Hypertext organization

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Principle and functionality of hypertext organization

The hypertext organization is a knowledge-oriented organizational concept through which the know-how of an organization can be transferred as well as possible into innovative products and efficient processes. It goes back to Ikujirō Nonaka and Hirotaka Takeuchi , who proposed this approach as early as 1995 with the book “The Knowledge-creating Company”, which has received worldwide attention (see also Knowledge Management , Organizational Memory System ).

background

The criticism of traditional organizational models has prompted a number of authors to propose new forms of organization (e.g. inverted organization, network organization ). What all these approaches have in common is that they are relatively flat and dynamic, encourage employees to take responsibility for themselves and view knowledge as one of the company's most important resources. The emergence of such hybrid organizational structures can result in the formal organizational structure disappearing completely and thus also losing the efficiency advantages that traditional organizational structures contain. Nonaka / Takeuchi note critically that these new concepts are not a panacea and only offer real advantages under certain (very limited) conditions. From their point of view, it is more about using the strengths of both concepts in a common organizational structure in order to be able to create and use knowledge on an organizational level on a permanent basis. In order to use the efficiency of a bureaucratic as well as the flexibility of heterarchical self-organized structures, Nonaka / Takeuchi developed an organizational concept based on theoretical and practical considerations, through which knowledge creation can take place more efficiently and continuously. By synthesizing both forms of organization in the so-called hypertext organization, an attempt is made to use the advantages of both forms of organization.

definition

The hypertext form allows various parts of knowledge to be linked with all possible others. These connections then form a unique form that is typical for the respective organization and at the same time is a reflection of the organization and the structures present there. If you now consider the digital part (the hypertext) as part of the organization, there is an interaction between the people (the organic part) and the digital part (the data retrieval and input).

A dynamic exchange of knowledge takes place between the units.

  1. Business system (organizational unit)
    Day-to-day operations are carried out on the business system layer. This layer is characterized by traditional bureaucratic structures and efficient company processes (e.g. business process ).
  1. Project team (organizational unit)
    Employees who work self-organized across departments on corporate goals (knowledge creation, e.g. development of products R&D ). The company visions (how does the company see itself in the future) link the individual projects . The individual team members together form so-called hyper networks, which are outsourced from the business process.
  1. Knowledge base (digital unit)
    The knowledge base layer, which exists virtually in the form of the continuous generation and communication of experience and new knowledge in the company, is continuously fed with knowledge by the business system layer and the project team layer. The knowledge is recategorized at this level and placed in new contexts. The knowledge base is not to be understood as an independent organizational unit, but is concretized by the different knowledge carriers.

The three layers of the hypertext organization exist side by side and are interrelated, as the employees of an organization switch back and forth between these layers. You are, for example, integrated into the hierarchy of the organization and join the project team layer for the duration of the project work, use knowledge from the knowledge base layer and build up new knowledge. All three layers are more or less pronounced in every company.

A practice-oriented application of the organizational concept of hypertext organization was made by Schnauffer et al. (2004) as part of the research project "Inno-how - Knowledge Management in Product Development".

criticism

“Has an organization ever failed to survive because it forgot something important? Organizations are more likely to fail because they keep too much in mind for too long and continue to do too many things too often as they have always done "

- CF Hermann

The addition of a hypertext database to an organization does not transform it into a new form. Long before the introduction of electronic recording, storage and playback media, information was collected and processed in archives. Karl E. Weick describes data storage (retention) as early as 1979. Essential elements of this description deal with:

  1. the recorder - who records data and who is excluded from recording.
  2. the selection strategy - i.e. which information is selected and how - general and to a large extent or differentiated and specific.
  3. the storage and playback mechanism - who can access, search and share how.

Weick's criticism boils down to an increasing mechanization of thinking which, due to the "safe" database, devotes less and less energy to finding new or alternative perspectives. The organization is increasingly losing the ability to process and understand information in a new way - it bureaucratises and loses the ability to react adaptively. It is irrelevant whether the archive described is based on computers or clay tablets - the efficiency-increasing technology reduces the originality of the problem solutions.

literature

  • I. Nonaka, H. Takeuchi: The organization of knowledge - How Japanese companies make an idle resource usable. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 1997, ISBN 3-593-35643-0 , pp. 181-221. (Original: I. Nonaka, H. Takeuchi: The Knowledge-Creating Company. Oxford University Press, 1995).
  • H.-G. Schnauffer, M. Staiger, S. Voigt among others: The hypertext organization - approach and design options . In: H.-G. Schnauffer, B. Stieler-Lorenz, S. Peters (Ed.): Networking knowledge - knowledge management in product development. Springer, Berlin 2004, ISBN 3-540-21349-X , pp. 12-45.

Web links

swell

  1. ↑ M. Staiger: Knowledge Management in Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises - Systematic Design of a Knowledge-Oriented Organizational Structure and Culture. Hampp, Munich 2008, p. 96ff.
  2. ^ I. Nonaka, H. Takeuchi: The organization of knowledge - How Japanese companies make an idle resource usable. Campus, Frankfurt am Main 1997, p. 183.
  3. ↑ H.-G. Schnauffer, M. Staiger, S. Voigt et al.: The hypertext organization - approach and design options . In: H.-G. Schnauffer, B. Stieler-Lorenz, S. Peters (Ed.): Networking knowledge - knowledge management in product development. Springer, Berlin, 2004, pp. 12–45.
  4. ^ CF Hermann: Some consequences of crisis which limit the viability of organizations. In: Administrative Science Quarterly. 8, 1963, pp. 61-82, quoted in Karl E. Weick: The process of organizing. (= Suhrkamp Wissenschaft. 1194). 1995, ISBN 3-518-28794-X , p. 320.
  5. ^ Karl E. Weick: The process of organizing. (= Suhrkamp Wissenschaft. 1194). 1995, ISBN 3-518-28794-X , p. 306 ff.