Virtual Environments in Knowledge Management " a Tool for Measuring Productivity?

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1. Introduction

New forms of IT-enabled intermediation, such as virtual environments, bring along new possibilities and challenges for knowledge management. The field of knowledge management (KM) is lacking the study of how the use of virtual environments affects the overall productivity, knowledge capital and knowledge dissolution in organizations. Virtual environments (VE) are 3D environments where users are represented by a digital three dimensional representation of themselves. These environments are being used more extensively in different industries, expectedly led by the IT-sector and companies such as Nokia, IBM and Xerox. One example of the use and development of virtual environments is the Sametime 3D environment developed by IBM (IBM 2009).

Although new technologies always provide new tools but by definition they are just tools and thus need to be implemented correctly to be proficient in business use. This view is essential because the technological tool needs to fit the knowledge management strategy of the firm, otherwise the tool is of relatively little use to better the knowledge management strategy of the company (Alavi & Leidner 2001).

The roles of knowledge workers (KWR) and knowledge management are by definition intertwined, although their interdependencies have not explicitly been described in the literature. Existing studies suggests that knowledge workers use tacit knowledge extensively and that their effectiveness also depends on how this tacit knowledge is attained (Alavi & Leidner 2001). The traditional literature suggests that tacit knowledge remains at the core of efficient knowledge work, whether in form of collaboration or cognitive reflection (Nonaka 1994). The managerial challenge then is to map these explicit and tacit knowledge flows to form a basis for managerial actions. Especially, the challenge for the management of knowledge workers is to measure the productivity of these workers in order to make informed managerial decisions. Therefore it is essential to develop a theory basis for the adaptation of virtual environments in knowledge management.

Companies have implemented different virtual environments as their collaborative tools and no one de facto standard virtual platform has emerged. Not much research or data exists on how different platform are being used in business and more importantly: how and why have companies switched between different virtual environment platforms relatively often? This topic is outside of the scope of this study but should be studied more carefully to grasp the different methods how virtual environments are perceived in business use currently.

2 . The role of knowledge work productivity in knowledge management

The current research on knowledge work productivity corresponds with the intuitive thought: that the ways to measure productivity need to change as the nature of work has changed towards more knowledge intensive processes. As new work environments and communication technologies emerge, there is a rising need for productivity measurements in the field. For example, Ramirez and Nembhardt (2004) account that the literature has called for quantifiable measures of KW but none have thus far surfaced. Much of this is due to the lack of throughout and robust proof for quantifiable advantages and disadvantages of technologies in professional usage.

Productivity essentially can be seen in numerous ways. Here productiveness, in its most basic form, entails the efficiency of the process where certain inputs are transformed to outputs. The research on virtual world based teams has thus far provided us with qualitative proof and discussion of the benefits of virtual environment teams and their productivity. The macro-level research on the topic is equally scarce, limiting to the measurement of information technology, as a whole, to firm productiveness (Peslak 2004). The academic research lacks the study on economic feasibility of virtual environment teams, though there are some results on knowledge work in general. One popular and efficient way to study the economic feasibility of virtual world based teams is productivity. Thus, the next logical step for the academic research to take is to study how the productiveness of virtual environment teams can be measured in economic terms.

Virtual world based teams offer the obvious possibility of working in dispersed geographical locations, aside from that, productivity benefits and factors thereof are unknown. However, virtual worlds offer new tools and new methods for virtual teams to collaborate and therefore likely they experience productivity benefits in their collaboration. The classical productivity measurements need to be adapted to grasp these new benefits as well as possible pitfalls of professional virtual world teams. Practical implications of the study on virtual world teams’ productivity are straightforward and vital for understanding the feasibility of such teams.

In professional environments, especially managers, are curious and doubtful about utilizing virtual worlds to their own teams. Furthermore, the paper will discuss different ways that the use of virtual worlds as a professional tool will help the quantification and analysis on productivity of virtual teams. It should be noted however that this paper takes an economic approach to the matter and as such attempts to find new quantitative methods to analyze productivity in virtual teams.

Defining productivity in professional teams working in virtual worlds correlates strongly with the literature related to knowledge workers productivity. Knowledge work is often classified as a performance of a task that is dependent on knowledge gained through theoretical education as well as experience (Ramirez & Nemhardt 2004). While the concept of knowledge work has been in use since Drucker (1959) mentioned it in his study there is still little consensus about its use and categorization. In this paper the dilemma is resolved through the research medium which is virtual worlds. It can be assumed that significant majority of professional work carried out in virtual worlds can be classified as knowledge work.

The standard business environment uses certain measurements to determine teams’ performance and productivity. Literature on knowledge work has also tackled the issue of productivity (Ramirez & Nembhard 2004 and Ramirez & Steudel 2008). It is essential that both of these views on productivity are considered while studying productivity in virtual environments. The approach to measure knowledge workers productivity from the viewpoint of Taylorism has received much criticism (Ramirez & Nemhardt 2004). Although, the criticism towards traditional productivity measurements is needed due to the very different nature of knowledge work, there are certain pitfalls in digressing too far away from traditional productivity theories. Ideally productivity measures end up with total productivity where it is possible to observe the effects of managerial decisions, such as the effects of knowledge management.

I postulate that from the team and unit management point of view the firm still uses the basic labor inputs to reach certain outputs. The inputs that are put towards work effort in individual level might be difficult to accrue but as a cost basis they still are quantifiable for the firm as labor costs. The output side of the productivity measurement might not be as easily quantifiable as the quality aspects also need to be taken into consideration. Thus, the basic definition of productivity needs not to be disregarded, although we might consider using different measurement techniques. One example of a different measurement technique is the use of subjective productivity measurements. In the research it has been discussed that when the quantifiable measurement of knowledge work is difficult, subjective productivity measurements should be used (Kemppila & Lonnqvist 2003). In practice, subjective measurements are conducted by asking the team members their own opinions on their productivity levels.

3. Subjective productivity measurements and knowledge flow capture in virtual environments  

Virtual environments, as a technological environment, offer the possibility to capture the knowledge flows between different workers in an organization using the virtual environment. In virtual environments communication happens mainly by two ways. Firstly, is the voice communication, which can be technically implemented in numerous different ways. Secondly, there is the instant messaging or similar text-based communication between team members.

The communication between team members is a reflection of the actual knowledge flows happening between team members in these virtual environments. These knowledge flows can offer information on how tacit and implicit knowledge moves between workers. Furthermore, the use of virtual environments offers the possibility of prompting subjective questionnaires, such as discussed in the previous chapter, for the users. This possibility combines the ability to compare the questionnaires to the knowledge flows and acquire insights on knowledge flows and subjective user opinions on their own productivity. The option for the management of a team to gather data about the collaboration in the team and easily combine it with the communication “maps” between team members offers unique abilities for the management. 

Bibliografia/Referències

• Alavi, Maryam, Leidner, Dorothy E. Review: Knowledge Management and Knowledge Management Systems: Conceptual Foundations and Research Issues 2001

• Drucker, P. The Landmarks of Tomorrow 1959

• IBM 2009, “Made in IBM Labs: IBM Creates Software for Holding Face-to-Face Meetings in Virtual Worlds” [online]. Recovered September 29 2009, from http://www.mcc.rcanaria.es    http://www-03.ibm.com/press/us/en/pressrelease/26837.wss

• Kemppila, Sari, Lonnqvist, Antti. Subjective productivity measurement 2003

• Nonaka, Ikujiro. A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation 1994

• Peslak, Alan R. A Firm Level Study of Information Technology  Productivity in Europe Using Financial and market based Measures 2004

• Ramirez, Yuri W., Nembhardt, David A. Measuring knowledge worker productivity 2004

• Ramirez, Yuri W., Steudel, Harry J. Measuring knowledge work: the knowledge work quantification framework 2008

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