Knowledge Management

Knowledge Management

"Knowledge Management (KM) refers to a range of practices used by organisations to identify, create, represent, and distribute knowledge for reuse, awareness and learning across the organisation." (Wikipedia, 2007-01-03).

Davenport & Prusak provide the following definition of knowledge:

“Knowledge is a fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information, and expert insight that provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information. It originates and is applied in the minds of knowers. In organizations, it often becomes embedded not only in the documents or repositories but also in organizational routines, processes, practices, and norms.” (Davenport & Prusak, 1998, p. 5).

According to Wilson (2002), the term knowledge management "did not occur until 1986 and from 1986 to 1996, there were only a few occurrences in each year. From 1997 to date, however, the growth has been exponential, but the data for 2002 suggest that the rate of growth has slowed considerably. " (Wilson, 2002).

"The inescapable conclusion of this analysis of the 'knowledge management' idea is that it is, in large part, a management fad, promulgated mainly by certain consultancy companies, and the probability is that it will fade away like previous fads. It rests on two foundations: the management of information - where a large part of the fad exists (and where the 'search and replace marketing' phenomenon is found), and the effective management of work practices. However, these latter practices are predicated upon a Utopian idea of organizational culture in which the benefits of information exchange are shared by all, where individuals are given autonomy in the development of their expertise, and where 'communities' within the organization can determine how that expertise will be used." (Wilson, 2002).

Elena Maceviciute & Tom Wilson found the use of the label "knowledge management" based on non-serious motives: "There are strong pressures at the moment . . . to subsume information management within 'knowledge management'. We believe, however, that information management has a stronger theoretical base than knowledge management and that the latter is simply a label, designed, like other labels, for presentational purposes, to impress the consumers of consultancy companies by giving the impression of something new and serious. Perhaps we shall re-visit this topic in a few years' time to discover whether we are right." (Maceviciute & Wilson, 2002, p.26).

Literature:

Davenport, T. H., & Prusak, L. (1998). Working knowledge: How organizations manage what they know. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.

Maceviciute, E. & Wilson, T. D. (2002). The development of the information management research area. Swedish Library Research, 14(2), 17-38.

Rikowski, Ruth (Ed.). (2007). Knowledge Management: Social, Cultural and Theoretical Perspectives. Oxford, England: Chandos Publishing.
Presents different aspects of KM from, among other, an "open Marxist theoretical perspective".

Schwartz, D. G. (2006). Encyclopedia of knowledge management. London: Idea Group Reference.

Wikipedia. The free encyclopedia. (2007-01-03). Knowledge Management. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knowledge_management

Wilson, T. D. (2002) "The nonsense of 'knowledge management'" Information Research, 8(1), paper no. 144. Available at http://InformationR.net/ir/8-1/paper144.html

Journal:

Journal of Knowledge Management, 1997-

Birger Hjørland

Last edited: 14-02-2008

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