Knowledge_ecology

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Knowledge management Knowledge management Knowledge Management (KM) comprises a range of practices used in an organisation to identify, create, represent, distribute and enable adoption of insights and experiences. Such insights and experiences comprise knowledge, either embodied in individuals or embedded in organisational processes or practice. An established discipline since 1991 (see (Nonaka 1991)), KM includes courses taught in the fields of business administration, information systems, management, and library and information sciences (Alavi & Leidner 1999). More recently, other fields, to include those focused on information and media, computer science, public health, and public policy, also have started contributing to KM research. Many large companies and non-profit organisations have resources dedicated to internal KM efforts, often as a part of their ’Business Strategy’, ’Information Technology’, or ’Human Resource Management’ departments (Addicott, McGivern & Ferlie 2006). Several consulting companies also exist that provide strategy and advice regarding KM to these organisations. KM efforts typically focus on organisational objectives such as improved performance, competitive advantage, innovation, the sharing of lessons learned, and continuous improvement of the organisation. KM efforts overlap with Organisational Learning, and may be distinguished from that by a greater focus on the management of knowledge as a strategic asset and a focus on encouraging the sharing of knowledge. KM efforts can help individuals and groups to share valuable organisational insights, to reduce redundant work, to avoid reinventing the wheel per se, to reduce training time for new employees, to retain intellectual capital as employees turnover in an organisation, and to adapt to changing environments and markets (McAdam & McCreedy 2000)(Thompson & Walsham 2004). professional training and mentoring programs. More recently, with increased use of computers in the second half of the 20th century, specific adaptations of technologies such as knowledge bases, expert systems, knowledge repositories, group decision support systems, intranets and computer supported cooperative work have been introduced to further enhance such efforts[1]. In 1999, the term personal knowledge management was introduced which refers to the management of knowledge at the individual level (Wright 2005). More recently with the advent of the Web 2.0, the concept of knowledge management has evolved towards a vision more based on people participation and emergence. This line of evolution is termed Enterprise 2.0 (McAfee 2006). However, there is still a debate (and discussions even in Wikipedia (Lakhani & McAfee 2007)) whether Enterprise 2.0 is just a fad, or if it brings something new, is the future of knowledge management (Davenport 2008) and is here to stay. Research A broad range of thoughts on the KM discipline exists with no unanimous agreement; approaches vary by author and school. As the discipline matures, academic debates have increased regarding both the theory and practice of KM, to include the following perspectives: • with a focus on technology, ideally those that enhance knowledge sharing and creation • with a focus on how an organisation can be designed to facilitate knowledge processes best • with a focus on the interaction of people, identity, knowledge, and environmental factors as a complex adaptive system akin to a natural ecosystem Regardless of the school of thought, core components of KM include People, Processes, Technology (or) Culture, Structure, Technology, depending on the specific perspective (Spender & Scherer 2007). Different KM History KM efforts have a long history, to include onthe-job discussions, formal apprenticeship, discussion forums, corporate libraries, 1 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia schools of thought include various lenses through which KM can be viewed and explained, to include: • community of practice (Wenger, McDermott & Synder 2001) [2] • social network analysis [3] • intellectual capital (Bontis & Choo 2002) [4] Knowledge management "new knowledge" (i.e., innovation) vs. the transfer or exploitation of "established knowledge" within a group, organisation, or community. Collaborative environments such as communities of practice or the use of social computing tools can be used for both knowledge creation and transfer [9]. • information theory [5] (McInerney 2002) • complexity science [6] • constructivism [7] (Nanjappa & Grant 2003) Strategies Knowledge may be accessed at three stages: before, during, or after KM-related activities. Different organisations have tried various knowledge capture incentives, including making content submission mandatory and incorporating rewards into performance measurement plans. Considerable controversy exists over whether incentives work or not in this field and no consensus has emerged. One strategy to KM involves actively managing knowledge (push strategy). In such an instance, individuals strive to explicitly encode their knowledge into a shared knowledge repository, such as a database, as well as retrieving knowledge they need that other individuals have provided to the repository [10]. Another strategy to KM involves individuals making knowledge requests of experts associated with a particular subject on an ad hoc basis (pull strategy). In such an instance, expert individual(s) can provide their insights to the particular person or people needing this (Snowden 2002). Other knowledge management strategies for companies include: • rewards (as a means of motivating for knowledge sharing) • storytelling (as a means of transferring tacit knowledge) • cross-project learning • after action reviews • knowledge mapping (a map of knowledge repositories within a company accessible by all) • communities of practice • best practice transfer • competence management (systematic evaluation and planning of competences of individual organization members) • proximity & architecture (the physical situation of employees can be either conducive or obstructive to knowledge sharing) • master-apprentice relationship Dimensions Different frameworks for distinguishing between knowledge exist. One proposed framework for categorising the dimensions of knowledge distinguishes between tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge. Tacit knowledge represents internalised knowledge that an individual may not be consciously aware of how he or she accomplishes particular tasks. At the opposite end of the spectrum, explicit knowledge represents knowledge that the individual holds consciously in mental focus, in a form that can easily be communicated to others.[8] (Alavi & Leidner 2001). Early research suggested that a successful KM effort needs to convert internalised tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge in order to share it, but the same effort must also permit individuals to internalise and make personally meaningful any codified knowledge retrieved from the KM effort. Subsequent research into KM suggested that a distinction between tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge represented an oversimplification and that the notion of explicit knowledge is selfcontradictory. Specifically, for knowledge to be made explicit, it must be translated into information (i.e., symbols outside of our heads) (Serenko & Bontis 2004). A second proposed framework for categorising the dimensions of knowledge distinguishes between embedded knowledge of a system outside of a human individual (e.g., an information system may have knowledge embedded into its design) and embodied knowledge representing a learned capability of a human body’s nervous and endocrine systems (Sensky 2002). A third proposed framework for categorising the dimensions of knowledge distinguishes between the exploratory creation of 2 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia • collaborative technologies (groupware, etc) • knowledge repositories (databases, etc) • measuring and reporting intellectual capital (a way of making explicit knowledge for companies) • knowledge brokers (some organizational members take on responsibility for a specific "field" and act as first reference on whom to talk about a specific subject) • social software (wikis, social bookmarking, blogs, etc) Knowledge management development of e-learning tools for communities of practice [13] (Capozzi 2007). More recently, development of social computing tools (such as blogs and wikis) have allowed more unstructured, self-governing or ecosystem approaches to the transfer, capture and creation of knowledge, including the development of new forms of communities, networks, or matrixed organisations. However such tools for the most part are still based on text and code, and thus represent explicit knowledge transfer. These tools face challenges in distilling meaningful re-usable knowledge and ensuring that their content is transmissible through diverse channels [14](Andrus 2005). Motivations A number of claims exist as to the motivations leading organisations to undertake a KM effort [11]. Typical considerations driving a KM effort include: • Making available increased knowledge content in the development and provision of products and services • Achieving shorter new product development cycles • Facilitating and managing innovation and organisational learning • Leveraging the expertise of people across the organisation • Increasing network connectivity between internal and external individuals • Managing business environments and allowing employees to obtain relevant insights and ideas appropriate to their work • Solving intractable or wicked problems • Managing intellectual capital and intellectual assets in the workforce (such as the expertise and know-how possessed by key individuals) Debate exists whether KM is more than a passing fad, though increasing amount of research in this field may hopefully help to answer this question, as well as create consensus on what elements of KM help determine the success or failure of such efforts (Wilson 2002) [12]. See also • Chief knowledge officer • Community of practice • Competitive intelligence • Complexity theory and organizations • Computer supported cooperative work • Collective intelligence • Enterprise content management • Enterprise 2.0 • Enterprise bookmarking • Enterprise social software • Knowledge • Knowledge base • Knowledge economy • Knowledge ecosystems • Knowledge engineering • Knowledge management software • Knowledge market • Knowledge representation • Knowledge transfer • Knowledge worker • Knowledge-based theory of the firm • Metaknowledge • Ontology • Organisational memory • Personal knowledge management • Sensemaking • Semantic web • Social network • Value network analysis Technologies Early KM technologies included online corporate yellow pages as expertise locators and document management systems. Combined with the early development of collaborative technologies (in particular Lotus Notes), KM technologies expanded in the mid-1990s. Subsequent KM efforts leveraged semantic technologies for search and retrieval and the References • Addicott, Rachael; Gerry McGivern & Ewan Ferlie (2006), "Networks, Organizational Learning and Knowledge 3 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Management: NHS Cancer Networks", Public Money & Management 26 (2): 87-94, Alavi, Maryam & Dorothy E. Leidner (1999), "Knowledge management systems: issues, challenges, and benefits", Communications of the AIS 1 (2), Alavi, Maryam & Dorothy E. Leidner (2001), "Review: Knowledge Management and Knowledge Management Systems: Conceptual Foundations and Research Issues", MIS Quarterly 25 (1): 107-136, Andrus, D. Calvin (2005), "The Wiki and the Blog: Toward a Complex Adaptive Intelligence Community", Studies in Intelligence 49 (3), Bontis, Nick & Chun Wei Choo (2002), The Strategic Management of Intellectual Capital and Organizational Knowledge, New York:Oxford University Press, ISBN 019513866X, Capozzi, Marla M. (2007), "Knowledge Management Architectures Beyond Technology", First Monday 12 (6), Davenport, Tom (2008), "Enterprise 2.0: The New, New Knowledge Management?", Harvard Business Online, Feb. 19, 2008, Lakhani, Karim R. & Andrew P. McAfee (2007), "Case study on deleting "Enterprise 2.0" article", Courseware #9-607-712, Harvard Business School, McAdam, Rodney & Sandra McCreedy (2000), "A Critique Of Knowledge Management: Using A Social Constructionist Model", New Technology, Work and Employment 15 (2), McAfee, Andrew P. (2006), "Enterprise 2.0: The Dawn of Emergent Collaboration", Sloan Management Review 47 (3): 21-28, http://sloanreview.mit.edu/ Knowledge management the-magazine/articles/2006/spring/47306/ enterprise-the-dawn-of-emergentcollaboration/ McInerney, Claire (2002), "Knowledge Management and the Dynamic Nature of Knowledge", Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology 53 (12): 1009–1018, http://www.scils.rutgers.edu/~clairemc/ KM_dynamic_nature.pdf Nanjappa, Aloka; Grant, Michael M. (2003), "Constructing on constructivism: The role of technology", Electronic Journal for the Integration of Technology in Education 2 (1), http://ejite.isu.edu/ Volume2No1/nanjappa.pdf Nonaka, Ikujiro (1991), "The knowledge creating company", Harvard Business Review 69 (6 Nov-Dec): 96-104, http://hbr.harvardbusiness.org/2007/07/ the-knowledge-creating-company/es Sensky, Tom (2002), "Knowledge Management", Advances in Psychiatric Treatment 8 (5): 387-395, http://apt.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/full/8/5/ 387 Snowden, Dave (2002), "Complex Acts of Knowing - Paradox and Descriptive Self Awareness", Journal of Knowledge Management , Special Issue 6 (2): 100 111, DOI:10.1108/13673270210424639, Spender, J.-C. & Andreas Georg Scherer (2007), "The Philosophical Foundations of Knowledge Management: Editors’ Introduction", Organization 14 (1): 5-28, Serenko, Alexander & Nick Bontis (2004), "Meta-review of knowledge management and intellectual capital literature: citation impact and research productivity rankings", Knowledge and Process Management 11 (3): 185-198, DOI:10.1002/kpm.203, Thompson, Mark P.A. & Geoff Walsham (2004), "Placing Knowledge Management in Context", Journal of Management Studies 41 (5): 725-747, Wenger, Etienne; Richard McDermott & Richard Synder (2002), Cultivating • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • 4 From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge - Seven Principles for Cultivating Communities of Practice, Boston:Harvard Business School Press, 107-136, ISBN 1578513308, • Wilson, T.D. (2002), "The nonsense of ’knowledge management’", Information Research 8 (1), • Wright, Kirby (2005), "Personal knowledge management: supporting individual knowledge worker performance", Knowledge Management Research and Practice 3: 156–165, DOI doi:10.1057/palgrave.kmrp.8500061 [1] [2] [3] Knowledge management [4] [5] http://iakm.kent.edu/programs/ information-use/iu-curriculum.html [6] http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/ papers.cfm?abstract_id=984600 [7] http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/ wyssusek02sociopragmatic.html [8] http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/ papers.cfm?abstract_id=991169 [9] http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/ papers.cfm?abstract_id=961043 [10] http://www.cs.fiu.edu/~chens/PDF/ IRI00_Rathau.pdf [11] http://tecom.cox.smu.edu/abasu/ itom6032/kmlect.pdf [12] http://myweb.whitman.syr.edu/yogesh/ papers/WhyKMSFail.pdf [13] http://elvis.slis.indiana.edu/irpub/HT/ 2001/pdf53.pdf [14] "Knowledge Management". http://www.unc.edu/~sunnyliu/inls258/ Introduction_to_Knowledge_Management.html www.systems-thinking.org. http://www.systems-thinking.org/kmgmt/ http://www.crito.uci.edu/noah/HOIT/ kmgmt.htm. Retrieved on 2009-02-26. HOIT%20Papers/TeacherBridge.pdf http://www.ischool.washington.edu/ mcdonald/ecscw03/papers/grothecscw03-ws.pdf • Knowledge Management at the Open http://www.ndu.edu/sdcfp/reports/ Directory Project 2007Reports/IBM07%20.doc External links Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management" Categories: Knowledge management, Knowledge, Information systems, Management science, Cognitive science, Groupware, Business terms This page was last modified on 8 May 2009, at 00:54 (UTC). All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License. (See Copyrights for details.) Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a U.S. registered 501(c)(3) taxdeductible nonprofit charity. Privacy policy About Wikipedia Disclaimers 5