Using Social Networking Analysis to Facilitate Knowledge Sharing Amongst Senior Managers in Multinational Organisations
Prior to the establishment of the Knowledge Management (KM) strategy, the British Council defined knowledge as ‘objects’. Knowledge sharing was about sharing documents and information on the intranet or via global databases. Since December 2002, Dervin’s Sense-Making Methodology has been applied to manage ‘knowledge’. Knowledge is seen not as a product that can be transferred from one colleague to another, but as a communication practice. This means that shared knowledge has to be interpreted and made sense of by its recipients through genuine dialogue. During this phase of KM implementation, the focus shifted to linking up colleagues and providing space for dialogue through building global communities of practice and virtual teams. This paper presents an example of how we have used the theory of Social Networking Analysis as a diagnostic tool to promote knowledge sharing amongst our newly formed thirty-people global leadership team. The three steps we have taken to carry out the exercise and its limitations are also discussed. Towards the end of the paper, the author presents an alternative application of social networking analysis in a multinational consulting firm.