Enhancing Organizational Performance by Architecting Systems for Transacting Knowledge

Dr K. Jayakumar Director General Consultancy Development Centre

& Joint Secretary Council of Scientific and Industrial Research Ministryof Science and Technology, Government of India

In the course of undertaking organizational transformation for outcome driven

performances, building organizational capacity, or for pursuing a transition to knowledge based organization culture, it is necessary to build intelligent systems to support such transition. Enterprise systems design will need to capture, manage and maintain institutional knowledge as also progressively mature to define interfaces that facilitate human or machine intelligence to define knowledge, capture them in context, characterize/ classify and represent them to the enterprise users in appropriate situations to enhance their effectiveness. Context for Enhancing Organizational Performance Transformative change poses a pivotal challenge which concerns the manner in which enterprises design, develop and architect systems to engage the knowledge workers and mould their thoughts, attitudes, actions and behavior. Systems can be engineered to complement human intellect and encourage professional behavior for information sharing, updating knowledge, problem solving, collaboration and team work. Enterprise systems would need to (i) facilitate evolving policies and practices proactively on the basis of evidence that get generated as the enterprise performs its various operations and (ii) enable institute mechanisms for warning or active interventions based on event triggers and intelligent tracking and monitoring of process transactions. From the perspective of enhancing organizational learning, augmenting enterprise capacity for effective decision making and problem solving, enterprise systems would need to support analytics and facilitate a spectrum of cognitive operations. It could be seen that a repertoire of cognitive rules and operations get invoked by an individual in a given problem solving context or during the performance of various tasks associated with the roles that are performed in pursuit of enterprise goals. Cognitive operations may relate to aspects such as comprehending facts, perceiving

relationships, referencing, comparing or judging similarities and differences, coding information in abstract forms, classification or categorization, memory search and retrieval, prioritizing or sequencing any of the above operations to discern patterns, making associations, detecting deviations and so on. Cognitive operations require an environmental trigger to set off a thought train, invoke prior learning and experiences relevant to a problem solving context. Ingenious design and intelligent architecture of systems, provide relevant alerts and trigger autonomously or aid enterprise users in executing active intervention action sequences. Knowledge creation relies on Cognitive Operations, Intelligent Behaviors and Learning Knowledge, assimilated as a result of experience is leveraged in solving problems more efficiently and effectively by marshalling relevant facts, avoiding common errors, pruning unproductive paths of reasoning, ordering search for facts that fill the knowledge gaps, eliminating redundancy or extraneous aspects that obstructs clarity on issues, reducing ambiguities, exploiting knowledge from complementary domain areas and examining options to resolve problems from multiple perspectives or levels of abstraction or granularity. Experiential knowledge is a product of context, as also the creator of context. Knowledge structures would need to be seen as distinct from the processes that operate upon them. The repertoire of cognitive rules and operations invoked during knowledge related transactions, get modified dynamically with learning and experience. Again intelligent behavior in a given context, leverages on learning and experience, with associations being made to activate the required cognitive rules and operations problem situations. Thus cognitive rules per se are necessary but not a sufficient condition for intelligent behavior. Well designed knowledge repositories embedded in enterprise applications can, to a large extent encapsulate institutional knowledge and experience, and reinforce intelligent behaviors.

The ability of organization to respond effectively and adapt its capabilities for evolving solutions to complex problems, relies increasingly on, sharing information across the enterprise and transparency of transactions, to enable all concerned to reflect and provide inputs that add value to such transactions. 

Intelligent behaviors manifest in problem solving, comprehension or creativity and are implemented by cognitive operations. For example, the ability to perform a task or for solving a task, depends on the pattern of cognitive abilities invoked in such situation.

Designing Transaction Mechanisms in Enterprise/ ERP Solutions A transaction may involve a set of tasks comprising preparation of a brief on the context, analysis of the problem, presenting options for decision making, reasoning the appropriate choices, justifying the course of action and seeking endorsements on significant propositions which will enable proceed with a course of action. Complex problem situations may require conceptualizing a model or a solution framework to explain the characteristics of the presented situations or scenario. Different cases may require varying depths of analysis and presentation of facts. Several of these transactions lend themselves to automation, as form based transactions with expandable fields, custom labeled fields or runtime association of different form templates for different kinds of cases and a workflow implementation with well defined process steps.

Oftentimes, solutions call for analysis and synthesis of a unique set of options presented with appropriate reasoning, integrating a spectrum of views, perspectives and comments from relevant stakeholders. In other circumstances involving discussions, exchange of comments and team problem solving, more collaborative styles of interactions require to be facilitated by systems such as blogs. Understanding the roles of knowledge workers and acknowledging their diversity in terms of their cognitive needs would enable the design of an appropriate enterprise solution that is able to present adaptive solutions to facilitate tasks and pursue results. A schematic representation of an illustrative set of cognitive operations and tasks involved in transacting knowledge and experiential learning in a collaborative environment in an enterprise is shown below.

Maturing the Design of ERP Solutions to enable Knowledge Transactions ERP solutions can be designed to exploit technology for capturing, structuring, transacting or making available enterprise knowledge and thereby facilitate collaborative work among knowledge workers. Ingenious features for engaging the users such as collapsible panels, tab structures, status indicators, navigation links, tool

tips, talk back features, cross references and other forms of decision support systems can provide support for enhancing the quality of decisions relating to operations, processes, procedures, diagnostic interventions, configuration, testing, assessment of quality of services, impact etc. Activity logs, use of metrics, process parameters, benchmarks, standards, along with alerts, exception throws, alternate workflows, search tools, context descriptors, explanatory notes, analytics, dashboards and user feedback can serve to implement an advanced form of enterprise solution and software behavior to inform and complement the knowledge worker in the performance of his tasks. Metadata structures, record management policies, indexing / classification tools, taxonomy frameworks, ontology structures along with tools to intelligently discern and exploit the context can be integrated in the design to enable knowledge capture and management to support various transactions.

Well designed ERP systems seamlessly integrate various functional modules and components of the system as illustrated in the schematic diagram above, to transact and present enhanced quality of information and knowledge resources for enterprise users. Operations performed, tasks executed and decisions taken are hence objective and based on evidences.

Contextual information does not easily get recorded by enterprise users when the systems do not enable and support them to do so. With increasing emphasis on transparency, accountability and objectivity, the need for recording contextual information is paramount. If such information is not recorded at the point in which it gets generated, it could easily be lost, fragmented or be deficient to an extent that it cannot be referenced and used later. Knowledge on enterprise operations and quality of outcomes can often be discerned with the analysis of the pattern of information transacted during the course of execution of several routine processes and hence it is important that information transacted in an enterprise is exploited during its occurrence.

Progressively improving the processes for enhanced levels of maturity and alignment with iteratively evolved higher business goals 

Reporting and Measurements on quality factors can be generated and presented within an enterprise application as updated metrics summary reports for informed decision making as interactive dashboards or decision support systems.

Frameworks for systems development and methods adopted would need to match specific organizational situations and thereby improve their usefulness. With more insights, experience and exposure, it would be possible to re-model and redesign processes as also the architecture of the enterprise solutions to ensure better quality of outcomes. These improvements can arise as a result of enforcing in the systems, process discipline, implementing ingenious features and system capability to alert, notify or provide information for decision support, engage users more intensively and help him in performance of tasks more efficiently. It would thus be appropriate to think in terms of a process maturity framework and assess the state of current level of preparedness and system capability. An illustrative process maturity framework is shown in the fig above.

Discerning System Operative Modes and Leveraging System Intelligence

Monitoring and control of systems in an enterprise are achieved with the recognition of deviant conditions indicated by metrics, measures and other forms of system indications. Corrective interventions can be implemented to respond to such deviant conditions and problem solving sequence can be initiated or completed to bring the system states under control conditions.

A number of intervention mechanisms can exist for problem solving, depending upon the nature of the problem, the severity of problem, whether long term or short term control is sought to be achieved, the sustainability of the change desired, whether the intervention needs to include measures to minimize the occurrence of similar problem again and so on.

Hence, it would be desirable to conceptualize – what may be termed as ‘System Operative Modes’ which signify a set of coherent states, depicting the health of the systems and characterizing the nature of the dysfunctionality in the system.

The nature of required corrective interventions hence, can be correlated to the System Operative Mode characteristics. The introduction of the concept of System Operative Mode, also reduces the dimensionality of the problem space and makes the understanding of the system behavior more intuitive and amenable for cognitive interpretations and understanding.

System Operative Modes become an essential construct due to the multidimensional nature of the problems and contexts.

Knowledge inputs and cues presented in visual and symbolic forms, are oftentimes more effective in facilitating the identification, implementation and reinforcing of desired behavioral changes in organizations. This is because human intellect is tuned for processing visual images, figurative representations and symbolic processing of information much better than text based information and directions.

The challenge however, is that cues that can be presented in the workplace environment to propel action need to be context based, dynamic and generate impetus for action, besides being appealing, so as to (i) get the attention of the incumbent functioning in the system and (ii) create impact to evoke desired behavioral changes in incumbents.

Cues like information dashboards, event triggers, alerts, system state indications, exceptions, reports, status displays, navigation aids, user tips, cross-references etc are characterizations in the problem space. Similarly, organization of elements in the environment, active warning systems, colored signs, vivid depiction of desired actions, presentation of choices or such ingenious variations impelling actions, portrayal of risk analysis, probability of successes in pursuing options, what if scenarios, solution configurations and options, mapping of model parameters or attributes to change system behaviors etc, are depictions in the solution space.

Presenting cues to trigger appropriate behaviors in enterprise users require that such cues are adapted to system operation modes and user profiles. A range of abstractions, criteria, heuristics, algorithms, approaches or decision rules will require to be invoked or transacted in the selection and presentation of information and cues to the enterprise users.

 

Framework showing how system states/ metrics, dashboards and  visual representation of cues relating to organizational functioning can help characterize System Operative modes to institute appropriate corrective interventions to arrest deviations in performance 

Performance Driven Organizational Culture leveraging knowledge based transactions

Functions performed by various divisions and organizational units encompass a number of processes. Processes refer to the sequence of operations and activities performed to accomplish outcomes. As the processes form the foundational blocks for systems behavior, process engineering methods, systemic thinking and design approaches facilitate in identifying the functional needs, problem areas, issues, performance gaps, systemic deficiencies and dysfunctional characteristics in the performance across organizational units.

Process centric approaches and system design taking into consideration the roles of enterprise users, would also help in (i) the dynamic delegation or assignment of roles / responsibilities and track performance of corresponding activities (ii) incorporating business rules in alignment with policies, rules and guidelines prescribed (iii) institution of process metrics, performance parameters, alerts and exceptions that can be monitored, (iv) in making observations through logs, reports and analytics that help discern the nature of performance deficits and their sources and (v) in the adoption of systematic methods to sustain the capability of the organization to deal with problems on a proactive basis.

A study of processes would also lead to insights that facilitate conceptualizing policy changes, prescriptions and make improvements in standard operation procedures. Anticipating the consequences of various interventions and effecting change control, ensures the realization of manageable change that produces planned outcomes. A schematic representation of the knowledge based transactions with the corresponding outcomes/ results envisaged is shown above.

In architecting systems for enhanced performances, it is necessary to incorporate and embed standard operation procedures, check lists, guidelines, templates, mechanisms etc that facilitate actions required to be taken under a given circumstance. Progressively, if response sequences, action formats, task frames and templates are designed to address gaps in performances in the system, the chances of more effective action in the context of problem situations are enhanced.

The task of enterprise systems is to provide maximum information with the least cognitive effort. Every event that can trigger the cognitive process, serves as a cue to bring the category of thought trains, learnt behaviors or prejudgment into action. The framework of possible interventions for proactive enterprise functioning is illustrated in the schematic diagram below.

Several cognitive mechanisms invoked in the context of performing various operations can be facilitated with a corresponding support system built into the enterprise applications. A list of such system implementation possibilities for various cognitive tasks is detailed in the table below.

Cognitive Mechanisms

System Implemented Processes

1 Marshalling relevant facts

Completeness in presentation of facts for the user

2 Avoiding common errors

Use of Templates, checklists

3 Pruning unproductive paths of reasoning/ navigation

Use of keywords, ontology, intelligent navigation, context sensitive behaviour of application

4 Ordering search for facts that fill the knowledge gaps

Forward / backward chaining, federated search by date, relevancy, author, recency, updation

5 Eliminating redundancy or extraneous aspects that obstructs clarity on issues

Defining a Structure for information capture, compilation of case study or knowledge resource

6 Reducing ambiguities Use of multiple forms of representation - abstract, exec summary, progressive disclosure of details of Knowledge Resources

7 Exploiting knowledge from complementary domain areas

Cross Referencing contexts, indexing, classification & use of appropriate taxonomy, ontology for content management

8 Ease of understanding, enhanced through perception, reasoning, or intuition; knowledge.

Presentation in multiple forms – like wikipedia, google

9 Classification and Stereotyping as a means to solve problems

Presentation adapted to profile of user, use of metadata specification, context descriptors, discerning patterns of navigation

10 Reversing thought trains commencing from outcomes

Knowing the users mind..profile of information sought employing heuristics and algorithms

11 Focus on outcomes

Use of forms, templates, ontology structures with results, evidence of outcomes, process design details, methods, models etc..completeness of knowledge captured and validation thereof.

12 Knowledge representation Schemas, structure / organization and indexing of knowledge resources

13 Intelligence mimicking human cognitive processes

Use of classifier systems, fuzzy neuro, GA, expert systems & intelligent systems

14 Operations Management Analytics and decision support systems,

15 Active GUI Dashboards, drill down features 16 Ease of Use Tool tips, navigation aids, control buttons, use

of tab structures 17 Wide spectrum of Applications Performance management, automated

workflows, content management, authoring tools, financial management, project management,

18 Integration with ERP applications

Use of interfaces..

Fig below shows the screenshot of a knowledge repository embedded in an ERP application.

Click on the upload link would invoke the 

window for uploading the document. 

User can select a level 

in the repository and 

then perform a search 

User has a personal space where for the 

where he she can browse and store a 

document temporarily. The documents 

could later on be indexed and uploaded in 

the Knowledge Repository. 

Visualization pane enables the users to 

view the related documents which have 2 

or more than 2 key words in Common. 

Summary

Elements of formal organizational constraints such as restrictive rules and policies can affect the performance and capacity of the enterprise to leverage and transact knowledge effectively. The more insidious constraints however, are the less apparent influence of organization culture, prior learning, habits, attitudes, peer influence and the pervasive effects of growth in organizational size. Modern organizational functioning is plagued with examples of dysfunctionalities, failure and poor strategic decision-making. These are often the result of misleading data, faulted logic, interpretation/ observation, inadequate analysis, misplaced assumptions and unsupported intuitions. The approach presented emphasizes the need for design and implementation of mechanisms for processing knowledge structures and handling transactions of information and knowledge resources for the purpose of explanation, prediction, and troubleshooting to be built in the enterprise solution.

References

1. Ericsson, K. A., Charness, N., Feltovich, P. J., & Hoffman, R. R. (2006). The Cambridge handbook of expertise and expert performance. New York: Cambridge University Press.

2. K. Jayakumar Dynamics of Organisational Transformation and Executing Change, CSIR publication, 2011

3. K. Jayakumar Building Institutional capacities for a purposive transformative change to support eGovernance Initiatives WSIS e-GOV Forum, March 13, 2010, Geneva