In the post-industrial or knowledge economy (Bell 1973; Drucker 1992), knowledge management has become an emerging discipline that has gained enormous popularity among academics, consultants and practitioners. It has been argued that it is no longer the traditional industrial technologies or craft skills that drive competitive performance but, instead, knowledge that has become the key asset to drive organisational survival and success.
To the uninitiated reader, the multitude of offerings on knowledge management in books, journals and magazines can appear rather daunting and confusing at first. The fact is that it is a relatively young discipline trying to find its way, while recognising that it has roots in a number of other, very different disciplines. Some literature on knowl- edge management is heavily information systems oriented, giving the impression that
Chapter 1 / Introduction to knowledge management 11 it is little more than information management. Other literature looks more at the peo- ple’s dimension of knowledge creation and sharing, making the subject more akin to human-resource management. These are the two most common dimensions and there is often little crossover between them. Each world fails to comprehend the other, as the language and assumptions of each discipline vary significantly. However, it is precisely these interdisciplinary linkages that provide the most rewarding advances in this field.
Given the interdisciplinary nature of this emerging field, conventional academic demarcations in traditional subject areas do not help. For example, it is relatively rare for computer or information science graduates to gain sufficient grounding in human resource management and vice versa with traditional business management students.
This impasse is often based on fear on both sides about the nature and relative merits of their respective skills and expertise. Beyond these two dominant dimensions, there are some additional perspectives within the KM literature, ranging from strategy to cultural change management. It is not surprising that there is little coherence between these offer- ings, as many authors orientate the subject area to their singular discipline perspective.
The strength and challenge of knowledge management as an emerging discipline comes from its interdisciplinary approach, as shown in Figure 1.2. For example, if knowledge management was purely information systems, current tools and business processes would suffice. However, the reality is that different information systems approaches such as data processing, management information systems and strategic information systems have been found wanting. There are numerous examples of major investments made in this area, particularly in the financial services sector, that have yielded little or no benefit to host organisations. Instead, the real synergies in knowl- edge management are more likely to occur from boundary-spanning individuals who can see beyond the narrow margins of their own disciplines and recognise the value of dialogue and debate with other disciplines.
Given the multidisciplinary nature of knowledge management, it is not surprising that the variety of current definitions comes from a number of different perspectives, as shown in Table 1.1. Some come from an information systems perspective (Mertins et al. 2000), while others suggest a human-resource perspective (Skyrme 1999; Swan et al. 1999a). A few definitions have begun to adopt a more strategic management per- spective, recognising the importance of knowledge management practices for gaining competitive advantage (Newell et al. 2009; uit Beijerse 2000). However, none of these definitions expands on the alliances with particular strategic schools of thought, and the basic assumptions of the nature of competitive environments (such as highly tur- bulent) or strategic positioning (such as continuous innovation) need to be questioned
Critical thinking and reflection
What does knowledge mean to you? If you were asked to detail your specialist knowledge, how would you describe your knowledge? Have you ever thought of the market value of your knowledge and what this may be? Given that there is a competitive market for knowledge and skills, how do you ensure that your knowledge is state-of-the-art and kept up to date?
(Newell et al. 2009). External environments may shift from turbulent to more stable environments over time and competitive environments may favour efficiency rather than innovation in a given period. The basic fact is that we live in uncertain times and any assumptions about competitive environments and approaches to organisational alignment and adaptability need to be considered carefully.
DISCIPLINE ROOTS INFORMA
SCIENCETION
ACTIVITIES
CONTENT
COMPUTER SCIENCE PHILO
SOPH
Y PSYCHOLOGY MANAGEMENT
SCIENCE STRATEGY
HUMAN RESO URCE MANAG
EMENT ANTHROPOLOGY
ECONOMICS SOCIOLOGY
Strategic management
Intellcapitealctual KM sys
te ms
KtoM s ol Chan
ge
management
Culture
Lea rning
organisa tion
rg O an
isa
tio nal
lear
ning
KNOWLEDGE CREATION
KNOWLEDGE TRANSLATION
KNOWLEDGE MOBILISATION
KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER
Figure 1.2 Tree of knowledge management – disciplines, content and activity
Chapter 1 / Introduction to knowledge management 13
Table 1.1 Representative sample of knowledge management definitions
Author/s Definition Perspective
Davenport and Prusak (1998)
‘Knowledge management draws from existing resources that your organisation may already have in place – good information systems management, organisational change management, and human resources management practices.’
Integration (information systems and human resources) Swan et al.
(1999b)
‘… any process or practice of creating, acquiring, capturing, sharing and using knowledge, wherever it resides, to enhance learning and performance in organisations.’
Human resource process
Skyrme (1999) ‘The explicit and systematic management of vital knowledge and its associated processes of creating, gathering, organising, diffusion, use and exploitation, in pursuit of organisational objectives.’
Human resource process
Mertins et al.
(2000)
‘… all methods, instruments and tools that in a holistic approach contribute to the promotion of core knowledge processes.’
Information systems uit Beijerse
(2000)
‘The achievement of the organisation’s goals by making the factor knowledge productive.’
Strategy Newell et al.
(2009)
‘… improving the ways in which firms facing highly turbulent environments can mobilise their knowledge base (or leverage their knowledge ‘assets’) in order to ensure continuous innovation.’
Strategy
From the definitions of knowledge management given in Table 1.1, it is clear that any advancements in this field need to adopt an integrated (Davenport and Prusak 1998), interdisciplinary and strategic perspective, as shown in Figure 1.3. The strategic pur- pose of knowledge management activities is to increase intellectual capital and enhance organisational performance (see Chapters 3 and 4). There is a human dimension of developing knowledge in individuals, teams and organisations and this fundamentally occurs through different learning processes (see Chapter 5). Once knowledge is cre- ated, the sharing of knowledge remains one of the fundamental challenges in this field.
As human beings, we need support to help us explore and exploit knowledge (tacit –
‘know-how’ – and explicit – ‘know what’, see Chapters 2 and 5) more fully. There is a wide variety of tools, technologies and systems that can fulfil these functions, such as the continuous cycle of knowledge creation, capture, organisation, evaluation, storage and sharing (see Chapters 7 and 8). However, KM tools and organisational processes are insufficient in themselves to achieve success. Many well-planned initiatives have proved futile, as they have failed to acknowledge the cultural and change-management dimen- sions (see Chapters 9 and 10) of successful implementation.
These different dimensions of knowledge management have been brought together into an integrated definition. From an interdisciplinary perspective, knowledge man- agement can be defined as:
‘the effective learning processes associated with exploration, exploitation and sharing of human knowledge (tacit and explicit) that use appropriate technology and cultural environ- ments to enhance an organisation’s intellectual capital and performance.’