By Hans Plauborg
hhp@adm.au.dk
According to Christian Waldstrøm, an associate professor at the School of Business, Aarhus University, many of the knowledge-sharing initiatives at modern, network-based and interdisciplinary organisations create no value because they are simply too random and unstructur-ed. His latest study of networks in a Danish municipality reveals that there is huge waste in terms of knowledge sharing. A great number of meetings are held, and there is a great amount of inter-departmental communication with a view to meeting a range of demands from above (and from outside the organisation). But one-third of all the interaction between staff during a normal working day creates no value – either in terms of work or socially. One of the departments he studied is even considering dropping all unnecessary meetings after the summer holiday and only holding meetings that would actually be missed if they were not held.
No time for teamwork
During the study Christian Waldstrøm asked people to identify other members of staff with whom they would like more teamwork with a view to increasing efficiency. This was done in order to identify how much contact was needed within the organisation.
“We could see that there was a need for more contact and better communication in many departments,” he says, and continues:
“But when we asked why they didn’t just pick up the phone and call the people they wanted to talk to, 90 per cent of them said ‘That would be pointless – they don’t have time because they’re always at meetings’. Organisations could undoubtedly improve their knowledge sharing a great deal if they gave people the time and space to find each other instead of forcing them to cooperate with specific members of staff,” concludes Christian Waldstrøm.
