Background

From Km Frameworks

Current revision as of 16:47, 4 May 2007

The Imperative for Frameworks in Knowledge Management

Since the introduction of the knowledge worker (Drucker 1969) and the post-industrial society (Bell 1976) in the sixties and seventies of the past century, knowledge is claimed to be the only but at least the dominant factor of production through which companies can gain competitive advantage. Nowadays it is proclaimed that we live in a so-called inormation or knowledge society.

Note: Terms like knowledge society and knowledge as factor of production are not free from critique, and should be further discussed. Knowledge was and will be always important and could be considered as an underlying dispositive factor.

To cope with this knowledge issue, Knowledge Management has established as a reliable discipline in management sciences since the publications of Nonaka/Takeuchi (1995), Probst et al (1997), and Davenport/Prusak (1998). After a hype till the beginning of the century and a decline of interest, Knowledge Management is currently again gaining in importance in business (The Economist Intelligence Unit 2006). Actually, it is to say, that in the meantime Knowledge Management is not only addressed by companies of all industries (see e.g. Int. J. of Nuclear KM) but at any social level (individual - group - society) and in any social area (see e.g. KM for Development (KM4Dev), Knowledge for Development (K4D) or OECD 2000).

However, there is still a lot of critique and confusion, as it is not yet accomplished to develop an appropriate parctical approach and methodology to organise, guide, and to develop a company's knowledge and knowledge base, respectively, in an explicit and systematic manner. This gap is confirmed by various sources in theory and practice (Diakoulakis et al. 2004, Earl 2004, Howaldt/Kopp 2005, Koeder/Rohleder 2004) and becomes manifest in a huge amount of Knowledge Management frameworks, models, methodologies, etc. Heisig/Orth (2005) collected almost 160 of them. In this wiki one will even find a good deal more.

The advantage of frameworks or models is that they pragmatically represent a complex issue, like the management of knowledge, by reducing it to it's essential structural, hierarchical, and functional aspects and their relationships. Thus, the issue can be systematically analysed and described as an integral part of a superior system and in this regard it can be better organized and controlled.

Literature

• Bell (1976): The Coming of Post-Industrial Society. A Venture in Social Forecasting. Harper Colophon Books, 1976.

• Davenport/Prusak (1998): Working Knowledge. How Organizations Manage What They Know. Boston, MA: Harvard Bsiness School Press, 1998.

• Diakoulakis et al. (2004): Towards a holistic knowledge management model. Journal of Knowledge Management, 8 (1), 2004: 32-46.

• Drucker, P. F. (1969): The Age of Discontinuity. Guidelines to Our Changing Society. New York: Harper & Row, 1969.

• Earl (2004): Earl, M. (2004): Tantalised by the promise of wisdom. Financial Times online, August 25, 2004. [available at: Link, last access: 08/25/2004]

• Heisig/Orth (2005): Wissensmanagement Frameworks aus Forschung und Praxis - Eine inhaltliche Analyse. Berlin: EuReKI, 2005.

• Howaldt/Kopp (2005): Paradoxien und Dysfunktionalitäten des betrieblichen Wissensmanagements: Vom Ende einer Managementmode. Ciesinger, K.-G. et al. (Hrsg.): Modernes Wissensmanagement in Netzwerken. Perspektiven, Trends und Szenarien. Wiesbaden: Deutscher Universitäts-Verlag, 2005: 3-20.

• Koeder/Rohleder (2004): Wissensmanagement in deutschen Unternehmen – eine Bestandsaufnahme. wissensmanagement online, 6 (05), Mai 2004. [available at: Link, last access: 10/20/2005]

• Nonaka/Takeuchi (1995): The Knowledge Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995.

• OECD (Ed.) (2000): Knowledge Management in the Learning Society: Education and Skills. Paris: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Centre for Educational Research and Innovation, Feb-2000.

• Probst et al (1997): Wissen managen. Wie Unternehmen ihre wertvollste Ressource optimal nutzen. Wiesbaden: Gabler Verlag, 1997.

• The Economist Intelligence Unit (2006): Foresight 2020: Economic, industry and corporate trends. London u. a.: The Economist Intelligence Unit, 2006. [available at: Link, last access: 07/29/2006]

Links

• International Journal of Nuclear Knowledge Management - A journal dedicated to the publication of research articles, review papers and technical notes in all domains related to improvement of the peaceful uses of nuclear energy and the development of nuclear sciences- and technologies-related knowledge.

• KM for Development (KM4Dev) - A community of international development practitioners who are interested in knowledge management and knowledge sharing issues and approaches.

• Knowledge for Development (K4D) - The World Bank's Program for "Capacity Building for the Knowledge Economy". The Program provides policy advice on four Knowledge Economy pillars: economic and institutional regime, education, innovation, and Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs).