Knowledge Management in Culture
A Flight of Fancy, or a Stroke of Genius?
Izabela Stachurska
Head, Knowledge Management, Adam Mickiewicz Institute, 00-560, Warsaw, Poland
Keywords: Culture, Case Study, Brand Value Assessment.
Abstract: Knowledge management appears to have conquered many areas of business and administration, yet it is not
normally associated with cultural institutions. Plausibly, this is owing to the specific nature of art and
culture – which at first glance appears to be incompatible with knowledge management as such – and the
influence which both of these phenomena exercise on the people who take part in shaping and administering
them. The prospect of creating such a system in some area of the cultural sector appears to be rather
innovative. The following paper describes the process of applying a knowledge management system within
an existing cultural institution, and examines the effects of this undertaking.
1 INTRODUCTION
The realm of culture, which assigns great value to
creativity, intuition, aesthetic sensations and
irrational sources of knowledge, appears to be
naturally immune to management processes and to
codification strategies. Accordingly, to create within
a cultural institution an independent post where the
occupant should be responsible for gathering,
analysing and sharing knowledge – something that
in this particular sector is not only well guarded, but
often quite elusive – would appear to be a rather
daring act. Consequently, it should be deemed quite
radical to empower knowledge management in this
sector in line with project management, marketing
and finances, while to give it a strategic and
advisory role, granting it the power to enact changes
within the institution and to advance suggestions as
to the directions of development of its employees,
ought to be deemed nothing short of revolutionary.
Thus the aim of this paper shall be to tell of the
war that science, knowledge and experience wage
with imagination, emotion and the intangible. In
other words, it is an attempt to answer the question:
what is knowledge management in the cultural
sector? Is it an impractical system that vanquishes
creativity and invention, or rather an imagination-
friendly process that facilitates the exchange of
knowledge?
Two examples shall be put forth, illustrating a
narrow area of knowledge management activity
within a Polish cultural institution, where the
objective is to implement internal knowledge and
hard outside knowledge, respectively.
2 KNOWLEDGE AND CULTURE
2.1 Daydreamers within a Labyrinth of
Management Systems
In order that the ensuing argument may present itself
with clarity, one should first attempt to portray the
environment in which the knowledge management
processes described further below have been carried
out.
In the cultural sector, a typical manager is a well-
educated, well-read intellectual, informed of global
trends and cultural diversities, and able to
distinguish between high art and pop culture, avant-
garde and kitsch, fringe and mainstream. He is
expected to have a solid background enabling him to
parley of the meanders of culture in an international
milieu of his counterparts, being highly
knowledgeable in least one artistic domain.
Oftentimes he is that which one may call an artistic
soul. These are the types of managers sought by
nearly all the cultural institutions in the world, which
seldom take into account that the word manager
describes someone who takes to managing, and
should also be able to run, plan, decide and foresee;
526
Stachurska I..
Knowledge Management in Culture - A Flight of Fancy, or a Stroke of Genius?.
DOI: 10.5220/0004656605260531
In Proceedings of the International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Information Retrieval and the International Conference on Knowledge
Management and Information Sharing (KMIS-2013), pages 526-531
ISBN: 978-989-8565-75-4
Copyright
c
2013 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)
moreover, that the word comprises many other
equally mundane connotations. On the American
market, which is famed for its intense competition
and relative scarcity, it is absolutely necessary that
the manager embody both these mega-traits. On the
Polish market, upon which this paper is based, such
a scenario often appears to be either inconceivable
or virtually impossible.
Subjecting a cultural manager to popular
psychological and competence tests (Belbin, MBTI)
often reveals that he is more of a “seeder”, or a
creative generator of ideas, or better yet, a radical
idealist with a disrupted decision process, and that
owing to his intuition and instinct, he harbours an
open mind and a broad imagination. Even if a
cultural manager in Poland happens to be savvy in
management, he is bound to be forced to work with
artists and all sorts of daydreamers who are all but
predisposed to work within systems and according to
rules. This, more or less, is the terrain in which a
cultural institution must carry out knowledge
management.
Thus the resistance to knowledge management in
the institution in question manifested itself for the
first six to nine months in messages of both verbal
and behavioural natures, summarised by expressions
such as: “What’s this for?”, “I’ve no time for these
boring processes”, “My work depends on knowledge
sui generis”, and the classic evasion: “The truly
important things are incommunicable anyway”.
Such an attitude, which nurtures a circulating notion
of “impractical” and “unnecessary” knowledge, can
effectively hamper the development of knowledge
management and may constitute a significant
impediment in the development of the institution or
company.
One should care to add that the wilful transition
of knowledge is further impeded by the fact that
knowledge yields power, and as such constitutes an
element of micropolitics within an organisation.
Identifying obstacles, one should also remember the
textbook mistakes in knowledge management, most
notably the overabundance of available information
– as this may paradoxically discourage analysis to
the effect that decisions will start to be made without
regard for any assembled documents.
2.2 Who Needs Knowledge in Culture?
The second issue that ought to be resolved at the
start of these considerations is the definition of
knowledge in a cultural institution. This is to ensure
that knowledge is distinguished from terms such as
archiving, databases and information gathering,
which, if used improperly, may become reminiscent
of digital waste. In search for a frame of reference,
the KM Department in question adopted the concept
of Ikujiro Nonaka, which assumes that typical digital
initiatives are limited to “static” information
management, and describes the process of
knowledge management as one that is linked to
values, experiences, actions, and an overall context,
thus presenting it as a dynamic process of gathering
and creating knowledge (Nonaka and Reinmöller,
2001: 827-829). What will now be tested is whether
this concept, when implemented in a cultural
institution, shall remain a mere “flight of fancy”, or
whether it will prove to be dynamic and applicable.
2.3 How a Knowledge Management
Strategy Might Present Itself within
the Cultural Sector
Relying on Nonaka’s concept, the institution in
question created its own system of knowledge
management, a scheme which has now been tested
over a three year period. The goal was attained
without appropriate benchmarks, which one can only
wish to locate within the cultural sector. The fact
should be viewed as an additional challenge, which,
contrary to expectations, stimulated innovation in
the creation of a system designed to suit the needs of
a particular institution along with its quite
sophisticated environment.
Taking into account all of the above, the strategic
goals set by the KM Department in the institution
are as follows: 1) to utilise knowledge in setting
strategic goals and to use it to stimulate the
institution’s growth, 2) to increase work
effectiveness, and 3) to set standards of organisation
and communication. This paper will proceed to
describe the innovative process of their
implementation, drawing attention to the resistance
that is characteristic of the aforementioned group of
managers. For the process to work, it was considered
necessary that the institution comply with the rule of
five steps of knowledge management: 1) identifying
sources of knowledge, 2) creating knowledge, 3)
gathering knowledge, 4) sharing knowledge, 5)
implementing knowledge. The fifth step was
deemed an irreplaceable indicator of achieving
the goal to which the Department of Knowledge
Management had been appointed.
In order to convey the KM Department’s
effective and, for a cultural institution, innovative
process, it is necessary to discuss the individual
actions that were carried out en route to
accomplishing the strategic goals.
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3 CASE STUDIES & INTERNAL
KNOWLEDGE
3.1 Getting Past the Psychological
Barrier
For the purposes of analysing the experience
gathered by project teams, the popular tool that is
the CASE STUDY was selected. Such an analysis
was to constitute part of the evaluation of a
completed project. It was found that an exhaustive
presentation of CS rules proved to be crucial for
overcoming the resistance of managers in
confronting the problems, errors and traps that had
come up during a given project. In an environment
where nearly every premiere or concert is a great
success, it was crucial to get across the point that
CS’s seek a discussion of the effects, the incidents
and the entire system regardless of the project’s
outcome and, indeed, of its reception. Another
measure that proved to be helpful was a constant
reassurance that the CS serves to draw meaningful
conclusions from a project, and not to assess the
team with the intention of either praising or
condemning its manager. This allowed for the
gradual dismantling of the psychological barrier,
which obstructed the path to an honest analysis of
the errors that were committed during the project. It
should be noted that out of the 13 managers that
were subjected to a CS by the KM Department over
the course of three years, only 4 of them did not
exhibit any problems when asked to analyse their
own errors by the CS team. Occasionally, coaching
methods serving to overcome psychological
obstacles were put into use in the process. Naturally,
in the case of managers who had difficulties
analysing their mistakes, the risk of running an
unsuccessful CS was greater. Therefore, in order for
the process to be valid, it was imperative that more
meetings be scheduled and that their time be
extended, thus allowing for the manager to make
progress, and for the subject to be handled
appropriately.
3.2 The Innovation behind the Process
It was proposed that the CS method embrace a
logical search for the sources of problems, followed
by an identification of the problems’ consequences
and, finally, of the actions that were carried out in
response. The method was to be applied in three
areas: Analysis and Planning, Implementation, and
Communication.
On multiple occasions, an effective CS required
that meetings be scheduled between the project team
and a services department such as Controlling
(whose responsibility it is to oversee that projects
are carried out in accordance with the Public
Procurement Act and the Public Finances Act),
Administration (responsible for supplying the
project teams with appropriate IT equipment), or
Communication (responsible for the projects’
promotional campaigns).
3.3 The Results
Result 1. The KM Department considers it a special
achievement that the CS has not only become a tool
for extracting lessons from experiences (which is the
basic aim of the CS), but has also become an
irreplaceable link in the exchange of knowledge and
experience, as well as a starting point for strategic
guidance in the institution, pertaining to:
- changes to the structures of the various
departments, and modifications in the scope of
their responsibilities,
- changes in the system of project managing,
which maximize the effects of work and simplify
internal cooperation,
- suggestions regarding the directions and ways in
which the institution and its employees should
develop (e.g. carrying out creativity workshops).
Result 2. An invaluable effect of the employment of
the CS is the ability to discriminate between the
different types of innovation within a given project.
The analysis of a number of CS’s allowed the
institution to draw up an internal definition of
innovation, and led to the creation of an innovation
index for future projects. Upon considering projects
submitted for realisation, the board now determines
whether they are innovative in the following areas:
process, context, aim. In the past year, this
procedure has increased the innovativeness of
projects by 20%.
Result 3. It should be noted that the methods put
forward by the KM Department have proven
themselves effective in resolving many internal
conflicts, and have rendered the CS a tool of internal
audit for project management, leading to changes in
teams’ work methods.
Result 4. The KM department has created a new
tool, ZOOM, which serves as an internal audit for
entire departments and for permanent projects. By
analysing an undertaking’s current progress and its
projected effects, the tool allows one to assess at any
given moment whether goals are being fulfilled, and
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to point out any errors as well as put forward
appropriate solutions.
Result 5. Best practices and a checklist for project
management have been developed for managers and
project executers.
Result 6. Meetings between the project team and
supporting teams – encounters which often begin in
an aura of conflict due to one or both of the parties
not meeting the expectations of the other during the
project – serve not only to analyse the errors that
have been committed, but render it possible for new
and effective forms of communication to be devised.
This allows for needs and expectations to be fulfilled
and met in line with the project timetable.
Result 7. It ought to be mentioned that interactive
presentations of CS’s are unveiled to all of the
institution’s employees, regardless of their position
or the degree of their involvement in the project.
This has become a phenomenal means of internal
communication, and has stimulated awareness
regarding the institution’s activity among employees
who hold positions seemingly far removed from
project management.
Result 8. Project partners and stakeholders are
invited to participate in the CS’s, which
demonstrates openness and caters not only for
effective collaboration, but also for effective
evaluation.
Result 9. The CS yields the opportunity to analyse
useful knowledge gathered during a project,
including such knowledge as may be required for
planning future projects, e.g. those taking place in
the same geographic location.
Result 10. Over the course of three years, it is
possible to see a shift in the way the institution’s
employees perceive knowledge management, and in
the way project teams approach it. This has
stimulated the development of competences such as
analytical thinking, problem solving, group work,
internal customer care, and maintaining course with
regard to aims.
Result 11. The KM Department has developed its
own tool for carrying out a CS, which is also used to
effectively present the study to a wider audience:
problems - consequences - action taken -
recommendations.
4 BRAND VALUE ASSESSMENT
& EXTERNAL KNOWLEDGE
4.1 The Desacralisation of Knowledge
in Culture
As the competition on the culture market intensified,
the institution in question began to search for new
and more effective forms of presence, and was
accordingly forced to adopt a modern take on
culture.
We often find a nation’s culture to be perceived
as an indisputable or “untouchable” value.
Meanwhile, by promoting it on foreign cultural soil,
we must be ready to confront a consumer who is
equipped with a system of values, experiences,
expectations and valuations that is different from
ours. In order that we may be triumphant in this
confrontation, we are forced to “desacralise” that
which to us is holy and indisputable, and to
approach national heritage as one might approach a
product that is subject to ruthless market forces.
4.2 The Conflict of Hard and Soft
Knowledge
Experience in planning cultural projects had long
supported the impression that a recognition of
foreign markets through requited study visits, trend
and market tracking, and knowledge exchange with
partners, curators and institution directors was often
enough of a foundation for the strategic promotion
of Poland and for cultural exchange abroad.
Unfortunately, this was not entirely the case, for
such an approach did not allow one to assess the
change in the final recipient’s perception of Poland.
Even in a scenario where concert halls and theatres
were sold out for concerts and performances, it was
not possible to gather any rational data that would
indicate whether we had succeeded in transmitting a
positive image of Poland, whether the stereotypes
had been refuted, and who exactly it was whom we
had managed to reach.
The institution thus found itself facing several
dilemmas:
- should one go beyond applying only soft
knowledge in project planning?
- should one attempt to make use of marketing
knowledge?
- should one allow for the evaluation of culture by
means of quantitative studies?
Mindful of the significance of culture not only for
KnowledgeManagementinCulture-AFlightofFancy,oraStrokeofGenius?
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the image of a nation but also for its economy, and
seeing that in recent times numerous congresses and
conventions have deemed culture to be an object of
fierce market competition, only an affirmative
answer to the above questions seemed appropriate.
The KM Department proposed that the expertise
carried out for the purposes of project planning be
complimented by a brand value assessment of
Poland and Polish culture in foreign markets. The
study’s unique approach was based on a description
of cultural products in classic brand marketing
terms. Individual products and projects were to be
considered by factoring in the target group, the
competition, the promotion and the location, among
others.
The brand value assessment was carried out in
eight capitals across the world, and upon receipt of
the results, the KM Department found itself facing
the task of utilising this previously absent hard
knowledge, expressed in the new language of brand
marketing, to implement innovation in cultural
project planning. The chief difficulty now was to
find a means of employing this new, unfamiliar, and,
according to some employees, redundant knowledge.
Again, the implementation of knowledge became the
foremost challenge in the institution’s process of
knowledge management.
Aware of the scale and magnitude of this
transition, the KM Department invited the managers
to a separate meeting, where the proposal of
implementing the new knowledge was presented by
explaining that hard knowledge had a status equal to
other project planning tools. It was further suggested
that knowledge be utilised in project programming
by presenting the tangible advantages of a) the
possibility to create new cultural and
communicational products, b) attaining a negotiating
position in talks with partners, c) aiming the
appropriate products at particular target groups
indicated in the assessment.
Using the new knowledge to select the products
and target groups proved to be the greatest obstacle
of the enterprise. A natural conflict emerged,
associated with discarding old, tested methods in
favour of new ones. Anxiety sprouted from doubts
such as the following: what if the “hard” knowledge
were to have a negative influence on the quality of
the projects? Would it not deform or drown out
those planning tools which had been considered
reliable up to the present day?
4.3 Taming Hard Knowledge
The fear that the newly attained knowledge would
not only lie dormant, but be wrongly interpreted,
proved to be another obstacle in the implementation
of the new knowledge. A reiterating doubt on the
part of project managers concerned the selection of
the assessment group, as well as the answers that
were attained in that group. A mini-lecture in
sociology, statistics and the science behind the
assessment proved to be necessary. The lecture was
carried out so that the managers – people who rely
on intuition rather than science in their everyday
work – would accept the results of the assessment as
adequate and usable. This example goes to show that
the preparation of terrain for the utilisation of hard
knowledge in a cultural institution should be planned
with greater attention to detail, and a more precise
estimate of the scale of transition should be
accounted for. The conclusions that followed from
this experience allowed for the institution to develop
a list of steps that should be taken when “new and
alien knowledge” is to be utilised:
- carry out an internal lobby within the institution
and prepare the terrain through workshops or
meetings with the board,
- allow managers to participate in the process of
choosing a method of assessment, determining
its scope, selecting a sample group and creating
the actual survey,
- arrange for specialists to give mini-lectures, so
that everyone may become familiar with the
method of assessment,
- explain the tangible advantages of utilising
knowledge in project programming and
communication,
- explain the tangible advantages of having
additional tools for evaluation,
- explain the tangible advantages of determining
measurable aims,
- oversee the utilisation of hard knowledge by
ensuring the presence of an expert in all meetings
at the stage of defining and planning the project.
Difficulties with the above show that processes of
knowledge management in a cultural institution
must take into account the following:
- the type of environment,
- the need to include internal clients in the process
of creating KM systems to ensure trust and
understanding,
- the selection of the appropriate tools for
knowledge sharing, with regard for
psychological factors,
- establishing methods and rules of cooperation,
- the employee’s right to committing errors.
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5 CONCLUSIONS
Managing the circulation of knowledge within a
cultural institution proved to be a task marked by far
greater difficulty than that of presiding over
knowledge reserves. The examples presented above
shed light only on a narrow area of activity that aims
to implement knowledge within a cultural institution
– in the first case, own knowledge, and in the
second, hard external knowledge.
In answering the question set in this paper,
whether knowledge management in culture is a
flight of fancy or a stroke of genius, I made an effort
to show that in light of my experiences it is without
question a stroke of genius, one that nevertheless
requires a good deal of imagination – needed in
order to adapt this exceptionally demanding
“dreamers’” environment to the idea of moving
about in earthly systems, and to acquire its
permission to bring culture into a definable and
manageable world. Why is it worth the effort?
Because in reality, nations compete with one
another mainly through their cultures. It is in this
sphere that socioeconomic growth, international
competitiveness and civilisation progress get
determined long-term. It is none other than mental
and cultural competence that determine which
nations win, and which nations lose.
Prof. Jan Szomburg, The Fifth Congress of
Citizens, Warsaw 2010.
In the best case scenario, applying knowledge
management within the cultural sector will help
render the economy a part of culture, while in the
least optimistic one, it will allow for a joyous
marriage of knowledge and imagination.
REFERENCES
Nonaka, I., Reinmöller, P., Toyama, R., 2001. Integrated
Information Technology Systems for Knowledge
Creation in Dierkes, M., Antal, A. B., Child, J.,
Nonaka, I. (ed.), 2001. Handbook of organisational
learning & knowledge, Oxford University Press,
Oxford-New York.
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