Conceptual Analysis of Knowledge Transfer
Within Talisman Energy Inc.

Mark A. Wilfur

Project Submitted In Partial Fulfillment Of
The Requirements For The Degree Of
Master Of Business Administration

The University Of Northern British Columbia
December 2008

© Mark A. Wilfur, 2008

UNIVERSITY OF NORTHERN
BRITISH COLUMBIA

LIBRARY

Prince George, BC

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Conceptual Analysis

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ABSTRACT

In looking for best practices in road construction, firms will need to investigate methods
of knowledge building and learning as a way to achieve best compliance with corporate
governance directives. This paper presented an analysis of an oil company as a learning
organization through observations in order to make recommendation to build knowledge
capacity. Observation and analysis of oil and gas construction workers was conducted over many
years of working alongside them. A review of literature that pertained to road ecology, best
practices, learning, knowledge transfer and corporate governance was conducted and gaps were
identified.
These gaps are between how companies utilized the knowledge of workers to improve
their practices, stir innovation and increase knowledge of governance mandate when compared
to the literature.
This paper makes several suggestions on how to close the gaps. First, it is important to
define what best practice is for your organization. What is best is contextual. Secondly, it is
critical to review the structure of the organization to align it for knowledge transfer. Finally, it is
necessary to have support and alignment of the top management to be a learning organization as
the prize for success is huge.

Conceptual Analysis

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Abstract

11

Table of Contents

lll

Chapter One

Introduction
Statement of Problem
Purpose
Significance of the Study
Assumptions

4
7
8
8
8

Chapter Two

Literature Review

10

Chapter Three

Methodology

38

Chapter Four

Results and Discussion

41

Chapter Five

Conclusion and Recommendations

72

74

References
Appendix

Definition of Terms

77

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CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
The success of organizations in the 21 st Century rests on their ability to acquire, retain
and share knowledge that will advance their effectiveness. The basis of the analysis of this study
is from a retrospective frame of discussions with many colleagues who work in the area of road
and land development and governance. These will substantiate or refute some preconceived ideas
the author has on how these groups share information and learn new practices. An interesting
area that will be touched on but not discussed in depth is the fact that learning and knowledge
sharing typically appears to be common at the executive level but this knowledge is not
necessarily disseminated throughout the organization.
The focus is to review the literature on corporate learning and best practices and apply it
to the organization. The goal is to assure that best knowledge and expertise is applied to daily
tasks that line managers perform to comply with corporate Health, Safety and Environmental
(HSE) policy. The author would like Talisman to develop a statement of commitment to
excellence in the pursuit of best knowledge, innovative thinking and understanding of issues for
the operations of the organization. Further, the goal would be that the organization would apply
and operationalize this commitment in its decision making process. Consequently, the author's
goal is that the report be easy to understand in clear non-technical language.
A framework is suggested here which can act as a guideline so local managers and
practitioners can take best practices that are derived and tested in the field and implement them
throughout the organization. This should enable local managers and practitioners to improve
upon environmental compliance in the workplace. This report's recommendations need to have a
broad cross-section of individuals to act in order to establish a foundation for successful

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implementation. Ideally this research sets direction for a program of continuous learning and
adoption within the organization. The purpose of this study was to increase awareness of the
benefits of knowledge transfer, identify road ecology issues and uses of 'good practices' and
increase awareness of knowledge transfer and increase employee engagement to meet
Talisman's governance mandate on HSE issues.
Road ecology and land development is used as a lens to observe how Talisman fares at
learning and knowledge sharing of best practices in contrast to the theories and recommendations
based on previous work by others. Road ecology was chosen as an area of petroleum
development that has many issues associated with it and therefore offers a rich source from
which many best practices could be learned and transferred. This is also an issue of great concern
to local people who are interested in how companies develop an area and the cumulative effects
of many different industries looking to access their particular resource. Other areas such as
seismic, drilling and production were considered by the author and most have many practices
that should be identified as best and transferred throughout the company but were discarded due
to the lack of information or the lack of concern by external stakeholders.
For Talisman the linkage to corporate governance policies is less obvious but it is of
concern. Talisman has stated in its Health, Safety and Environment Policy (n.d.) the following
high level objective:
Reduce our environmental impact: we will work to reduce the impact of our activities on
the environment. We will achieve this through education, effective project planning and
execution, careful waste management, and by using energy and other resources as
efficiently as practicable. (p. 3)

Conceptual Analysis
It is the author's assumption that the identification of best practices in all areas, the ability to

learn and share these practices through both informal and formal mechanisms will enable all
departments within the company to meet and exceed the intent of this policy. These areas are in
environmental stewardship and accountability as well as transparency around operations as
stated in the policy paper by Talisman's CEO. Talisman's ability to conduct its activities in a
safe and environmentally responsible manner has a direct bearing on its people, reputation,
operational flexibility and business success. Therefore the author suggests that it is critical to
Talisman's future that it is able to implement the recommendations discussed throughout this
paper.
Why this particular method of investigation?
The author found there are studies which discuss best practices, corporate learning and
knowledge sharing. However, these studies are written from an academic perspective and
analyze human behaviors and interaction. It was consequently my objective to bring the level of
understanding to a more grassroots level to the men and women in gas and oil operations. This
project was initiated to explore the existing work in areas of corporate learning and
environmental impacts and merge these into a useful tool. The proposed model would be a
process on best practices of: identification, implementation, testing, verifying against industry,
learning, knowledge transfer, and feedback on practices. It is hoped that the area managers will
generalize this work and apply it to practices in their areas. The process to implement this model
should work for most business units within Talisman. The model will help the organization learn
and implement best practices. One important requirement is that Talisman undertake a statement
of a commitment to excellence as part of the model.

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A formal survey was not undertaken as the current level of understanding in the proposed
groups (Land, Facilities and Construction) is quite high on the issue of road building and
practices to mitigate environmental impacts. In particular, members of the organization are
familiar with the issues of road disturbances in caribou habitat on the eastern slope of the Rocky
Mountains and the change in the behavior of these animals. The other potential group for a
survey was field level supervisors/managers. They comprised a small group in which I have
worked closely with and therefore bias was likely to skew survey results. However, my twenty
years with Talisman and querying employee tasks along with personal observations, allows me
to comment and compare practical experience within Talisman operations with the academic
literature.
The value of looking at how Talisman can apply this research to best practices and to the
issues related to road construction is important as we are developing new areas and wish to be
leaders in all aspects of our business. It is hoped that by sharing the research with other leaders in
the field they too will be able to implement a practice, test it against internal criteria, benchmark
it against industry, teach others within the organization and improve it through timely feedback.
It is through this type of tested learning that we will be able to improve our overall processes,

increase our compliance with regulation and satisfy stakeholders that we are exceeding our own
corporate governance in HSE.
Statement of the Problem

The author is looking at existing methods of knowledge building and learning as a way to
achieve the best compliance with corporate governance directives.
The area of business activities, like road and lease construction, is used as a lens to focus
on issues ofbest practices, knowledge capacity-building, sharing of learning and how these can

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increase our internal compliance with our governance model. Studying the area of road ecology
will help to better understand gaps that may exist in the knowledge base of road construction
personnel. The author then compares theories of knowledge and learning to what happens within
Talisman at a grassroots level in order to make recommendations to help move Talisman to a
more complete understanding of its compliance, given its governance direction set out by the
Board of Directors and the CEO.
Purpose

The purpose of this conceptual and comparative study is to build on areas of success and
analyze particular business areas within Talisman for gaps. Further, recommendations are made
so that general knowledge building theories can be put into practical use within different
business units. The goal is to use these processes to improve internally and to ensure that
Talisman continues to meet its corporate obligation to its external stakeholders.
Significance of the Study

IfTalisman wants to maintain its community license to operate it needs to continually
improve its performance on HSE issues as they relate to employees, the public and communities.
This is important as the oil and gas industry in North America is under ever increasing scrutiny
by the public, increasing government regulation and pressure by shareholders to deliver a
positive return on their investments while lowering the impacts to global environment. This
study is important to internal business unit leaders within Talisman as it will highlight areas of
learning and knowledge transfer that may not have previously been an area of concern. This
study can act as a basis for a more detailed look at Talisman's performance in the area of
learning and knowledge sharing.
Assumptions

This study is guided by the following assumptions:

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1. If we identify best practices in road construction we can use these to develop some
concepts on how to be a learning organization;
2. We can further show that once we implement these practices throughout a big enough
portion of the company, we can increase the profitability and display our stewardship to
the shareholders;
3. From this we can determine if our governance in this area is not just living up to the letter
of the law but that we are embracing the spirit of the issue;
4. Talisman can learn best practices in the area of road ecology and road construction and
can then use these to mitigate the impacts on the land while developing the resource of oil
and gas;
5. The current pace of resource development and timing of development leads to poor
practices;
6. Best practices are known to key people in different departments but not taught or
discussed with ground level managers;
7. The company currently does not have a method or model for gathering best practices
from areas throughout North America and does not have a way to integrate them
(corporate learning); and,
8. Talisman is not currently a learning organization at the line management level and below;
therefore, it cannot use best practices widely throughout North American Operations
(NAO), and does not display or provide evidence of good land stewardship. They
consequently are not able to consistently display good corporate governance in this area
and in some other key areas such as safety.

Conceptual Analysis 10

CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
This review provides the reader with background information into key areas of road
ecology, learning, knowledge transfer, corporate social responsibilities and governance. It is
structured to illustrate how the thread running through learning and knowledge transfer presents
an integrated theme when discussing best practices and corporate governance.
This review focuses on the beginning of Talisman's project issues, roads and ecology and
then moves into the area of learning and knowledge transfer. This paper must provide as much
background in this area as possible in the limited space available; however, there is a vast
amount of material on best practices and I could not possibly cover it all and I encourage the
reader to explore further. Therefore a brief review of some newer thoughts on governance is
covered.
Many companies need mechanisms for managing complex projects and change
initiatives. They must therefore develop a learning environment for these mechanisms whenever
possible.
This literature review covers the cumulative impact of land use or landscape ecology
related policies. The focus is to review these articles for information regarding problem areas and
practices that help to mitigate the issues. In this, I ascertain the environmental impact of roads
and the scientific approaches to road placement. Road ecology is a new way for oil companies to
look at development. It is a method in which companies look at an entire area and consider many
possible outcomes of development.
Three books that take a comprehensive look at landscape ecology and the principle
behind this science are germane to this discussion. These books provide a better understanding of

Conceptual Analysis 11
the principle practices used when companies want to lessen the environmental impact of building
roads, particularly in rural or wilderness settings. The first book Road Ecology: Science and
Solutions by Forman et al. (2003) provides the authors' perspective on the importance of road

ecology. Landscape Ecology Principles in Landscape Architecture and Land-Use Planning by
Dramstad, Olson and Forman (1996) discusses the principles and applications oflandscape and
regional ecology in any land mosaic, from suburban to agriculture, from desert to forest and from
pristine natural areas to areas of intense human activity. The third book, Land Mosaics: The
Ecology ofLandscapes and Regions by Forman (1995), presents the concept ofland base as a

mosaic of features and discusses concepts of how to lessen the impact on these features.
In Forman's (1995) book, the ecological system exhibits three broad characteristics:
structure, functioning and change. Landscape structure is the special pattern or arrangement of
landscape elements. "Function is the movement and flow of animals, plants, water, wind,
materials, and energy through the structure" (Forman, 1995, p. 14). The ideas and principles of
landscape ecology relate to Talisman's business practices. It is likely that no one in the
construction department has studied this literature and therefore is not aware of the information
about reducing the environmental impacts of road building related to oil and gas exploration.
"The pervasiveness of roads and their cumulative effect on the environment are now of
increasing concern for habitat fragmentation, rare species and aquatic ecosystems (Forman et al.,
2003, p. 6).
In Northern British Columbia, Talisman is building the type of roads that Forman et al.
(2003) calls "remote roads".
These landscapes are distinctive for having few roads, few vehicles and few people.
Nature and natural processes predominate. Unlike in agricultural and built areas, here

Conceptual Analysis 12
natural ecosystems surround nearly every vehicle and every kilometer of road.
Consequently, the ecological effects of roads and vehicles have a special importance.
(p.351)
Forman et al. (2003) define these areas as coastal or interior, bisected by either rivers or rugged
mountains with either a continental or maritime climate. Forman et al. describe these remote
areas with words such as "wilderness" and "wildlife refuge" (p. 352). Terrain or topographical
features of the land often dictate where the roads can go and therefore, strongly affect road
network structures and patterns. Forman et al. (2003) discuss how roads in mountainous areas
often follow old trail systems used by native people and game animals and for this reason, most
follow rivers and streams or ridgeline networks. Another feature is that " ... remote lands have
relatively small roads, low road densities, low traffic volumes, and low vehicle speeds" (Forman
et al., 2003, p. 353). However, this is no longer the case in many areas. Resource roads are
prolific in western Canada.
Modem engineering methods and equipment enable roads to be placed almost anywhere
and to conform to any given landscape. In general, road alignments today are built with the least
cost or least resistant principles in mind; with flexibility nearly all roads could be built with
minimal ecological impact. Forman et al. (2003) discuss some of the ecological effects of roads
in remote landscapes. Of interest to this discussion is the section on resource roads. Forman et al.
(2003) state,
Changes related to active or former resource-extraction operations such as mining,
quarrying, logging, and [oil and gas exploration] in remote areas may have a large
influence on road-network development. Resource-extraction roads often are primary
access roads. [They] provide ready access to legal and illegal hunters and to off-road

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Conceptual Analysis 13
vehicles. The indirect impact of former resource-extraction roads on other natural
resources, such as fish and wildlife, can be significant unless measures are taken to
remove the roads. [Further, they need to be returned to a natural state as soon as possible
to mitigate impacts such as access for off-road vehicles whose use is] poorly controlled
and produce many effects on soil, vegetation, and wildlife. (p. 355)
Forman et al. (2003) mention that recent work is being undertaken in the field of road ecology
throughout the world. One example is the work on lessening wildlife-vehicle collisions. Forman
et al. (2003) use Canada as an example where high-profile cases of wildlife-vehicle collisions
have helped to raise road ecology interests. Wildlife in Canada; including moose, elk, deer and
bear are abundant. As a result, the provincial transportation departments have a great interest in
understanding the population dynamics and the movement of these animals. Talisman is very
interested in understanding this particular area of driver safety and the issues of wildlife
collisions.
In much of northern British Columbia, the mountain caribou that inhabit the eastern
slopes of the Rocky Mountains are of particular interest to the provincial government and
wildlife conservationists due to the impact on the population in recent years.
An example of one measure being undertaken is as follows:
After a half century of building forestry roads, the USDA [United States Department of
Agriculture] Forestry Service began to ... close roads on a significant scale in certain areas
and to identify remote areas that should remain road-less. The economic reasons included
eliminating the costs of road maintenance and human-access impacts. Ecological reasons,
such as reducing sediment problems in streams and protecting large remote areas for
wildlife, were also important. (Forman et al., 2003, p. 22)

Conceptual Analysis 14
We have experienced this in Canada as well, although on a smaller scale. An example of a
protected area where road building is restricted is the Muskwa-Kechika Region in northern
British Columbia in order to protect the natural habitat, particularly for the caribou.
Notwithstanding the fact that low road densities, lower speeds and other factors have
limited the impact of resource roads in north eastern British Columbia, modern road ecology
planning tools afford an opportunity to further reduce overall impact. Talisman can use these
tools to lead and promote stewardship in areas of oil and gas operations. Many of these areas are
undeveloped. Therefore any change will have an impact on these ecologically sensitive areas.
Given the need to apply the many theories about land and road ecology, most companies
have to understand the implications on their businesses. If ecological processes are to be
sustainable, it is important to examine the economics and capabilities of their companies and to
clearly articulate these to senior management.
A study by Sharma and Vredenburg (1998) was conducted within the oil and gas
industry. Phase one was a comparative case study to examine the linkages between
environmental strategies and the development of capabilities as well as to understand the nature
of any emergent capabilities and their competitive outcomes. This article is relevant because it
outlines the linkages between environmental strategies. The questions posed in the study were as
follows:
1. What are the different strategies of environmental responsiveness adopted by different
organizations within the same industry?
2. How did these strategies impact organizational competitiveness?
One observation Sharma and Vredenburg ( 1998) made was that the organizational capabilities
and the coordinating mechanisms enabled the most efficient and competitive use ofthe firm's

Conceptual Analysis 15
assets. They are often invisible based on tacit learning and thus difficult to identify and imitate
by competitors. In plain language, tacit knowledge is what is in our heads where as explicit
knowledge is what we are able to write down.
Themes emerging from interviews indicated that the perceived linkages between being
responsive to environmental issues and competitive benefits in proactive companies were due to
the emergence of certain capabilities. For Talisman this would mean that as they learned to be
responsive to issue by learning and sharing knowledge this would strengthen their capacity to
address issues in other business units. Another example that emerged was that proactive
companies engage concerned stakeholders in dialogue over new exploration; developments; site
locations, and plant design. From my observations, Talisman does have a process to engage
some stakeholders, chiefly First Nations. However, it lacks the means to engage other
stakeholder concerns. This has resulted in a lack of capacity-building in consultative practices.
Learning needs to happen at every level within an organization in order for frontline
managers to reduce the environmental impacts of the business. However, this is often done in a
work environment of ambiguity and with a lack of information. Sharma and Vredenburg (1998)
showed that there is a correlation between companies with sound environmental strategies and
good organizational performance. This is likely due to learning and adapting best practices in
many areas of the organization.
One of the key capacities that Talisman should consider developing is in the area of road
ecology. In the near future, cumulative impacts in Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin
(WCSB) will be one of the greatest problems faced by companies whom the public expect to
work together. If this does not happen, the opportunity to continue to develop the resources will

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be lost at the same time the largest global opportunities for developing new areas have been
nationalized.
Schneider, Stelfox, Boutin and Wasel (2003) discuss the combined threatening effects of
the energy, forestry and agriculture industries on the integrity ofthe forests ofthe WCSB. Two
issues are prominent in this study including seismic lines and roads and the impact ofboth of
these on the landscape. Schneider et al. (2003) discuss the issue of road ecology in relation to the
impacts on the forests and perhaps the forestry companies. It is interesting that they also
presented an argument for why road ecology makes good business sense for companies. As
Schneider et al. (2003) discuss, many linear disturbances such as roads, seismic lines and
increased human access create impacts on a variety of species such as caribou and fish.
Schneider et al. (2003) further state there is nothing in the current regulatory framework to
prevent increases in the cumulative footprint left by multiple industrial users on the land base.
They argue that certain features of the petroleum industry like seismic lines, well sites and
pipelines have a greater impact because they are not reforested as quickly as forest companies'
harvest areas (Schneider et al., 2003). While this is true, the value of reseeding or replanting
native grass for grazing on many of these spaces by ungulates was not given any consideration.
The practice of reseeding has some merit and may be considered a good interim practice.
Prior to any discussion about impacts, background information on the area in question is
useful. The large geographical area known as the WCSB covers the Peace Region of B.C., most
of Alberta, and the central-southern part of Saskatchewan. The petroleum deposits in the WCSB
represent one of the world's largest hydrocarbon resources. The development of this resource
began in the 1950's and proceeded rapidly, particularly during the 1990's and is again in a period
of rapid expansion. Forests within the WCSB are also subject to commercial forestry operations

Conceptual Analysis 17
that have likewise expanded in recent decades. Recently, the mountain pine beetle infestation is
having a huge impact on the pine stands within the WCSB. In addition, the Peace River region of
Alberta and B.C. supports a large agricultural industry. Coal mining has also grown during this
time period, with the building of Tumbler Ridge in the 1980's to the recent resurgence of coal
projects in the Peace River area.
The combined effects of the energy, forestry and agriculture industries are threatening the
integrity of all ecosystem components and their interactions within the forests of the WCSB.
The forest land base is shrinking, human access is steadily increasing and forest stands are
changing in composition, becoming younger and more fragmented. "The root of the problem is
the current system of management, which lacks meaningful ecological objectives and fails to
integrate the overlapping activities of resource companies" (Schneider et al., 2003, p. 1).
For example, even the activities of one or two companies can have a significant impact, despite
many regulations governing the conduct of seismic exploration; there is no limit on the
cumulative density of lines. A recent phenomenon is the impact three dimension seismic
programs are having in many areas that were previously explored. In the absence of an
integrative planning framework, resource companies generally plan their activities
independently, even if they operate on the same land base.
Talisman, on the other hand, has implemented a process to review these issues since
2005. Talisman has implemented the Alberta Government's Sustainable Resource
Development's Area Operating Agreement (AOA) process. What was once a small pilot project
has expanded into a tool which is used for almost all public or Crown land in Alberta. In 2007,
Talisman became the first energy company to implement a provincial AOA, which improved
efficiency, ensured more coordination of industrial development, reduced conflict with other

Conceptual Analysis 18
stakeholders and managed the cumulative impacts of the company's activities. The AOA process
connects Talisman's philosophies with the ultimate objective oflntegrated Landscape
Management (ILM) on Crown or public land. This coordinated development is especially
important in the more environmentally sensitive areas ofthe province in which Talisman
operates, such as caribou management areas.
This general lack of integrated planning will not likely be overcome until companies can
build internal capacity for knowledge transfer about practices to stop or mitigate damage to the
environment. While Talisman employs the AOA in Alberta, the process is not universally used in
all North American Operations. Therefore Talisman may want to look at implementation on a
broader scale.
As previously mentioned, when companies build capacity to address these types of
issues, they develop capacity to learn across the organization. This capacity to learn can be
moved across to other business units of the company. Once this is integrated then companies can
address learning and knowledge transfer amongst different types of resource extraction
compames.
Why should companies expend time, money and valuable human resources in this area?
Investments in this area allow companies to understand and learn about the impacts and most
importantly, implement a knowledge sharing process. The program can be cost effective and can
allow a company to implement a defensible program to satisfy the demands of the multiple
stakeholders including the Board of Directors.
One example of the amount of money at stake is given in Schneider et al.'s (2003) paper.
Schneider et al. (2003) use the example of the anticipated road construction associated with
energy sector development is estimated at 75 km per year of permanent industrial roads over the

Conceptual Analysis 19
next fifty years. In British Columbia, there is approximately 500,000 km of resources road in
comparison to approximately 30,000 km of public highway.
Schneider et al. (2003) assumed that the petroleum sector implemented a series of
changes to decrease the magnitude of the annual footprint, while maintaining a fixed rate of
development. These changes included increased road harmonization with the forestry sector and
measures to promote the reclamation of disturbed areas. They then compared the existing
business as usual (BAU) to a best practice (BP) model of operation. Schneider et al. 's (2003)
model demonstrated that existing practices carry a substantial economic cost. Oil and gas
companies must pay a prescribed fee to forestry companies for wood that they remove from
areas that are controlled by the forest company. On crown land these fees go directly to the
provincial government. The timber damage fees paid to the forestry companies can average
$1,316,000 per year in the BAU case, compared with $521,000 in the BP case. Schneider et al.
(2003) then calculated the amount of carbon storage that was lost between the two runs; it
amounted to 5.8 Mg/ha. At a rate of$10/Mg for carbon credits, this amounts to $342,000,000
over the study area in 2003 dollars. For clarity, an Mg is equal to one metric tonne. The newest
rate for carbon is approx $30/Mg; therefore the value is just over one billion dollars in 2008.
The fee that petroleum companies must pay to forestry companies for timber damage will
amount to tens of millions of dollars in coming decades. This is a ' lose-lose' situation because
the economic losses to the petroleum industry do nothing to restore the forest in areas that are
disturbed. The current system also ignores potential credits that could be gained by petroleum
companies for maintaining carbon stores on the landscape. As shown above, this amounts to
millions of dollars. Substantial cost savings could have accrued if the petroleum industry and
forest industry were to harmonize their road networks. This best practice is now quite common in

Conceptual Analysis 20
many areas and is of particular value in minimizing fragmentation and human access and in
maintaining caribou habitat. In this study, Schneider et al. (2003) point out that the best practices
approach would be useful in less developed areas because companies would have more options
from which to choose with fewer constraints. Parts of the southern Peace River district and the
land on the eastern slopes of the Rockies called the inner and outer foothills would be the logical
place to implement this model for Talisman.
So, how do resource extraction companies move from thinking about how they impact
the land and start working on issues to improve themselves? First, they need to understand how
to learn and then how to knowledge share company wide. I have selected several papers that will
provide insight into this topic. Nonaka and Toyama (2005) discuss many of the latest theories
pertaining to knowledge creation in corporations and why companies undertake knowledge
management, a long and expensive process.
There are a number of factors that lead organizations to undertake a knowledge
management program. Popular business objectives include gaining a competitive advantage
within the industry and increasing organizational effectiveness with improved or faster learning
and new knowledge creation. Because knowledge management programs can often lead to
greater innovation; better customer experiences, consistency in good practices, knowledge access
across a global organization and other organizational benefits, many corporations have adopted
these practices as their end goal. Typical outcomes that corporations look for when implementing
a knowledge management program include:
•

Making available increased knowledge content in the development and provision of
products and services;
Achieving shorter new product development cycles;

Conceptual Analysis 21
Facilitating and managing organizational innovation and learning;
Leveraging the expertise of people across the organization;
Increasing network connectivity between employees and external groups with the
objective of improving information flow;
Managing the proliferation of data and information in complex business environments
allowing employees to access appropriate information sources; and,
•

Managing intellectual capital and intellectual assets in the workforce (such as the
expertise and know-how possessed by key individuals) as individuals retire and new
workers are hired. (Knowledge Management, 2008)
Knowledge management consists of a range of practices used by organizations to

identify, create, characterize, distribute, and utilize what it knows and how it knows it. The
knowledge management programs are usually constructed and implemented to meet
organizational objectives such as improved performance, competitive advantage, innovation,
developmental processes, lessons learned-transfer (for example between projects), and
development of collaborative practices.
Knowledge management is differentiated from organizational learning by the focus that
is placed on knowledge as an asset and the development of internal pathways through which
knowledge and information can flow . Knowledge management can be viewed from three broad
perspectives. First, techno-centric organizations focus on technology - ideally those that enhance
knowledge sharing or growth. Second, the organization looks at how it needs to be designed to
facilitate knowledge processes. It has to determine which organizations work best with what
processes. Finally, the ecological perspective views the interaction of people, identity,
knowledge and environmental factors as a complex adaptive system. Another key distinction

Conceptual Analysis 22
about knowledge management refers to the distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge.
Tacit knowledge is often subconscious, internalized and individuals may or may not be aware of
what they know and how they may accomplish particular tasks. At the opposite end of the
spectrum is conscious or explicit knowledge, knowledge that individuals hold clearly and
consciously in mental focus, which may be communicated to others.
Nonaka and Toyama (2005) proposed a framework to capture the dynamic process of
knowledge creation with the concepts of a companies knowledge vision, objectives that cause
individuals to seek knowledge, the use of dialogue, how individuals are knowledge assets and the
corporate environment to deal with the issues of contexts, values, ideals and power. Nonaka and
Toyama (2005) discuss knowledge creating firms and conclude that many of the concepts
support the argument that knowledge based firms will be more financially sound, have better
governance, stronger health, safety and environmental (HSE) processes and therefore, will be
better positioned to ensure compliance with their governance requirements.
As Nonaka and Toyama (2005) note, Drucker emphasizes the importance of initiative for
the productivity of knowledge workers. Similarly, Maister found a positive empirical
relationship between financial results and the ability of knowledge workers to make choices and
perceived that the workers are in control of their own destiny (Nonaka & Toyama, 2005). "In the
organizational knowledge-creating process, individuals interact with each other to transcend their
own boundaries, and as a result, change themselves, others, the organization and the
environment" (Nonaka & Toyama, 2005, p. 421). Creating knowledge within an organization
does not just mean organization members supplementing each other to overcome each other's
limited capabilities; "it means that subjective tacit knowledge held by an individual is
externalized into objective explicit knowledge to be shared and synthesized. The newly created

Conceptual Analysis 23
knowledge is then used and embodied by individuals to enrich their subjective tacit knowledge"
(Nonaka & Toyama, 2005, p. 422).
Nonaka and Toyama (2005), in another article with Takeuchi, argued that a successful
knowledge management program not only needs to convert internalized tacit knowledge into
explicit codified knowledge in order to share it but also must permit individuals and groups to
internalize the knowledge and make it meaningful for themselves.
Castillo (2002) cautions us by pointing out that studies have failed to quantify tacit
knowledge by means of proxy measures formulated using financial and human resources data.
Further, some scholars see tacit knowledge as something not directly observable but rather as
something imbued into products and processes. Another interesting dichotomy exists in the issue
of whether tacit knowledge is transferable between people and between organizations. There are
behaviors that suggest that some type of observable knowledge can be transferred. Castillo
(2002) seems to support the proposition that if tacit knowledge can be passed on from person to
person, then the potential exists for harnessing a worker's tacit knowledge to attain some form of
firm competitive advantage.
In the area of tacit knowledge there is a disparity between the opinions of psychologists
and management theorists. Castillo (2002) discusses many forms of knowledge and references to
authors who have used or argued for these views. Some of the following types of tacit
knowledge are forms that I believe are either displayed or could be displayed by my colleagues.
Socio-cultural tacit knowledge is defined by Castillo (2002) as instances of knowledge not
attributable to anyone in particular but rather is part of social cultural systems that learn and use
this form of knowledge.

Conceptual Analysis 24
Many individuals with tacit and explicit knowledge jointly determine a system of
knowledge and a system of facts, procedures and routines, learned as the organization grew and
pervade via culture-like mechanisms. Many of us can easily recognize this within our own
companies. I think Castillo (2002) makes an important observation that,
Such a system is what provides the necessary impulse that moves organizations toward
survival, success, and growth. At the lower levels of some organizations, individuals may
not only function clueless as to the organization ' s overall objectives and strategy, as seen
from the board level, but may also function with less than full detailed awareness of the
consequences oftheir individual actions. (p. 50)
Another type of knowledge that can be codified or verbalized and leads to other, more useful,
explicit facts is systemic knowledge which seems to constitute only explicit, codified bits of
information passed formally and informally from one employee to another.
Dispersed knowledge is something that is not transferable between firms and may not be
distributed internally by firms . As Castillo (2002) points out:
This appears to be somewhat like the problems that Pfeffer and Veiga argued are the
problems of tacit knowledge transfer at the individual level but taken to the
organizational level. While Leonard and Sensiper spoke of a collective form of tacit
knowledge that is developed communally, over time, in interactions among individuals in
the group and which exists more or less complete in the head of each member who was
completely socialized into the group. (p. 51)
This idea appears to support the notion of a competitive advantage derived from tacit knowledge.

Conceptual Analysis 25
A type of tacit knowledge exists in which certain professions like engineers, scientists and
possibly even managers do not have to explain the words that they use to form a message but that
others seem to know the implicit meaning of that message.
Nonaka and Toyama (2005) give further information that is valuable on the subjects of
knowledge transfer and leadership for companies to consider and discuss how tentative and
partial knowledge created out of an individual's values and experiences is shared and justified by
the members of the organization to create new knowledge. The knowledge created in the
organization can then go through the justification process in the market, and new knowledge will
be created by synthesizing views from the market.
Nonaka and Toyama (2005) state that:
Synthesized knowledge creation is achieved through dialogue. One can pursue the
essence of seemingly contradictory things and accept others' views through dialogues.
These allow one to discard presumptions and find a new solution to the contradiction.
Dialogue is a method of learning others' views, which are different from one's own, and
to accept and synthesize them. For that, one needs open thought with both self assertion
and modesty. (p. 426)
Nonaka and Toyama (2005) discuss how essential dialogue should be encouraged in daily
operations at every level through the practice of asking why five times. The idea here is that
when you are asked repeatedly why you do something, you begin to ask the essential reason
behind your thought or action. This is critically important because deciding on specifications
without considering the reason for the action leads only to an optimal choice among existing
options. "To have a new solution that goes beyond the contradictions, one needs to answer the
existential question to pursue the essence, based on one's own value system and that of the

Conceptual Analysis 26
organization" (p. 427). Dialogue is also an effective method to turn tacit knowledge into explicit
knowledge and to externalize and systemize explicit knowledge to deepen it and create new
knowledge.
Concepts and hypotheses created out of such observation and experience are made into
reality through dialogue and practice. Practice here does not just mean action. [This
emphasizes] the importance of ' reflection in action', which requires one to think hard
about the essential meaning of his or her action and its outcome so as to revise his or her
action. (p. 427)
Laiken (2003) states "reflective time is an important component oflearning from
experience and thus increasing production capacity as well as their individual knowledge and
skill" (p. 10).
Nonaka and Toyama (2005) introduced the concept ofBa, a foundation of knowledgecreating activity. The essence of the term Ba is the contexts and the meanings that are shared by
individuals and created through interactions that occur at a specific time and space or
relationships of those who are at the specific time and space; it has been described as the core of
organizational learning.
Laiken (2003) asserts that "what makes learning organizations unique is their conscious
intention to legitimize and create space for such informal learning" (p. 11). Some approaches
companies should consider were suggested by Laiken (2003):
•

Establish supportive mentoring relationships in which the mentor acts as a coach or peers
act as coaches to one another.

•

Give people time for reflecting on problems or mistakes to extract learning.

Conceptual Analysis 27
Encourage communities of practice enabling dialogue on work related issue of concern
such as a company intranet site. These would allow an on-going opportunity to learn
together through open interaction. The members would also learn skills of advocacy and
inquiry through continual dialogue without trying to answer, correct, silence or extend
from previous work by trying to inform and being continually informed.
Provide skill development, through action learning or classroom training; facilitate the
skills necessary to support reflective practice such as the ability to help a team debrief its
work and learn about its function and the ability for people to use dialogic approaches in
informal group explorations and allowing individuals to reflect on their experience in
order to reach conclusions which can then be tested in action.
Develop the interpersonal skills required to check assumptions explore differing views
and learn from others through genuine, open interaction.
Develop a shared set of values which reinforce and make public the organizations
commitment to creating an environment for learning. (p.ll-12)
Amin and Cohendet (2000) observe that "learning and innovation is the product of shared
expertise, talk, sociability, argument, disagreement, negotiation, and so on" (p.lll ).
The organizational structure of a firm defines the interactions within the firm in terms of
formally defined command and information. However, such interactions are only part of a
dialogue that occurs within the organization to create knowledge. The meanings emerge and
evolve through inter-subjectivity and interactions among organization members and/or between
them and the environment. While the objective hierarchies determine the allocation of resources
and formal power, social interaction patterns enable members to locate and utilize knowledge
beyond formally defined information processing routes.

Conceptual Analysis 28
Laiken (2003) discusses structured leadership verses freedom, autonomy and suggestions
for a learning organization to implement such as:
Leadership skills are shared and consciously nurtured, on the job, during team meetings,
in coaching sessions with the supervisors or peer.
A climate of continuous learning and no blame allows workers to make provisional
attempts, receive feedback, make changes, and try again.
Teams are engaged in the experimental learning cycle of action, reflection, learning,
change and new action.
In the learning organization, hero leaders are not rewarded.
Leaders are encouraged to enlist wide spread involvement, ensuring that individuals and
teams affected by decisions play a key role. (p.l4)
Knowledge assets are created from the knowledge-creating process through dialogues
and practices at interactions. Unlike other assets, knowledge assets are intangible, specific to the
firm and change dynamically. "The essence of knowledge assets is that they must be built and
used internally in order for full value to be realized, and hence cannot be readily bought and
sold" (Nonaka, 2005, p.429). Knowledge assets do not just mean the knowledge already created,
such as know-how, patents, technologies or brand, but also include created knowledge, such as
the organizational capability to innovate. Firms create knowledge by synthesizing their own
knowledge and the knowledge embedded in various outside players, such as customers,
suppliers, competitors or universities. Since knowledge is created through dynamic interaction.
Leadership in a knowledge-creating firm requires active commitment from all the members of
the organization, not just from a few elites. Laiken (2003) gives a list of changes that happen in a
learning organization:

Conceptual Analysis 29
Is shifting from the formal environment of classroom training, to the more informal
learning environment of the workplace itself. .. colleagues and managers are teachers who
are engaged with each other in action learning. While some tasks still require formal
training prior to engagement, much of the on-going learning occurs in the moment, as
workers move through the cycle of action-reflection-action. (p.ll)
In knowledge-creating firms, the planning and implementation of strategy is integrated
instead of being separated, as suggested by existing theories of strategy and organization. It is
not enough for a leader to set a vision and driving objective to foster the organizational
knowledge-creating process. If it stays just as a written slogan, such a vision or driving objective
does not work. The knowledge vision and driving objective have to be accepted and shared by
organizational members.
As Laiken (2003) points out, there are often gaps between what is genuinely valued and
what actually occurs in practice. The dilemma often faced by organization members is that the
action imperative orientation of the organization precludes a careful examination of the gaps
between values and action. Also, in a typically conflict adverse organization, this culture
mitigates the open confrontation when the gaps become obvious. The result is cynicism.
Therefore, leaders have to facilitate constant dialogues and practices to 'evangelize' the
knowledge vision and driving objectives throughout the organization.
Nonaka and Toyama (2005) believe that internal knowledge can be extracted and taught.
This means that a person may not be able to tell it all, but they can display it. There are many
methods to move to a tangible, teachable space with knowledge that seems to be trapped within a
person, work team, or organization. The term 'that is just the way we do things' reveals tacit
knowledge. The view of many of these authors is that, if you can capture even a part of tacit

Conceptual Analysis 30
knowledge and then teach or share it, a company can have a sustainable competitive advantage. I
have been observing Talisman for a great deal of time and can compare it against this criterion.
For example, Talisman has some incredibly talented people that are world leaders in deep
drilling and geology compared to others. This paper explores ways to share some of this
knowledge and teach it to others. If individuals can learn by not repeating the mistakes of others
in the acquisition of specific knowledge and wisdom, all the people involved will feel a
tremendous sense of accomplishment. In most cases, people want to pass on what may be a life
time of learning.
At this point it is important to discuss the governance of the corporations that are learning
organizations. A discussion of a new governance model being used by The Nuclear Waste
Management Organization follows. They have a new type of governance that is setup to take
input from the grass roots of the organization to the board room. This organization knows the
consequences when the public has lost faith in the organization and essentially has removed the
social license to operate. They have had to implement a new approach to engage stakeholders
that is adaptive and effective in guiding the board in its decisions. Petroleum companies in
Canada may want to review this example to ensure they maintain their social license to operate,
particularly in areas where there is increased impact due to the pace of development.
In their 2007 annual report, the Nuclear Waste Management Organization discussed what
many would consider a new type of governance model, one that engages the stakeholder in such
a way that the Board is able to use this information in an adaptive fashion to make strategic
business decisions. Ways to engage stakeholders include:
Remain accessible to the general public as well as interested individuals and
organizations;

Conceptual Analysis 31
Have a transparent and collaborative approach to your work;
Invite early input on five year plans;
Send out a general invite to meet with individuals and organizations informally to update
them and receive feedback;
Brief people on near-term plans and activities as well as ask the how they would like to
be engaged or kept informed as implementation unfolds;
Meet with local, provincial, and federally-elected representatives, community liaison
groups and advisory committees;
Increase youth engagement to ensure ongoing transparency and inclusive engagement
plans;
Approach the subject from many viewpoints, ensuring that your method of involving
people is varied to include citizens in communities;
Schedule information sessions for interested parties, focus on recent developments and
policy changes;
Participate at conferences organized by interested organizations, have an information
booth, do presentations. (Nuclear Waste Management Organization, 2008, p. 16-17)
The Nuclear Waste Management Organization (2008) found their website was an important point
of engagement. Plans are published and documentation is made available including technical
research, engagement reports, newsletters and news releases and minutes from the Board and
Advisory Council meetings. They developed good processes for gathering input that would be
useful for the board by collaboratively developing work plans and asking if the objectives
proposed were the right ones or if other plans ought to be considered. They built capacity to both
engage citizens in dialogue and collaboration as well as to reflect on the direction which emerges

Conceptual Analysis 32
and to ensure that it was reflected in the implementation process. They needed to find ways to
communicate the often complex issues to be addressed and to help build the capacity of those
who wish to be involved in decision making. They proposed to do social research to explore and
understand the expectations of stakeholders by convening a series of discussion groups with
community-engaged opinion leaders. They learned from citizen panels about engaging a broader
group in near term visioning, implementation, long term vision and developing decision making
processes.
In reviewing organizational learning and the governance practices, I support the view of
Amin and Cohendet (2000) that two separate governance models need to be considered. One, a
mechanism for governing competencies that coordinates knowledge and, two, a mechanism for
governing transactions that manages transactions. I will focus the discussion on the governance
of coordinating knowledge.
Boards are starting to consider how issues like environmental impacts can have risk to the
bottom line of companies and impact the governance. Some of the most progressive companies
are looking at mechanisms for the board to hear from the grassroots stakeholders. The board sets
the direction to protect the shareholders from risk to their investments. The project proposes that
if they are able to implement guidelines, then this lowers the risk to the company and helps the
shareholders. As mentioned earlier, individuals may not only function clueless as to the
organization's overall objectives and strategy, as seen from the board level, but may also
function with less than a full understanding of the consequences of their individual actions.
Therefore, it is important that learning and knowledge transfer be two directional, from the
ground level to the board level and vise versa. I would propose that companies need to be

Conceptual Analysis 33
learning organizations in order to move from Board room decisions to action in the field on
issues pertaining to corporate social responsibilities.
In what follows, I will illustrate that corporate governance and corporate social
responsibilities are important considerations for all organizational members. One key driver of
developing a business case for boards to consider Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the
growing awareness of pension fund shareholders who now understand the trade off between
short term returns verses long term social, environment and economic issues faced by business
management. Governance must have an ethical guiding principle. The United Nations Global
Compact report Who Cares Wins: Connecting Financial Markets to a Changing World (2004) is
one of several reports that look at the links between social, environmental and governance
practices.
Talisman's Corporate Responsibility Report (2007) provides insight into how they view
the area of governance and corporate social responsibility. Talisman's commitment to corporate
governance and corporate responsibility contributes to the creation of long-term value for our
shareholders. Talisman's Board of Directors sees its principal role as stewardship ofthe
company and its fundamental objective as the creation of shareholder value, including the
protection and enhancement of the value of company assets. The Board ensures systems are in
place to manage risks and through the President and CEO sets the attitude and disposition of the
company toward environmental, health and safety policies, regulatory compliance and financial
practices and reporting. Responsibility for Talisman's social, health, safety and environmental
performance rests with the Board of Directors. Talisman's approach and commitment to
corporate responsibility and ethical business conduct is clearly stated in its Policy on Business
Conduct and Ethics (PBCE).

Conceptual Analysis 34
Strandberg Consulting (2005) states that "corporate governance reform efforts of the past
decade have bumped into decade-old efforts to mainstream social and environment responsibility
of corporations and a growing awareness that firms' off balance sheet environmental and social
impacts can have tangible financial consequences" (p. 1).
Some other key drivers that are pushing CSR into the board room are the globalization of
information technology and the ability of global stakeholders to communicate their need to have
a global governance system. Companies can no longer meet the governance standard in one part
of the world while ignoring another. Also employees are now concerned about global issues and
desire to work for companies who place a high level of importance on social issues and ethical
standards. The central question here is how does a company bring together two sometimes
divergent issues of governance and social responsibility?
Two divergent perspectives emerged from the interviews that were conducted by
Strandberg Consulting (2005). One group believed CSR connects to governance at the value
level, determining the boundaries and accountabilities of the company in relation to a broad
universe of stakeholders and its social and environmental responsibilities and opportunities,
while the other group perceived CSR governance to be an operational risk issue. They found that
most held the view that CSR risk management is a critical governance issue, as is board
diversity, accountability and transparency. Most of the leaders believed that CRS issues will
grow at a modest rate but vary in whether they have any significance on company performance.
As shown, building capacity in one area has a positive sustainable affect on many areas within a
company. If we believe that organizational learning is not just a management tool but that all
members within an organization have a "share in the responsibilities for the governance of the
organization" then all members need to convey the significance ofthese issues (Dixon, 1998, p.

Conceptual Analysis 35
162). Amin and Cohendet (2000) hypothesize that there are two separate governance imperatives
a company should consider; the need to have mechanisms for governing competencies, defined
as needing to coordinate knowledge, and the need to manage transactions. This level of
governance is not necessarily at the board level but it is the responsibility of organizational
members to give people in the organization valid information so they can make informed
decisions. As Dixon (1998) suggests "as organizational members, we have a role in governance
ofthe organization, whether or not we choose to acknowledge that role" (p. 168) and so I suggest
that one role is to understand corporate learning and knowledge sharing. As acknowledged by
many of the leaders interviewed by Strandberg Consulting (2005), corporations today face a
broader spectrum of risks that can have a significant financial impact. These emerging issues are
in the areas of supply management, environmental stewardship and human rights. Also as
companies consider their long range sustainability, issues like climate change, human rights,
global poverty and security, and other environmental trends become important risks that need to
be managed. Companies that fail to adequately prepare for these issues risk flying blindly into
societal road blocks. Talisman has taken steps to understand some of the issues for example:
In 2007, the Advisory Group for the National Roundtables on Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR) in Canada released the Group's final report recommending steps
the Government of Canada, industry and civil society should consider in order enhancing
the performance of Canadian extractive sector companies working in developing
countries. This represented a consensus among industry, civil society and academics.
Talisman's Senior Manager of corporate Responsibility and Government Affairs is a
member of the Advisory Group and the company supports the Advisory Group ' s
recommendations. (Talisman Energy, 2007, p. 2)

Conceptual Analysis 36
It is imperative companies implement learning plans and share the information globally as an ad

hoc approach can lead to incomplete or missing commitments made by the Board of Directors.
There is an emerging importance placed on sharing knowledge and understanding throughout all
levels of a corporation by using the best practices method which leads to completely fulfilling a
company's governance mandate as everyone understands the tasks to be completed and how to
implement them.
Caterpillar is an example of a global company that has the governance, technology and
strategic alignment that has created a culture of learning. A company operating in 40 different
countries and having a learning audience of 100,000 people needs a robust infrastructure that
contains the elements of governance at the board level, a coordinated learning infrastructure and
an alignment process that ties into the core values of the company. While Talisman has a smaller
global span and significantly smaller learning audience, the principle elements could be the
similar but scaled to fit.
As Glynn (2008) states, Caterpillar's governance structure is strategically connected with
the enterprise and divisional goals through a Board of Governors, the Engagement and Learning
Council, advisory boards and area learning managers in each division. The Board of Governors
provides direction and policies for the corporate learning function. The structure under this top
tier has a configuration that is similar to any other learning institution; with a university board
that oversees the alignment of the corporation business strategy with the learning needs of the
different enterprises; it is called CAT U (Glynn, 2008). This University Board gives direction to
a group of learning leaders throughout the organization. The structure on the business side is
made up of an engagement and learning council, advisory boards and lead learning managers.
This structure lays the foundation for global involvement, ties the business needs to learning and

Conceptual Analysis 37
utilizes the expertise of Caterpillar employees throughout the world. One ofthe biggest
challenges that Caterpillar faced was how to enable informal learning that could extend across
enterprises (Glynn, 2008). They developed a knowledge management system of e-learning using
their internal network that included 4000 communities of practice. It allowed for the exchange of
information, file sharing, and posting of questions to subject matter experts around the world.
This knowledge network provided a vast amount of searchable data from every community of
practice within the organization. People no longer had to rely on their personal networks,
experience or job assignments; they could now search by keyword on the network.
Aligning the business strategy with the learning needs of the corporation at a divisional
level has had the effect of increasing employee engagement which has increased discretionary
efforts leading to better business performance. Talisman by comparison has to date employed an
ad hoc method of learning and knowledge transfer through its global operations. It has relied on
the knowledge that can be transferred by individuals when they are moved to new functional
areas. Talisman is currently developing a system to share safety and environmental practices
throughout its global operations.

Conceptual Analysis 38

CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
The research plan for this project was to review existing literature using electronic
documents, journal, newspaper and magazine articles, published papers, as well as text books.
The main objective was to use the author's twenty years experience and observations on
these issues as a source of reference for comparison. Over this time period, I have had many
discussions with most of the key stakeholders within Talisman, the public, government
representatives both locally and provincially. As well, I have attended several meetings held by
the Construction, Lands and Community relations departments within Talisman and have had the
opportunity to discuss issues pertaining to construction practices, learning and knowledge
transfer with these groups. In fact the focus of one of the meetings was to meet each other and
share what each group was doing with the others.
Through my work on municipal council, I have had many interactions with local
stakeholders on a variety of these issues. In several cases I attended public forums led by
provincial government groups like water, land and air protection (WLAP as it was known then)
and had the opportunity to gather feedback.
This method of research has been used by others including Teece (2005) . Teece (2005)
sums up the approach taken by his mentor Mansfield:
In general, my approach has been to try to get a reasonably solid empirical footing before
attempting to model complex phenomena about which very little is known; to keep the
theoretical apparatus as simple, transparent and robust as possible; to collect data directly
from firms (and other economic units) carefully tailored to shed light on the problem at
hand (rather than to try to adapt readily available general-purpose data, which often is

,

Conceptual Analysis 39
hazardous), and to check the results as thoroughly as possible with technologists,
executives, government officials and others who are close to whatever phenomenon is
being studied. (p. 18)
The validity of this method can be questioned as it is based on the personal observations
and study by the author. The method used was to compare what people do versus what they say
they do. Therefore, I used the observable behavior as evidence of validating the information
received. I would like to acknowledge that the people I had discussions with over the years are
really the experts in the areas in which they work, therefore their opinions are expert. An
example of an expert opinion would be one ofTalisman's construction foreman. He has worked
in this specific area for over ten years but has accumulated more than twenty years of experience
in the field of heavy construction.
The processes that the author undertook may not be repeatable since the observations are
based on unique interactions the author had with the people and the observations made.
However, this does not imply that the recommendations are not valuable. The author suggests
that if a formal set of surveys were constructed and answered by these same groups most of the
same issues would be discovered. Therefore the results can be tested for repeatability.
This study did not include a scientifically random sample of people to survey and this is
recognized as a limitation of the study. The same specific questions were not asked of
individuals over the course of many years so statistical analysis is not possible on the data.
Limited by geography, these are mostly based on issues and discussions that reflect the views of
people in three western provinces of Canada.
However this study was exploratory and informal in nature and further study on specific
areas would increase the knowledge on learning methods within this organization.

Conceptual Analysis 40
The author assumes that the observations and discussions have captured a true
representation of the issues. The scope of this project was limited as it reviewed one specific area
of Talisman and how learning and knowledge transfer takes place in this group. While the issues
maybe close to the same for other business units they will differ somewhat. The author had to
select from a vast amount of literature on the subject areas and in doing so this limited the
concepts with which to compare Talisman' s work.

Conceptual Analysis 41
CHAPTER FOUR
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
At the beginning of this study I identified 8 assumptions that I outlined to frame this discussion.
These were:
1. If we identify best practices in road construction we can use these to develop some
concepts on how to be a learning organization;
2. We can further show that once we implement these practices throughout a big enough
portion of the company, we can increase the profitability and display our stewardship to
the shareholders;
3.

From this we can determine if our governance in this area is not just living up to the
letter of the law but that we are embracing the spirit of the issue;

4. Talisman can learn best practices in the area of road ecology and road construction and
can then use these to mitigate the impacts on the land while developing the resource of
oil and gas
5. The current pace of resource development and timing of development leads to poor
practices;
6. Best practices are known to key people in different departments but not taught or
discussed with ground level managers;
7. The company currently does not have a method or model for gathering best practices
from areas throughout North America and does it have a way to integrate them
(corporate learning); and,
8. Talisman is not currently a learning organization at the line management level and below;
therefore, it can not use best practices widely throughout North American Operations

Conceptual Analysis 42
(NAO), and does not display or provide evidence of good land stewardship. They
consequently are not able to consistently display good corporate governance in this area
and in some other key areas such as safety.
Throughout this discussion, I will return to these assumptions and see how the research has borne
out the validity of them.
If Talisman can identify best practices in road construction, it could then use those
practices to implement some of the concepts on how to be a learning organization and to further
show that once it operationalizes these practices it can increase the profitability and display its
stewardship of the environment to the shareholders. From this, the organization may be able to
show that its governance is not just living up to the letter of the law but also involves embracing
the spirit of the issues.
Nonaka and Toyama's (2005) outline, acts as a guide for comparing Talisman and best
practices of road building which starts with socialization, the process by which tacit knowledge
of the people in the construction group can be verbalized, accumulated and shared. These
codified concepts could then be systemized and made into a practice through the combination
process. This combining process uses explicit knowledge collected from observations or direct
verbalization from inside or outside the organization; it is selected, combined and processed to
form new complex sets of explicit knowledge. The new knowledge created, in the form of a best
practice, is then assimilated into tacit knowledge by others of the construction group using it
through the internalization process. This newly assimilated tacit knowledge then sets off the new
process of knowledge creation. Through this process of tacit and explicit knowledge conversion,
subjective values are synthesized into more objective, socially shared knowledge. The final piece
is to validate this knowledge in the field with employees and with key stakeholders.

Conceptual Analysis 43
In my observation of road construction the process of supervisors in transferring
knowledge is often dynamic. Once a road process has been successful the workers often share
this knowledge with others through stories in ad hoc meetings. In this manner, the extemalization
process is completed, thus allowing a new practice to be used in current road construction. The
verification that the new process works or not is then presented to the group in another ad hoc
setting for discussion and is often revised or accepted until the next iteration. In the field, this is
often coffee shop talk when two or more supervisors share ideas and concepts. There is no
structure and no formalized method to capture the knowledge transfer but I would suggest that it
could be observed and written down thereby making it transferable.
How people in the field accumulate knowledge is by observing the actions and habits of
others and through the articulation of their ideas of best practices at the annual meeting. When
planning, laying out routes, and building roads they will then be creating new ways that further
develop this practice. As stated by Nonaka and Toyama (2005):
Without the actual efforts to realize it, a firm's knowledge vision is little more than empty
words. For knowledge to be created and justified based on the firm's knowledge vision,
the firm needs a concrete concept, goal, or action standard to connect the vision with the
knowledge creating process of dialogues and practices. We call such a
concept/goal/action standard a driving objective since it drives the knowledge-creating
process. (p. 424)
If this process of accumulating knowledge, dissemination, and development is not given enough
effort or lacks clear goals then Talisman will fail to meet the board of directors' guidance.
In recognition of many of the issues related to road ecology, Talisman had in 2006-2007
consulted with multiple Alberta stakeholders and developed an integrated land management plan

Conceptual Analysis 44
which was well received by both the government and other Alberta resources companies.
Strategies for achieving long-term ecological objectives at the regional scale, including limits on
cumulative industrial effects have yet to be implemented in many cases. In the near future we
will need to follow this same process in B.C. in order to address the continuing issue of how to
share our long range plans with other resource companies to enable all companies to manage the
cumulative impacts.
An example of identification of practices and implementation that goes beyond the
mandated requirements and that increased stewardship is the AOA done by Talisman in Alberta.
The government, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO's) and other resource extraction
industries were consulted as they regulate or influence area guidelines. The project was
undertaken to address concerns related to Schneider et al. 's (2003) findings. The process and
learning from this has enabled Talisman to decrease cycle times of obtaining government
approvals thereby lowering costs. Another benefit of working with self regulating bodies,
government, NGO's, and other industries to set standards and transfer knowledge is it improves
Talisman's governance in the area ofHSE.
The knowledge of how, what and where to build a road seems very applicable to the
people in the construction group. They seem to possess a type of knowledge that can not be
written down but is imbedded in the processes they use. Knowledge and learning is different at
various levels within Talisman. J. Cooney (personal communication, October 12, 2008) pointed
out this may be typical of a large company where different levels of understanding and
knowledge transfer exist. At the executive level, activities are more explicit and so learning and
the ability to transfer understanding are part of existing processes meanwhile, at the operations

Conceptual Analysis 45
level it is evident that Talisman needs a systematic approach to extract tacit knowledge and
transfer it.
Talisman wants to move from having upper level managers understand the strategy and
governance to having field personnel understand the specific processes and interactions required
to implement the strategy. Establishing clearly articulated mechanisms, goals, tracking and a
rewards system so field personnel can achieve success in utilizing their tacit knowledge is
therefore critical. Giving field personnel the time and space for learning and knowledge transfer
is an important step towards governance compliance.
It is my opinion that leadership in a knowledge-creating firm is based on flexible

distributed leadership, rather than leadership as a fixed control mechanism. Since knowledge is
created through dynamic interactions, leadership in a knowledge-creating firm requires active
commitment from all members, not just from a few elites. In knowledge-creating firms the
planning and implementation of strategy is integrated instead of being separated as suggested by
existing theories of strategy and organization. This does not mean that everyone starts creating
knowledge immediately. For knowledge leadership to work, the mechanism of middle-up-down
is key. In such a process, middle managers break down the vision or driving objectives into
concrete concepts or plans, and lead dialogues and practices.
Caterpillar and Siemens AG use their world wide intra-net systems to enable employees
to share and create knowledge. Caterpillar has the Cat University and Siemens has Share-Net.
This is also the case for stakeholder groups on the internet that may share and discuss
information on a Blog site. They will determine a system of processes, procedures, and routines,
and form their own culture. I would suggest that one way a corporation can capture these
dynamic information exchanges that have been formed by cross-boundary communities is to

Conceptual Analysis 46
provide a company sponsored intra-net site for these activities to take place and to allow
individuals to write and post information and have discussions with few constraints. This system
could be used for both internal and external stakeholders.
It is evident from the discussion above that Talisman will need to set up processes and

systems to enable their frontline construction people to have some form of knowledge capture
and be able to test this knowledge to see if it is a best practice and then transfer this across NAO.
They also need to encourage knowledge leadership throughout the organization. Talisman
currently has pockets of this knowledge building capacity and is able to tie it to governance in
the area of limiting environmental impacts; however, it is not defensible to all stakeholders.
Talisman is making progress in the areas of identifying and implementing best practices while
increasing stewardship. However it lacks a consistent, sustainable method for North American
operations.
For Talisman, I am suggesting that they look for current strategies and review them for
the gaps between key components that make environmental strategies successful and then build
capacity to implement them.
I questioned whether Talisman can learn best practices in the area of road ecology and
construction and apply these to mitigate the impacts on the land while developing the resource of
oil and gas.
There is "ambiguity and lack of information that currently characterizes the
business/natural environment interface in the Canadian oil and gas industry" (Sharma, &
Vredenburg, 1998, p. 740). This ambiguity is partly due to federal and provincial governments
having regional jurisdiction which overlap and conflict. Talisman found that building roads in a
new area that involves bodies of water (rivers, ponds) the rules are determined by provincial

Conceptual Analysis 4 7
ministries, the Federal Department of Fisheries and Oceans. They also need consultation with
the Canadian Coast Guard as a river is often a navigable body of water. This leads to incomplete
wrong or a complete lack of information being given to the personnel in the field. The person in
the field is often uncertain of all the overlapping rules and regulation and therefore has difficulty
taking the correct action.
The issue of why best practices are not practiced or why there are no incentives to look
for better ways is related to recognizing or rewarding people for their innovations. While
Talisman has a comprehensive compensation program that does tie employees to the key values
of the company, it does not have a specific subset of key performance indicators (kpi's) that
compensates employees for seeking opportunities at business natural environment level. It does
however recognize initiatives taken by individuals but these are not widely known therefore
many employees are less engaged in utilizing best practices.
Schneider et al. ' s (2003) study acts as a reference for this report in regard to issues
companies face in road construction in the North East section of B.C., in particular along the
Eastern Foothills of the Rocky Mountains. It identifies the complexity of issues including the
issue of roads and their placement in a landscape. I would argue that the size of the element that
is being placed in the landscape or region can and should be based on the size of the affected
area. Talisman is aware of the need to look at the impact over a broader area and is using newer,
less expensive ways such as aerial and satellite imaging. For instance, Talisman's approach to
road status and public access to lessen impacts is to work with key users and stakeholders to
enable usage while balancing the need to restrict public access. So while placement change is not
always possible the ability to lower impacts by restricting access is by having Petroleum
Development Road (PDR) status. However this mechanism does not address the issue of

Conceptual Analysis 48
increasing public demands for access and the issues that this entails for the natural environment.
It would be Talisman' s desire to develop road systems using the 'best practices ' available thus

reducing the impacts by the general public. As Schneider et al. (2003) point out stakeholders
weigh current management options from the point of view of their long-term effects on the forest
in an attempt to balance conservation and economic objectives. It is difficult for frontline
workers to determine what to do in this ever changing environmental landscape. Therefore
Talisman would benefit from undertaking a detailed comparative analysis on its current practice.
Talisman should analyze its processes on an ongoing basis to determine if the practices are still
using the best knowledge and share this.
Regulators in the North Eastern B.C., often visit Talisman drilling and production
operations to learn how they do business. So evidently, they have judged these operations as
displaying sound practices. Sharma and Vredenburg (1998) discuss "the regulators confirmed
that they give the 'benefit-of-the-doubt' to sincere companies' in the case of minor infractions,
and concentrate on companies that tend to have a 'bad-attitude' toward environmental standards"
(p. 739). Regulating bodies such as the Oil and Gas Commission (OGC) must also trust
companies like Talisman as applications are approved. "The proactive companies are able to go
through public consultation hearings and approval processes for new developments much faster.
This leads to savings in project cost over-runs, lower interest charges and lower litigation
expenses" (Sharma & Vredenburg, 1998, p. 739-740). Talisman has experienced that by being
proactive they have lowered the tum around time for the initial construction permits and many
other approvals that are required to explore and develop oil and gas properties. This has
translated into a competitive edge over other companies in the area. I believe that this is further
evidence that the current practice of road and lease construction meet and often exceed the

Conceptual Analysis 49
requirements. Therefore Talisman has been able to demonstrate some learning and knowledge
that meets the regulators standards. However, Talisman needs to do further work to clearly
demonstrate it has a process to mitigate impacts.
Talisman is challenged by the current pace of resource development and the timing of the
development which leads to poor practices. How does this affect their ability to learn and transfer
knowledge? Many issues need to be addressed when building roads, some of which have
opposing needs like speed and cost.
The new 'resource development' is to find and extract gas from coal-bed, shale deposits,
and other unconventional sources what industry calls 'tight gas' or 'resource play' . This type of
development over vast areas will involve many drilling sites and connector roads to large
production locations. In these areas you will see hundreds of wells within a ten kilometer square
area. So it has become critical that companies look for ways to combine their usage of seismic
lines, roads, and production locations. As described in Schneider et al. 's (2003) paper for the
petroleum sector, best practices were needed to decrease the magnitude of the annual footprint.
These included increased road harmonization with the forestry sector and included measures to
promote the reclamation of disturbed areas.
The speed at which companies need to develop resources will lead to mistakes being
made and few new practices being developed. As evidence of this I would point to the recent
trouble that one of Talisman's competitors is having in the Dawson Creek area ofNorthern B.C ..
Due to the highly competitive nature of this business competitors seldom share any competitive
learning and often fall back into using methods that are quick but not necessarily good.

Conceptual Analysis 50
Modem engineering methods and equipment enable roads to be placed almost anywhere
and conform to any given landscape. In general, however, road alignments today are built with
the least-cost or least resistance principle in mind.
I would add that the new three dimensional seismic programs are increasing the amount
of land disturbance and placement is a major issue. Schneider et al. (2003) also point out that
well-sites, pipelines and in-block losses associated with harvesting required are also important
contributors to overall impacts.
In B.C. the Minister of Energy and Mines has stated that the government wants
petroleum companies to view British Columbia as a place that welcomes their business. The
government has adopted a framework that appears to want to maximize the short-term (10 to 15
years), economic development. An example of this is the Ladyfern development Northeast of
Fort. St. John, B.C. in the late 1990's. All ofthis is increasing the intensity of road construction
and the use of 'just good enough' practices by many companies.
Talisman generally has an action oriented culture and does not tend to have a strong
reflective component. Noting on many occasions that frontline managers jump into the next item
or task and typically do not spend any time on reflecting in order to learn, this contrasts with the
model of learning that Laiken (2003) recommends as important to learning. This is true across
many business units and often leads to repeated errors at the field level.
Laiken (2003) pointed out that when one considers the fact that skills involved in
reflection are not highly valued and therefore are not taught or practiced as much in the action
oriented workplace; it is not surprising that these skills are generally under developed among
organizational members. I have noted that Talisman does value these skills although this value

Conceptual Analysis 51
needs to be expressed to many frontline managers by first teaching them and then encouraging
them to take time to reflect on learning' s in the workplace.
Some of Talisman business units have the opportunity to review project outcomes with
the project team, although many of the construction teams seldom have this opportunity. As
Laiken (2003) found in a work team, reflective practice ideally would balance a task or content
orientation with periods of reflection on the team's process, or discussion about how the team is
accomplishing the task. Given the pace that is required of the construction group the time for
reflection only comes after the projects are complete.
In the oil and gas industry many of the workers go through formal training then follow
this with many years of on the job instruction plus further formal training to build up to the level
that is required. This training is a structured method to pass on explicit knowledge but often does
not provide for the time or space for creating new knowledge, which entails experimental
learning, taking action, reflection on the outcomes, followed by learning or change to the process
and finally new action.
The observations and experiences the worker has takes place at such a fast pace that a
superficial type of learning develops and the dialogue that follows is of a general nature and is
not specifically directed at testing the concepts and theories of road ecology. This is a vital piece
that is presently missing from the knowledge creating process at Talisman. Therefore I would
suggest they implement a requirement for post project reviews and in particular focus on the
practices used verses the expected actions required to reduce the impact on the environment.
Once this process becomes a learned behavior I would expect that it will naturally migrate into a
semi- formal dialogue exchange where tacit knowledge will flow and people will be able to
verbalize it and develop new knowledge. These reviews can also be an opportunity to test

Conceptual Analysis 52
whether a practice is best and be recommended to others. Overall Talisman will have difficultly
maintaining good practices if they do not allow time for learning and knowledge sharing.
Are best practices known only to a few people in different departments, taught or
discussed with ground level managers? Are they therefore not in common use?
The use of best practices is best defined by the company or people using them to show
superior results and is contextual in nature. Organizations often speak about having and using
best practices but do not know what they are and do not have the tools to bench mark themselves
against other organizations. Talisman's Northern District "the best and getting better" vision
statement is an example. This statement has not been validated by a systematic process, and
likely the business process has never been judged against others for superiority of the results,
although they may have been judged to be good within the Northern District group. Suggestions
are that most staff do not believe in the statement although they understand its purpose and are
attempting to improve many aspects of how they conduct business.
An issue that needs to be addressed within Talisman is that key people in the Facilities
and Construction (F &C) group will have tacit and explicit knowledge of all of the functions they
are responsible for but how they transfer this knowledge to others within their group and further
out into the organization is of a concern. I propose that tacit knowledge is codifiable and is
transferable but it requires a systematic approach to pull this tacit knowledge on best practices
from one individual or group and transfer it to another. This is the idea that Castillo (2002)
discusses as a collective form of tacit knowledge that is:
Developed communally, over time, in interactions among individuals in the group and
which exists more or less complete in the head of each member who was completely
socialized into the group to support the notion of a competitive advantage derived from

Conceptual Analysis 53
tacit knowledge. The more that tacit knowledge about operations is diffused and shared,
the harder the imitation. (p. 51)
Socio-cultural knowledge needs to be captured and transferred so that it becomes imbedded in
more than one discipline within Talisman. At the middle-executive level this knowledge
application is proving to be beneficial for Talisman to meet its corporate responsibilities. At the
field level socio-cultural knowledge transfer is the outcome, as exemplified at the F &C group
meetings held in Calgary about roads, worker are able to described tasks as "the way Talisman
does things". However as you move from one geographic area to another within Talisman it is
apparent that people within the same functional group will do things in vastly different ways.
This is an important concept for Talisman to understand, particularly because the competitors
will not be able to imitate them if they can diffuse knowledge widely.
Talisman has a training method for operations that is structured, explicit learning from
books, tacit, from observations such as task observation documentation, and team dialogue
through ad hoc post-project discussions. My observation is that this process is not taking place
within the F&C group. They tend to use a less structured model. An example from road
construction of this cycle of knowledge creation from tacit to explicit and then internalization
can be viewed as you watch a young trainee observing an experienced equipment operator. The
trainee can often verbalize what the operator can not. He then absorbs this and makes the process
different, 'his own' others on the job will often pickup this new method as he is observed and it
will become the way of doing things in this area. This process is happening without any
structured guidance or method to capture any written practices and therefore it can not be used
by others.

Conceptual Analysis 54
Talisman's frontline managers are often the people that are acquiring the knowledge and
only have the ability to diffuse the knowledge to a small proportion of the company as a whole.
Without the proper mechanism to enable people to tap into the knowledge systems, companies
lose the knowledge they have and will need to learn it anew. A case of this is when one of
Talisman's construction supervisors integrates a technique learned from an external source and
has confirmed its success often have difficulty diffusing this knowledge. The Sukunka Forest
Service Road committee is an example of a good practice used in one area but which is not
widely known. Talisman's local operation has identified many practices to mitigate road issues
like speeding and road design. It has learned these lessons over many years but has not discussed
or taught them to others so that learning is not in common use. In fact they are not used on other
local roads. When a supervisor leaves the company the knowledge is lost and often the new
supervisor has to learn by trial and error. This impacts the firm "since the same managers may
not be able to adopt similar stances on experimentation, learning, and knowledge" (Sharma, &
Vredenburg, 1998, p. 741 ). Talisman has people in place that are knowledgeable about these
issues but it has no way to record this knowledge or to share their expertise in the particular area
in which they work.
I use the example of learning, implementing and the sharing of best practices in new road
construction as a way to understand how these steps lead to higher order learning. Higher order
learning not only leads to capability development within companies, but is also a capability that
leads to competitive benefits in terms of improved operations, increased efficiencies, cost
reductions, higher productivity, as well as the triggering of a capability of continuous innovation.
Talisman will need to have senior manager leadership to teach organizational members how to
learn and share knowledge and lead the firm though this in order to take advantage of the

Conceptual Analysis 55
benefits. Therefore I conclude that the assumption is true and key people hold knowledge and are
unwilling to teach it or are unmotivated to share it with others.
In reviewing Talisman's practices and the literature it was hoped to determine whether or
not Talisman has a method or model for gathering best practices from areas throughout North
America and does it have a way to integrate them and then compare these to corporate learning
methods.
Many companies have discussed a model to harmonize roads, seismic lines, etc. , with the
forestry industry. There are models currently being used to lessen impacts such as an integrated
cross functional team that does an assessment in the Chetwynd area prior to the routing of roads
and pipelines. However these models are not in wide use and there are no known corporate
criteria within Talisman to test the validity of these methods; therefore, they can not be deemed
best practices. Given that they are of unknown value they have no internal manager to champion
or promote their usage throughout the different areas. Talisman should have a tool for evaluating
alternatives for different practices that it thinks are best.
The primary benefit of the harmonization model is it provides a level playing field for
stakeholders to assess the costs and benefits associated with alternative management options. A
model of intergraded land management planning has been implemented by the Talisman Land
Manager in Edson, Alberta for an area of the eastern slopes of the Rockies; however, it is not in
wide use.
For Talisman I would suggest that parts of the Peace River district and the foothills of the
Rockies would be the logical place to further role our a model like the integrated land
management however currently there is not a process to enable this integration.

Conceptual Analysis 56
An interesting note is that I could not find any documentation that discusses best practices or
knowledge sharing within Talisman systems.
Within the past five years many companies including Talisman have shifted away from
conventional oil and gas development and into unconventional development opportunities. This
has become a challenge for them and for Talisman to learn and implement new knowledge at an
ever increasingly pace. As Sharma and Vredenburg (1998) found "organizational learning is
defined as the development of insights, knowledge, and associations between past actions, the
effectiveness of those actions, and future actions" (p. 740). The industry may not be able to rely
on past lessons to help determine the most effective course of action for future success. I believe
that Talisman will need to learn from others if they hope to improve on previous actions. The
organization will know that it is increasing its skills because learning within organizations is
indicated by organizations successfully coping with rapid environmental change. Talisman will
not only cope with change but excel in the future as it becomes more of a learning organization.
However Talisman is currently having a difficult time gathering and improving on previous
actions. The organization is currently working on supportive relationships but has not recognized
the need for communities of practice for building learning models.
Therefore Talisman needs to continue to support mentoring relationships in which the
mentor acts as a coach or peers act as coaches to one another. The organization has formalized
the process of having mentoring relationships by training all managers and providing work
coaches. It also encourages "communities of practice" that enable informal dialogue on work
related issues of concern. This is a time limited opportunity to learn together through open
interaction. Talisman does have rudimentary methods that enable employees to informally
discuss work related concerns.

Conceptual Analysis 57
Talisman does not have a formalized method to train employees in skills of reflective
practice or skill development which would include the ability to help a team debrief its work and
extra learning related to its functioning and the ability to individually reflect on ones experience
in order to reach conclusions which can then be tested in action.
Talisman is working on the development of interpersonal skills required to explore
differing views from others through genuine open interaction and sharing values which reinforce
and make public the organizations commitment to creating an environment for learning. At
Talisman these skills are evolving through team discussions of important issues thereby
developing a collective vision on how to support and supervise staff, thus allowing the team to
develop standards to measure performance. Teams are working on implementing horizontal
alignment within the operations group but have not started this initiative within the F&C group.
The dilemma for team leaders is to provide very strong leadership towards eventual team self
management. As teams become increasingly self managing and able to assume responsibility,
they also require the authority to make implementation decisions. However in many
organizations employees are expected to take responsibility for decisions, but are not granted
accountability for the outcomes.
The following could be viewed as a catalyst for change towards learning. Talisman is
motivated to change and one of the key reasons is the feedback they receive from First Nation
communities regarding environmental impacts. First Nations can significantly impact the
business by withholding consent for new projects. Another issue driving change is a fairly recent
development in the business environment which is how people from all over the world can link
up to each other and discuss what is happening in their 'backyards'. Friedman (2005) discusses
what he terms 'Localization' and defines it as an environment where a single person can write,

Conceptual Analysis 58
publish and distribute information to a mass audience. Friedman (2005) describes them as people
who will understand the emerging global infrastructure and then adapt all the new tools it offers.
They will be freelancers who will find ways to use the internet to widely broadcast their
viewpoint. In this new 'flattened world' many non-governmental organizations (NGO's) are
linking up with small local environmental groups or individuals and having a big voice on local
issues around the world. This new environment will be a key driver in why having to learn and
implement 'best practices ' throughout North America to meet governance policies on
environmental issues is important. The use of technology to share knowledge and link
communities or groups of global stakeholders is driving companies to be consistently proficient
across the globe.
On a micro level the concept of dispersed knowledge is seen at play in many companies
and within groups inside of those companies. In Talisman, this is true as well, as you hear the
expression 'the left hand doesn't know what the right is doing'. Thus there is a lack of dispersed
knowledge or factual information. Critical information on tasks, processes, and issues are often
missing as the F&C group employees work away from the main offices or external stakeholders
are not engaged. During the consultation process companies need to enable a broader spectrum
of input ensuring factual and complete information is exchanged. In particular this process could
be an advisory board that would engage stakeholders in each operating area in North America. In
Northern B.C., I would suggest that this advisor group consist of a balance of first nation's
people, local interest groups, government and local representatives from resource based
companies. Although relatively large, this group would address the concern that dispersed
knowledge cannot be known by only a few and that the importance of the information is known
by those giving it.

Conceptual Analysis 59
In the Talisman case it would be each member of the group's responsibility to bring
forward the information or concerns within their sphere of influence or control. As discussed by
Teece (2000) the essence of knowledge assets is that they must be built and used internally in
order for full value to be realized, and hence cannot be readily bought and sold.
An example can be seen when you compare the performance of one company to another in an
area, like compliance to a provincial road building standard. I would suggest that one way to
build knowledge capacity in your business is to partner with or buy a company that processes the
knowledge and then integrate it into the organization to further use it to invent new knowledge.
Talisman is currently working in partnership with several companies to learn of their internal
knowledge. In Japan the "three steps of kata-shu (learn), ha (break) and ri (create)"; means that
one learns certain patterns at first, and then breaks away from them and creates new patterns
once you totally master the old (Nonaka & Toyama, 2005, p. 430). "Continuous self-renewal is
achieved by incorporating a high quality feedback function that sharpens senses and helps to
notify and modify the differences between predicted outcomes and reality" (Nonaka & Toyama,
2005, p. 430).
Talisman does the above functions on an ad hoc basis but not in all business functions or
at all levels within those business units. In the future they will need to implement a system to
take advantage of the power in utilizing these three steps. Some self-renewal functions are
embedded within, these three kata's which prevents a routine from hindering creativity by
preventing such tendencies as over-adaptation to a past success. Firms with a good cycle of
learn, break, create look into the future but also appreciate past successes as a source of their
knowledge, while using routines to function efficiently. In knowledge-creating firms the business
environment is not an abstract world to be studied but a real 'life-world' to live in and experience

Conceptual Analysis 60
as a reality. Therefore managers do not analyze the environment but instead are thrown into
strategic decision making as a way of life.
My perception is that within Talisman this strategic decision making is at a higher level
than you would find in an organization that is practicing 'kata' in a deeper more meaningful way.
As an example line managers in some business units are not expected nor asked to participate in
setting strategic direction rather they are told of the direction. I believe this is a function of the
older style of command and control management that still exists within the company. However I
recognize that it takes time to implement change into all department and levels of the
organization. The issues that prevent changes to the learning model are capacity and training of
the frontline managers to think strategically and also a lack of will for the mid-level managers to
go through the difficult process to change.
The theory of the knowledge creating firm, views a firm as an entity to create knowledge
actively by synthesizing contradictions. Unlike other theories of the firm, the theory of the
knowledge-creating firm explains the differences among firms not as a result of market failure
but as a result of goals and strategy.
Talisman's method or model for gathering best practices from throughout North America
and globally needs to use its strength of having a global intra-net system. However, Talisman
needs to address the issue of integrating this knowledge firstly in North America and then
globally. They will need to decide on the model of integration that suits their corporate structure
while utilizing their emerging strength in horizontal alignment. Therefore I conclude they do not
have a model for gathering, comparing and then integrating best practices.
Lastly, I wanted to explore whether Talisman is currently a learning organization at the
line management level and below, and therefore is it able to use best practices widely throughout

Conceptual Analysis 61
NAO, can it display or provide evidence of good land stewardship and consistently display good
corporate governance in this and in other key areas such as safety.
The internal Talisman site (Insite) has some limited learning tools. The training was
directed to people on opposite ends of the knowledge spectrum. For those with limited
knowledge about the petroleum industry (petroleum industrial basics), or for post secondary
degrees (international petroleum industry multi-media system, IPIMS). Talisman employees
have the ability to access IPIMS a web-based e-leaming system devoted to the exploration &
production sector of the international energy business. Users may search IPIMS for terms and
definitions, view Talisman-specific knowledge, as well as complete self-directed learning
programs. There are no other internal programs directed at any other groups or business units.
There were no links to areas within the Talisman site that communities of practice throughout the
globe could link to each other. The Talisman site was not well structured as it lacks a search
engine to enable the ease of finding information based on the key words like knowledge,
learning, and communities of practice.
The site also has an employee development guide and the NAO training framework
course catalogue, which is a standard catalogue for employees to register for courses. The gap is
that the employee is responsible to determine his or her requirements in consultation with their
direct supervisor and there is no career counseling specialist to support the choice given the
identified capabilities that the employee would need in their job function. Talisman's philosophy
is to support career development for employees and it believes this to be important to attract and
retain talent. Talisman's approach to learning and development is a shared accountability
between the employee and the organization to meet the current and future business needs of the

Conceptual Analysis 62
company. Development expenditures are considered an investment with expected returns in
terms of improved individual or organizational knowledge, ability and performance.
Talisman's new policy on HSE states they are:
Work[ing] to reduce the impact of our activities on the environment. .. We will maintain
appropriate measurement and reporting systems to demonstrate our health, safety, and
environmental performance to Company management, the Board of Directors, and our
external stakeholders ... Our leaders create the capacity for effective individual
performance through role clarification, training, and competency verification, and they
are expected to lead by example. (Manzoni, 2008, p. 2-3)
There is a further tie to the Talisman corporate governance in the acknowledgement that the
above policies have a direct bearing on our people, reputation, operational flexibility and
business success. These form a critical part in demonstrating our abilities to implement our
governance processes.
So the gap appears to be that there is a level of expectation on every employee to
implement board policies and to have positive influence on the environment but the policy and
tools to learn do not support the employees in this regard.
Two parts of a learning organization to incorporate are listening to and development of
employees. In reflecting on discussions with my peers and those within different departments
within the organization, we do not have organizational incentives to facilitate the development of
employees ' abilities to listen and incorporate the viewpoints of the concerned stakeholders. In
Sharma and Vredenburg's (1998) study they found that two proactive companies provided
organizational incentives; further the employees were rewarded not only for achieving

Conceptual Analysis 63
production and financial goals, but also for achieving low levels of stakeholder complaints,
negative publicity and high levels of positive feedback from stakeholder groups.
In contrast to this proactive engagement the Talisman B.C. operations have not
consistently engaged stakeholders regarding their concerns prior to entering a new area and
therefore received in the late 1990's some negative publicity regarding two roads; Federal, north
ofHudson Hope, and the Falls Road west ofChetwynd. Talisman did not engage the public in
the process allowing them to be proactive, as the public has an expectation of all companies to
mitigate impacts. In respect to these two roads, Talisman lived up to a negative impression that
some of the public had. For further information on the Federal area refer to Wayne Sawchuk's
book on the Muskwa-Ketchika protected area and park. Talisman has since developed better
practices in the Federal area. An example is their Caribou mitigation plan to lower the impacts to
these animals when further road and pipeline development takes place.
In Sharma and Vredenburg's (1998) study, employees in two companies were provided
with discretionary funds to respond to suggestions of external stakeholders and experiment with
different ways of reducing environmental impacts. This improved collaborative relationships and
mutual trust. Employees within Talisman who work in the field do have discretion to experiment
with new innovative ideas although this may not have been explicitly stated. I believe that
Talisman should state this so that throughout North American Operations (NAO) innovation can
be encouraged. This then could be a 'best practice'.
As shown by Sharma and Vredenburg ( 1998) the capability for stakeholder integration
involves the ability to establish trust based collaborative relationships with a wide variety of
stakeholder, especially those with non-economic goals. These include local community groups
(First Nations communities in the Chetwynd area, Town Council), environmental groups

Conceptual Analysis 64
(Chetwynd Environmental Society), regulators like the Oil and Gas Commission (OGC), Water
Land and Air Protection (WLAP) Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO), and nongovernmental organizations (NGO ' s). Sharma and Vredenburg (1998) suggest that key external
stakeholders such as environmental groups, community leaders, the media, and regulators have
input into product design and development. In the case of Talisman this integration could be in
the form of synergy groups and would be one component of a learning organization as Cooney
(2008) suggested as an external oversight group to provide guidance. In most areas of the
resource business Talisman could look to these groups to provide verification that they were
meeting the expectations of external stakeholders. Using road ecology as an example, Talisman
would receive input on a variety of issues on road placement and design when entering new
areas.
In the last two years Talisman has started to do this in some areas however it is not
widespread in North American operations.
As suggested by Laiken (2003), learning organizations have strong leadership as opposed
to management. This means top level people are strategic, visionary and are cognitive of trends
in their industries. They are also aware of the context in which their organizations function and
the needs of their customers. The employees are then asked to interpret the organizational vision
through discussions at each department or divisional level. "This shared interpretation creates the
context within which autonomous decisions are made and personal creativity can flourish."
(Laiken, 2003, p. 13) Within Talisman operations midlevel and frontline managers are being
asked to be leaders of the corporate vision. However, comparatively little is being done at this
level within the construction department.

Conceptual Analysis 65
In operations the following leadership skills are being developed but time constraints are
a problem. Shared leadership skills are consciously nurtured, on the job, during team meetings,
in coaching sessions with the supervisors or peers. Two other components are: one, a climate of
continuous learning and no blame allows workers to make provisional attempts, receive
feedback, make changes, and try again; two, teams engage in the experimental learning cycle of
action reflection, learning and change, new action. A key challenge for managers is to share the
leadership role with all the employees, leaders are encouraged to enlist wide spread involvement,
ensuring that individuals and teams affected by decisions play a key role in helping to make
them. However in the construction group, Talisman has not made progress due to the structure of
the group. Many of the people in leadership roles are contractors that lack incentives to drive this
program forward .
The driving objective at Talisman is to build shareholder value. In this objective are
embedded strategies of environmental compliance and stewardship. These guidelines have been
clearly laid out in the CEO's letter regarding the Health, Safety and Environment (HSE) policy.
Talisman needs to balance these two principles to lower their cost, increase the speed of
approvals, etc., while meeting their objectives in the areas ofHSE. They must meet the Board of
Governors goal of increasing the value to the shareholder while maintaining a social license to
operate. A driving objective such as 'cutting opportunity loss' or 'the best and getting better' has
no clear end to it and requires relentless effort to achieve it. It keeps driving the organization
toward unattainable perfection. Unattainable sounds hopeless, but it serves the function of
driving the organization by preventing it from accepting a lesser objective while obtaining an
ideal state. As Talisman builds capabilities in the area of road ecology they can lower the cost
further while lessening the impacts. As an added benefit this process of learning builds

Conceptual Analysis 66
Talismans capacity to handle a variety of issues in other functional areas, many of them not
related to the environment.
Studies have found that how deeply the values and alignment of the issues of corporate
social responsibilities are embedded in each company determined the amount of influence they
had on governance practices. The new Talisman CEO had the following statement in the
company's 2007 Corporate Responsibilities Report (CRR):
I am confident we can continue to build on the strong platform the Company has created
since its inception in 1992. Our employees around the world share a set of Talisman
values, work consistently to our code of ethics, and are determined to continuously
improve our performance. It is because of this spirit and dedication that I think our 2007
Corporate Responsibility Report is so appropriately titled "Going Further" is about
building on our foundation and further integrating our corporate responsibility
commitments into our decision-making and day-to-day activities, ultimately resulting in
more profitable and sustainable operations around the world." (p. 2 & p. 6)
He further states that to meet these complex challenges,
Talisman must continuously improve the safety, well-being and development of its staff;
be founded in clear, global values and ethical standards; respect the environment in which
it operates and work to minimize its impacts over time; and work proactively to align its
interests as a company with the interests of the societies and communities within which it
works. Companies that manage these challenges well, will, in the long-term, develop a
competitive advantage in accessing new opportunities and attracting capital as well as
talented people. Talisman' s operating experience and practices have put the company on
this path. They have a good platform today, with programs and activities that address

Conceptual Analysis 67
many of their objectives. They have made notable progress in a number of areas,
including the management of issues related to human rights and transparency. This was
evidenced in January 2008 when Talisman became the first Canadian company invited to
join the Voluntary Principles on Security and Human Rights Plenary Group and by the
company's inclusion in the Dow Jones Sustainability (North America) Index and Jantzi
Social Index in 2007. (p.l & p. 3)
However, there is still work to be done. As Talisman continues to grow and execute its strategy
around the world, it must ensure corporate responsibility is fully integrated into all of its business
activities . In addition to this ongoing work, the Talisman CEO chose to focus the company's
attention on two priorities in 2008.
During 2008 , they will work to enhance company-wide management systems around
health, safety and environment and corporate responsibility. They identified consistently applied
and clearly defined management systems as central to improving performance. Talisman began
revising its health, safety and environment management systems in 2007 and will enhance the
corporate responsibility management system starting in 2008. This will allow it to better support
its operational activities and further define and track a set of company wide key metrics.
As stated by John Manzoni, CEO:
Talisman ' s Board ofDirectors sees its principal role as stewardship of the Company and
its fundamental objective as the creation of shareholder value, including the protection
and enhancement ofthe value of Company's assets. The Board oversees the conduct of
the business and management of the Company, which, is in turn, responsible for
developing long-term strategy and conducting the Company' s day to day business ... The
Board ensures systems are in place to manage risks and, through the Chief Executive

Conceptual Analysis 68
Officer, sets the attitude of the company towards regulatory compliance, environmental,
health and safety policies, and financial practices and reporting. (Corporate Governance,
2006)
Therefore the author sees this as an affirmation that Talisman wants to build its capacity
in the field as well as at the board level. Many stakeholders believe that Talisman connects with
the governance of social responsibilities on a values level and it has changed its outlook on
dealing with social issues during and after its time in southern Sudan. Prior to Sudan Talisman
likely viewed governance issues as a risk to operations level and therefore the board may not
have considered its full value to the company.
With this in mind I would assert that in order to build some of this capacity Talisman will
need to be a learning organization at all levels. The United Nations Global Compact's 2004
report, "Who Cares Wins," which looks at the social, environmental and governance issues that
can have a material impact on corporate financial performance, it is one of many recent reports
investigating these links (Strandberg Consulting, 2005). I propose that the tie between the
environment and governance practice is learning and knowledge transfer.
At this point it is important to discuss the governance of the corporations that are learning
organizations. The Nuclear Waste Management Organization is using a new governance model
as the public had lost faith in their organization and essentially had removed their social license
to operate. They have a new type of governance that is setup to take input from the grass roots of
the organization to the boardroom. They have had to implement a new approach to engaging
stakeholders that is adaptive and effective in guiding the board in its decisions.
They developed good processes for gathering input that would be useful for the board by
collaboratively developing work plans and asking if the objectives that were proposed were the

Conceptual Analysis 69
right ones or if other plans ought to be considered. They built capacity to both engage citizens in
dialogue and collaboration as well as to reflect on the direction which emerges and to ensure that
it was reflected in the implementation process. They needed to find ways to communicate the
often complex issues to be addressed and to help build the capacity of those who wish to be
involved in decision making. They learned from citizen panels about engaging a broader group
in near term visioning, implementation, long term vision and developing decision making
processes.
Petroleum companies in Canada may want to review this example to ensure they
maintain their social license to operate particularly in areas where there is increased impact due
to the pace of development.
In reviewing organizational learning and the governance practices there are two separate
governance models, Amin and Cohendet (2000), a mechanism for governing competencies, and
a mechanism for governing transactions. I will focus the discussion on the governance of
coordinating knowledge.
Boards are starting to consider how issues like environmental impacts can have risk to the
bottom line of companies and impact the governance. Strandberg Consulting (2005) states that
"corporate governance reform efforts of the past decade have bumped into decade-old efforts to
mainstream social and environment responsibility of corporations and a growing awareness that
firms ' offbalance sheet environmental and social impacts can have tangible financial
consequences" (p. 1). It is important that learning and knowledge transfer be in at least two
directions, from the ground level to the board level and vise versa.
I will illustrate that corporate governance and corporate social responsibilities are
important considerations for all organizational members. All members need to convey the

Conceptual Analysis 70
significance of these issues. This level of governance is not necessarily at the board level but it is
the responsibility of organizational members to give people in the organization valid information
so they can make informed decisions. As Dixon (1998) suggests "as organizational members, we
have a role in governance of the organization, whether or not we choose to acknowledge that
role" (p. 168) and so I suggest that one role is to understand corporate learning and knowledge
sharing. It is imperative companies implement some mechanism to learn and then share the
information. One can envision the issues and the emerging importance of sharing knowledge by
using the example of road ecology and how the use ofbest practices can lead to completely
fulfilling a company's governance mandate.
Caterpillar is an example of a global company that has the governance, technology, and
strategic alignment that has created a culture of learning. While Talisman has a smaller global
span and the size of the learning audience is significantly smaller the principle elements could be
the same but scaled to fit. As Glynn (2008) states "Caterpillar's governance structure ensures
strategic connection with enterprise and division goals through a Board of Governors, the
Engagement and Learning Council, advisory boards, and lead learning managers in each
division" (p. 38). This structure lays the foundation for global involvement, ties the business
needs to learning and utilizes the expertise of Caterpillar employees throughout the world.
Talisman by comparison has an ad hoc method of learning and knowledge transfer through its
global operations. It has relied on the knowledge that can be transferred by an individual when
they are transferred to a new area. They are currently developing a system to share safety and
environmental practices throughout their global operations.
In conclusion from the discussion Talisman is not a learning organization and it struggles
to share practices within North American operations. Due to it not having the structure and

Conceptual Analysis 71
culture required it currently has no methods to share global learning and knowledge. It therefore
can not fully implement the Board of Directors policies in many areas.

Conceptual Analysis 72

CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
This paper highlights the linkage between a corporation's capacity for learning,
knowledge transfer and how this capacity can lead to increasing a company's ability to
implement board policies. Road ecology was used to demonstrate this. Road ecology and
specifically resource roads are having an impact on forests, wildlife, carbon emissions, and
people. The costs are clearly significant and will be larger in the future if companies do nothing.
What companies can do is identify practices, learn and transfer knowledge. Companies can do
this by engaging their people to share their knowledge, teach each other, capture new knowledge
and generally become learning organizations. The benefits are increased capability to find and
use best practices, improved operations, cost reductions, continuous innovation, deeper
understanding, engage; workers, stakeholders, and boards in the process of learning.
If managed knowledge systems offer further competitive advantages, increased
effectiveness, and shorter cycle times will be the result. Proactive companies have savings in
lower project cost over-runs, lower interest charges and lower litigation expenses.
Talisman has areas of learning and is currently working towards a structured learning
environment. However they need to work on a statement of excellence, using knowledge transfer
from the middle, up, and down to make decisions. They need to develop a process to find best
practices within the organization; tools for measuring practices, and methods to diffuse practices
throughout the company.
Talisman needs to capture tacit knowledge through observation to leverage the expertise
of people in the organization prior to their retirement. Also there is a need to implement a
requirement for post project reviews and in particular to focus on the practices used.

Conceptual Analysis 73
The organization needs to structure itself to enable both informal and formal learning.
Informal learning requires meeting places like a blog site or a physical space that people can
interact or take time for reflection. Formal learning will require a university-type structure with a
focus on the global issues of company governance, technology, and strategic alignment. Formal
learning should include training on asking specific questions to test concepts and theories.
There is a need to establish the key performance indicators that compensate employees
for seeking opportunities at business natural environment level, while lowering stakeholder
complaint and increasing positive feedback. Alignment between the learning and development
philosophy and corporate policy needs to take place.
Talisman should encourage "communities of practice" enabling dialogue on work related
ISSUeS.

Talisman leadership will need to be flexible and distributed to support a knowledge
creating firm. Managers will be challenged to act as strategic decision makers and examine the
economics and the capabilities of their companies and to clearly articulate these to senior
management. They will engage in the experimental learning cycle of action, reflection, learning,
change and new action. Leadership will need to be aligned throughout the organization on the
model for learning and knowledge transfer. This will require support from the CEO and
involvement of the Board of Directors.

Conceptual Analysis 74

REFERENCES
Amin, A., & Cohendet, P. (2000). Organisational learning and governance through embedded
practice. Journal of Management and Governance, 4, 93-116.
Castillo, J. (2002). A note on the concept of tacit knowledge. Journal of Management Inquiry,

11, 46-57.
Dixon, N. M. (1998). The responsibilities of members in an organization that is learning. The

Learning Organization, 5(4), 161-167.
Dramstad, W. E., Olson, J. D., & Forman, R. T. T. (1996). Landscape ecology principles in

landscape architecture and land-use planning. Washington, DC: Island Press.
Forman, R. T. T., Sperling, D., Bissonette, J. A., Clevenger, A. P., Cutshall, C. D., Dale, V. H.,
et al. (2003). Road ecology: Science and solutions. Washington, DC: Island Press.
Forman, R. T. T. (1995). Land mosaics: The ecology of landscapes and regions. Cambridge,
NY: Cambridge University Press.
Glynn, C. E. (2008). Building a learning infrastructure. Training+ Development, 62(1), 38-44.
Knowledge Management. (2008). In Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Retrieved October 15,
2008, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management
Laiken, M. E. (2003). Models of organizational learning: Paradoxes and best practices in the post
industrial workplace. Organization Development Journal, 21 (I), 8-19.
Nonaka, I., & Toyama, R. (2005). The theory of the knowledge-creating firm: Subjectivity,
objectivity and synthesis. Industrial and Corporate Change, 14(3), 419-436.
Nuclear Waste Management Organization. (2008, March). Moving forward together: Annual
report 2007. Toronto, Ontario: Author.
Schneider, R. R., Stelfox, J. B., Boutin, S., & Wasel, S. (2003). Managing the cumulative

Conceptual Analysis 75
impacts of land-uses in the Western Canadian sedimentary basin: A modeling approach.

Conservation Ecology 7( 1), 1-11 .
Sharma, S., & Vredenburg, H. (1998). Proactive corporate environmental strategy and the
development of competitively valuable organizational capabilities. Strategic Management

Journal, 19(8), 729-753.
Strandberg Consulting. (2005 , March). The convergence of corporate governance and corporate
social responsibility. Retrieved October 10, 2007, from http://www.corostandberg.com/p
dfs/Corporate_Governance. pdf
Talisman Energy. (2008). Environment. Retrieved October 15, 2008, from http://www.talismanenergy .com/hse/
Talisman Energy. (2007). Corporate responsibility report. Retrieved October 2, 2008, from
http://ar. talisman-energy. com/2007 Icorporate-responsibility. html
Talisman Energy. (2006). Corporate governance. Retrieved October 5, 2008, from
http: //www.talisman-energy .com/ar_ online/2005/corporate_governance.html
Talisman Energy. (n.d.). Health, safety, and environment policy. Retrieved August 22, 2008,
from http://www.talisman-energy.com/upload/important_links/46/05/tlmprd-71 03951v3-hse_policy.pdf
Teece, D. J. (2005). Technology and technology transfer: Mansfieldian inspirations and
subsequent developments. Journal of Technology Transfer, 30, 17-33.
United Nations Global Compact. (2004). Who cares wins: Connecting financial markets to a

changing world. Retrieved August 12, 2007, from, http://www.unglobalcompact.org/doc
snews_ events/8.1/WhoCares Wins. pdf
Jarrar, Y. F., & Zairi, M. (2000). Best practice transfer for future competitiveness: A study of

Conceptual Analysis 76
Best practices. Total Quality Management, 1 1(4/5 & 6), S734-S740.

Conceptual Analysis 77
APPENDIX
Definition of Terms

Best practices are defined in Jarrar and Zairi (2000) article by the American Productivity and

Quality Centre as having "no single 'best practice' because best is not best for everyone, what is
meant by 'best' are those practices that have been shown to produce superior results; selected by
a systematic process; and judged as exemplary, good, or successfully demonstrated" (S734).
Further, "whether practices are called exemplary, best or good, they are rarely the ultimate that
can be achieved, since best practice is always contextual. Thus it should be noted that 'best' is a
moving target .. . and is also situation-specific" (Jarrar and Zairi, 2000, S375).
As found by Jarrar and Zairi (2000) "one of the best approaches to define a best practice can be
found in the Chevron approach, which has been adapted here and is based on a multi-level
definition as follows:
1) Good idea (unproven): not yet substantiated by data but makes sense intuitively. It could have

a positive impact on business performance, but requires further review/analysis. If substantiated
by data, this could be a candidate for implementation in the organization.
2) Good practice: technique, methodology, procedure, or process that has been implemented and
has improved business results for an organization (satisfying some element of customers' and
stakeholders' needs). This is substantiated by data collected at the organization.
3) 'Proven' best practices: a good practice that has been determined to be the best approach for
many organizations, based on analysis of process performance data" (S735) .

Conceptual Analysis 78
Explicit knowledge is knowledge that is easy to communicate. Explicit knowledge is knowledge

that has been or can be articulated, codified and stored in certain media. It can be readily
transmitted to others.

Knowledge management is a range of practices used an organization to identify, create,

represent, distribute and enable adoption of what it knows and how it knows it. See complete
discussion above.

Tacit knowledge: With tacit knowledge, people are not often aware of the knowledge they

possess or how it can be valuable to others. Tacit knowledge is considered more valuable
because it provides context for people, places, ideas, and experiences. Effective transfer of tacit
knowledge generally requires extensive personal contact and trust. Tacit knowledge is not easily
shared. Tacit knowledge consists often of habits and culture that we do not recognize in
ourselves. In the field of knowledge management the concept of tacit knowledge refers to a
knowledge which is only known by an individual and that is difficult to communicate to the rest
of an organization. The process of transforming tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge is
known as codification or articulation.

Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) is a vast sedimentary basin underlying

1,400,000 square kilometres (540,000 sq mi) ofWestem Canada including southwestern
Manitoba, southern Saskatchewan, Alberta, northeastern B.C. and the southwest comer of the
Northwest Territories. It consists of a massive wedge of sedimentary rock extending from the
Rocky Mountains in the west to the Canadian Shield in the east. This wedge is about

Conceptual Analysis 79
6 kilometres (3 .7 mi) thick under the Rocky Mountains, but thins to zero at its eastern margins.
The WCSB contains one of the world's largest reserves of petroleum and natural gas and supplies
much of the North American market, producing more than 16 billion cubic feet (450 million m 3)
per day of gas in 2000. It also has huge reserves of coal. Of the provinces and territories within
the WCSB, Alberta has most of the oil and gas reserves and almost all of the oil sands. The main
focus of interest in this paper is an area in British Columbia from Fort St. John and running
southeast along the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains to the Alberta border.