Biodata Pengarang

Virtual Intelligence and Knowledge Management / 1
Professor Dr. Ahmad Zaki Abu Bakar

2 / Siri Syarahan Perdana Profesor
SIRI SYARAHAN PERDANA PROFESOR
VIRTUAL INTELLIGENCE
AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
The Key to Success in
the Knowledge Based Economy
UNTU
HAN K
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Penerbit
UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA
2003
SIRI SYARAHAN PERDANA PROFESOR
AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
The Key to Success in
the Knowledge Based Economy
by
INTRODUCTION
We currently live in a turbulent and chaotic era. Only a few initial

years into the new millennium and already, we have experienced so
many natural calamities: an economic downturn, global wars, vio-
lence and terrorism at a global scale, a new imperialism, and a glo-
bal biological outbreak more serious than AIDS. The Severe Acute
Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) has claimed hundreds of lives, with
thousands of people infected around the world. Its impact on tour-
ism and the world economy is phenomenal.
All these factors are bad for any national economy, more so
for a new economy based on knowledge, as embraced by nations
such as Malaysia. Under these pressures, do we retreat to the old
economies based intensively on labour, agrarian, or production, or
boldly charge forward to emerge victorious as a fully developed na-
tion in its own mould, as envisioned in Malaysia’s Vision 2020?
We actually do not have many choices when confronted with
such questions. Even before the natural and made-made disasters,
there were already many forces shaping business around the world
and forcing us to rethink our current economy and business prac-
tices. Some of these forces are due to the effects of globalization
and the advancement of Information and Communication Techno-
logy (ICT).
Pervasive internet and multimedia technologies have transformed

the way we do business, life style, and even the way we think. Our
businesses have also moved from focusing on accuracy to effective-
ness and now on to efficacy. Interestingly, from fierce competition,
our businesses have been forced to work on smart partnerships in
the form of cooperation.
The world has also become relatively small and borderless.
Global and local markets are now easily assessable to any dot com
entrepreneur operating from any part of the world. ICT and globali-
zation has made it possible for us to now conduct any business at
any time, any place, and by any form. Virtual work places and
telecommuting are becoming more popular and the time and efforts
saved from traveling and commuting through busy traffic have sig-
nificantly benefited our social, family, the arts, entertainment, and
tourism industry.
In the global markets, information has become strategically
important for competitive advantage. It is thus pertinent for any or-
ganization to be able to manage information as a key resource be-
side the traditional financial, physical and human resources. How-
ever, in the last decade, we have come to realize once again that
knowledge is more important than information or data and that hu-
man capital is the most important asset for any organization. Gordon
Bell (1991) aptly said it in High Tech Venture, “If location, location
and location are the three key success factors for the Real-Estate
business, then people, people and people are the three key success
factors of the knowledge-based business.”
This paradigm shift has launched a new economy based on
knowledge and moved us up another step in the technology ladder
through the creation of Knowledge-Information Communication Tech-
nology or K-ICT.
THE NEW ECONOMY
The new economy is definitely here to stay and is set to change the
nature of human civilization. In this new economy, based on know-
ledge and characteristically digital where communications and mar-
ket processes are interactive and immediate, the players and rules
of business have been forced to change dramatically. An Internet
magazine Internet Business 2.0 at http://www.business2.com/, in its
inaugural issue in 2000 published the following comments:
The New Economy is being driven by a profound develop-

ment: Individuals and companies worldwide are being elec-
tronically linked, a process as significant as an organism
developing a nervous system. So it is no surprise that the
rules of the game are changing. Many of these principles
have been stated before. But taken together they constitute
a revolution in the rules of business.
From the traditional brick and mortar businesses, the new

economy gave rise to new click and mortar electronic businesses or
e-businesses which are global in nature and extensively web-based.
Electronic business is termed here as any process that a business
organization conducts over a computer-mediated network. Brick-and-
mortar businesses here refer to businesses that have only a physical
presence while click-and-mortar businesses refer to businesses that
have both an online and an offline presence. Business here also
does not imply just commercial businesses but also include all busi-
nesses including those in the academic and governmental adminis-
trations.
E-business uses Web technology to help businesses stream-
line processes, improve productivity, and increase efficiencies. E-
business will enable companies to easily communicate with part-
ners, vendors and customers, connect back-end data systems and
transact commerce in a secure manner.
There are certainly many benefits of venturing into e-business.
An e-business can provide high personalization, high quality cus-
tomer service, and better supply chain management compared to a
traditional brick and mortar business. Above all, high efficiency pro-
ductivity at reduced costs and very low overheads meant big profits
for any company willing to venture into the new electronic business.
They are also low entry barriers to start an electronic business. An
idea, a computer and connection to the Internet is all that is thought
to be needed to start selling on the Net. With such an alluring attrac-
tion, no wonder many ‘dot com’ companies were formed world-wide
to cater for various types of e-commerce and e-business.
Unfortunately for the unwary, the new economy also spells
intense competition from local as well as big global players. Com-
pared to the old production-based economy or P-economy which
relies on mass production for economy of scale, the K-economy is
about delighting the customer through mass personalization and
extensive customer relationship management or CRM programs.
To survive, do well, be profitable and to achieve the organization’s

objectives, businesses must adjust to new technologies and imple-
ment new systems to improve their customized production and ser-
vice capabilities. To fulfill global and local demands and to stay ahead
of the global competition, their business systems must be reliable,
fast, functional, secured, accessible, innovative and user friendly 24
hours a day and 7 days a week. But that is not the end of the story.
Due to the rapid advances of technology and the changing life style
world-wide, the market is also changing rapidly. As such, businesses
in fast changing markets must depend on constant renewal through
innovation.
With such a technology intensive business process and ra-
pidly changing markets, what kind of people should be operating e-
businesses? Christopher Lochhead, a leading authority on e-busi-
ness and chief marketing officer of Scient, a professional services
firm focused solely on building e-businesses in the United States,
has this interesting opinion on how the transformation to e-business
has changed an organization’s staff requirements. According to
Lochhead, in an article titled, “The E-Business Emergency,”
published at www.scient.com in 2000:
People that work in e-business are different. Speed of inno-

vation and the ability to accelerate innovation is what drives
success in e-business. People who are going to succeed in
e-business are people who are comfortable doing things
quickly. They also need to be people who not only are com-
fortable working inside of incredible uncertainty but thrive in
it. The other thing we always tell people is to hire and culti-
vate “brainiacs”—maniacs with brains. Building e-business
is about internal transformation. You have to be very smart
and creative, and you also have to be a bit of a nut, because
you’re doing something that is so new. You have to be will-
ing to act—not irresponsibly, but if you take everybody’s fear
and concern into consideration, you’re never going to build
an e-business.
THE PETER PRINCIPLE
If the staff of an e-business organization is to comprise of ‘brainiacs’,

then what about its managers? Who are managing or should be ma-
naging these complicated new K-ICT-intensive processes as well as
its specialized staff members? There is a significant difference be-

tween who are and who should be managing the organization in terms
of future and current operations. Before we answer this question, let
us first explore the term management.
Management is a process by which organizational goals are
achieved through the use of resources. A typical organization is tra-
ditionally structured as a pyramid and divided into management and
non-management components. There are three management levels
in a typical pyramidal organization: Strategic, Tactical, and Opera-
tional.
At the Strategic Level, senior managers such Presidents, Chief
Executive Officers, Managing Directors, and Senior General Mana-
gers, are to provide the organization with overall direction and guid-
ance. At the Tactical Level, Middle Managers are to develop the goals
and strategies outlined by strategic management. At the operational
level, Operation Managers manage and direct the day-to-day opera-
tions.
In such a traditional hierarchy, the question who actually per-
forms the work is normally unavoidable. It is obvious that the Non-
Management Level is where the workers are and they are the people
who actually perform the daily activities.
In the knowledge era where knowledge is power and intellec-
tual capital is guarded fiercely, the head of an organization cannot
be a mere manager but need to be information technology literate
and knowledgeable in diverse fields as well as possess many com-
petencies to be able to perform his function effectively. To be able to
deploy his organizational horsepower effectively and tap his organi-
zational intelligence, he must have the respect from his multicultural,
multilingual, virtual and borderless knowledge workers to lead the
organization successfully through challenging and highly competi-
tive ventures.
In such situations, leadership plays a central role in the deve-
lopment and transformation of the people in an organization to be
an effective, competitive, productive, and powerful force. All organi-
zations typically have two main corresponding tasks: first, to deliver
existing products and services, and second, to create new products
and services with efficacy. Leadership is associated with the latter
while management with the former. Leaders devise new directions,
new ways of doing things; managers execute existing direction. The
one essential characteristic of all leaders is striving to achieve at the
highest level and this leads others to want to follow their example.
However, contrary to the current trends, in the knowledge-based

economy, where self-management is the norm, such leaders are
unfortunately in short supply and needed urgently. How is this so?
Dr. Lawrence J. Peter (1969) in his book The Peter Principle:
Why Things Always Go Wrong offers hints to the above problem. His
Peter Principle states that:
In a hierarchy structure, every employee tends to rise to his

incompetence
Simply stated, this means that people who perform compe-

tently at lower levels tend to be promoted. As they are promoted,
their jobs tend to become progressively more difficult. As this diffi-
culty level increases, they are less able to perform the tasks required
of them. At some point they find the demands of their position greater
than their personal resources and capability. In short, they are no
longer capable of doing their jobs or are deemed to be incompetent.
If we use a donkey as a metaphor for incompetence, as we rise up
the organizational hierarchy, we tend to become a bigger donkey as
shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1 A Pyramid of Incompetence
Before Dr. Laurence J. Peter’s death in 1988, he was a profes-

sor of education at the University of Southern California and at the
University of British Columbia. The Peter Principle: Why Things Al-
ways Go Wrong was published in 1969 and many people including a
web site on the Boomer Years at http://www.bbhq.com/boomeryr.htm
thought The Peter Principle was a significant milestone of that era

and an event of the year for 1969.
The Peter Principle is actually a serious book about corporate
management, but Dr. Peter often used humor in his writing to make
a point so much so that many publishers during his time rejected the
satire. According to Andy Andrews (1991), author of the book Storms
of Perfection, Dr. Peter’s book was finally accepted in 1964 by a pub-
lisher called William Morrow & Co. after being submitted to thirty one
different publisher. The book sold more than 200,000 copies in its
first year and remained on the New York Times best-seller list through
1970. Today, more than 34 years later, Dr. Peter’s book has been
translated into thirty-eight languages and is still selling well.
The Peter Principle is a universal and evergreen concept which
quickly entered the curricula of many management programs as well
as other disciplines including the military. Many might not know that
The Peter Principle is also popular and a ‘must read book’ in Com-
puter Science along with other classics such as Alice in Wonderland.
A review of the book could be found in The Softpanorama Bookshelf
of the Open Source Software Educational Society Website at http://
www.softpanorama.org/Bookshelf/index.html. The review below
clearly shows The Peter Principle has also some relevance to Soft-
ware Engineering and Information Systems:
Along with Parkinson’s Law by C. Northcote Parkinson this

is a “satirical sociology” masterpiece. It is a rather short easy-
to-read book that consists of fictional stories about results of
promotions in typical administrative and business hierarchies.
A must read for any programmer or system administrator
with more than two year experience. Originally published in
1969, it coined the famous “The Peter Principle”
In a Hierarchy, Every Employee Tends to Rise to His Level of
Incompetence.
This is pretty disturbing concept since the principle is appli-
cable to ourselves and means that we all tend to all rise to
our own level of incompetence. The end result is that stable
companies are more likely to have incompetent employees
at many levels of the organizational structure whereas fast
growing companies may avert some implication of this prin-
ciple at least temporary. “Employees”, as the author points
out, “do not want to be incompetent”, but when manage-

ment offers promotions that put the employees into their level
of incompetence, the employees have no way of knowing
that ahead of time. After all, if the offer is made it is because
management “knows” the employee can do the job compe-
tently on his/her present level. But the interesting side effect
is that such decision might be made by managers who are
already at their level of incompetence (Dilbert’s PHB).
Some of the short stories are not only funny; they might well
be based on true events. Actually the message of some sto-
ries is dead serious: pyramid climbing is a dangerous sport
and that is exactly true in computer programming. Incompe-
tent IS managers is too serious problem to ignore. This book
is essentially a cornerstone for Dilbert series and as such
should be considered to be a classic. The book helps you to
withstand the pressure and the absurd of the software de-
velopment and IS in general.
The Peter Principle also turned out to have such widespread

applicability to other areas that it became part of corporate folk know-
ledge. Many people quickly grasped the principle because they could
recognize that their own boss was an example of the principle in
action. There were also many commotion and incidents as people
reacted, and overreacted to Dr. Peter’s great insight. It also inspired
many management jokes as shown in the following example which
was circulated via e-mails:
A Management Joke
A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced

altitude and spotted a man below. He descended a bit more
and shouted, “Excuse me, can you help me? I promised a
friend I would meet him an hour ago, but I don’t know where
I am.”
The man below replied, “You’re in a hot air balloon hovering
approximately 30 feet above the ground. You’re between 40
and 41 degrees North latitude and between 59 and 60 de-
grees West longitude.”
“You must be an engineer,” said the balloonist.

“I am,” replied the man, “How did you know?”
“Well,” answered the balloonist, “everything you told me is
technically correct, but I’ve no idea what to make of your
information, and the fact is I’m still lost. Frankly, you’ve not
been much help at all. If anything, you’ve delayed my trip.”
The man below responded, “You must be in Management.”
“I am,” replied the balloonist, “but how did you know?”
“Well,” said the man, “you don’t know where you are or where
you’re going. You have risen to where you are due to a large
quantity of hot air. You made a promise which you’ve no idea
how to keep, and you expect people beneath you to solve
your problems. The fact is you are in exactly the same posi-
tion you were in before we met, but now, somehow, it’s my
fault.”
Dr. Peters went on to write more books such as Peter’s Quo-

tations: Ideas for Our Times and a sequel to The Peter Principle in
the form of The Peter Pyramid: Or Will We Ever Get the Point?, which
he managed to complete before his death. His “principle” in The
Peter Pyramid is:
Systems start small and grow to occupy all our time and
space.
The Peter Pyramid attempts to do for organizations what The

Peter Principle did for individuals, namely, to show that whole sys-
tems are capable of reaching their levels of incompetence or use-
lessness.
THE PITKIN’S PIKER
We are now in the knowledge-based economy and surely Dr. Peter’s

principles in The Peter Principle and The Peter Pyramid are now ob-
solete. Unfortunately, this is not the case. In fact, many other authors
saw the significance of The Peter Principle and even improve on it.
Professor Edward T. Pitkin published an article titled, The Pitkin’s
Piker in the September 1997 edition of the Energy Advocate. Where
he saw an inadequacy in The Peter Principle and proposed what he
called the Pitkin’s Postulate:
If somebody approaches his level of incompetence, with

enough speed he will tunnel through the barrier, and there-
after encounter negative resistance
Professor Pitkin was essentially trying to explain how people

get beyond their level of incompetence. The Peter Principle applies
to a great many people, but to relatively static jobs. Pitkin’s Postulate
is the dynamic extension to the Peter Principle; it includes the most
“important” jobs, those whose holders are in a position to do a co-
lossal damage.
Mere incompetence could hardly be the explanation for the
numerous department heads, deans, associate deans, directors,
provosts, presidents, vice presidents, and assistants-to in his ac-
quaintances. According to Dr. Pitkin, the sooner an individual or what
he termed as a Pitkin’s Piker shows his incompetence, the sooner
he is given an impressive letter of recommendation for yet a higher
salary in a new job somewhere else. Once his above his level of
incompetence, rising higher becomes a routine reward.
A committee that hires a Pitkin’s Piker reads the impressive
letters of recommendation. Unfortunately, they never have the sense
to enquire at the candidate’s previous places of employment. They
will offer a premium salary and contract stipulating that in the event
of termination, the candidate is entitled to a generous separation
package such as a year’s salary and benefits. Obviously, no hiring
committee would offer a salary package less than that already earned
by a promising individual with such marvelous letters of recommen-
dation.
The Pitkin’s Piker starts work at a comfortable office. True
enough, his incompetence finally shows and he inevitably fails at his
job. Unfortunately, terminating a Pitkin’s Piker is an expensive exer-
cise not willingly undertaken by the organization’s management.
Besides, it reflects poorly on the judgment of the hiring committee
(who might be Pitkin’s Pikers themselves) who hired the Pitkin’s Piker.
It is thus much cheaper and safer to ask the Pitkin’s Piker to write a
letter of resignation with promises of glowing letters of recommen-
dation to assist him find a new job elsewhere. Now that the Pitkin’s
Piker is out of the door, the organization however can not resume
business as usual because the damage caused by the Pitkin’s Piker
has been done.
Professor Pitkin says that the world is littered with Pitkin’s

Pikers who have loused up at his institution and moved on to better
jobs at higher pay, even up the ladder or elsewhere — where they
have subsequently failed and moved on to fail at yet higher salaries.
CRAZY AND DYSFUNCTIONAL WORKPLACE
A more alarming evidence that The Peter Principle is still alive and
having devastating impacts on organizations around the world is
found in a recent book, When Smart People Work for Dumb Bosses:
How to Survive in a Crazy and Dysfunctional Workplace by William
Lundin and Kathleen Lundin (1998).
The authors offer the working man and woman valuable
insights, letting them know that stupidity is rampant in the new, glo-
bal workplace, and that there is no truly safe haven from the idiotic
behavior of the powers that be. The book gives equal treatment to
incompetent or dumb individuals, organizations, and those that must
suffer them. The book also indirectly teaches the reader how to rec-
ognize the underlying dysfunction in crazy workplaces. Environments
rife with mistrust, egomania, and insensitivity characterize all dumb
organizations. Such organizations allow management to make gross
errors in judgment and expend vast resources to shield upper ma-
nagement from the terrible consequences of lower management’s
mistakes. The dumb organization not only condones, but also en-
courages counter-productive behavior, openly impedes and
squelches alternative courses of action and the flawed opinions of
one individual substitute for the rational, informed consensus of the
group. Dumb individuals, groups, and organizations fail to grow pro-
fessionally, intellectually, and personally. Over time, these organiza-
tions in fact devolve as time progresses. Dumb people and organi-
zations feel that they already know everything there is to know, they
simply fail to learn.
ROLE OF LEADERS AND WORKERS
How do we stop The Peter Principle and Pitkin Postulate becoming

rampant and making organizations a crazy and dysfunctional Peter
Pyramid? The answer actually lies in the attitude and aspiration of
the members of the organization. It is up to them whether they co-
llectively want the organization to be successful or be oblivious to
whatever happens as long as they are all right.
As mentioned earlier, leadership plays a central role in the

development and transformation of the people in an organization. At
the strategic level, the senior managers are supposed to know where
to go and how to get there so that they can lead from the front. The
thinking is supposedly to be done by the managers and the workers
are to be passive and do as ordered without questions. Thus, the
term kakitangan which literary means hands and legs is most appro-
priate since the workers are supposedly expected to leave their brains
outside the organization. Organizations today, especially the ones
already in a knowledge driven world, need everyone to think about
new directions to pursue and how to get there. Staff members are no
more brainless workers but are now intelligent knowledge workers.
Their job scopes include the creation, classification and storage,
analysis, distribution and exploitation of knowledge.
No one person can now lead effectively from the front unless
he has support. Future leadership depends on complex knowledge
and innovation from all. Rather than struggle alone, leaders actually
have at their disposal many resources in and outside the organiza-
tion. For example, each member of the organization has intelligence
which the leader can tap to.
INTELLECTUAL INTELLIGENCE
Traditionally, human’s mental capability is shown through his or her

Intellectual Intelligence (II). In our lives, we have taken many exami-
nations and tests. We are then classified based on the results of the
evaluation. Most of these tests are more technically oriented and the
results are to show our thinking capability or more simply put, what
is inside our brain.
II is measured through a written test to determine the Intellec-
tual Quotient or IQ of the person. The higher the IQ score, the smarter
the person is. A person with a very high IQ score like Albert Einstein
is even called a genius, a medium score is clever, and a low score
will have to be called stupid. The standard IQ test measures rational
intelligence—the skills we use to solve logical or strategic problems.
For a long time, IQ results were considered the best measurement of
a person’s intelligence and potential for success
However, through out our lives, we have seen many people
who are classified as not so clever are able to achieve great success
in life and in their undertakings. This means there are other variables
beside brain power in the equation for success.
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE
In the early 1990s, Daniel Goleman pointed out that success is also
dependent on Emotional Intelligence (EI)—the thinking that gives us
empathy, compassion, and the ability to respond appropriately to
pain or pleasure. Emotions as described by Daniel Goleman in his
book Emotional Intelligence (1996) have radically altered common
understanding of what “being smart” entails. The term emotional in-
telligence encompasses the following five characteristics and abili-
ties:
1. Self-awareness–knowing your emotions, recognizing feelings

as they occur, and discriminating between them.
2. Mood management–handling feelings so they are relevant to
the current situation and you react appropriately.
3. Self-motivation–”gathering up” your feelings and directing
yourself towards a goal, despite self-doubt, inertia, and im-
pulsiveness.
4. Empathy–recognizing feelings in others and tuning into their
verbal and nonverbal cues.
5. Managing relationships–handling interpersonal interaction,
conflict resolution, and negotiations.
Emotional Intelligence is a master aptitude, a capacity that

profoundly affects all other abilities, either facilitating or inter-
fering with them.–Daniel Goleman,(1996) Emotional Intelli-
gence, p. 80.
Emotional Intelligence is critical for organizations. Research

in brain-based learning suggests that emotional health is fundamen-
tal to effective learning. The most critical element for a student’s suc-
cess in school is an understanding of how to learn. The key ingredi-
ents for this understanding are confidence, curiosity, intentionality
self-control, relatedness, capacity to communicate and ability to co-
operate. These traits are all aspects of Emotional Intelligence. Basi-
cally, a person who learns to learn is much more apt to succeed.
Emotional Intelligence has proven a better predictor of future suc-
cess than traditional methods like the GPA, IQ, and standardized
tests marks. Hence, the great interest in Emotional Intelligence world
wide.
Researchers have concluded that people who manage their

own feelings well and deal effectively with others are more likely to
live content lives. Furthermore, happy people are more apt to retain
information and do so more effectively than dissatisfied people. The
inclusion of Emotional Intelligence in training programs has helped
employees cooperate better and motivate more, thereby increasing
productivity and profits. Emotional Intelligence is measured by the
Emotional Quotient or EQ. It is a measure of our psychological func-
tioning and interpersonal skills. EQ is not permanently fixed and is
open to lifelong improvements.
SPIRITUAL INTELLIGENCE
Beside EQ, another kind of intelligence has surfaced recently. At the

end of the 20th century, authors Danah Zohar and Ian Marshall claim
that there is another important Q to consider—the SQ, otherwise
known as Spiritual Intelligence. Spiritual Intelligence is the ability to
use a multisensory approach to problem solving and learning to lis-
ten to your inner voice. As authors of an earlier book The Quantum
Self, Zohar and Marshall attempt to conceptualize the spiritual state
of “higher consciousness” within the realm of quantum physics. De-
veloping higher consciousness and using inner-knowing will point
the way toward greater fulfillment in our lives.
Similar to Intellectual Intelligence and Emotional Intelligence,
Spiritual Intelligence has its Spiritual Quotient or SQ. However, the
authors point out, the concept of SQ is currently not quantifiable.
The authors also contend that while even computers can have IQ
and animals can have EQ, it is SQ that sets humans apart. SQ is not
necessarily connected to religion, although it can be. It is about whole-
ness, flexibility, self-awareness, compassion, creativity, the ability to
ask why, and the like.
Although Danah Zohar and Marshall published their book
Spiritual Intelligence in 1997, the idea of being guided by universal
principles and beliefs is not new and has been with mankind since
Adam and Eve. Revealed knowledge from heaven such as found in
the Quran is not disputed by believers of the religion of Islam as is
the Bible for the Christians. The teachings of the religion become the
basis for conscious actions.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Unlike the three types of intelligence discussed above, the fourth

intelligence has been around for some time and is external to human
beings. Artificial Intelligence or A.I. is a technology to provide com-

puters with the ability to think on their own. Strong Artificial Intelli-
gence states that a computer with the right program would be men-
tal while Weak Artificial Intelligence just aims to solve problems, not
necessarily to be mental or model human behavior. Knowledge-based
systems or expert system are computer systems with the ability to
store and utilized knowledge about a specialized problem domain
to solve a certain problem or achieve a certain objective.
Although the author has been involved extensively in A.I.,
specifically through research, development and commercialization
in Natural Language Processing and Machine Translation, no further
elaboration will be given due to the fact that A.I. is an established
field of study and there are much information related to it as well as
an extensive body of knowledge.
The fifth intelligence at the disposal of human is Virtual Intelligence.

This concept was first discovered by the author on Saturday 2nd
November 1997 (1st Rejab 1418) when conducting research on the
Bendahara Management for applications to Knowledge Management
at the Faculty of Computer Science and Information Systems.
Virtual Intelligence is defined as follows:
Virtual Intelligence or VI, is intelligence which is actually not

present in a person but whose essence exists due to contri-
butions by Knowledge Agents because of his position in a
hierarchy.
In simple terms, Virtual Intelligence is not physically attri-

buted to an individual but is a collective intelligence accumulated by
the organization through contributions from various people and sys-
tems in and outside the organization. This intelligence is only avail-
able and accessible when the person is in office and will be lost
once he leaves his position in the hierarchy.
A good example of the presence of Virtual Intelligence is in
the case of a Government Minister. In a day, the Minister has to at-
tend many functions and give many speeches at different locations.
If a foreigner follows the Minister in his daily schedule, he would be
very impressed by the great intelligence possessed by the Minister.
From his speech, he is able to show great understanding of the cur-

rent problems faced by the attendees and give various solutions,
actions, recommendations and credible answers to the various prob-
lems and situation.
The impression or illusion of expertise in various fields is of
course directly contributed by his Virtual Intelligence. In the back-
ground, unseen by the public, the Minister’s knowledge agents work
hard to understand the current scenario and problems to prepare a
good speech that will give credibility to their leader. If they do not
have the information needed, they will contact other knowledge
agents in their network for support. Hence, the quality output is a
good indication of the Virtual Quotient or VQ of one’s Virtual Intelli-
gence.
So as not to be confused by the reference to virtual computer
networks which also use the term virtual intelligence, Human Virtual
Intelligence or HVI maybe is a more appropriate name for this con-
cept. HVI is part of the corporate organizational intelligence. This is
the capacity of a corporation as a whole to gather information, to
innovate, to generate knowledge, and to act effectively based on the
knowledge it has generated. Organizations leverage knowledge
through networks of people who collaborate, not through networks
of technology that interconnect.
The contributors to this virtual mass of intelligence are know-
ledge agents who can be staff members, family members, advisers,
consultants, friends, foes, customer, competitors, suppliers, autho-
rity, superiors, information systems and intelligent software agents.
Since an individual has five intelligences, i.e, spiritual, emo-
tional, intellectual, artificial and virtual as in Figure 2, each know-
ledge agent thus contributes his five intelligences to the virtual intel-
ligence of his superior or leader to create a synergistic corporate
intelligence. This intelligence is a capacity which is inherent in a sys-
tem of organization. It is greater than the sum of the intelligence,
information, and knowledge of each individual in that organization.
This arrangement is perhaps what Dr. Marvin Minsky (1985),
an Artificial Intelligence guru from MIT called in his book, The Soci-
ety of Mind as in the following quotes:
I’ll call ‘Society of Mind’ this scheme in which each mind is

made of smaller processes. These we will call Agents. Each
Mental Agent by itself can only do simple thing that needs
no mind or thought at all. Yet when we join these agents in
societies- in certain very special ways- this leads to true in-
telligence.
Virtual
Intelligence
Intellectual
Emotional
Spiritual
Artificial
Intelligence
SELF
Figure 2 Human Five Intelligences
The knowledge contributed to the virtual intelligence can be

in various forms and is dependent on the demand or emphasis of
the leader. Examples are news, information, ideas, opinions, advises,
domain expertise, solutions, answers, humor, stories, and draft
speeches.
The size of the virtual intelligence varies in terms of size and
content on theindividual at the helm. In a very mechanistic struc-
tured organization such as in the Armed Forces, formal rules and
regulation as well as discipline will force members of the organiza-
tion to contribute their knowledge.
However, a different approach in the form of reward and a lot
of coaxing and convincing have to be carried out to motivate staff
members and other knowledge agents to contribute their precious
knowledge to an organic organization.
Mechanistic organizations are normally more formal, bigger,
sluggish and bureaucratic while organic organizations are more dy-
namic, small and entrepreneurial. In mechanistic organizations, di-

rection can be deliberately decided and planned. In the organic case,
direction evolves or emerges through trial and error learning. Direc-
tion is also discovered rather than decided in an organic organiza-
tion. As such, the virtual intelligence of a mechanistic organization
tend to be bigger due to the proper planning and better resource
allocation compared to a more ad hoc approach in the organic or-
ganization.
THE ZAKI PRINCIPLE
Before dwelling on how to implement the virtual intelligence, it is

more appropriate to see the significance of its discovery. As will be
shown shortly, HVI is an effective mechanism to minimize the effects
of the Peter Principle and the Pitkin’s Postulate. If The Peter Principle
states that, “In a hierarchy structure, every employee tends to rise to
his incompetence” then The Zaki Principle states that:
Virtual Intelligence tends to increase with rise of position and

power in a hierarchy.
Rather than looking negatively at the effects of promotion in

propagating incompetence, a more positive approach is to ensure
that who ever gets promoted will have a big virtual intelligence at his
disposal to compensate for whatever shortcomings the person might
have prior to his new appointment. The onus is on the management
and all stake holders of the organization to ensure that a virtual intel-
ligence knowledge management system is in place to support the
leaders of the organization. Rather than letting mediocrity prevail, it
is of prime importance to ensure a culture of excellence and learning
is the norm. Good and strong leadership is a key success factor
here.
Using a light bulb as a metaphor for talent and performance,
if everyone contributes and performs well for the organization then
each light bulb in the pyramid will shine brightly. The effect is a brightly
lit Christmas tree as shown in Figure 3. To ensure that the organiza-
tion’s name and image shines brightly, then everyone in the organi-
zation must support each other, and not dwell in petty organizational
politics. Here, everyone wins regardless of his or her position in the
hierarchy.
Figure 3 Virtual Intelligence Tree Structure
VIRTUAL INTELLIGENCE IN ACTION
The effects of The Peter Principle are sometime not intentional but
can happen due to an opportunity arising. An example is in the case
of the appointment of YAB Dato’ Seri Dr. Mohd. Khir Toyo as the
Chief Minister of the State of Selangor on 18 August 2000. The op-
portunity arises due to the resignation of Datuk Seri Abu Hassan
Omar as the Chief Minister. In an unprecedented move, Prime Minis-
ter YAB Datuk Seri Dr. Mahathir Mohamed, appointed a newly elected
State Assembly man for Sungai Panjang and previously a dentist to
be the Chief Minister of the most developed state in Malaysia. Being
a young man and a newcomer, he was catapulted to the highest
political post in the state by virtue of having the cleanest record at
that time amidst heavy politics. He was not prepared for the post that
soon and certainly suffered from The Peter Principle. As a Chief Mi-
nister, Dr. Khir was expected to function as Menteri Besar minutes
after his appointment.
To be able to perform his duties effectively and immediately, a

newly appointed leader like Dr. Khir does not have the time and luxury
to ‘learn the rope’ or processes in the traditional way but must quickly
have a support system in place to be immediately deployed to assist
him. If given ample time, Dr. Khir would require a few years to fill-in
the vacuum between his current competency and that expected of a
Chief Minister of a developed state like Selangor. The standards set
were also high because Selangor had previous charismatic Chief
Ministers like Tan Sri Mohamad Taib. In cases like this, Virtual Intelli-
gence can assist to reduce the learning curve drastically if it was put
in place and important stake holders in Selangor are willing to con-
tribute generously to Dr. Khir’s Virtual Intelligence as shown in
Figure 4.
C
o Productivity can be increased
m if the learning curve
can be shortened Expected
p Level
e
t
e Ideal Case
n Virtual Intelligence
c in place
y
Current
Level Natural Progression
Time
0 t1 t2
Figure 4 Shortening Learning Curves
BUILDING A VIRTUAL INTELLIGENCE SYSTEM
A Virtual Intelligence System is basically a Knowledge Management

System (KMS). As such, KMS technology could be utilized to cap-
ture, share and exploit the knowledge from Knowledge Agents as-
sociated to the leader of the organizations. However, the driving val-
ues for capturing and sharing knowledge may differ depending on
the context.
For some organization, the driving value is knowledge of cus-
tomers. For another, the emphasis might be on building knowledge
capital, while for another organization, it could be commitment to

learning through sharing best practices for continuous improvement.
What ever the emphasis, the common element at the core of
these different approaches is knowledge as its most strategic asset.
As such, knowledge leadership is taken very seriously and under-
standing knowledge is the first step to managing it effectively. Verna
Allee (1997) listed a dozen characteristics of knowledge, and some
tools and approaches for making the most of the knowledge assets
in a knowledge-based organization. The characteristics are as fol-
lows:
(i) Knowledge is messy. Because knowledge is connected to

everything else, you can not isolate the knowledge aspect of
anything neatly. In the knowledge universe, you can not pay
attention to just one factor.
(ii) Knowledge is self-organizing. The self that knowledge or-
ganizes around is organizational or group identity and pur-
pose.
(iii) Knowledge seeks community. Knowledge wants to happen,
just as life wants to happen. Both want to happen as commu-
nity. Nothing illustrates this principle more than the Internet.
(iv) Knowledge travels via language. Without a language to de-
scribe our experience, we can not communicate what we know.
Expanding organizational knowledge means that we must de-
velop the languages we use to describe our work experience.
(v) The more you try to pin knowledge down, the more it slips
away. It is tempting to try to tie up knowledge as codified
knowledge-documents, patents, libraries, databases, and so
forth. But too much rigidity and formality regarding knowledge
lead to the stultification of creativity.
(vi) Looser is probably better. Highly adaptable systems look
sloppy. The survival rate of diverse, decentralized systems is
higher. That means we can waste resources and energy try-
ing to control knowledge too tightly.
(vii) There is no one solution. Knowledge is always changing.
For the moment, the best approach to managing it is one that
keeps things moving along while keeping options open.
(viii) Knowledge does not grow forever. Eventually, some know-

ledge is lost or dies, just as things in nature. Unlearning and
letting go of old ways of thinking, even retiring whole blocks
of knowledge, contribute to the vitality and evolution of know-
ledge.
(ix) No one is in charge. Knowledge is a social process. That
means no one person can take responsibility for collective
knowledge.
(x) You cannot mpose rules and systems. If knowledge is truly
self-organizing, the most important way to advance it is to re-
move the barriers to self-organization. In a supportive envi-
ronment, knowledge will take care of itself.
(xi) There is no silver bullet. There is no single leverage point or
best practice to advance knowledge. It must be supported at
multiple levels and in a variety of ways.
(xii) How you define knowledge determines how you manage
it. The “knowledge question” can present itself many ways.
For example, concern about the ownership of knowledge leads
to acquiring codified knowledge that is protected by copy-
rights and patents.
Chan and Mauborge (1997) pointed out that, “Creating and

sharing knowledge are intangible activities that can neither be su-
pervised nor forced out of people. They happen only when people
cooperate voluntarily”. Organizations that are serious about know-
ledge often create formal knowledge-management functions to fa-
cilitate knowledge creation and sharing. A knowledge leader sets
the course and attends to the knowledge creation process. A con-
cern about knowledge sharing emphasizes communication flow and
documentation. A focus on knowledge competencies leads to seek-
ing more effective ways to create, adapt, and apply knowledge.
As on a sea voyage, managing knowledge requires appropri-
ate tools. Verna Allee (1997) further suggests the following tools:
(i) A north star. A north star represents the purpose, sense of

identity, and core principles that guide an organization. Know-
ledge self-organizes around organizational purpose. Without
a north star for knowledge, it is impossible to focus on what is
needed.
(ii) A compass. An organizational compass consists of guiding

principles and strategy. Best-practice companies in knowledge
provide a way to expand knowledge by taking an integrated,
multimodal systems approach.
(iii) The crew. Knowledge is embodied in people. It is impossible
to talk about knowledge without addressing the way people
work together, learn together, and grow in knowledge indi-
vidually and collectively. Companies that are serious about
knowledge, foster an environment and culture that support
continuous learning.
(iv) Maps and guides. Knowledge-based organizations seek
guides, maps, and pathways for building knowledge across
multiple performance levels. They understand the processes
that support the creation, acquisition, sharing, and renewal of
knowledge. Companies that value knowledge want to know
how and where to access it.
(v) Sound vessels. There must be vessels or vehicles to support
knowledge exploration. They include:
• technology support (information systems, databases,

communication technologies, Web technologies, and e-
mail)
• equipment (groupware, whiteboards, video conferencing
equipment, and flexible manufacturing systems)
• tools (job aids, knowledge maps, and computer-based
performance support)
• physical structures (learning centers, libraries, meeting
rooms, and executive strategy rooms).
One of the most popular technologies for knowledge sharing

is a corporate intranet and extranet. An intranet is a central-
ized electronic repository of information (typically accessed
via computer on a company’s network with a browser based
for interface).
There is unlimited potential for the uses of intranets in-
cluding access to static information and online resources, as
well as interactive tools for learning, collaborating, etc. Intranet
has been proven to significantly improved productivity, proc-
ess efficiency, and workflow; enhanced knowledge capital;
strengthened teamwork across boundaries, and increased

employee satisfaction.
An extranet, on the other hand, is a centralized electronic re-
pository of information (typically accessed via computer from
a company’s web site). The users are specific clients who want
an immediate tie to the company, the information it has, and
their work with the company. There is unlimited potential for
the uses of extranets including access to static information
like advertising, newsletters, client specific work product, and
online resources. There are also applications for interactive
tools for collaborating and etc. An extranet is frequently a por-
tion of a company’s web site that is password protected for
use by authorized clients.
(vi) Feedback and measurement. There must be ways to assess

whether you are on course. Measurements help gauge and
manage knowledge assets, and support continuous improve-
ment.
KMS ARCHITECTURE FOR VI
Following from Verna Allee’s tools, what are the components that
make up a knowledge management system for Virtual Intelligence?
Given an organization’s business strategy and approach to know-
ledge management, what technologies do the people in the organi-
zation need to find, create, assemble, and apply knowledge in timely
and cost-effective manner?
The technology components should be designed to do the
following:
• Assist people in creating and acquiring knowledge by

interacting, recording failures and documenting suc-
cesses.
• Support efforts to convey tacit knowledge into explicit
knowledge.
• Identify and remove hurdles to best practice and skills
transfer.
• Support the rapid delivery of the right knowledge to the
right person at the right time (If it is possible).
• Assist with the indexing, screening, classifying, aggre-
gating, synthesizing, cataloging, and otherwise organi-

zing of knowledge.
• Enable the package, delivery, and storage of knowledge.
• Support the importation of knowledge from outside the
firm.
• Support communication and networking among employ-
ees.
• Assist with what-if analysis
As for many computer systems, this question is best answered by

first looking at its architecture. In this case, the simplest architecture
for a knowledge management system was provided by Applehans
et al., (2001). According to Applehans et al., key components in a
knowledge management systems comprises of:
(i) People: Those who produce and those who use knowledge
that will be the basis for action.
(ii) Content: The flow of data, information, and knowledge im-
portant to the success of the business.
(iii) Technology: The technical infrastructure that enables the cap-
ture, storage, and delivery of content to those who need it
when they need it.
Many other researchers also include Process as a fourth ele-

ment. Another promising knowledge management system architec-
ture is by Borghoff and Pareschi (1998) of Xerox. They utilized a ge-
neral framework for information technology to support organizational
knowledge management through a number of technological com-
ponents which they referred to as the Knowledge Management Ar-
chitecture. The Knowledge Management Architecture comprises of
four components:
(i) The flow of knowledge: Using knowledge, competencies and

interest maps to distribute documents to people. e.g. know-
ledge attic and knowledge pump.
(ii) Knowledge cartography: Knowledge Navigation, Mapping,
and Simulation. These are tools to map communities of prac-
tice, work process simulation, domain specific concept maps,
maps of people’s competencies and interests (yellow pages),
design and decision rationale.
(iii) Communities of knowledge workers: Awareness services,

capture and access, Shared workspace, Knowledge work
process support, Experience capture.
(iv) Knowledge repositories and libraries: Search, Heteroge-
neous document repository, access, integration, and manage-
ment, Directory and links, Publishing and documentation sup-
port.
The four technological components are to answer questions such

as:
• What kind of information technology can contribute to

make knowledge flow, supporting its conversion as from
explicit to tacit and from tacit knowledge to explicit?
• What kind of information technology can best support the
explicit knowledge that an organization has about itself?
• What kind of software is needed to support the exchange
of tacit knowledge in organizations of knowledge work-
ers?
• How can we manage through ICT the bulk of explicit
knowledge contained in the collections of documents of
an organization?
Interestingly, another knowledge management architecture

was provided by Amrit Tiwana (2000). In his book, The Knowledge
Management Toolkit, Tiwana notes that many of the technologies
that support knowledge management have been around for some
time and such organizations should be seeking to leverage on such
as the following:
(i) Knowledge Flow Technologies

Similar to one in the Knowledge Management Architecture of
Borghoff and Pareschi, these are technologies that facilitate
the flow of knowledge in organizations. Examples include the
following:
• Collaborative environments and groupware tools such as

Lotus Notes, Netscape Collabra, Microsoft’s Netmeeting,
etc.
• Intranets (internal company Internet) and extranets
(intranets extended to include the company’s allies, part-

ners, suppliers, and major customers).
• Pointers to expertise or electronic yellow pages that pro-
vide searchable directories of persons inside and outside
the company with specific skill sets or expertise
(ii) Information or Document Mapping Technologies

These are technologies that support versioning control, scan-
ning/electronic formatting, indexing and retrieval, and auto-
matic database creation.
(iii) Information Source Technologies
These are technologies that feed information into the know-
ledge management system. Examples of these include project
management tools and multimedia technology.
(iv) Information and Knowledge Exchange Technologies
These are technologies that assist people in sharing and ex-
changing knowledge. Examples include telephone, fax ma-
chine, Internet conferencing systems, video conferencing tools
and electronic chat rooms.
(v) Intelligent Agent/Network Mining Technologies
These are technologies that help people locate and extract
information. They include search engines, intelligent decision
support systems, case based reasoning systems, and con-
textual information retrieval systems that support filtering, ed-
iting, searching and organizing knowledge. Since Virtual In-
telligence relies on many intelligent software agents, this tech-
nology is a key element for a successful KMS for VI.
Boyett and Boyett (2001) acknowledged Tiwana’s knowledge
management system as being made up of seven layers as follows:
(i) Interface layer. This layer connects people to the knowledge

management system to create, expedite, use, retrieve, and
share knowledge. It is the part of the system that users sees
and works with. For many companies, this interface layer is
the home page the user accesses over the company intranet.
(ii) Access and Authentication layer. This is the layer that au-
thenticates valid users, provides security, and provides back-
ups and disaster recovery.
(iii) Collaborative Filtering and Intelligence layer. This layer con-

tains the tools for content personalization, searching, index-
ing, etc.
(iv) Application layer. This layer contains skill directories, yellow
pages, collaborative work tools, video conferencing hardware
and software, digital whiteboards, electronic forums, etc.
(v) Transport layer. This layer includes the technology for TCP/
IP connectivity, web servers, POP3/STMP or MAIL servers, sup-
port for streaming audio and video, etc.
(vi) Middleware layer and Legacy Integration layer. Legacy sys-
tems are mainframe and other customized and/or retired com-
puter systems. Middleware provides the connectivity between
old and new data format.
(vii) Repositories. This layer consists of the operational databases,
discussion database, Web-forum archives, legacy data, docu-
ment archives, and other databases that represent the foun-
dation of the knowledge management system.
IMPLEMENTING THE VI KMS
How do we implement the VI knowledge management system? In-

terestingly, Amrit Tiwana (2000) also provides a ten-step road map
on how to implement a knowledge management system in his book,
The Knowledge Management Toolkit which can be a good guide to
implement a KMS for VI.
The ten steps are:
(i) Analyze the existing infrastructure

(ii) Align knowledge management and business strategy
(iii) Design the knowledge management infrastructure
(iv) Audit existing knowledge assets and systems
(v) Design the knowledge management team
(vi) Create the knowledge management blueprint
(vii) Develop the knowledge management system
(viii) Prototype and deploy
(ix) Manage the change, culture, and reward structures
(x) Evaluate performance, measures ROI (return on investment),

and incrementally refine the knowledge management system.
Finding the optimum match between rapidly evolving infor-

mation needs and a fast changing technology is not an easy task.
Where should we start? Should we build on what is already in place?
What can the business afford and what will be lost if we do not adopt
the latest technology? How do we wish to position ourselves? What
strategic role will knowledge play? None of these are easy ques-
tions. In contrast to Tiwana, Denham (1999), lists a few guidelines
on how to assess the knowledge needs, how to classify the know-
ledge types, how to model the evolution of knowledge within an or-
ganization or group, and how to select a technology that fits the
industry or local culture.
Technology choice is not all about functionality; it is about
risk, strategic positioning, user buy-in, vendor commitment, migra-
tion paths. Finding the right combination of technology for the infor-
mation and knowledge management is an arduous task. A series of
broad steps is recommended by Denham as follows:
• The first step should be to list in detail the present tech-

nology with the entity. A proper documentation has to be
made of the same.
• Then the organization need to firm up its views on what
would the entity like to be in future that is the shortcom-
ings of the present systems and the technology needs
which would add to the entity’s improved performance.
• The next step would be to locate the vendors who would
be able to suit the organization requirements and supply
the necessary technologies within the budget and
optimize the costs.
• The selection of vendors should be with an eye on future
such that only those vendors who would satisfy the or-
ganization future maintenance requirements are selected.
• The entire process should be time bound to reap the bene-
fits.
WESTERN AND EASTERN KM APPROACH FOR VI
Is there any difference in approach or technology between a knowl-

edge management system from the East and the West? The answer
is certainly, yes. For example, Hirotaka Takeuchi (1998) wrote:
“As we have seen, the focus in the West has been on (1)
explicit knowledge, (2) measuring and managing existing
knowledge, and (3) the selected few carrying out knowledge
management initiatives. This bias reinforces the view of the
organization simply as a machine for information process
ing. What Western companies need to do is to “unlearn” their
existing view of knowledge and pay more attention to (1)
tacit knowledge, (2) creating new knowledge, and (3) hav-
ing everyone in the organization be involved. Only then can
the organization be viewed as a living organism capable of
creating continuous innovation in a self-organizing manner.”
Takeuchi elaborates “that the distinction between explicit

knowledge and tacit knowledge is the key to understanding the dif-
ferences between the Western approach to knowledge (knowledge
management) and the Japanese approach to knowledge (know-
ledge creation). The West has placed a strong emphasis on explicit
knowledge and Japan on tacit knowledge. Explicit knowledge can
easily be “processed” by a computer, transmitted electronically, or
stored in databases.
But the subjective and intuitive nature of tacit knowledge
makes it difficult to process or transmit the acquired knowledge in
any systematic or logical manner. For tacit knowledge to be commu-
nicated and shared within the organization, it has to be converted
into words or numbers that anyone can understand. It is precisely
during the time this conversion takes place - that is, from tacit to
explicit - that organizational knowledge is created. The reason why
Western managers tend not to address the issue of organizational
knowledge creation can be traced to the view of knowledge as nec-
essarily explicit. They take for granted a view of the organization as a
playing field for “scientific managements and a machine for “infor-
mation processing”. This view is deeply ingrained in the traditions of
Western management from Frederick Taylor to Herbert Simon.
Knowledge management systems include a combination of
groupware, e-mail, intra, extranets, document management, data-
base, video-conferencing, voice capturing devices, and others. West-
ern knowledge management systems are normally insensitive to the
diversity of culture and languages of the world. Most knowledge
management systems are monolingual and are in English as well as
biased towards the American culture. For many Asian communities
with their own native languages and distinct culture, this is unac-
ceptable. If the knowledge management system is to be widely uti-

lized by native knowledge workers then the system should be able
to lift the language and cultural barriers.
In such as situation, computer translation systems and other
natural native language-based interfaces are technologies more avail-
able in Eastern knowledge management systems. Search engines
based on native languages are also useful tool to find documents in
a database or repository by using key words or indexed topics. Even
for the modern Malay language which uses the Latin alphabet, to
search for Malay contents, an English-based search engine will be
less effective compared to a Malay language-based search engine.
As such, the knowledge management system architecture for
Virtual Intelligence must include cultural and language components
to be successful and effective in a truly global environment.
DISCUSSIONS AND FUTURE WORK
Many of the ideas in this lecture have been discussed by the au-
thor’s students taking the Information and Knowledge Management
Subject at the Masters’ level and professional courses attended by
Middle and Senior Managers. A thesis for a Masters in Computer
Science and two theses for a Masters in Information Technology were
completed and submitted with implementation on some of the ideas
put forth in this lecture. There are still many issues that have not
been tackled. Unfortunately, as a Masters thesis, the implementa-
tions are considered just toy systems and are very limited in many
aspects. It would be interesting if a actual and complete full blown
knowledge management system for Virtual Intelligence can be im-
plemented at a willing organization and the performance of the lea-
ders there be measured to see whether the VI KMS improves the
organization significantly.
Leadership is an important issue for many organization in the
knowledge-based economy and any research or study to improve it
is certainly very much welcome. This lecture looks at the five intelli-
gences available to a human being and it would be great if some
work could be carried out to compare it with Howard Gartner’s Mul-
tiple Intelligence. Starting from seven, there are now eight intelligences
in his Multiple Intelligence set; being verbal/linguistic; logical/math-
ematical; spatial; bodily/kinesthetic; musical; interpersonal;
intrapersonal; and naturalistic.
Swarm intelligence may also have interesting applications for lead-

ership and followship. Instead of seeing ourselves only as a leader,
we should also focus on encouraging leadership in others. If our
organization allows employees to behave entrepreneurially - to strike
out in new directions with our support - then they are also leaders. To
exhibit leadership we should start by developing a compelling idea
for changing the substantive direction of our organization.
CONCLUSION
This lecture has attempted to show that Virtual Intelligence can be

utilized to minimize the effects of The Peter Principle in organizations
in the knowledge-based economy. Instead of becoming incompe-
tent after a promotion as stated by The Peter Principle, The Zaki
Principle will be able to make leaders more credible through a big-
ger Virtual Quotient. To have access to Virtual Intelligence, a knowl-
edge management system with the ability to capture, share, exploit
and distribute knowledge from knowledge agents, must be imple-
mented. UTM can certainly play a big role in this endeavor.
Some of the implementation issues especially relating to the
technology architecture were described at great lengths. There are
definitely many other issues that were not covered due to the con-
straints of time and space. One of it is the exploration of strategies
on how leaders could motivate their knowledge agents to contribute
to their Virtual Intelligence. Let us reserve some of these thoughts for
another lecture.
ACKNOWLDEMENTS
The author would like to express his sincere appreciations to various

parties for their support and invaluable knowledge as well as contri-
butions on the various topics:
Three Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise (MAKE) winners,
namely Schlumberger, Infosys International and HP Malaysia con-
tributed greatly by sharing with the author their ideas, strategies and
implementation on knowledge management.
This work was carried out with support from the IRPA grant
for the development Technopreneurship Toolkit and assistance from
Yayasan Pelajaran Johor. My Masters students Junaidah, Ling and
Seow implemented some of my ideas into actual agent technology
system and knowledge management systems.
Thank you also to students who took the Information and

Knowledge Management System subject and the seniors managers
who took the Executive Module on Knowledge Management. All of
you contributed to the body of knowledge for Virtual Intelligence
through your assignments, discussions and comments.
YM Dr Raja Malik of MAMPU deserves a special thank you for
his strategic view of knowledge management; Datuk Professor Ir. Dr.
Mohd. Zulkifli for sharing many of his insights on good management
practices and showing examples of good leadership through our
many encounters; Professor Azman Awang for his conceptual views
on good management and leadership, his office and Ismaal for be-
ing patient with me.
Lastly, my big family at the Faculty of Computer Science and
Information Systems and friends like Rose Alinda, Shamsul, Haji
Hashim, Zaidi, Harrie and Jay for their ideas and support in my many
initiatives on knowledge management at the faculty and university.
Finally, my family, and especially my wife Zan, for their love, under-
standing and indulgence in having a philosopher and writer in the
house.
34 / Bibliography
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Biodata/ 37
Profesor Dr. Ahmad Zaki bin Abu Bakar

Dekan, Fakulti Sains Komputer dan
Sistem Maklumat
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Profesor Dr. Ahmad Zaki Bin Abu Bakar telah dilahirkan 46 tahun lalu
di Alor Star, Kedah pada Subuh 29 Mei 1956. Anak kedua kepada
Allahyarhamah Ustazah Hajjah Norwati Bt Noh dan Allahyarham Ustaz
Abu Bakar Hj Mohd Fadzil @Abu Zaky Fadzil, seorang wartawan,
penulis, sasterawan dan ahli angkatan ASAS 50. Profesor Zaki banyak
mewarisi bakat ibu bapa beliau sebagai pendidik, penulis dan
pemimpin. Beliau kini bertugas sebagai profesor dan Dekan di Fakulti
Sains Komputer dan Sistem Maklumat (FSKSM), Universiti Teknologi
Malaysia (UTM).
Profesor Zaki mempunyai pengalaman luas dalam bidang
Teknologi Maklumat dan Komunikasi atau Information Communica-
tion Technology (ICT) setelah berkecimpung dalam bidang tersebut
selama 26 tahun semenjak tahun 1977. Beliau adalah penerima
anugerah MNCC National 1999 Excellent Information Technology
Teacher Award pada tahun 2000.
Profesor Zaki mendapat pendidikan awal di Sekolah Rendah
Jalan Gurney (Dua), Kuala Lumpur dari 1963 sehingga 1968 dan
kemudian di Sekolah Menengah Lelaki Jalan Ampang, Kuala Lumpur
dari tahun 1969 sehingga 1973. Beliau menduduki Tingkatan Enam
Bawah di St. Johns Institution, Kuala Lumpur pada tahun 1974. Cita-
cita beliau untuk menjadi jurutera menyebabkan beliau meninggalkan
St. Johns Institution lebih awal lagi untuk ke menara gading.
Profesor Zaki bukanlah orang asing di UTM. Hubungan beliau
dengan UTM bermula apabila diterima oleh Institut Teknologi
Kebangsaan (ITK) pada tahun 1974 untuk mengikuti kursus Diploma
38 / Biodata
Kejuruteraan Elektrik (Perhubungan). Beliau lulus kursus tersebut

pada tahun 1977 dengan Kelas Pertama dan sebagai Pelajar Terbaik.
Setelah bertugas sebagai Pembantu Teknik di Jabatan Telekom untuk
beberapa bulan, beliau telah dijemput untuk menyertai staf akademik
sebagai Penolong Pensyarah B di Jabatan Perhubungan, Fakulti
Kejuruteraan Elektrik. Beliau telah dinaikkan pangkat ke jawatan
Pensyarah pada bulan Ogos 1984 dan Profesor Madya pada 14
Oktober 1991. Apabila Fakulti Sains Komputer dan Sistem Maklumat
ditubuhkan pada tahun 1992, beliau bersama beberapa orang rakan
dari Fakulti Kejuruteraan Elektrik yang mempunyai kelayakan
Kejuruteraan Komputer telah dipindahkan ke fakulti baru tersebut.
Semenjak itu, Profesor Zaki terus mendaki kerjaya akademiknya
sehingga akhirnya dilantik sebagai Profesor pada tahun 2000 dan
kemudianDekan FSKSM pada bulan Mei 2001.
Dari segi kelayakan akademik, selain daripada Diploma
Kejuruteraan Elektrik (Perhubungan) Kelas Pertama daripada UTM
pada tahun 1977, Profesor Zaki telah dianugerahi ijazah Bachelors
of Science (Honours) in Electronic Engineering dari University of Es-
sex, England pada tahun 1981. Beliau juga memiliki ijazah Masters
of Engineering (Computer Engineering) dari California Polytechnic
State University (Cal Poly), Amerika Syarikat pada tahun 1984 dan
ijazah Doktor Falsafah Kejuruteraan Elektrik pada tahun 1989. Beliau
merupakan penerima sulong ijazah Ph.D. UTM.
Bidang kepakaran Profesor Zaki adalah Multilingual Informa-
tion Technology (MLIT) yang mencakupi tiga unsur utama iaitu
bahasa, budaya dan teknologi. Bidang-bidang utama yang dikaji
dalam MLIT adalah penterjemahan berkomputer, linguistik
pengkomputeran, pemprosesan bahasa tabii, kecerdasan buatan,
sains kognitif, pengurusan pengetahuan, leksikografi, peristilahan,
pemasaran dunia tanpa sempadan dan pengurusan antara budaya.
Profesor Zaki mula menceburi bidang MLIT melalui penyertaan dalam
Projek Komputer Jawi UTM pada tahun 1982. Projek ini berjaya
menghasilkan komputer Jawi pertama di dunia. Berbekal minat awal
ini, Profesor Zaki kemudian menjadi penyelidik pertama di Malaysia
di bawah program JSPS-VCC untuk melakukan penyelidikan di
Universiti Kyoto, Jepun pada tahun 1985 dalam bidang pemprosesan
bahasa. Sejak itu penglibatan beliau dalam bidang MLIT semakin
menyerlah, lebih-lebih lagi apabila membuat kajian untuk Ph.D beliau
dan terlibat dalam Projek Penterjemahan Berkomputer anjuran
Kerajaan Jepun bernama Projek KANTA (Kerjasama Antara Negara
dalam Terjemahan Automatik). Projek KANTA memakan masa hampir
Biodata/ 39
10 tahun (1986 - 1995) dan melibatkan 10 bidang kajian besar,

bilangan penyelidik yang ramai dari Jepun, Malaysia, Thailand,
Republik Rakyat Cina dan Indonesia serta belanjawan melebihi RM
60 juta yang disumbang oleh Kerajaan Jepun dan Kerajaan Malay-
sia. Projek antarabangsa ini berjaya menghasilkan tiga prototaip
sistem penterjemahan berkomputer generasi ketiga pertama di dunia
yang mampu menterjemah ayat pelbagai bidang dalam bahasa
Jepun, Malaysia, Thai, Cina dan Indonesia. Projek ini juga
menyumbang kepada penambahan tenaga pakar dalam bidang ini
di samping penghasilan laporan teknikal, kertas kerja antarabangsa,
seminar, bengkel, persidangan, software patent dan linguistic ware
bagi perkamusan, peristilahan, analisis dan penjanaan bahasa.
Kejayaan fasa pertama projek ini telah mendorong Majlis UTM
menubuhkan Unit Penterjemahan Berkomputer dan melantik Dr. Zaki
sebagai pengarahnya pada bulan November 1989. Kejayaan besar
projek R&D ini dan kemampuan Unit Penterjemahan Berkomputer
UTM menjadi pusat rujukan antarabangsa dalam penterjemahan
berkomputer, telah menyebabkan Kerajaan Malaysia mengambil unit
dan projek yang diketuai Dr. Zaki untuk dijadikan asas kepada Institut
Terjemahan Negara Malaysia (ITNM). Institut Terjemahan Negara
Malaysia telah ditubuhkan secara rasmi oleh Kementerian Pendidikan
pada tahun 1993 dengan Prof. Zaki sebagai Pengarah Urusan
pertamanya. Beliau berkhidmat di ITNM selama tiga tahun dari 1
Julai 1993 sehingga 30 Jun 1996. Banyak pengalaman dan cabaran
yang telah dilalui dalam tempoh masa tersebut untuk mematangkan
Profesor Zaki dari pelbagai segi.
Profesor Zaki merupakan seorang pakar pelbagai bidang.
Selepas tiga tahun berkecimpung dalam dunia korporat dan
perniagaan, apabila kembali ke UTM beliau menyertai Business &
Advance Technology Center (BATC) sebagai perunding pembelajaran
dan pengurus kepada program Integrated Graduate Development
Scheme (IGDS). Profesor Zaki juga terus mendapat pengiktirafan
negara apabila dipilih oleh SIRIM untuk mewakili Malaysia dalam
forum MLIT pertama yang disertai oleh negara-negara Asia pada
tahun 1997. Beliau kemudian telah dilantik sebagai wakil rasmi Ma-
laysia dalam gerakan Global Information Infrastructure for Equal Lan-
guage Opportunity. Sebagai pakar MLIT Malaysia, beliau mewakili
negara dalam persidangan tahunan MLIT yang dianjurkan di merata-
rata tempat di Asia. Oleh kerana bidang MLIT sangat penting kepada
Malaysia dan pembangunan Koridor Raya Multimedia, apabila
Jawatankuasa Induk Standard Teknologi Maklumat Kebangsaan
40 / Biodata
dirombak pada April 1998, sebuah jawatankuasa MLIT telah

ditubuhkan dengan Profesor Zaki sebagai pengerusinya. Selaras
dengan perkembangan teknologi semasa, apabila jawatankuasa
standard kebangsaan dirombak semula pada bulan Disember 1999
untuk menjadi Jawatankuasa Induk Standard bagi Information Com-
munication Technology & Multimedia (ICTM) maka Profesor Zaki telah
dilantik sebulat suara untuk menjadi Pengerusi Jawatankuasa Stan-
dard Teknologi Maklumat Kebangsaan. Pada bulan Mac 2003,
Profesor Zaki telah dilantik pula sebagai Pengerusi Jawatankuasa
Standard E-Dagang.
Apabila dipindahkan ke UTM Skudai pada tahun 1998, Dr.
Zaki telah diberi tanggungjawab untuk menggerakkan suatu pro-
gram baru iaitu Program Sarjana Keusahawanan Teknologi Maklumat
UTM-MARA. Program ini berjaya meningkatkan imej UTM yang kini
muncul sebagai pusat pembangunan teknousahawan di Malaysia.
Kejayaan program ini juga telah mendorong program-program
keusahawanan lain di dalam dan luar UTM dicadangkan dan Profesor
Zaki telah diminta menjadi pakar rujuk. Beliau telah dilantik sebagai
Advisory Council Member bagi Internationalizing Entrepreneurship
Eduaction and Training (IntEnt) yang berurusetia di Jerman selepas
UTM berjaya menghoskan persidangan antarabangsa IntEnt2002
yang pertama di Asia pada bulan Julai 2002. UTM telah dijanjikan
kerusi keusahawanan MARA oleh Y.B. Menteri Pembangunan
Usahawan ketika persidangan tersebut.
Profesor Zaki juga aktif dalam pelbagai persatuan profesional.
Antaranya, sebagai ahli dan bekas Timbalan Presiden kepada
Malaysian National Computer Confederation (MNCC) iaitu persatuan
iktisas untuk profesional bidang komputer, MINDS, ahli jawatankuasa
Persatuan Penulis Skrip Malaysia, ahli seumur hidup Persatuan
Linguistik Malaysia, ahli seumur hidup Persatuan Penulis Nasional
(PENA) dan ahli seumur hidup Persatuan Penterjemah Malaysia.
Beliau juga merupakan Ahli Panel Penilai bagi Lembaga Akreditasi
Negara (LAN) sejak 2001 dan Ahli Jawatankuasa Kelayakan Sains,
Jabatan Perkhidmatan Awam (JPA) sejak 2001.
Profesor Zaki merupakan seorang jurutera ICT yang
mempunyai minat mendalam pada bahasa, terjemahan dan
penulisan. Profesor Zaki juga terkenal sebagai penulis gigih pelbagai
genre. Nama pena Tok Pepijat dan Dr. Z cukup popular satu ketika
dahulu apabila ruangan komputernya muncul setiap minggu di
Utusan Malaysia. Profesor Zaki juga berjaya dalam penulisan kreatif
apabila muncul sebagai novelis siber pertama Malaysia. Novel beliau
Biodata/ 41
bertajuk Dendam Siber terbitan Pustaka Cipta diiktiraf sebagai novel

siber pertama dalam bahasa Melayu oleh Malaysian Book of Records
pada 22 April 2001. Novel siber keduanya yang bertajuk Wira Per-
sona Avatari pula, telah memenangi Hadiah Sastera Utusan Melayu-
Public Bank 1999 untuk novel remaja pada September 2001. Puisi
siber beliau bertajuk Cyberfriendship pula telah berjaya memasuki
pertandingan akhir antarabangsa dan diiktiraf sebagai salah satu
daripada 33 puisi terbaik di dunia bagi tahun 2001 oleh The Interna-
tional Society of Poets.
Sebagai pakar berpengalaman dalam pelbagai bidang yang
mempunyai pendedahan industri, akademik dan perniagaan di
peringkat antarabangsa, Prof Zaki tertarik untuk mengkaji dan
menyelidiki bidang Pengurusan Pengetahuan lebih-lebih lagi
bagaimana ia boleh membantu kepimpinan sehingga tercetus idea
Kecerdasan Maya atau Virtual Intelligence pada 2 November 1997.
Idea ini telah dikaji dan dibincangkan dengan mendalam oleh pelajar-
pelajar Sarjana Teknologi Maklumat FSKSM yang mengambil mata
pelajaran Information & Knowledge Management dan diterapkan ke
dalam bentuk pelaksanaan oleh beberapa orang pelajar pasca ijazah
melalui tesis Sarjana mereka. Dengan penyertaan Malaysia dalam
ekonomi berasaskan pengetahuan, teknologi pengetahuan menjadi
semakin penting. Oleh itu, tentu amat menarik untuk melihat
bagaimana Kecerdasan Maya boleh digunakan dalam konteks ini
untuk menjayakan K-ekonomi.

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Virtual Intelligence and Knowledge Management / 1

Professor Dr. Ahmad Zaki Abu Bakar

SIRI SYARAHAN PERDANA PROFESOR

Professor Dr. Ahmad Zaki Abu Bakar

SIRI SYARAHAN PERDANA PROFESOR

We currently live in a turbulent and chaotic era. Only a few initial

Pervasive internet and multimedia technologies have transformed

THE NEW ECONOMY

The New Economy is being driven by a profound develop-

From the traditional brick and mortar businesses, the new

To survive, do well, be profitable and to achieve the organization’s

People that work in e-business are different. Speed of inno-

THE PETER PRINCIPLE

If the staff of an e-business organization is to comprise of ‘brainiacs’,

its specialized staff members? There is a significant difference be-

However, contrary to the current trends, in the knowledge-based

In a hierarchy structure, every employee tends to rise to his

Simply stated, this means that people who perform compe-

Figure 1 A Pyramid of Incompetence

Before Dr. Laurence J. Peter’s death in 1988, he was a profes-

thought The Peter Principle was a significant milestone of that era

Along with Parkinson’s Law by C. Northcote Parkinson this

out, “do not want to be incompetent”, but when manage-

The Peter Principle also turned out to have such widespread

A man in a hot air balloon realized he was lost. He reduced

“You must be an engineer,” said the balloonist.

Dr. Peters went on to write more books such as Peter’s Quo-

The Peter Pyramid attempts to do for organizations what The

THE PITKIN’S PIKER

We are now in the knowledge-based economy and surely Dr. Peter’s

If somebody approaches his level of incompetence, with

Professor Pitkin was essentially trying to explain how people

Professor Pitkin says that the world is littered with Pitkin’s

CRAZY AND DYSFUNCTIONAL WORKPLACE

ROLE OF LEADERS AND WORKERS

How do we stop The Peter Principle and Pitkin Postulate becoming

As mentioned earlier, leadership plays a central role in the

Traditionally, human’s mental capability is shown through his or her

1. Self-awareness–knowing your emotions, recognizing feelings

Emotional Intelligence is a master aptitude, a capacity that

Emotional Intelligence is critical for organizations. Research

Researchers have concluded that people who manage their

Beside EQ, another kind of intelligence has surfaced recently. At the

Unlike the three types of intelligence discussed above, the fourth

beings. Artificial Intelligence or A.I. is a technology to provide com-

The fifth intelligence at the disposal of human is Virtual Intelligence.

Virtual Intelligence is defined as follows:

Virtual Intelligence or VI, is intelligence which is actually not

In simple terms, Virtual Intelligence is not physically attri-

From his speech, he is able to show great understanding of the cur-

I’ll call ‘Society of Mind’ this scheme in which each mind is

Figure 2 Human Five Intelligences

The knowledge contributed to the virtual intelligence can be

namic, small and entrepreneurial. In mechanistic organizations, di-

THE ZAKI PRINCIPLE

Before dwelling on how to implement the virtual intelligence, it is

Virtual Intelligence tends to increase with rise of position and

Rather than looking negatively at the effects of promotion in

Figure 3 Virtual Intelligence Tree Structure

VIRTUAL INTELLIGENCE IN ACTION

To be able to perform his duties effectively and immediately, a

BUILDING A VIRTUAL INTELLIGENCE SYSTEM