Knowledge Management
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January
tÃatlt 2001
Editorial Knowledge Management Associate Editors: Elayne Coakes and Dianne Willis The Editors are pleased to offer this opportunity for the
business commodity and thus its management is of
associate editors fbr Knowledge Management to outline their
vital importance in every business.
domain, and seek cont n; butions from potential authors.
Knowledge management has also been defined as the extraction and conversion of 'tacit' knowledge at individual and organisational levels into 'explicit' knowledge. This explicit knowledge often takes the form of specific electronic 'tools' or 'assets' which
Knowledge management has been a major topic for Management academics and practitioners alike in the 1990s. Is this just another 'fad' served up to business managers as 'all purpose solutions to the often intractable and subtle difficulties of managing
can be manipulated for competitive gain, for
competitively' (Davenport & Prusak, 1 998)?
example, intranets, groupware and knowledge repositories. 'Tacit' knowledge, on the other hand,
Yet eminent business thinkers have been developing the concept of knowledge in business for some time.
is often described as the hunches, intuition and know-how' or 'skills and routines competencies'. There is some scepticism towards the extent to which this often highly subjective knowledge and learning can actually he made explicit, and feeling
Indeed the concept is not unique to the late 20th century. For example, Drucker, referring to Frederick Taylor's work in Pennsylvania in 1875 on productivity, states that it is 'the result of the
application to work of the specific human capital
that knowledge management is no more than a new form of technology. Knowledge is much more than
resource, knowledge' (1980).
technology
-
it
is
personal,
often dormant or
unconscious and closely bound up with Learning
Knowledge management is in reality a way of and Organisation Theory. considering management within a business. It has been described as 'the systematic management of the processes by which knowledge is created, identified gathered, shared and applied' (Newing, 2000).
A growing number of studies have called for a more
Inventing the best products and services, the most efficient and innovative business practices 'requires
confused with previous management practices, many
holistic, systemic approach to knowledge. Ihey argue that whilst knowledge management has been
companies use it to foster ioig term innovation' through 'human motivation'. It is not simply a too1' or 'resource' so much as a social construct. It is a
an intense interaction within firms and between them' (Petzinger, 1999). Knowledge management is often used by managers to gain necessary
reciprocal,
perspectives on their work and to assist them in
interdependent
process
of
learning
better management. Knowledge is recognised to be
arising from knowledge transfer and information flow and communication - a Socio-Teclinical
'the primary resource for individuals and for the economy ove
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