Scribd
Upload
106 views

Strategy Maps - A Tool For Strategic Management With High Impact On Organisational Knowledge Creation and Integration

This document summarizes the experiences of a consulting firm in applying the methodology of strategy maps during a Balanced Scorecard project with an Austrian healthcare organization. The consulting firm found that strategy maps provided benefits not only for strategic management but also for knowledge management. Developing the strategy maps required intensive discussion that made individual knowledge explicit and supported organizational learning. The maps also facilitated communication of strategies and knowledge integration across the organization. The process of developing, reflecting on, and communicating the strategy maps supported a recursive approach to knowledge production, integration, and use.

Uploaded by

RubensDaCostaSantos
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
106 views

Strategy Maps - A Tool For Strategic Management With High Impact On Organisational Knowledge Creation and Integration

This document summarizes the experiences of a consulting firm in applying the methodology of strategy maps during a Balanced Scorecard project with an Austrian healthcare organization. The consulting firm found that strategy maps provided benefits not only for strategic management but also for knowledge management. Developing the strategy maps required intensive discussion that made individual knowledge explicit and supported organizational learning. The maps also facilitated communication of strategies and knowledge integration across the organization. The process of developing, reflecting on, and communicating the strategy maps supported a recursive approach to knowledge production, integration, and use.

Uploaded by

RubensDaCostaSantos
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 4

Proceedings of I-KNOW ’08 and I-MEDIA '08

Graz, Austria, September 3-5, 2008

Strategy Maps – A Tool for Strategic Management with


High Impact on Organisational Knowledge Creation and
Integration
Unforeseen Experiences from a Balanced Scorecard Project in the
Healthcare Sector

Klaus Valentin
(Ramsauer & Stürmer Consulting, Linz, Austria
[email protected])

Martina Augl
(Ramsauer & Stürmer Consulting, Linz, Austria
[email protected])

Abstract: In the context of the Balanced Scorecard development in the Upper Austrian
Gesundheits- und Spitals AG (gespag) the methodology of strategy maps was applied in order
to build a base for the definition of relevant areas of strategic measures. When applying the
methodology it turned out that it is very supportive also from the knowledge management
perspective (especially 2nd Generation KM), e.g. for the explication of knowledge, cognitive
mapping, the creation of a common-mindset (organisational learning), the storage of
information and individual learning about strategy and systemic thinking. Furthermore, it
allows organisational knowledge integration meaning that people can integrate both the
explicated knowledge in their system or their work, and the appropriate “sense” of the further
information provided. The intention of the article is to show that methods of strategic
management, and possibly from many other fields, can also be very beneficial in a knowledge
management context.

Key Words: Knowledge Management, knowledge creation, knowledge integration, strategy


maps, balanced scorecard
Categories: M.1, M.4

1 Introduction
In February 2007 the Balanced Scorecard (BSC) project in the “Oberösterreichischen
Gesundheits- und Spitals AG” (gespag) was started. The aim of the project was to
develop and implement a BSC in various organisational entities in order to increase
the effectiveness and efficiency of the operationalisation and implementation of
organisational strategies. The gespag was founded in 2001 and consists of the
headquarter, 10 hospitals, schools and academies for the education in the field of
health professions, and the inhouse department health informatics. Currently the
gespag employs about 9.000 persons.
The project started with an investigation of existing strategy related documents,
followed by a development of strategy maps in order to translate organisational
450 K. Valentin, M. Augl: Strategy maps – A tool for ...

strategies into areas of organisational change (strategy oriented objectives) that are
relevant for the achievement of the defined targets. In order to integrate all relevant
stakeholders, background knowledge, and insights a project team with representatives
from the operational management, the gespag hospitals, and schools and academics
was set up.

2 The Methodology of Strategy Maps and their Application in


the gespag BSC Project
The elaboration of a strategy map builds one important step when developing a BSC.
It is performed after the analysis of strategic documents and assumptions. Prerequisite
for the development of a strategy map is the existence of a defined and agreed
organisational strategy. A strategy map builds a visual reference for an organisation
with regards to its strategic objectives [Kaplan, 2004].

The aspects covered in a strategy map are:


1) Relevant steering perspectives
2) Strategy oriented objectives – areas for organisational development
3) Cause-and-effect chains between objectives

Steering perspectives were derived from the question about the central
influencing factors for the achievement of strategic objectives. The perspectives
should cover both, the main internal and external aspects like customers or investors
(external) and internal aspects like processes, finance and learning. In respect of the
gespag, the four perspectives are official mandate/customers and patients, financial
aspects, service provision, and employees/internal potentials. Based on the main
strategy, areas of change have been defined for each perspective in form of concrete
objectives.
As a third step cause-and-effect chains were identified by investigating and
documenting the altering dependencies between objectives. As it turned out that the
views and possibilities of interrelations can be almost unlimited (interesting from a
knowledge management perspective when it comes to the explication of individual
knowledge in the discussions), the question with regards to the interrelation was
concretised towards a focus on critical influence on strategic objectives. Furthermore,
it was decided to represent only relations from the bottom to the top perspective (see
figure 1) in order to build “stories of change” that should be communicated to the
employees for a better understanding of the strategy.
The advantage of strategy maps is that all relevant information about the strategic
objectives of an organisation can be presented at “one glance”. It is a good support for
the communication of strategic objectives and interrelations.
Pictures build a very important medium for communication. Nevertheless
objectives and interrelations were documented verbally to avoid multiple
interpretations of the single terms and lines.
K. Valentin, M. Augl: Strategy maps – A tool for ... 451

Figure 1: The overall strategy map of the gespag incl. “stories of change” (red lines)

3 The Methodology of Strategy Maps from the Perspective of


Knowledge Management
As became clear in the last chapters the process of developing a strategy map needs
intensive discussions. The discussion of an organisation’s strategies from various
perspectives and their interrelations is much about exploring overall and one’s own
mental models, attitudes, and values. In this context, emotions can arise easily.
Therefore, it is necessary to be able to suspend one’s own point of view and get into
some kind of dialogue with each other [Bohm, 1996]. Thus, individual concepts can
be made explicit and individual knowledge claims [Mc Elroy, 2003] can be brought
in.
Dialogue has a great impact on individual learning [Argyris, 1978] especially
since the project team was composed of different key persons from all relevant areas
of the organisation. Throughout the process the different knowledge claims were
evaluated several times.
The concept mapping did a lot of helpful work in this intensive process: it made
(partly implicit) knowledge and claims explicit and created pictures and better
understanding in the minds of the team members; resulting in shared meaning and
organisational learning [Kim, 2001].
Drawing the most important interrelationships (cause-and-effect chains) led to a
better understanding of the organisation as a whole, its strategic intentions, and the
contradictions between the various perspectives. Thus, the development of the map
strongly supported the developing of expertise in systemic thinking, seeing the “big
picture”, and sensing to complex interrelations. The development of shared meaning
on the one hand and personal involvement and engagement within the process on the
other hand led to strong commitment and motivation for the gespag BSC.
A strategy map can be seen as a kind of knowledge map that represents the
strategy and objectives of the organisation and gives insight knowledge into the
discussion process. The map is a beneficial tool for the communication of the strategy
towards all employees and therefore also for organisational knowledge integration.
452 K. Valentin, M. Augl: Strategy maps – A tool for ...

The process behind the development, reflexion, and communication of strategy


maps supports the concept of 2nd Generation Knowledge Management [McElroy,
2003]. “Classical” (1st Generation) Knowledge Management assumes that all
(relevant) knowledge is already existing and only has to be transferred from A to B
and can then be used throughout the organisation (supply-side view). The 2nd
Generation is adding the aspect of knowledge production and describes the whole
knowledge life cycle as a recursive process of knowledge production, integration and
use (demand-side view). The setting of the project in different teams (core team,
project team, sub-teams) made it necessary to “run the knowledge life cycle” several
times – ending in a lot of critical thinking, reflexion, and new ideas.

4 Conclusion
The paper at hand presented the experiences that were made by Ramsauer & Stürmer
Consulting during the development process of the BSC in the gespag when
elaborating the strategy map for the headquarter. These experiences show that
strategy tools can also be seen as instruments of knowledge management when
consciously used in this context. In many cases this consciousness does not exist in
companies or public institutions. So when performing such strategic activities
knowledge management issues can (and should) also be taken into account and
communicated towards the clients. This will lead to new benefits in strategy related
consulting projects.

References
[Argyris 1978] Argyris, C., Schön, D.: Organizational Learning – A Theory of Action
Perspective, Addison Wesley Longman Publishing Co, Reading, Massachusetts, 1978
[Augl, 2008] Augl, Martina: Beyond Wor(l)ds: Modernes Wissensmanagement als Mittler
zwischen Portalen und Unternehmenskultur, Books on Demand, Norderstedt, 2008
[Bohm, 1996] Bohm, D.: On Dialogue, Routledge, New York, 1996
[Born, 2003] Born, R.: Knowledge Integration: Its relation to organisational learning, to
Knowledge Management (KM) Methods (e.g. BSC) and to measuring the benefits of KM,
unpublished paper, Linz, 2003
[Kaplan, 1996] Kaplan, R., Norton, D.: The Balanced Scorecard, translating strategy into
action, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, 1996
[Kaplan, 2004] Kaplan, R., Norton, D.: Strategy Maps, Der Weg von immateriellen Werten
zum materiellen Erfolg, Schäffer-Poeschel, Stuttgart, 2004
[Kim, 2001] Kim, D.: Organizing for learning: Strategies for Knowledge Duration and
Enduring Change, Pegasus Communications, Waltham, 2001
[Mc Elroy, 2003] McElroy, M., Firestone, J.: Key Issues in the New Knowledge Management.
Butterwoth Heinemann, Burlington, 2003
[Senge, 2005] Senge, P.: The Fifth Discipline, Klett Cotta Verlag, Stuttgart, 2005

You might also like