Page 402 - Using MIS

370 Chapter 9 Business Intelligence Systems

methods. As you learned in the SLATES model in Chapter 8, social media fosters emergence. In
the KM context, employees and others express their knowledge in a variety of modes and media,
and the mechanisms for managing and delivering that knowledge emerge from usage.
Hyper-social knowledge management is the application of social media and related
applications for the management and delivery of organizational knowledge resources.
Progressive organizations encourage their employees to Tweet, post on Facebook or other so-
cial media sites, write blogs, and post videos on YouTube and any of the other sites. Of course,
as discussed in Chapter 8, such organizations need to develop and publish an employee social
media policy as well.
Hyper-organization theory provides a framework for understanding this new direction in
KM. In this frame, the focus moves from the knowledge and content per se to the fostering of
authentic relationships among the creators and the users of that knowledge.
Blogs provide an obvious example. An employee in customer support who writes a daily
blog on current, common customer problems is expressing authentic opinions on the com-
pany’s products, positive and possibly negative. If perceived as authentic, customers will
comment upon blog entries and, in the process, teach others how they solved those prob-
lems themselves.
The open airing of product use issues may make traditional marketing personnel uncom-
fortable, but this KM technique does insert the company in the middle of customer conversa-
tions about possible product problems, and, while it does lose control, the organization is at
least a party to those conversations. As stated in Chapter 8, hyper-social organizations move
from controlled processes to messy ones.
Hyper-Social KM Alternative Media

Figure 9-27 lists common hyper-social KM alternative media, whether each medium is used for
public, private, or either, and the best group type. Except for rich directories, you know what
each of these is already, and we need not discuss them further.
A rich directory is an employee directory that includes not only the standard name, email,
phone, and address but also organizational structure and expertise. With a rich directory, it is
possible to determine where in the organization someone works, who is the first common man-
ager between two people, and what past projects and expertise an individual has. For interna-
tional organizations, such directories also include languages spoken. Microsoft’s product Active
Directory is the most popular rich directory.
Rich directories are particularly useful in large organizations where people with particular
expertise are unknown. For example, who at 3M knows which 3M product is the best to use to
glue teak wood to fiberglass? Probably dozens, but who are they and who is the closest to a fac-
tory in Brazil? If no one is near Brazil, is there anyone who speaks Portuguese?

Media Public or Private Best for:
Blogs Either Defender of belief

Discussion groups Either Problem solving
(including FAQ)
Wikis Either Either
Surveys Either Problem solving

Rich directories, Private Problem solving
(e.g., Active Directory)
Standard SM (Facebook, Public Defender of belief
Twitter, etc.)
Figure 9-27 YouTube Public Either
Hyper-Social KM Media