Linking Knowledge Management and
Employee Engagement
Will They Tell You What They Know?
2017 Mid-Atlantic Lean Conference
Dr. Robert Downing
Date: 11/14/17
Newport News Shipbuilding
• Sole Supplier of U.S. Navy Aircraft Carriers
• One of Two Builders Constructing Virginia Class Nuclear Submarines
• Exclusive Provider of Refueling Services for Nuclear-Powered Aircraft Carriers
• Largest Non-Governmental Provider of Fleet Maintenance Services to the Navy
• Largest Industrial Employer in Virginia – More Than 23,000 Employees
• Home of the Western Hemisphere’s Largest Dry Dock and Crane
Newport News ShipbuildingA Subsidiary of Huntington Ingalls Industries
Quotes from Survey Participants
I usually only share info when asked.
I don't offer and do not press if the suggestion is not well
received.
Basically, I will share and ask for advice from anyone… I
wouldn't share/ask for information from people who are
extremely high up in management or people who are
arrogant.
If you think you can just flip a switch and I’m going to
give you my best ideas – that’s never going to happen.
3
Types of Knowledge
Is inside of peoples’ heads or in the “Brains of Employees”. It
has not been captured, so it has not been formalized or
organized. The knowledge can not be easily accessed by
other employees.
Knowledge that has been articulated, captured, or codified
(Nichols, 2000) – “Written down”.
4
Tacit Knowledge :
Explicit knowledge:
Problem:
Losing Tacit Knowledge at a Faster Rate
Potential exists for significant knowledge loss.
Large portion of workforce moving to retirement years
Employees retire before their knowledge can be captured
What are you experiencing?
6
1.2%
6.7%
18.8%
23.3%
28.1%
18.3%
3.7%
0.0%
5.0%
10.0%
15.0%
20.0%
25.0%
30.0%
16-19 20-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+
Manufacturing WorkforceAge as a percentage of Total US manufacturing workforce - 2012
Median Age = 44.7
Fear of Losing Your Knowledge
• Exercise
– Interview each other to determine knowledge at risk in
your organization. Think about age demographics (how
many and when they might leave), complexity of the
knowledge:
• 5 minutes
• 15 minutes to report-out
– Goal: To capture the unique/perishable knowledge
9
Increased Retirement –
Continuing Knowledge Loss
10
Increased Retirements
(and other attrition)
Smaller Pool of Qualified
Applicants
The Sources and Transfer of Knowledge
Where is knowledge when you need it?From an organization that spent 5 years to capture their tacit Knowledge
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
7%
16%
13%
13%
51%
Paper Documents
Electronic
Documents
Electronic Mail
Files
Electronic
Knowledge Bases
Brains of
Employees
At most companies, 80 - 90% of the corporate knowledge is in peoples’ heads
11
Problem with Sharing Knowledge
Slightly over 10% of the “knowledge transfer events” involved hiding knowledge.
Connelly, Zweig, Webster & Trougakos (2012).
From a Gallup Perspective – “Disengaged Employees”
Are you concerned with “Employee Engagement”?
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Common Management Assumption
A common management assumption is that employees freely and openly will share their knowledge. This assumption seems to be based on the attitude that the company owns the knowledge that resides within the employees’ heads
Jarvenpaa & Staples (2001).
However, almost no objective evidence exists tosupport that this is how employees feel about sharing ortransferring their tacit knowledge.
13
What does this impact Process Improvement?
14
• Capture participants’ ideas
• Discuss implications
Purpose of the Tacit KM Study
Research Background:
Developing predictors of general knowledge transfer –
not just opinion.
The purpose of this study was to develop predictors or indicators of tacit-knowledge transfer.
30 questions / 5 categories•Perceived management commitment•Social interaction•Trust •Rewards•Status
Scoring was based on a seven point Likeret Scale
*Administered to employees from DOE labs (Navy Nuclear)
15
Results of Simple Linear Regression
Variable composite B SE B β t p
Trust 0.50 0.14 .43 3.51 .001**
Perceived management
commitment 0.41 0.13 .40 3.26 .002**
Social-interaction climate 0.32 0.12 .36 2.82 .007**
Reward 0.40 0.16 .32 2.49 .020*
Status 0.29 0.17 .22 1.67 .100
Table 6Simple Linear Regression With Each Variable Predicting Knowledge Sharing (p value = below .05 is significant)*p < .05. **p < .01.
Trust is the #1 predictor of knowledge sharing16
Link to Gallup (Best Friend at Work)
Tacit KM Survey Questions and ScoresQuestion Score
26 You and Pat both work at your
company. Both of you started work
at the same time and have been
friends ever since. Would you
share with Pat?
“Friend”
Mean Score 6.7 (out of 7) on KM
Sharing Survey
Note: This is the highest mean
score of all the survey questions.
95.7% will share
17 You and Pat both work at your
company in completely different
divisions and have never met each
other. Would you share with Pat?
“Don’t Know Them”
Mean Score 5.0 on KM Sharing
Survey 71.4% will share
18 You and Pat both work at your
company. Pat has a reputation for
never helping anyone. Would you
share with Pat?
“Perhaps, Don’t Like Them”
Lowest Mean Score 4.5 on KM
Sharing Survey 64.3% will share
Based on seven point Likert Scale: Seven is likely to share, one is not likely 17
Link to Gallup (Best Friend at Work)
Tacit KM Survey Questions and ScoresQuestion Score
New You and Pat both work at your
company in completely different
divisions. The two division have
been fighting over turf and
responsibilities for some time.
Would you share with Pat?
“Fighting over Turf”
6.4% will share
New You and Pat both work at your
company. Pat stabbed you in the
back two weeks ago. Would you
share with Pat?
“Stabbed you in the Back”
2.1% will share
Based on seven point Likert Scale: Seven is likely to share, one is not likely 18
Significance
• Knowledge sharing is “Situational” – it depends on the
Situation and how the employees feels about sharing.
– Note: This is not just “bad employees” not sharing.
This is “good employees not sharing” – depending on
the situation.
• Question: Does this apply to all discretionary effort from
employees? Gallup says “Yes”
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Employee Engagement, the Missing Link
Employee
Engagement
Productivity &
Profitability
Black Box “Magic Occurs”
Knowledge Sharing
Culture Impacts Productivity20
21
Finding the Right Questions
• 1,000s of different questions
• More than 1 million employees
• Identify the factors common to productive workplaces
• Identify the best questions to measure these factors -
questions where the best said Yes and the rest said No
In 1994, Gallup Changed The Model
Copyright © 2009 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.
The Science of the Sorting Effect
Higher performing units
Lower performing units
“I receive recognition.”
High ratingLow rating
Poor Item
“In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.”
High ratingLow rating
Great Item
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Q12® Employee Engagement
▪ I know what is expected of me at work.
▪ I have the materials and equipment I need to do my work right.
At work, I have the opportunity to do what I do best every day.
In the last seven days, I have received recognition or praise for doing good work.
My supervisor, or someone at work, seems to care about me as a person.
There is someone at work who encourages my development.
At work, my opinions seem to count.
The mission/purpose of my company makes me feel my job is important.
My associates (fellow employees) are committed to doing quality work.
I have a best friend at work.
In the last six months, someone at work has talked to me about my progress.
This last year, I have had opportunities at work to learn and grow.
Copyright © 2009 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.
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Why Is Employee Engagement So Important?
Copyright © 2009 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.
TOP-QUARTILE ENGAGEMENT WORK UNITS HAVE SUBSTANTIALLY BETTER OUTCOMES THAN THEIR BOTTOM-QUARTILE COUNTERPARTS
PROVING THE VALUE OF THE Q12® :
META-ANALYSIS OUTCOMES
Business units in the top engagement quartile have 48% fewer safety incidents and 41% fewer quality defects than their bottom-quartile counterparts.
-37%
-25%
-65%
-28%
-48%
-41% -41%
10%
21% 22%
-70%
-60%
-50%
-40%
-30%
-20%
-10%
0%
10%
20%
30%Turnover
Absen-teeism
Shrink-age
SafetyIncidents
Customer
ProductivityProfitability
High-Turnover
Orgs.
Low-Turnover
Orgs.
PatientSafety
Incidents
Quality(Defects)
Copyright © 2009, 2013 Gallup, Inc. All rights reserved.
Engagement = Performance
3.76
4.34
3.4
3.5
3.6
3.7
3.8
3.9
4
4.1
4.2
4.3
4.4
2011 2013
Grand Mean Shop A
≈ 30th Percentile
≈ 75th Percentile
98.1%
98.8%
97.6%
97.8%
98.0%
98.2%
98.4%
98.6%
98.8%
99.0%
2011 2013
FTQ Shop A
9.3
6.3
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
2011 2013
Manhours/Detail Shop A
14
5
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
2011 2013
Accidents Shop A
0.94
1.13
0.85
0.95
1.05
1.15
2011 2013
Cost Performance Index Shop A
64% Drop
32% Drop
20% Increase
Performance
Challenge to Social Service Professionals
If Knowledge Sharing is voluntary, how do we increase the
likelihood that colleagues and customers will share their
knowledge…?28
Knowledge Sharing Improvement Areas
• Organizational Level
• Departmental Level
• Supervisory Level
• Personal Level
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How can you personally be more successful in getting
others to share their knowledge?
Strategic Approach (vs. Piece-meal)
• “a strategy and/or practice used to identify, capture and retain
knowledge, information, skills and relationships that are critical to the
current and future performance of a organization.
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“Hope and handwringing is not a Strategy”
In Conclusion
• We can increase knowledge sharing (and Employee Engagement) by increasing “Trust” (Friend at work).
• Trust is necessary for employee engagement (and Knowledge Sharing), and Social Interaction is necessary to build that Trust.
• Part of the process to increase Trust is to allow/encourage more social interaction at work (developing the Friend at work). And, there is also the outside of work interaction and relationships.
• The actions that increase Knowledge sharing are also likely to increase Employee Engagement.
• It is also necessary that our employees perceive that our management is committed to knowledge sharing (and Employee Engagement).
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Really - In Conclusion
• Knowledge Sharing is a gift.
• So, how do you encourage gift giving?
• And, are you ready to receive the gift?
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• Do Nothing
– Expected Results?
• Do Something
– Expected Results?
35
Options for Action
Contact Information
• Robert E. Downing, Ed.D.
(757) 467-3688, cell (757) 717-3416
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• Conoco-Phillip’s knowledge retention strategy slides and presentation materials:
– - Slides: http://www2.apqc.org/aug2014kmcc- Recording: http://webmedia.apqc.org/il80web20025/Marketing/2014_Webinars/2014.8.21_August_KM_CC.wmv
• Additionally, The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) freely shares their KM materials:
http://www.tva.gov/knowledgeretention/index.html
• Finally, let me also suggest that the Knowledge Management materials from The America Productivity and Quality Center (APQC) offer a wealth of information.
http://www.apqc.org/
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Resources
References
• American Productivity & Quality Center. (2005b). Knowledge management: Building and sustaining effective communities of practice. Training manual. Houston, Texas: Author.
• Connelly, C. E., Zweig, D., Webster, J., & Trougakos, J. (2012). Knowledge hiding in organizations. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 33(1), 64-88.
• Halbert, G. D., (2012, April 10) Will Baby Boomers Wreck the Market? (The Sequel). Retrieved from Forecasts & Trends E-letter, http://www.profutures.com/article.php/792/.
• Harter, J.K., Schmidt, F.L., Killham, E.A., & Agrawal, S. (2009). Q12 Meta Analysis: The Relationship between engagement at work and organizational outcomes. Washington, D.C.: Gallup University Press.
• Jarvenpaa, S. L., & Staples, D. S. (2001). Exploring perceptions organizational ownership of information and expertise. Journal of Management Information Systems, 18(1), 151-183.
• Kouzes, J. & Posner, B.(2007). Leadership Challenge. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
• Longwood, Nancy : Leveraging Employee Engagement for Competitive Advantage : HR’s Strategic Role (2007).
• Nichols, F. (2000). The knowledge in knowledge management. In J. W. Cortada & J. A. Woods (Eds.), The knowledge management yearbook 2000–2001, 12-21. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann.
• Rath, T. & Conshie B. (2008) Strengths Based Leadership, New York, NY. Gallup Press
• Webster, J., Brown, G., Zweig, D., Connelly, C. E., Brodt, S., & Sitkin, S. (2008). Beyond knowledge sharing: Knowledge withholding at work. In J. J. Martocchio (Ed.), Research in personnel and human resources management Vol. 27 (pp. 1-37). Bradford: Emerald Group Publishing.
“All clipart images in this presentation are copyrighted works of Microsoft. Individual elements of this presentation may not be copied without the express written permission of Huntington Ingalls Industries.” 38
Tennessee Valley Authority
Knowledge Retention
• Knowledge Retention
• Step 1: Conduct Assessment
• Step 2: Determine Approach
• Step 3: Evaluate
• Glossary
http://www.tva.gov/knowledgeretention/index.html
TVA has given us permission to share their materials - 05/06/14
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Facing the Attrition Challenge
Critical Management Issues
• Focusing on the critical positions where knowledge loss is the greatest
threat
• Identifying and prioritizing the specific knowledge and skills at risk
• Developing concrete, actionable responses to mitigate this loss.
http://www.tva.gov/knowledgeretention/pdf/briefing.pdf
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The Knowledge Retention Process
• Three main questions:
• 1. Specifically, what knowledge is being lost?
• 2. What are the business consequences of losing each item of
knowledge?
• 3. What can we do about each item?
http://www.tva.gov/knowledgeretention/pdf/briefing.pdf
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Knowledge Retention Overall Process
Who?•Garner support and resources•Establish sponsors and agents•Define near- and long-term objectives
So What?•Assess consequences of loss•Categorize and prioritize•Confirm
What?•Determine relative risks•Identify positions/people•Prepare interviewers and
interviewees•Conduct interviews/info gathering•Compile lists of knowledge/skills•Confirm
Now What?•Identify responses•Establish schedules,
responsibilities, measures, etc.•Approve and implement•Monitor and extend
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http://www.tva.gov/knowledgeretention/pdf/briefing.pdf
Knowledge Loss Through Attrition
Strategic Lessons Learned
• There is a logical process
• Focus on Critical Positions -- One job at a time
• Lots of detailed work, analysis, planning, and
project management
• Limited number of ways to deal with it.
• Everyone must do their part - management, HR,
supervisors, process owners, KM professionals
http://www.tva.gov/knowledgeretention/pdf/briefing.pdf
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Knowledge Loss Through Attrition
Tactical Lessons Learned
• Clarify purpose to employees & defuse concerns
• Include newer employees as “observers”
• “How did you learn it?” enlightening
• Clusters of knowledge based on career path
• Safety and reliability/risk drive priorities
• Retirees can be a continuing resource
http://www.tva.gov/knowledgeretention/pdf/briefing.pdf
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