If the company generates new knowledge and provides its efficiency throughout its network, he will soon be playing tomorrow's game with the tools of yesterday. Many rely on the information technology infrastructure, but no matter how difficult, it is not the key to effective knowledge management. Success, the authors say, is more dependent on the social system in which people work - social ecology of the company. Social ecology drives people's expectations, determines who will fit in, the freedom of individuals to carry out the form without the prior consent, and affects how they interact with both insiders and outsiders. Focusing on Nucor Corporation with success in the 1980s and 1990s, the authors suggest that it was the social environment of the company, which contributed to his becoming one of the most efficient steel producers in the world. Thanks to effective knowledge management, Nucor developed and constantly improving basic strategic and own competences: building and running the plant know-how and expert knowledge of the production process, as well as the opportunity to breakthrough technologies before competitors. Social ecology Nucor also allowed, among other things, the best practices in the tasks related to the exchange and mobilization of knowledge: identifying opportunities for sharing knowledge, encouraging people to share knowledge, create efficient and effective channels, and convincing people to adopt and use the knowledge gained . The authors explain how others can maximize the sharing of knowledge, setting site goals, providing powerful incentives to empower growth, equipping each unit with clearly defined "sandbox" for experimentation, and the cultivation of the internal market for ideas. This is a difficult task. But it is very difficult if you think that the company has successfully its decisions will have a competitive advantage that competitors can not win just by buying the same software. "Hide
by Anil K. Gupta, Vijay Govindarajan Source: MIT Sloan Management Review 12 pages. Publication Date: 01 Oct 2000. Prod. #: SMR057-PDF-ENG
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