Mapping knowledge and intellectual capital in academic environments. A focus group study
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/4691930410512987 |
| Date | 01 March 2004 |
| Pages | 165-180 |
| Published date | 01 March 2004 |
| Author | Tomas Hellström,Kenneth Husted |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & finance,HR & organizational behaviour,Information & knowledge management |
Mapping knowledge and
intellectual capital in academic
environments
A focus group study
Tomas Hellstro
¨m and Kenneth Husted
Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy,
Copenhagen Business School, Copenhagen, Denmark
Keywords Knowledge, Cognitive mapping, Intellectual capital, Management strategy,
Focus groups, Research
Abstract This paper argues that knowledge mapping may provide a fruitful avenue for
intellectual capital management in academic environments such as university departments.
However, while some research has been conducted on knowledge mapping and intellectual capital
management in the public sector, the university has so far not been directly considered for this type
of management. The paper initially reviews the functions and techniques of knowledge mapping
and assesses these in the light of academic demands. Second, the result of a focus group study is
presented, where academic leaders were asked to reflect of the uses of knowledge mapping at their
departments and institutes. Finally a number of suggestions are made as to the rationale and
conduct of knowledge mapping in academe.
Introduction
Across sectors, knowledge intensive organisations increasingly face similar
conditions with a strong connection between the individual organisation’s
ability to mobilise, apply and disseminate knowledge resources on the one
hand, and their competitiveness and survival on the other. Particularly, we can
observe how intellectual capital management and knowledge management
plays a progressively more important role within the public sector (Wiig, 2002;
Cinca et al., 2003). The academic department or institute is among those (often
public) environments facing rapid change as a result of new demands for
commercialisation of knowledge, a need for a more efficient utilisation of
human resources due to cut-backs in basic funding, as well as the introduction
of new accountability measures from government (Gibbons et al., 1994; Ziman,
2000; Jacob, 2003). These changes sometimes result in new ways of working,
for instance an increase in the prevalence of university-industry co-operation,
projectification and increased dependence on external funding, teamwork and a
concomitant need for inter-team learning. Furthermore, the raising prevalence
of temporary academic labour, often at the expense of tenured staff,
necessitates new efficient forms of intangible asset management, knowledge
transfer and professional socialisation.
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Mapping
knowledge and
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Journal of Intellectual Capital
Vol. 5 No. 1, 2004
pp. 165-180
qEmerald Group Publishing Limited
1469-1930
DOI 10.1108/4691930410512987
Under the label of intellectual capital management (ICM) and knowledge
management (KM) we find a set of managerial activities aimed at identifying
and valuing the knowledge assets of the organisation, leveraging these asset
through knowledge sharing, and creating new knowledge (Easterby-Smith and
Lyles, 2003; Holsapple, 2003). Many of the processes for measuring intangible
assets and managing knowledge originally developed for private firms, have
been found to be useful for supporting the university (Jacob and Hellstro
¨m,
2000). Some of these include:
.offering competent and effective service;
.preparing for, building and leveraging public and private intellectual
capital; and
.helping the public understanding of the needs and direction of public
activities, programmes, and projects (also see Wiig, 2002).
In the private sector, the need for increased transparency and reduction of
complexity has often been catered to by the use of knowledge mapping tools.
Knowledge mapping is a multi-faceted approach for creating structure out of
an overabundance of potentially useful information. It is a method for
co-ordinating, simplifying, highlighting and navigating in complex knowledge
contexts (Wexler, 2001). Universities are typical instances of such complex
knowledge contexts. For instance Boyer (1990) classically argued that the work
of the universities centres on four intellectual activities: discovery, teaching,
application and integration, where discovery and teaching are traditional
activities, while application refers to the development of new processes and
products, and integration has to do with societal involvement, e.g.
popularisation, or co-operative engagement such as uni versity-industry
relations. Management of knowledge and intellectual capital is relevant for
the traditional activities of discovery and teaching, but the increasing emphasis
on application and integration calls for new forms of academic management of
intellectual capital and knowledge.
This paper argues that knowledge mapping may provide a fruitful solution
to the problem of how to manage and co-ordinate the increasingly complex
environments of academic departments, institutes and national laboratories. A
framework for “academic knowledge mapping” may provide a possible answer
to the challenge of how to locate new forms of useful knowledge in the
academic organisation, including new directions for training employees,
stimulating and facilitating knowledge sharing, and establishing useful links
with external stakeholders and funders (Hunt, 2003). We will develop this
argument by first reviewing a number of functions and applications of
knowledge mapping. We will then present the results of a focus group study
with academic leaders on the possible application of knowledge mapping in
university departments or research institute settings. Finally, we will present
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