Peter Drucker, a leading figure in the world of Quality Management, emphasized the importance of organizational intelligence for any entity seeking to compete at a high level. He wrote that in the twenty-first century, knowledge must become the distinguishing factor for those who truly want to improve.
Knowledge is a crucial resource, and unlike many other resources:
- It is not consumed by using it;
- It is not lost by transferring it to others;
- It is abundant even though the ability to use it effectively is extremely scarce
But what does "organizational knowledge" really mean? Organizational knowledge is the process of acquiring, developing, sharing, and effectively using knowledge. In ISO 9001:2015, it is discussed in section 7.1.6, which contains four requirements:
- Determine the organizational knowledge
- Maintain it
- Make it available
- Acquire additional knowledge
Determine the knowledge necessary for the organization
An organization can possess a great deal of information but not know how to use it, thus rendering it completely useless because it is unused or used clumsily. Determining the knowledge necessary for the operation of the processes, therefore, means establishing what information is needed to develop, support, operate, and manage the processes effectively, knowing where and from whom to obtain it, being aware of when it is needed, being certain that it is the information that can really be useful and that it is just the right information, as well as knowing what to do with it.
Also, pay attention to the fact that the knowledge determined, maintained, made available, and possibly expanded, is objectively and not subjectively determinable; that is, that any reasonable person cannot doubt it. In our daily lives, in fact, we are used to assuming as certain things that, in reality, upon closer examination, are at least contradictory. We often believe that others see things in the same way that we see them, but this is not always the case because each of us has a way of seeing reality that may differ from that of another.
When it comes to the knowledge necessary for the functioning of an organization's processes, there will be facts, but there will also be simple perceptions derived from the fact that we are all influenced, and it takes real skill to effectively separate facts from feelings. The term "organizational knowledge" is not defined, as one would expect, in ISO 9000 but in Note 1 of the requirement in section 7.1.6, where we learn that this term indicates the organization's specific knowledge that is acquired through experience. It is defined as a set of information that is used and shared to achieve the organization's objectives. In short, it is all those resources that relate to knowledge that can be realistically exploited by the organization, for example, to achieve a specific objective.
Why is it necessary to have such a requirement in ISO 9001:2015? Much of an organization's valuable knowledge walks out the door at the end of the workday. Therefore, despite the volume of information that may have been accumulated by the organization since its inception, it is only what is retained over time that helps people continue to do useful work. Building this knowledge bank is therefore fundamental for a successful organization, which is why it is necessary to determine the knowledge necessary for the full operation of its processes. It is then necessary to understand that there are different types of knowledge.
There is explicit knowledge, which is that acquired or codified in a tangible form, what ISO 9000 calls "documented information." This is knowledge that is easy to identify, store, retrieve, transmit, and modify. However, most of the information we come into contact with every day is not documented, and that is why it remains simply information and does not become part of the so-called organizational knowledge. Then there is tacit knowledge, which is the know-how and know-what of each of us that comes from personal experience and that is difficult to articulate because it can only be shared through experience.
In fact, the more difficult the knowledge is to articulate, the more valuable it is, and great attention must therefore be paid to this heritage. But we are not finished yet because there is also implicit knowledge, which is knowledge that, for various reasons, is not made explicit but could easily be so. A process for determining knowledge or that such a process be documented in some way is not required, but there are very specific requirements for the determination of processes and for the planning of the QMS, and organizational knowledge is nothing more than the result of these activities.
Knowledge will be partially contained in the documented information that supports the operation of the processes, that is, in the instructions, procedures, standards, etc., that must be used by those who are involved in the process. However, it will necessarily also be contained in the minds of the people who take actions established within a process and who make the decisions required by the instructions and procedures. Explicit knowledge is provided through procedures but also through training and coaching, as well as by relying on the skills of the people chosen to work on a given process.
When planning to achieve a goal, it is intuitive to ask: "What do I need to know?" To find the answer, we are likely to focus on our memory to retrieve everything that we think is relevant. We will then collect the explicit knowledge that we are aware of and, if necessary, form a group of people each in possession of the knowledge needed to achieve the goal and able to contribute knowledge different from our own. To put these people together, we will have determined in advance the type of knowledge we needed.
Starting from explicit knowledge, it is possible to prepare an action plan to transmit it to those who need it in order to implement the plan necessary to achieve the objective. To demonstrate that the knowledge necessary for the proper functioning of the organization's processes has been determined, we can:
- List and present the documented information supporting the processes necessary for the quality system that are able to transmit the explicit knowledge needed by those involved in the process;
- Demonstrate that this knowledge is possessed by the people who may need it;
- Present the documented information that defines the skills required of those who are engaged in the processes