the 2011 Class.  "The ALA celebrates those alumni who best exemplify the College of Business Administration's commitment to leadership, teaching, research and service. Inductions to the academy are held every year to honor outstanding CBA alumni whose contributions in these areas raise the stature and standing of the college."[1] I dedicated my award to the undergraduate advisors I had during my time at the CBA.

[1] http://uic.edu/cba/alumni/ala.html

I returned from Slovenia about a week back. During my visit, I had the opportunity to give a keynote talk at the Center of Excellence for Biosensors, Instrumentation and Process Control as part of the Slovenska visokotehnološka MSP na prepihu inovativne in razvojno tehnološke prebojnosti: Slovenija x.0 ? conference. I met with several executives during the conference and enjoyed exchanging ideas on how to design collaborative innovation platforms that promote private-private and private-public innovation partnerships. A key issue that surfaced is how to design an appropriate governance structure so as to promote knowledge transfer and collaboration among industry players that have a lot to gain (and lose) from collaboration. Alignment of incentives, sharing of risks, and even design of prototype collaborative endeavors are all essential components to build collaborative innovation partnerships.

I just returned from a wonderful trip to Thailand. During my visit, I had an opportunity to give a talk at Bangkok University on Designing the Innovation Process. The talk was sponsored by the Institute for Knowledge and Innovation - South East Asia and Thailand's National Innovation Agency (NIA). During the event, I had a chance to dialogue with over 60 distinguished managers and executives who represented Thailand's leading private and public sector organizations. I had the opportunity to discuss research collaboration with the Thailand Productivity Institute, and Bangkok University, among other organizations. It was a real treat to meet University of Washington alumni in Thailand.

I was impressed by the breadth of knowledge management programs in various Thai organizations. In addition, I learnt how Thai organizations are tailoring standard knowledge management approaches to meet the cultural and economic realities of the country. Thailand is an up and coming Asian economy. While, still highly dependent on tourism, the Thai government, through agencies such as the NIA, are supporting the development of innovative and highly entrepreneurial organizations in areas such as green technologies, and biofuel, among others.

My host, Dr. Vincent M. Ribière, did a marvellous job organizing the event. I look forward to my return trip back to Thailand!

On November 10^th, I will give a keynote presentation for the annual conference hosted by the Center of Excellence for Biosensors, Instrumentation and Process Control (COBIK) at the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. The conference is titled: Slovenska visokotehnološka MSP na prepihu inovativne in razvojno tehnološke prebojnosti: Slovenija x.0 ?

The Slovenian government has supported the development of Centers of Excellence. Each Center of Excellence focuses on creating efficient relationships between public and private research institutions, technology driven firms and their global market positioning. The Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana, is one of the partners in the Center of Excellence (COBIK) and is responsible for enabling the research and technology driven firms to gain business knowledge and helping them in the process to market their innovative products and solutions.

The program is available here [LINK]

Ten Rules of Leveraging Ideas for Innovation [LINK]

In this keynote address, I will discuss how leading organizations are building robust processes for leveraging ideas within their organization and across their networks. Ideas are critical ingredients for innovation. Designing robust innovation processes calls for great care in the handling of ideas. To this end, leading organizations are designing, and deploying, a portfolio of mechanisms to help their employees seek out, share, experiment with, commercialize, diffuse, and implement, ideas. I will highlight emerging technology solutions. In addition, I will outline how smart organizations are capturing knowledge about their innovation process and employing it for continuous refinement and renewal.

Thanks for all the comments and feedback on the story of Sam Houston. Taking a suggestion from a reader, I am extending the story…Let me know what you think

Sam returns from his meeting feeling frustrated. The company that he works for, PubIT, is being sued by a major competitor for intellectual property infractions and the product in question is one that was developed under Sam’s watch. Sam has just been assigned another ‘important’ task - do an internal audit to see where certain pieces of the code came from  (Damn, Open Source Gurus, he thinks to himself!)...he needs to figure out if there is any merit to the lawsuit. Sam summons his assistant to his office and asks, “Julie, do you need a caffeine fix?” From years of working together, Julie had learned to read Sam’s mood, no matter how well he tried to mask it.  She knew immediately that something was not right. “Sure, Boss. Do you want me to get you the usual?” Sam thinks for a minute, then gets up from his chair, “No, let’s walk down together.” 

While standing in line waiting to order their drinks, Julie decides to break the silence. “Sam, I have worked with you for over five years, but I have never seen you so stressed. Maybe I can help? I know that I can take on more... just tell me what needs to be done!” Sam smiles and responds with a question, “How about a Venti, rather than your usual, Tall?” 

With coffees in hand, they settle into the leather chairs of the coffee shop.  “That Venti is going to cost you Julie," Sam remarks in jest.  Then more seriously, he adds, “I need to know your secret. I keep giving you things to do but you remain calm and get all of them done as needed. How do you do this?” Julie pauses, looking down at the mug in her hands. It is her favorite secretary gift that Sam has given her over the years. It is a simple white cup decorated with the message ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’. Julie points to it, reminding Sam of what he had told her a few years before, “Sam, remember the long conversation we had at Finn MacCools (a neighborhood pub, or as everyone knew it - Sam’s Irish Office!), you gave me the history lesson about how the British Government’s Ministry of Information printed out posters with these words, Keep Calm and Carry On, to help its citizenry deal with the chaos of World War II.”

Sam nods his head. “I remember. A powerful message but much harder to put into practice!  What is your secret? How do you dodge all the bombs I send your way, so to speak?  I keep throwing so much your way!” Julie knows her boss is a ‘solutions guy' who likes to solve problems once he becomes aware of them. She suggests, “Sam, here is one technique that works well for me. I keep a list of the things you ask me to do. Next to each item, I make answer the following three questions: 1) How important is it?  2) Who is the customer or ultimate stakeholder that I am going to impact with the task? and 3) What is the deadline for the task?  During our weekly meeting, I go over the items on the list, then listen to all the new things that you want done. Afterwards, I go back to my desk and reprioritize the list.  As needed, I get more information from you, including 1) I ask you what things I can drop from the list given the developments of the week, 2) If you need me to take on new tasks, I ask you to change the current deadlines for selected tasks so as to make time and energy available for me to work on the new assignments, and 3) Even though you do not like it, I keep reminding you of tasks that are vitally important (i.e. strategic) on my list that are my major priorities, when I do this, you feel reassured and actually begin to give me more items that can be cut out from my list.”

Processing this information, Sam remarks “So, you developed a system to keep your boss’s demands in check.” Julie giggles, “Sam, if I don't, who will?”  It's another good question.  Taking another sip of coffee, Sam makes a decision to try out Julie’s system. The two of them head back to Sam’s office. Sam proceeds to wipe off his whiteboard, then requests Julie to begin writing down his current tasks, noting for each 1) who the stakeholder he wants to impact is or who is responsible for the task, 2) what the deadline is and 3) the impact (strategic, tactical, or operational) to the organization and to Sam’s career. He pleads with Julie, “Remind me for the next few weeks-- before I take on another task, to reprioritize this list myself.  When people ask me to do something, remind me to walk them over to this whiteboard, just where we are now.  I need to ask them if they are willing to help me with one of the current tasks on my list while I take on something for them. Or, if the person has power to reprioritize my list, I need to ask him or her to grant me permission to drop a task or change a deadline.”

Sam's face looks far more relaxed as he gazes at the whiteboard and imagines how he will use it to manage his upcoming commitments and projects. Something about having the tasks organized boldly in black and white, he feels mentally prepared to take on the challenges of the day. He gives Julie a thumbs-up and tells her, “Julie, the Venti upgrade was my best investment for the last month.  Thank you!”

P.S.  How successful do you think Sam will be in using this new system? Do you see any issues that Sam will face as he tries to make public his list of commitments? Will Sam be able to convince his stakeholders to reprioritize commitments as new developments and emergencies surface? 

Yuan Lin, my doctoral student, and I have a paper accepted at the Thirty First International Conference on Information Systems. The paper describes our ongoing efforts to develop robust models for studying the dynamics of knowledge transfer within organizations.

Abstract: This study focuses on the co-evolution of informal organizational structures and individual knowledge transfer behavior within organizations. Our research methodology distinguishes us from other similar studies. We use agent-based modeling and dynamic social network analysis, which allow for a dynamic perspective and a bottom-up approach. We study the emergent network structures and behavioral patterns, as well as their micro-level foundations. We also examine the exogenous factors influencing the emergent process. We ran simulation experiments on our model and found some interesting findings. For example, it is observed that knowledgeable individuals are not well connected in the network, and our model suggests that being fully involved in knowledge transfer might undermine individuals’ knowledge advantage over time. Another observation is that when there is high knowledge diversity in the system, informal organizational structure tends to form a network of good reachability; that is, any two individuals are connected via a few intermediates.

Lin, Y.A, and Desouza, K.C. “Co-Evolution of Organizational Network and Individual Behavior: An Agent-Based Model of Interpersonal Knowledge Transfer,” In Proceedings of the Thirty First International Conference on Information Systems, St. Louis, Missouri (December 12-15, 2010).

Finally, we are beginning to see more widespread acknowledgement of the reverse brain drain! For the last few years, I have counseled my graduate students to seek opportunities outside the US. Employment prospects outside the US continue to be, on average, more interesting, challenging, and attractive. Graduate students who want to succeed globally need to take the time to expand their global horizons, seek out cultural immersion experiences, and learn foreign languages. Having traveled to India twice in the last three years, I continue to be amazed by the rate of economic growth and the development of the entreprenueiral spirit. Innovators are flocking to India for the simple reason that you have a highly-skilled knowlege workforce that can be deployed on a global stage. One must acknowledge that India has challenges, but these challenges, in my opinion, will get addressed in due time.

P.S. A few years back, Roberto Evaristo and I wrote a paper on global knowledge management strategies. The paper documented the three most dominant strategies employed by organizations to foster knowledge flows across their global operations. It may be time to revise the paper!

The Internal Revenue Service Business Modernization Project undertaken by the Tax Agency of the US Government has been singled out as an example of a massive failure. As envisioned, the project was intended as an Enterprise-wide intervention that would provide modern services and effective data access to citizenry and several government agencies. After more than a decade and 3 billion dollars later, the results appear to be less than exemplary. Sandeep Purao and I have a paper accepted for presentation at the Enterprise Architecture Research (TEAR2010) Workshop that identifies different stakeholders who participated in the project, and analyzes the sentiments and confidence each expressed regarding the fate of the project. We conclude with lessons learned from our investigation including recognizing the importance of multiple stakeholders for Enterprise-wide initiatives.

Purao, S., and Desouza, K.C. “An Enterprise-wide Intervention at IRS: A Longitudinal Analysis of Stakeholder Sentiments,” In Proceedings of the 5th Trends in Enterprise Architecture Research (TEAR2010) Workshop,  Delft, Netherlands (November 12, 2010).