HR policy - Knowledge building and knowledge sharing

The Danish Technological Institute works with the goal of developing services together with national and international knowledge environments to create value for our customers.

• We continually strive to improve internal procedures and work processes to enable to be a consistently strong business partner for customers and other interested parties.
• Our goal is to create networks which can contribute to strengthening the Danish Technological Institute’s position as a leading development-orientated company.

As employees we strengthen this development through a professional responsibility towards quality and cost-effectiveness in the solutions we provide.

Further explanatory comments from Peter Vendelboe Hjortshøj, IT Manager

A knowledge-based company is in a position to accumulate experience over a longer period than an individual employee’s career at the company, it is in a position to transfer experience from one employee to another, and it can mix several sets of experience. In fact every company is to a greater or lesser extent based on knowledge.

A knowledge-based company like the Danish Technological Institute is however more dependent on knowledge than other companies. It therefore has to be one of the Institute’s goals to be in the forefront of building up and exploiting knowledge that creates value for the customers.

The Institute disseminates knowledge through a network of people who work together or who simply meet. A prerequisite however is that the employees have a positive attitude to the knowledge, i.e. are properly trained, curious and are continuously encouraged by management to renew and update their knowledge.

Another condition is that any barriers preventing knowledge sharing are removed. These could include for example barriers where employees are not rewarded for sharing knowledge. In addition, there must be tolerance if misunderstandings arise, potentially annoying cultural differences between departments should be minimalised and the physical parameters for work should promote co-operation and thereby knowledge-sharing.

On top of this, in a knowledge-friendly culture it is important that employees are not afraid of losing some of their position or voluntarily giving away some of their power-base by sharing knowledge. In the past, an individual’s knowledge was synonymous with power. In future the individual is more likely to be valued for his or her ability to enter into a knowledge sharing network both within and outside the Institute.    

During a project, there are often times when discipline and strict systematic control are necessary, and there are times when there is a need for wilder, more unstructured and creative thinking. Information and knowledge are applied in all situations. Information is education in a neutral form. Knowledge on the other hand is merely information which has been stored and interpreted according to our personal opinions and values.  

Knowledge sharing and knowledge building represent a constant interplay between the interpretation of information and the application of knowledge. One requirement is therefore that the technical infrastructure genuinely provides support for all employees and makes it easier for them to share, disseminate, store and exploit information. The value of information is most useful when we can distinguish between what works and what really works.