This research is dedicated to Lucien van Orsooy, whose life unexpectedly came to an end right before his graduation.
Groningen, the Netherlands, 2007.
Supervisor: dhr. F. A. A. Becker-Ritterspach Co-assessor: dhr. B.J.W. Pennink
© Jair Thodé, August 2007 Student nr. s1519220
Foreword
I am proud to present the foreword to my final piece of work as a student at the University of Groningen. This final achievement represents an extensive period of research and dedication towards the international field of water management. Recalling my first day at water board Noorderzijlvest in the beginning of 2004, I have been working with water management in different ways, shapes and forms. My interest in cooperative projects between water boards and foreign authorities grew in the same pace as my study International Business & Management developed. As such, the decision was made to further develop myself into the field of international water management by continuing the focus of the knowledge transfer process and the effectiveness thereof for international water board projects, in continuation off my bachelor thesis.
Management Summary
Glossary
CMA Catchment Management Agency
CMS Catchment Management Strategies
DWAF Department of Water Affairs and Forestry
JAF Joint Approach to Flooding
MWRI Ministry of Water Resources and Integration
NWP Netherlands Water Partnership
NZV Noorderzijlvest
SA South Africa
UVW Association of Water Boards
VNG Association of Netherlands Municipalities
WEX Water Export Index
Table of Contents
1 Introduction 6
1.1 Problem indication 6
1.2 Initial motive 7
1.3 Significance of the study 10
1.4 Case selection and research aim 11
1.5 Research and sub questions 13
2 Design and Execution of the Research 15
2.1 Reasoning behind the case study 15
2.2 Conceptual model 15
2.3 Research approach and type of study 17
2.4 Data collection 17
2.5 Time horizon 18
3 Project Descriptions 20
3.1 A short perspective on the Dutch water board model 20
3.2 Project JAF 21
3.3 Project SA 24
4 Knowledge Transfer 28
4.1 What is knowledge transfer? 31
4.2 The process of knowledge transfer 32
4.3 Mechanisms of knowledge transfer 33
4.4 Types of knowledge dimensions 35
4.5 Effective knowledge transfer 36
5 Findings and Interpretation 37
5.1 The knowledge transfer process for project JAF 37
5.2 Mechanisms for project JAF 42
5.3 Effective knowledge transfer for JAF 43
5.4 The knowledge transfer process for project SA 44
5.5 Mechanisms for project SA 49
5.6 Effective knowledge transfer for SA 51
6 A Cross Case Analysis 52
7 Conclusion 57
8 Discussion 59
1. Introduction 1.1 Problem indication
In August 2005 the hurricane known as Katrina caused a tremendous amount of damage to the city of New Orleans. It was one of the three largest urban natural disasters in the United States (McDonald, 2007). In Katrina’s wake, Dutch engineers became sought-after experts in assessing what went wrong with the cities sea flood defences. Political delegations visited the Netherlands within a couple of months after the flooding and returned with spirited reports of how they could learn from the Dutch way of handling water (Bijker, 2007). Why? Because the Netherlands are arguably the world’s leading experts in handling water management. Being situated in the largest Delta of Europe placed the Netherlands into the position to turn the threat of living in a complex delta region into a series of opportunities and innovating to resort to new solutions and products (source: NWP).
Today, it is impossible to imagine the water world without international cooperation. Not just during catastrophic events like sketched above which require a sudden intensive knowledge base in flood control and protection, but also for different purposes in the field of water control. Keeping water quality up to par, continuously improving coastal development, dredging, maintaining natural resources, land reclamation and other forms of sustainable water management can be identified as issues where different parties can learn from each other for overall improvement (source: NWP). As such, companies, consultants, knowledge institutes and others are globally devising high-quality and inventive solutions to take advantages of differences such as expertise, labour costs, skills and access to markets worldwide ,often with the inclusion of Dutch experience (source: NWP). These forms of global cooperation which require knowledge to flow between different parties, in turn constitute an elemental question: how to effectively manage this knowledge transfer process from one party to another. According to Argote (1999), remarkable results can be gained by transferring units from unit to unit but effective knowledge transfer can be hard to achieve.
non-domestic countries through export from Dutch organisations as well as revenues realised in Dutch organisations localised abroad (source: EIM, 2005).
Table 1.1 Dutch export of the water sector (in €mln) and the WEX
- Source: EIM, 2005. -
The export of activities in the water sector amounted for 39% of the total value of water activities (source: EIM, 2005).
1.2 Initial motive
The author of this research has worked for Water board Noorderzijlvest (NZV), the local water authority responsible for the water management system in the provinces Groningen and Drenthe, for the period of three years. This water board is, like others, the main governmental institutional agency responsible for flood, control, management of regional water resources (quantity and quality) and treatment of urban wastewater (source: UvW). In relation to the WEX, water boards amounted up to near 1% of total water export activities. The further indication of water export divided by sub-categories shows that knowledge management and knowledge transfer amount up to 5% of the total water export of activities (source: EIM,
Two of the 21st century global issues in addressing water problems are organisation and financing of decentralized water management (source: UvW). For the purpose of the third World Water Forum held in 2003, the Dutch Association of Water boards has contributed to addressing this problem by designing a database of water experts from water boards based on an extensive analysis of financing and decentralization problems (source: UvW). This database is another example of the importance of water boards and its personnel in the prospect of effective water management.
Water board NZV has developed and participated in several international projects with different partners. The “Water boards in Egypt” project is an example of a project where intensive knowledge transfer took place between Water board NZV and the Egypt Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation (MWRI). Thodé (2006) measured if successful knowledge transfer took place and concluded that the absence of a legal framework prohibited further institutional development in order for knowledge to be completely transferred successfully to the recipient unit. To continue the research towards knowledge transfer and given the global character of water management issues and personal interest in international business and management, this study will continue exploring effective knowledge transfer within the water management sector.
Figure 1.1 Overview of water boards and active countries
- Source: The activities of Dutch water
boards abroad, Edition 2006 –
Considering the great amounts of international projects where there is some form of cooperation between water boards and foreign organisations, there is the opportunity to investigate and research the effective knowledge transfer process that has occurred and factors
that influence and have an effect on the effectiveness of knowledge transfer within these projects. To gain insight in more than one perspective or case of knowledge transfer within water management, the choice is made to opt for a specific fit multiple case study research that explores the knowledge transfer effectiveness and the factors of influence for 2 different projects. A comparison between these 2 projects is made via a cross case analysis. As Yin stresses (2003), doing a multiple case study is always better than a single case study. A comparing multiple case study will generate better results than a single case study. External validity and reliability is better guaranteed (Yin, 2003). Furthermore, evidence from multiple case design is often more compelling and considered more robust than single case studies (Herriot & Firestone, 1983). As such the initial motive of this study is to explore the process of knowledge transfer, its effectiveness and factors of influence on this process for 2 different water management projects where there is international cooperation involved.
1.3 Significance of the study
design remains one of the most important strategies for completing successful case studies. This study will fill that gap by intensifying the focus on the theoretical perspective concerning the knowledge transfer process and moreover, will provide new insights from a practical and theoretical stance concerning the knowledge transfer process in the water management sector, based on findings from this multiple case study.
1.4 Case selection and research aim
This research aims to explore the knowledge transfer process effectiveness for two specific cases of cooperation by capturing the effectiveness and exploring factors of influence on the transfer processes. As such, this research is a multiple (comparing) case study and focuses on understanding the dynamics present within single settings (Eisenhardt, 1989). The exploration of the knowledge transfer process effectiveness will lead to understanding the effectiveness itself and reasons why this process is more or less effective. According to Eisenhardt (1989) case studies can be used to accomplish various aims. One of these aims is to generate theory. As the exploration in this study leads to understanding why the knowledge transfer process is more or less effective, it will result into the generation of theory. When generating theory, the selection of cases is an important aspect for (multiple) case studies (Eisenhardt, 1989). Random selection of cases is thus not preferred. Pettigrew (1988) noted that doe to the limited availability of cases it makes sense to choose cases such as extreme situations and polar types in which the process of interest is transparently visible. Therefore, a selection of cases for this multiple case study is based on the likelihood that the chosen cases will replicate or extend the emergent theory as presented in the theoretical conceptual model (in chapter 4). In short, the interest lies in exploring transfer process effectiveness by capturing the effectiveness and identifying factors of influence. Thus, in order to develop an applicable model, cases are selected on the basis of their effectiveness, which is transparently visible from a practical standpoint ie. overall difficulty of effectiveness as perceived by project leaders. On one extreme a selection is made on the basis of being considered highly successful, and on the other a case is selected which is considered less successful. More specifically, this resulted into the selection of cases project JAF (Joint Approach to Flooding) and project SA (South-Africa).
County Council in England, and the Wasserverband Eifel-Rur in Germany. The basis for this 4 year lasting cooperative agreement lies in the increasing awareness that floods of European rivers need a change in approach to water, and this approach would require international cooperation1. The programme was started in 2002 and ended in 2006. During the period of this project and hereafter, all five partners have intensively focused on new solutions and projects to improve water level control to ensure safety. This required an intensive flow off knowledge between all involved parties to occur and thus barriers to and facilitators of knowledge transfer emerged. In the end, the overall perception by project leaders was that the project was a great success. This case as such forms the effective extreme in capturing knowledge transfer process effectiveness and its factors of influence will be explored further on.
The second case is project SA and at the time of the first evaluation, was considered less successful than JAF by project leaders due to the overall room of improvement. However, project leaders remained optimistic. Still, this project acts as the other extreme regarding transfer process effectiveness. The programme is still running and contains a three year time period and 3 organisations participating to set up catchment management agencies (CMAs) in Africa. This project is in cooperation with Wetterskip Fryslân, the UvW and the South-African Department of Water Affairs and Forestry (DWAF). Cooperation occurs through knowledge exchange and transfer in the fields of strategic catchment management plans, public participation, capacity building, network environment and legislation (source: The
activities of Dutch water boards abroad, 2006, UvW). As such this project also requires an
intensive flow off knowledge between the 3 involved parties and combined with the fact that at time of writing it can be considered less effective by project leaders, it makes it interesting to compare with Project JAF. More relevant descriptive details to both these projects will be addressed in chapter 3.
Concluding the case selection, the above 2 cases will form the basis of exploration of this study. Theoretical reasons why one case is more successful than the other will be explored and compared with each other during the remaining of the study, confirming the theoretical framework or extending the emergent theory. Each individual case will serve as a complete study and cross-case conclusions will be drawn.
1.5 Research and sub questions
To construct one solid question which comprehends the main research objective, one main research question for this multiple case study is formulated. According to Eisenhardt (1989), an initial definition of the research question is important in building theory from case studies. She notes that without a research focus, it is easy to become overwhelmed by the volume of data. The main research question is formulated as follows:
“How and why does the knowledge transfer process effectiveness between projects JAF and SA differ?”
Ultimately, the answer to the main research question will provide an understanding of the knowledge transfer process effectiveness and an understanding why this process is more or less effective. Ideally, the answer and conclusion to the main research question could lead to adding something new to existing theory concerning the effectiveness of the knowledge transfer process for water management organizations. Furthermore, increasing knowledge in this field could maybe ease future co-operative projects and more importantly, give a perspective on effective knowledge transfer processes for the people involved.
1. How can the effectiveness of the knowledge transfer process be captured? 2. What factors impact the effectiveness of the knowledge transfer process?
Do the predictors of difficulty for the knowledge transfer process impact the effectiveness? With predictors being ( Szulanksi, 1998):
Motivation Arduous relationship Source reliability Capacity (absorptive/retentive) Causal ambiguity Organizational context
Does the social context impact the effectiveness of the knowledge transfer process (Kostova, 1999)
Do transfer mechanisms support the effectiveness of the knowledge transfer process (Szulanski, 1998)
Sub-question 1 and 2 will both be addressed during the development of the theoretical constructs in chapter 4, and the application of these constructs on the 2 cases in chapter 5.
2. Design and Execution of the Research
The purpose of this chapter is to present the methodology that was used to conduct this study. It explains full reasoning for the choice of a case study, presents a graphical overview of this multiple case study, puts forward the approach taken to this study, shows the methods of data collection and their rationale, and notes the time horizon relevant for this study.
2.1 Reasoning behind the case study
This study has an evaluative base as it pursues a post-project look at how the effectiveness of the process of knowledge transfer took place and which factors were of influence on this effectiveness within an international cooperative setting between water boards and foreign organizations. This international setting is a context which accumulates a large variation of variables which could influence the knowledge transfer process. According to Yin (2003), an important strategy to successfully complete a case study is the reliance on the theoretical concept of the knowledge transfer process to guide the design and data collection. Thus, this case study basically comprehends three basic novelties: the reliance on theoretical concepts, the contextual complexity on variables of influence, and the evaluative character. Yin (2003) explains that the case study is the method of choice when the project under study is one with an evaluative character, and not readily distinguishable from its context. This inclusion of the context as a major part of the study will stand for distinctive technical challenges because there will be more variables than data points, secondly because the richness in variables will likely demand more than one method of data collection (Yin, 2003). Methods of data collection will be presented further on. The background of Yin’s approach to case studies stresses the nuance on bringing the reliability and validity known from experimental research design to the design of the case study research. The degree to which this multiple case study follows Eisenhardt’s (1989) approach to building theory from case studies been explained during the case selection and research aim.
2.2 Conceptual model
This paper has a primary interest in effectiveness and influences on this effectiveness for the knowledge transfer process as taken place within project JAF and project SA, and compares them with each other. The different organizations within these projects come together because of their different skills and knowledge and these differences in skills and knowledge provide the basis for a knowledge transfer process between participants. Made visually, the following model can be seen as the conceptual model of this paper:
Figure 2.1: Conceptual model
As the model shows, there is a comparison between the knowledge transfer process between projects JAF and SA. Within projects JAF and SA a knowledge transfer process exists between Dutch water boards and foreign organizations that carry the responsibility for water
management. This knowledge transfer process has a degree of effectiveness which needs to be captured for this research. Accordingly, there are factors of influence on the (effectiveness) of the knowledge transfer process. A further visual theoretical elaboration on these constructs is made in the theoretical model presented in figure 4.1. This model will show which constructs support or obstruct this knowledge transfer process, and is based on the theoretical constructs as presented during the formation of the sub-questions. The theoretical model in chapter 4 is thus a continuation on the conceptual model as presented here.
2.3 Research approach and type of study
An inductive research approach towards this study can be considered most appropriate. Inductive reasoning applies to situations where certain observations or measurements are made towards generating broader conclusions, generalizations and theories (Cooper and Schindler, 2003). In this research, observations are made towards the effectiveness of the knowledge transfer process, which can lead to a broader extension or confirmation of theory concerning the effective knowledge transfer process within an international cooperative water management setting. As for the type of study, this research can be classified as an explorative type of study. Cooper and Schindler (2003) argue that exploration is particularly useful when researchers lack a clear idea of the problems they will meet during the study. Thus, through exploration concepts are developed more clearly. In this study the effectiveness of the knowledge transfer process is explored, as are factors of influence on this effectiveness. These constructs are a result of previous exploration of relevant literature within the field of knowledge transfer, and continuous shifts from practical exploration to theorizing. These activities generated expectations of specific constructs having an influence on the effectiveness and the measurement of effectiveness itself. These have been embedded in the theoretical design of the study and followed the approach towards the case study as mentioned by Eisenhardt (1989). The constructs were mentioned during the forming of the sub-questions and will be further addressed in the theoretical model.
2.4 Data Collection
time-consuming character, the cost and the availability, data collection in this study relies on documentation and archival records. These two methods are considered stable, unobtrusive, exact, have a broad coverage, are precise, and are targeted and insightful (Yin, 2003). As such they will provide enough evidence to generate valid results in this particular multiple case study.
More precisely formulated, documentation and archival records gathered from both projects consisted of a variety of the following material:
Project proposals, action plans, reports, reference documents, summaries of seminars, quotation proposals, time frame planning, applications forms, personal records, agendas, financial reports, annual reports, original and reviewed budgets and mission reports, journals, newsletters, evaluative reports, session reports, interviews and others2. Because of their overall value, documents play an explicit role in any data collection in case studies (Yin, 2003). At the same time attention is paid to the potential over-reliance on documents which is warned for by Yin (2003). As such, corroborating information was done where deemed appropriate and thus keeping the validity of the study in order.
Unfortunately, the author regrets that no time could be made by project leaders to come to face-to-face or telephonic interviews. They had already undertaken several interviews for other researches and declined hourly intensive contact. However, they did make time to send appropriate documentation for these projects, and as such, data was retrieved from these persons. They have the data necessary to conduct any type of study on these projects. These persons were 3 of the most important people for the 2 projects, namely the project leader of project JAF3, the project leader of project SA4, and the international coordinator of the UvW and project SA5. Furthermore, as noted in the documentation database, interviews that were taken by others were also evaluated to increase the data validity. These interviews sometimes considered knowledge transfer within the JAF project and occasionally contained valuable information which was retrieved from several participants to the programme other than the project leaders.
2 A more detailed overview is given in the references section 3
Dhr. P. van Erp, Water board Regge en Dinkel 4
Further information was gathered from various outside sources, such as company websites, other project reports by Water Board Noorderzijlvest, the University of Groningen’s library module, and various other websites, namely those related to water management: (UvW, NWP, Waterland and others).
Lastly it can be noted that these forms of data collection are used to generate qualitative data. Qualitative data derive rich explanations (Miles & Huberman, 1994). Also, being an exploratory study, Cooper and Schindler (2003) indicate that qualitative techniques are best applicable to explorative studies. Numbers were not relevant for this study so no quantative analysis has taken place.
2.5 Time horizon
3. Project Descriptions
To fully understand the knowledge transfer process for JAF and SA and its underlying implications, it is necessary to gain constructive information on both projects situational circumstances. This overview should cover background information about the projects, substantive issues being investigated, and the relevant readings about the issues (Yin, 2003). Besides that, a short general descriptive concerning success factors for water boards and international cooperation is given to construct a better background image regarding the overwhelming field of international water management.
3.1 A short perspective on the Dutch water board model
Success for local water management is believed to rest on the two pillars of effective local governance and sound financing. These two pillars are founded on five building blocks and apply to the Dutch water board model. The challenges in implementing the model are in conceptualizing and building the two pillars of success. In short, the 2 pillars constitute the following five issues and are identified as follows (source: Success Factors in Self Financing
Local Water Management, UvW):
i. Legislation that gives local water administrations authority ii. Participation of stakeholders in water authorities
iii. Taxation by water authorities for generating income iv. Enhanced loan capacity for infrastructure investments
v. Institutional development, including capacity building
Experiences with self financing local water management are quite varied and cover the world (see figure 1.1 for an overview of international cooperation). The UvW is an important institute in these worldwide operations. In general the UvW aims to promote the interests of water boards at a national and international level. Within this association, all Dutch water boards are members whom collaborate to safeguard interests with regard to the national government and parliament (source: The activities of Dutch water boards abroad,2006,
UvW).
for future water management issues. As is the case for most other projects, organisation and financing water management are key issues in addressing the water problems for JAF and SA. In the rapid institutional changes it is thus worthwhile to review experiences gained from these two projects. Learning from each other’s successes and failures helps to avoid pitfalls in shaping the local institutional framework.
3.2 Project JAF
In 2002 five European regional governments responsible for water management, decided to work together in the JAF project. JAF is short for Joint Approach to managing Flooding. This project contains both input as well as output processes. The main part of these processes consisted of knowledge sharing between JAF partners in England, Germany and the Netherlands and between other organizations and the JAF partners. More specifically, the institutions are water boards Regge en Dinkel, Velt en Vecht and Groot Salland from the Netherlands, the Somerset County Council in England, and the Wasserverband Eifel-Rur in Germany. The aim of these input and output processes is transnational cooperation (as taken from the report “Knowledge sharing supports JAF-projects“): “concrete transfer of good practice, views, expertise and experience between the participating organizations”. Knowledge was shared in order to facilitate mutual learning, to help build an international network of water management authorities, and to support the JAF and future projects. There are four general work packages. The responsible partners are mentioned thereafter.
• Multifunctional land use (water board Groot Salland)
• River Restoration (Wasserverband Eufel Rur and water board Velt en Vecht) • New technologies (Somerset County Council)
• European Networking (water board Reggae en Dinkel)
Activities of the project included 16 best practice exchange visits, 6 desk studies and an involvement of over 100 people. Solutions for water management are translated to five demonstration activities that fit within the visions of the JAF partners in order to better control river water levels and improve safety.
However, there is no possibility for rivers to get rid of the water that results from extreme rainfall, which results in flooding. These floodings have occurred with increasing frequency. Recent examples are the floodings in the United Kingdom in July 2007. Nearly 150,000 homes were without drinking water after the worst floodwaters in 60 years swamped large areas of western England6. Within JAF, the JAF partners have opted for a new approach to water management which involves keeping hold of water longer and allowing it to drain off in a controlled way.
The program is financed by The European Commission. Through the Interreg IIIB Program financial resources are provided for the implementation of projects. This North West European Program provides support to transnational cooperation projects that seek to improve territorial development and cohesion in the North West Europe area7. One vital prerequisite for receiving any form of these European funds is that the project should include the transfer and exchange of knowledge between the project partners. This transfer and exchange of knowledge should lead to partners making use of knowledge and experience gained elsewhere in Europe which allows partners to carry out their plans more efficiently and effectively compared to a situation where no knowledge is exchanged. In brief, transferring and exchanging knowledge leads to synergy amongst partners.
To illustrate the activities under taken within the JAF project, demonstration activity known as Riperia II and its description is presented on the next page (source: A European approach
to flooding, June 2006).
6
Figure 3.4 Graphical illustration of the Riparia II project before the start
- Source: A European approach to flooding, 2006
In the past, Germany’s River Rur has been narrowed and straightened at many points. Now, giving rivers more space is the goal of the Eifel-Rur water authority’s Riparia project. By doing so they are increasing the storage capacity of the Rur. Instruments to increase this capacity for example have been replacements of dykes and dams. In the Eschweiler area, the water authority moved a 1.5 km-long dyke that used to run close by the river further inland. Moreover, three other dams have been removed which has given the river more freedom, by implementing a natural, winding watercourse and thus increasing the storage capacity (source:
A European approach to flooding, June 2006). See figure 3.4 and 3.5 for an illustration.
Figure 3.5 Graphical illustration of the Riparia II project after completion
3.3 Project SA
South Africa is changing towards sustainable water resource management for the benefit of all persons. The main goal is to improve the socio-economic situation by a more equitable allocation of, use of and access to water. Quoted from the project proposal (November 2005) the project objective for project SA is: “To strengthen local government for integrated water resources management by means of developing regulation and controlling systems for Catchment Management Agencies (CMA’s), assist in facilitating the establishment of the (CMA’s) Breede Overberg and Inkomati in South Africa and improving the functioning of the Dutch Water boards Groot Salland and Fryslân.”
As can be seen from the objective, which is also visually embedded in the conceptual model, the information flow goes two ways. Though the focus of the project is at South Africa, project partners aim for mutual benefit. To this end, knowledge is transferred both from water boards as towards water boards. Project SA is directed towards decentralised water institutions in South Africa (CMA’s, Water Users Associations (WUA)) and the Netherlands (water boards). The time horizon of the project is set from December 2005 to December 2008 (source: Final report action plan Catchment Management Strategies, Nov. 2006).
The project is financed and supported by LOGO South. The LOGO South programme is a programme from the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is managed by VNG International (the international cooperation agency of the Association of Netherlands Municipalities). The objective of LOGO South is to strengthen the capacity of local governments by decision making and implementing organisations in 11 selected developing countries (source:
Application form project proposal, 2005). Internationally, it is widely recognised that capacity development of local government is a vital condition for poverty reduction. Through LOGO South local governments, water companies and water boards in developing countries strengthen their capacities to provide services and to fight poverty. They do this via the 'colleague-to-colleague' approach: exchanging practical knowledge with their twinning partners from the Netherlands. Expert organisations like associations of local authorities contribute at national level.
within the project. This is due to project objectives being setup in a various amount of stages and activities. This makes evaluation possible due to the reached completion of certain activities. These project activities are summarized hereafter. At this moment the CMA’s Breede and Inkomati are established and several advisory committees are acting (catchment forums, steering committees). This research thus aims to evaluate the knowledge process that has been taken place per this moment. It determines how the CMA’s so far have developed and what this project has contributed towards these developments. This “short-term” evaluation might also help in evaluating the total process of CMA establishment and the contribution of this project.
The project activities are based on the following sub-objectives (as taken from CMA project-LOGO_South_2005-2008_Annual Report, 2006):
A). To develop guidelines and regulation and controlling systems for Catchment Management Agencies in SA.
B). To support the development of Catchment Management Strategies for Breede-Overberg and Inkomati CMA.
C). To capacitate Board & Management of Breede-Overberg and Inkomati CMA.
D). To capacitate operational (technical) staff by training and exchange of experienced staff of Breede-Overberg and Inkomati CMA and Wetterskip Fryslân and Groot Salland. E). To establish trans boundary cooperation in the Inkomati catchment area.
F). To establish a project evaluation and follow up proposal.
Especially the pre-assessment which is part of sub-objective F provides valuable information to conduct research upon. Within the project activity F1 is included (as taken from Reference document CMA's (Pre- assessment) final 2006: “A clear description of the process of establishment of CMA’s Breede- Overberg and Inkomati. Special attention will be paid to the actual situation concerning staffing of CMA’s, skills, existing catchment management strategies, efforts towards cooperative government, and the execution of the training programme. ”
In total, Catchment Management Agencies are being established for all 19 South African Water Management Areas. See fig 3.1.
Figure 3.1 Water Management Areas of South-Africa
W A T E R M A N A G E M E N T A R E A S O F S O U T H A F R IC A M O Z A M B IQ U E C a p e T o w n P o r t E liz a b e th E a s t L o n d o n D u r b a n P r e to r ia J o h a n n e s b u r g B lo e m fo n te in B O T S W A N A Z IM B A B W E N A M IB IA 1 . 2 . 8 . 9 . 1 0 . 1 1 . 1 2 . 1 3 . 1 5 . 1 6 . 1 8 . 1 9 . 1 7 . 1 4 . P ro v in c ia l B o u n d a r ie s W a te r M a n a g e m e n t A re a B o u n d a r ie s W A T E R M A N A G E M E N T A R E A 1 . L IM P O P O 2 . L U V U V H U A N D L E T A B A 3 . C R O C O D IL E (W E S T ) A N D M A R IC O 4 . O L IF A N T S 5 . IN K O M A T I 6 . U S U T H U T O M H L A T U Z E 7 . T H U K E L A 8 . U P P E R V A A L 9 . M ID D L E V A A L 1 0 . L O W E R V A A L 1 1 . M V O T I T O U M Z I M K U L U 1 2 . M Z I M V U B U T O K E IS K A M M A 1 3 . U P P E R O R A N G E 1 4 . L O W E R O R A N G E 1 5 . F IS H T O T S IT S IK A M M A 1 6 . G O U R IT Z 1 7 . O L IF A N T S /D O O R N 1 8 . B R E E D E 1 9 . B E R G 3 . 4 . 5 . 6 . 7 .
- Source: Reference document CMA's (Pre- assessment) final 2006
In total, CMAs are being established in a program, stretched over 12 years. This program is visualised in fig 3.3.
Figure 3.3 CMA Establishment Programme
C M A E s t a b lis h m e n t P r o g r a m m e
C M A E s t a b lis h m e n t P r o g r a m m e
3 6 9 1 2 1 5 1 8 W A T E R M A N A G E M E N T A R E A 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 0 1 1 1 2 1 3 1 4 1 5 1 6 1 7 1 8 1 9 0 4 /0 5 1 L e g e n d : E s ta b lis h m e n t o f C M A T r a n s itio n fr o m C M A e s ta b lis h -m e n t to fu lly fu n c tio n a l L o w e r V a a l L e v u v h u /L e ta b a C r o c .W & M a r ic o In k o m a ti O lifa n ts L im p o p o U s u tu - M h la tu z e T h u k e la U p p e r V a a l M id d le V a a l M v o ti - M z im k u lu M z im v u b u - K e is k U p p e r O r a n g e L o w e r O r a n g e F is h to T s its ik G o u r itz O / D o r in g B e r g B r e e d e 3 6 9 1 2 1 5 1 8 W A T E R M A N A G E M E N T A R E A 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 1 0 1 1 1 2 1 3 1 4 1 5 1 6 1 7 1 8 1 9 1 L e g e n d : E s ta b lis h m e n t o f C M A T r a n s itio n fr o m C M A e s ta b lis h - -m e n t to fu lly fu n c tio n a l L o w e r V a a l L e v u v h u /L e ta b a C r o c .W & M a r ic o In k o m a ti O lifa n ts L im p o p o U s u tu - M h la tu z e T h u k e la U p p e r V a a l M id d le V a a l M v o ti - M z im k u lu M z im v u b u - K e is k U p p e r O r a n g e L o w e r O r a n g e F is h to T s its ik G o u r itz O / D o r in g B e r g B r e e d e- Source: Reference document CMA's (Pre-
4. Knowledge Transfer
"Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality."
- Dalai Lama, 2000 -
At the start of the new millennium, the Dalai Lama gave a list with instructions for the purpose of living8. One can argue that sharing knowledge might also help organisations achieve ‘immortality’. Various business researches have indicated that sharing knowledge within and with other organisations can lead to organisational improvement. Argote and Ingram (2000) proved that organizations can realize remarkable performance benefits by transferring knowledge from one unit to another. They argue that the creation and transfer of knowledge in organizations provide a basis for competitive advantage in firms. According to von Krogh (1998), managers are recognizing that knowledge can constitute a source of sustainable competitive advantage, and thus turn to tools and approaches to transfer the knowledge and experience within and between companies.
As part 1 of the research objective, this chapter will provide a clear definition of the concept of the effective knowledge transfer process and factors of influence on this effectiveness by reviewing the academic literature and by placing it in a theoretical framework. Most importantly, this framework is in the context of the effectiveness of the process of knowledge transfer within project JAF and SA. As such certain aspects of knowledge transfer as identified in the academic literature are of greater importance than others. Which aspects deserve greater attention have shortly been addressed during the sub-questions section in chapter 1, and will be explained further on during the exploration in this chapter. As an example, to capture the effectiveness of the knowledge transfer process, the actual process of knowledge transfer from the initiation phase to the integration phase is of great interest to compare within both projects (Szulanski ,1998). To capture the actual effectiveness of the transfer process one has to measure the degree of effectiveness. A method therefore is to measure the degree of institutionalization (Kostova, 1999). Also, mechanisms of knowledge transfer are of great value to the success of the project which can be seen in the amount of time spent on choosing and identifying mechanisms of knowledge transfer by the project management teams. Mechanisms of knowledge transfer are therefore heavily looked upon.
There are various different theoretical perspectives of knowledge transfer at different levels of analysis combined with different methods (Argote & Ingram, 2000). Studies are done on individual level by focusing on variables such as training (Moreland & Myaskovsky, 2000; Kraiger, Ford, & Salas, 1993) and cognitive psychology (Singley and Anderson, 1989). At higher levels of analysis examples can be found on studies on department level, group level (Gruenfeld, Martorana, & Fan, 2000) or organisation level (Thompson, Gentner, & Lowenstein, 2000; Henderson & Cockurn (1994). On a macro-organisational level, Darr, Argote, & Epple (1995) conclude that interconnected organisations have relative performance advantages in comparison to their autonomous counterparts.
Figure 4.1 Theoretical model of the knowledge transfer process
This model is a follow up on the conceptual model presented in chapter 2 and can be interpreted as the knowledge process containing four basic stages of transfer processes coping with different forms of difficulty in each stage (Szulanski, 1998). This knowledge process can be considered to be facilitating or obstructing the effectiveness of knowledge transfer, which is also influenced by the implementation of mechanisms, as this process helps design organizational mechanisms that can support the knowledge transfer process (Szulanski, 1998). One of these predictors is the organizational context, which plays part of Kostova’s (1999) theory of contextual elements (Kostova, 1999) with effectiveness being measured as the degree of institutionalization of the practices. To this end, the focus of the type of knowledge being transferred lies on the most difficult dimension, tacit ness, because this dimension is
EFFECTIVENESS OF KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER
Institutionalization
TYPES OF KNOWLEDGE DIMENSIONS Explicit – Tacit continuum
KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER PROCESS
Initiation – Implementation – Ramp Up - Intergration F A CI LI T A T O R S B A R R I E R S CONTEXTUAL INFLUENCES Social – Organisational MECHANISMS
Personnel movement – Training PREDICTORS OF DIFFICULTY Motivation - Arduous relationship -
Source reliability – Absorptive/
deeply embedded (Polanyi, 1962) and thus most interesting. This theoretical model embeds the analysis and is a consequence of data collection and academic literature research.
4.1 What is knowledge transfer?
Before we elaborate on the issues of knowledge transfer relevant for JAF and SA as shown in the figure 4.1, the definitions of knowledge and knowledge transfer are given.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines knowledge as follows: `(i) facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject, (ii) what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information or (iii) awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation.´ According to Wikipedia, knowledge however, does not have a single agreed definition and has several competing theories. Knowledge acquisition involves complex cognitive processes: perception, learning, communication, association, and reasoning. The term knowledge is also used to mean the confident understanding of a subject, potentially with the ability to use it for a specific purpose.`
Argote & Ingram (2000) define the process of knowledge transfer as "the process through which one unit (e.g., group, department, or division) is affected by the experience of another".
Taken from Wikipedia9, knowledge transfer in the fields of organizational development and organizational learning, is “the practical problem of getting a packet of knowledge from one part of the organization to another (or all other) parts of the organization”. The complexity of knowledge transfer lies according to Argote & Ingram (2000) in the fact that knowledge resides in organizational members, tools, tasks, and their sub networks and according to Nonaka & Takeuchi (1995) much knowledge in organizations is tacit or hard to articulate. This last issue is articulated in the theoretical model as types of knowledge dimensions.
As we move on to explaining the individual theoretical items of influence on the knowledge transfer process for project JAF and SA individual items and the underlying implications will gain a clearer perspective.
4.2 The process of knowledge transfer
conceptualization social context is described in terms of institutional distance between the units through which the transfer is conducted and the relational context in terms of the past relationships between the key players involved in a particular transfer. The absorptive and retentive capacity respectively is the ability of the recipient unit to identify, value and apply new knowledge (Cohen & Levinthal, 1990) and the ability of the recipient unit to support the routine use of new knowledge. The reliability of the source is as such that when the source is not perceived as reliable, its advice meets more resistance (Walton, 1975). Causal ambiguity is the extent to which the knowledge is not well understood and the arduous relationship describes the strength of tie between the participating units, which is reflected in the ease of communication of the overall relationship between source and recipient (Hansen, 1999). Each of these contextual elements and predictors will be analysed for project JAF and SA accordingly. The basic idea behind the predictors is that they will occur in particular phases of the knowledge transfer process. The general expectation is that during the initiation phase, factors that affect the opportunity to transfer are more likely to predict difficulty such as the reliability of the source, whereas factors that affect the execution of the transfer are more likely to predict difficulty during subsequent implementation phases (Szulanski, 1998) such as the recipient’s ability to absorb knowledge. In correspondence, the influence of the source is expected to lower as the transfer proceeds. As such during the initiation phased and initial implementation of the transfer the source of knowledge is most needed, and declines as the process of knowledge transfer progresses. This means that traits as motivation and reliability are significant in the beginning of the knowledge transfer process, and capacity traits become significant during implementation. The causal ambiguity of the knowledge or the extent to which it was not well understood predict the difficulty of transfer throughout all phases of the transfer process. Furthermore, causal ambiguity and the lack of absorptive capacity are the most important predictors of stickiness (Szulanski, 1998).
4.3 Mechanisms of knowledge transfer
• personnel movement (Almeida & Kogut, 1999; Gruenfeld, Martorana, & Fan, 2000) • training (Moreland & Myaskovsky, 2000; Thompson, Gentner, & Lowenstein, 2000)
To the end of project JAF and SA, the focus is put on these activities because these are the most important mechanisms of transfer for both projects. Data collection suggested this. As such, they will be highlighted explicitly and separately. It is believed that the choice of mechanisms can haven an influence on the effectiveness of knowledge transfer. The exchange of best practices for JAF were mainly organised through the exchange of personnel in the form of exchange visits, and thus personnel movement. Training occurred through various forms of workshops to the incentive to the planning of establishment of new training centres in the SA project. The effectiveness of the total knowledge transfer process can rely on the effectiveness of the application of these mechanisms.
Regarding personnel movement, Almeida & Kogut (1999) empirically proved that the inter firm mobility of engineers influences the local transfer of knowledge. As such, the flow of knowledge is embedded in regional labour networks. This basically implies that local knowledge flows where local knowledge goes. They suggest that the driving force for local knowledge to spread throughout a region is the mobility of people, as localized knowledge builds upon cumulative ideas within regional boundaries. Gruenfeld, Martorana and Fan (2000) tested that itinerant member’s knowledge and experience in certain practises can be transferred from the group where it originated to another group dealing with the same kind of activities. Not only did results show that this was possible, members also returned with more unique ideas to their original group than before they left or while they were away. Itinerant group members are those members that are facilitating the import or export of group knowledge by going to other groups. For instance, a project leader to a certain knowledge transfer project may be an experienced manager who is brought in to guide and advisee trainee, or former members of successful transfer projects may help to initiate new efforts in a team facing those similar challenges.
acquisition. Acoording to Dierickx and Cool (1989) firm-specific skills, knowledge and values are accumulated through on-the-job learning and training. Above that, group training is shown to gain better successes than individual training (Hollingshead, 1998; Moreland, 1999). This advantage is the consequence of the development of transactive memory systems. These systems can be described as a shared awareness of information within a group in case of mistrust in ones own memory, thus one simply has to ask.
4.4 Types of knowledge dimensions
study will mainly be on the continuum explicit – tacit knowledge, as will be seen during the analysis of the knowledge transfer process during the remaining of this study.
4.5 Effective knowledge transfer
5 Findings and Interpretations
Basically, the findings and interpretations from the theoretical content applied to the investigated projects SA and JAF, would in summary generate results according to the following table:
Table 5.1 Summarized model of analysis for project JAF and SA
Theoretical implication Difficulties* Project JAF Project SA Knowledge transfer process
Initiation … 5.1.1 5.4.1 Implementation … 5.1.2 5.4.2 Ramp Up … 5.1.3 5.4.3 Integration … 5.1.4 5.4.4 Mechanisms Effectiveness 5.2 5.3 5.5 5.6
*Predictors of difficulties: arduous relationship, causal ambiguity, motivation, absorptive/retentive capacity, organizational context, source reliability
Analyzing data is the heart of theory building from case studies (Eisenhardt, 1989), but it is also the most difficult part. First each separate theoretical linkage is identified for the individual case resulting in an individual case report (Yin, 2003). The overall idea behind the individual case report is to become intimately familiar with each case as a stand-alone entity (Eisenhardt, 1989), in turn accelerating the cross-case comparison. The cross-case comparison is a comparison of results which leads to draw cross-case conclusions. The cross-case report thus will follow this table and determine the conclusion following in chapter 6. This process is based on the multiple case study method by Yin (2003).
5.1 The knowledge transfer process for project JAF
5.1.1 Initiation phase
(Szulanski, 1998). Also the reliability of the source is a predictor of difficulty in this phase. For the JAF programme, all partners were chosen effectively and were reliable. No difficulty has occurred due to the “unreliability” of each of the participants. According to the project leader, the basis of the success of the JAF project lied in finding the right partners. The JAF partners share roughly the same ideas about flood management, are about the same size and consider similar solutions (such as the work package multiple land usage). So beforehand, the JAF programme and its project leaders surely recognized that the choice of participants involved in the programme and joining the sharing activities is essential to the success of such a programme. This choice of partners is a crucial event to decide whether to pursue on the actual knowledge transfer process. An easy to understand basis was defined, the people were selected and the programme was chosen in an interactive manner. The success of the initiation stage depends on how difficult it is to find an opportunity to transfer and to decide whether to pursue it. The opportunity may need further attention to understand why or how superior results are obtained by the source (Szulanski, 1998). So before the transfer can be undertaken, practices may need to be documented, maps need to be created, timings need to be carefully selected, costs need to be assessed and mutual obligations of the participants need to be established (Ounjian & Carne, 1987). During the first two meetings of the JAF partners a lot of attention was paid to the preparation of knowledge transfer within the project. The concepts of supply and demand of information and knowledge were central to the design of the JAF programme and potential participants were asked what they would like to know, what information was needed and what they have to offer. Obligations and responsibilities were clearly identified and separated over each of the demonstration activities. Participants each had a clear role in the JAF programme. Time management played a crucial role in several phases of the programme. Clear choices were made concerning the money and time employees were to spend on JAF activities. Results from interviews by Royal Haskoning to several project participants showed that they congratulated the time spent on finding out the expectations about the information and knowledge transfer process10. In most cases enough time was taken to prepare the best practice visits. Participants were structurally asked beforehand what they expected from these best practice visits and what they would like to learn. A minimum demand was best practice visits taking at least up to three days because of the necessity to get acquainted first. According to a representative from Wasserverand Eifel Rur, the duration of these 3 day exchange visits caused problems for the participation of some
experts due to the longevity. However, it was pushed forward due to the considered necessity for these periods for the successful exchange of information.
5.1.2 Implementation
themes that were gathered from the main objective and sub objectives. Project leaders were focusing on needs, sticking points and crucial choices that had to be made during the execution of the demonstration activities. Coincidentally, the specific needs and solutions on a transnational level that were noted by the project leaders, were nearly identical to the conclusions and recommendations of the policy makers. This resulted in formulation of the final input and output processes. No difficulties arose from this process as coordination between the participants was appropriate. No participant was deviated from agreed-upon responsibilities. As such no difficulty arose from participants intruding on the domain of other participants (Leonard-Barton, 1990). According to Szulanski (1998) true motivations will probably be revealed at the implementation phase of the process. The recipient unit may increase difficulty by ignoring recommendations resentment, or to preserve pride of ownership and status (Rice & Rogers, 1980). These difficulties can be cancelled out through proper planning. No real lack of motivation occurred within the project. However, one major difficulty initially was to get the people from the partner organisations interested in participating in the input and output processes or trans national exchange activities. In the beginning the specialists from the partner organizations had to be convinced of the fact that it would have a real benefit for them and it was not just travelling around Europe. After joining the first exchange visit the benefits of the trip for the daily work were clear and people were very interested in joining another exchange visit.
5.1.3 Ramp Up
position of agriculture in the Parret Catchment. In the United Kingdom multifunctional land use takes place on a voluntary and tailor-made basis, taking into account the specific situation of individual farmers. In this respect Kostova (1999) would define this as the social context which is described in terms of institutional distance between the units through which the transfer is conducted. As for the work package river restoration, Somerset farmers were impressed by the large-scale flood storage capacity they had created by making rivers shallower and wider and adding meanders. They did the same in the Parret Catchment: field ditches that were three feet wide were made ten feet wide and together they would hold a lot of water. As such the degree to which new knowledge was applied did not meet any difficulties. Considering the work package new technology one difficulty arose in the ramp up phase which turned out to be the legislation in the United Kingdom. It prohibited the application of a new piece of technology to be put into practice and thus turned out to be a limiting condition. No solutions were found and thus the social context played a limiting role in this work package, as this new technology turned to be more difficult to modify in this stage of the knowledge transfer process.
5.1.4 Integration phase
5.2 Mechanisms of knowledge transfer
Project JAF knows two ways of transnational cooperation: horizontal and vertical. For the horizontal movement of knowledge, all demonstration activities contain input and output processes. Every JAF partner is involved with the practical and concrete transfer of experiences of good practice by exchanging visions en experience during the execution of the demonstration activities. Four mechanisms can be identified through which knowledge is shared11:
• Organisation of meetings of professionals and experts • Job rotations of representatives
• Organization of “experience” visits
• Execution of inventarisation on specific subjects
The demonstration activities will have a specific demonstration effect on JAF partners (horizontal movement) but will also have an effect on comparing organizations in North-West-Europe who deal with similar problems which portrays the vertical form of transnational cooperation which can be considered the vertical movement. As example, some of the activities for the work package multifunctional land use were inventarization on the present knowledge and the preferred knowledge, meetings in each region of the JAF partners and representatives of farmers and organizations with a special interest in nature, field visits and setting up courses and executing courses about multifunctional land use. There was no structural approach to the dissemination of knowledge, or more specifically the transfer of good practice, views, expertise and experience between the JAF partners and organizations. It was internally and externally disseminated in various ways. Some participants gave presentations about what they experienced, others informed their direct colleagues or wrote emailed memos to each other. The way in which information was shared was highly personal. Thus the true process of knowledge transfer was from an informal perspective. This is also a reason why knowledge flowed vertically with other units other than direct JAF partners. Information was shared informally to different water management organizations. Generally, the dissemination of knowledge within partner organizations was limited to direct colleagues or working groups that work in the exact same issues. Due to the fact that it is not possible for most of the observations to be implemented directly in other partners work, disseminations of
information became too theoretical at times and had too much of a scientific character rather than being suitable for practical implementation. This also turned out to be too time-consuming obstructing the effective process of knowledge transfer. The general opinion of the project leader was that external knowledge transfer could have been more structured if a framework had been provided. A format for reports on best practice visits could have facilitated these processes. However, drawing up reports received resistance on participant due to the amount of time spent on these reports. A reason for this resistance is the fact that they feel it adds more bureaucracy and may negatively influence the willingness to participate in knowledge sharing activities. Best practice visits were considered the most successful part of the programme. By participating in these best practice visits, local knowledge flowed where local knowledge had to go. Considering intensified forms of personnel movement, or in the case of JAF, job rotations, these turned out to be a failure. At the start of the JAF project management thought it was a good objective to spread local knowledge, but in the end it did not work. The reason behind this failure was a limited sized staff and motivation. It was not possible to find people willing to go abroad for a few weeks or months. Motivations for job rotations were lacking. Also, the electronic method of sharing knowledge was not a success. The electronic sharing of knowledge met a lot of resistance within the JAF participants. As an example, no participant was interested in emailing evaluative questions after performing activities. No form of training or group training has occurred in the programme. As mentioned before, each participant was carefully selected and their ability to apply new knowledge in this field was enough for the purpose of the programme. Apparently, no specific form of training was needed to complete the project. Reasons can be found in the organisations history, they are their regions experts in the field of water management.
5.3 Effective knowledge transfer for JAF
fact that transferred knowledge received good attention, and practices were taken over and applied in some situations and broadened participants view in other situations. For example, in the United Kingdom, to promote the external knowledge transfer flow to external parties such as the public and farmers, they made use of promotional activities such as a water festival. Lessons of its success were learned here from the Netherlands, and as such the Netherlands has taken over this external knowledge dissemination activity by executing a festival of its own. The better structurization of these external knowledge flows served as an example for partners. And even though there are some physical, cultural, and institutional differences between the JAF partners, and these differences resulted in some timely measures and slow-down, the similarities had the overhand and thus differences did not really stand in the way of the knowledge process itself. European legislation, combining water, agriculture and nature, river restoration and the use of models are similar issues and turned to be highly supportive to the cooperation, covering up the differences. Even so, all partners realized that without differences, knowledge sharing would make no sense. The importance of differences to the application of shared knowledge in all the three countries is relative , and differences are seen as essential to knowledge sharing. In the end it can be thus said, that the degree of institutionalization, as measured by the transfer of practices that have matured under the influence of an organization its history, people and interests have been accepted and achieved a symbolic meaning at recipient units. Recipient units being each of the participants in this project, as each participant has in some way learnt from each other, and broadened their views on effective water management. The pooling of knowledge and experience that took place during the JAF project resulted in outcomes that can be build on in future projects.
5.4 The knowledge transfer process for project SA
remaining process of the project. Other activities and thus predictors of difficulties for these activities will limit themselves to the initiation phase.
5.4.1 Initiation phase
5.4.2 Implementation
cooperation with sources and recipients. An assessment of existing training material and training material has taken place resulting in the development of new training material, thus supporting the transfer by constructing dedicated equipment. Furthermore, to improve the training infrastructure the usage and implementation of an training information system dubbed eWISA is used as an extra tool to train Board, management and personnel of CMA’s. The philosophy behind this training information system is to use simple visualizing decision support systems in stead of too many complex documents to improve the skills of the participants.
5.4.3 Ramp Up
