Many Japanese firms stress the importance of formalizing knowledge, turning it from tacit to explicit. A variety of organizational structures can promote the dissemination and adoption of ideas. One way in which technology may promote idea generation is through its ability to provide information, including real-time tracking of results, and communication with customers. Groupware promotes sharing by tracking the status of ideas and communicating them across a group, or further with wide-area networks. Technology helps the quick evaluation of new ideas by capturing actions and transactions and computing their effectiveness.
Personal computers can assist through the use of statistics.
As the technology develops, the groupware itself should help determine who is likely to need a piece of information. Some examples are bulletin boards, Web pages, and newsgroups where people self-select to read. Those adopting new ideas can use email to communicate with the disseminators of new ideas and ask for help in implementation. The Importance of Integration Organizations worry a lot about promoting creativity and innovation but, in many cases, useful ideas already exist in some form. The key is to capture the existing knowledge from within, and outside, the organization and adopt those ideas that are relevant.