Should the Knowledge- Based Economy be a Savant or a Sage?

Wisdom and Socially Intelligent Innovation. D. Rooney and B. McKenna. Prometheus. Vol. 23, No. 3, Sept 2005.
Type of paper – article
Audience – academics, Public policy professionals.
This article explores the idea that knowledge without wisdom leads to social dysfunction and cataclysm, making public policy the context of their enquiry. They explore the Aristotelian idea of practical wisdom and briefly acknowledge an Eastern perspective (the Chinese “I Ching” and Persian philosopher Avicenna). The authors use the taxonomy devised by an eighteenth century Aristotelian (Giambattista Vico) that provides a framework of four intellectual types ranging from the Savant (imprudent) to the Sage (wise people) to explore how the administrative complexities of contemporary life can be approached from a knowledge point of view. They postulate that a knowledge economy managed without wisdom is deficient and can lead to cataclysmic outcomes (they cite the dot-com crash, I am thinking of the GFC) and that policy level discourse must contain social and ethical considerations, or the “knowledge” is wanting. Otherwise we are at the mercy of rationalist, functionalist, utilitarian and technocratic driven short term gains.

The article is very technical in its philosophical approach and is a hard read. However the argument is compelling. The savant approaches ethics slowly and most often fails. The sage has both practical and theoretical wisdom and makes plans for the long term. This they argue is a humanistic approach and is better for social policy in complex technological societies in the long term. Perhaps this assertion has been proved correct by the economic events of the past year?

Effective societal management

Here are article commentaries on Karl Wiig's model, with which I disagree as being too western-centric and simplistic, and David Rooney's model, which I find appealing, but the model is the size of the system.

Crossings

Summary on Crossings

Article summary for Week 4, Class 6.

Group: Bullet Express – Helen Ng Lam, Ian Blood Worth, Torrance Mayberry and Vijay Rao.

Audience: Academics, Knowledge Management Professionals
Abstract:

This article summarises Crossings, (Cranefield and Yoong -2009). It is a research paper for facilitating the embedding of Personal professional knowledge in an complex online community.


Description:

The researchers aim was to look at how communities of practice (COP) facilitate the embedding of Personal Professional Knowledge in the complex online world we live in today. The researchers undertook the research by interviewing 41 participants from 5 different online communities, online records for additional data and using Wiki so that the participants could feedback to the researchers. The researchers were able to determine that knowledge sharing was often facilitated by the participants by “Crossing” between the different spaces online, offline, visible and invisible, formal and informal and reflective and active mediums. As the participants moved through the different mediums they changed the information into knowledge by varying it and making it there own adapting it to fit the different functions of each medium. In addition to encouraging the development of Personal Professional Knowledge, the different mediums the study also provided a space where themes with mnemonic attributes were distributed and magnified.

Review:

The article was well written although I had you review my dictionary more than once while reading this article. I did however learn a few things while reviewing this article which is what knowledge management is all about.


References:
Cranefield, J and Yoong, P (2009) “Crossings”, online information review.

The Knowing Nation: A Framework for Public Policy in a Post-industrial Knowledge Economy

Rooney, D, & Mandeville, T., (1998), Prometheus, 16(4) pp. 453-467.

Bullet Express MIM Study Group (Pennie, Helen, Vijay, Torrance, Ian).

Audience: Academics, policy Analysts, Knowledge Management professionals

Theme: As countries enter the knowledge-based global economy, it is important to have a policy framework not based on neoclassical economic theory (only having tangible assets as factors of production), but one where intangible assets (primarily knowledge) are also considered factors of production. However, additional polices are not recommended – it is preferable to filter existing policies through a “knowledge-policy matrix”, so appropriate, “knowledge friendly” amendments can be made.

Summary:

With the increasing reliance of a countries competitive advantage on effective knowledge management, it is essential that policy is put in place for the development and utilization of intangible knowledge assets. However, given the fact that knowledge is context dependent (and a multitude of contexts can be applied to any given 'item' of knowledge), it is difficult to devise specific policy that can be applied to all contexts. For this reason, knowledge policy frameworks are useful, whereby existing policies are influenced by the identified national knowledge imperative.

The following points capture some of the key ideas in this paper:

• Knowledge is a key intangible asset.
• Key Question: how do nations develop knowledge policy initiatives that span their economies coherently and efficiently?
• Policy imperatives should require openness and a capacity to learn from the external environment.
• This requires nations to be receptive to knowledge, networked to foster knowledge flow, and be able to process codified knowledge (this requires a pre-existing critical mass of tacit knowledge be present in the economy).
• Separate knowledge policies are counterproductive; they risk de-contextualizing the knowledge - reducing its value.
• Authors present knowledge as a socio-epistemological system - i.e. one in which knowledge can be interpreted differently by different people, or by the same person in different contexts.
• They present a non-reductionist perspective on the context of knowledge, which they use to drive a policy framework which promotes a dynamic, self-organizing form of knowledge management.
• Non-reductionist - i.e. the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.
• The difference between a firm's book value and its market value is a proxy for its intellectual capital. This concept scales up to the level of economies.
• Intellectual assets exist in 3 usage domains:

1. External - competitors / collaborators / communities / networks. The ability to learn from external sources is profound. It is vital that this is capitalized on.
2. Internal - regulatory framework, government/bureaucracy, infrastructure, etc. The key is that a coherent knowledge policy framework is put in place.
3. Competence of personnel. People, people, people….the people aspect of economies can no longer be ignored. People must be utilized to their full potential, to achieve true competitive advantage.

Review:

I found the article interesting and balanced. It was a little hard going at times (socio-epistemological??) but well worth the effort. The authors acknowledged the scope for debate with what they propose, and that room for refinement exists. I internally applauded when they suggested that their ideas put less emphasis on "best practice". Rooney's ideas seem more pragmatic than some, which from a practitioner perspective is refreshing.

Wisdom as an Attribute of Knowledge Work

Rooney, D., McKenna, B., and D'Agostino, F. International Conference on Knowledge Management in Asia Pacific (KMAP), College of Management, National Taiwan University, Taipei, Taiwan, 2004, pp. 118-127.

Bullet Express MIM Study Group (Pennie, Helen, Vijay, Torrance, Ian).

Audience: Academics, Knowledge Management professionals

Theme: Orthodox management practice is based on objective knowledge management, but is set to be overwhelmed by the sheer volume of knowledge available to business decision makers. That is, unless wisdom is incorporated into the organizational decision making process.


Summary:

The knowledge economy is characterized by an excess of information and knowledge. Contemporary management practice is heavily influenced by neo-liberalism, rational managerialism, and positivist science, which espouse methodological reductionism. These ideologies are referred to as technocratic rationality, and the authors argue that such an ideology leaves decision makers vulnerable to knowledge overload. Wisdom, they suggest, can be used to overcome this. They also question why wisdom has not been afforded the same status as technocratic rationalism in management science. Further, they suggest that it is essential for wisdom to be incorporated into contemporary management practice, if organizational decision makers are to make optimal business decisions.


The following points capture some of the key ideas in this paper:

• The world is more connected, better informed, and has more expertise than ever before.
• This has lead to knowledge overload, resulting in increasing complexity and uncertainty.
• Decision making is bounded by the limits of human cognition and imperfect knowledge.
  

The following figure illustrates how information production by knowledge workers feeds back positively on itself. This cycle continues ad infinitum.

• The increasing complexity of decision making is a failure of the knowledge economy. The antidote, is wisdom.
• WISDOM - characterised by good judgement, is ethical, prudent and practical. It applies imagination, insight / foresight (transcendent forms of knowing).
• WISDOM is the catalyst for reducing knowledge overload.
• Competitive advantage from organisational learning can be driven by leveraging WISDOM.
• Little literature exists regarding wisdom in management theory.
• Current management practices embodying technocratic rationality are short-sighted, and need to incorporate more people oriented and humanistic practices.
• WISDOM is a mental shortcut to trying to apply rational method and technique to all of the knowledge present in a problem domain.
  

Review:

The article was interesting and made valid points regarding current management decision making practices in an environment of knowledge overload. It made a good case for incorporating wisdom into management practice. The paper offered practical advice, although it was often buried in dense, technical text, that I found difficult to read, and follow. For example, while interesting, it is difficult to see the relevance of Superstring Theory to a discussion of aesthetics in a management paper. I also though that in trying to support their argument, the authors focussed too much on subjective measures and not enough on objective measures. To some extent however, this is consistent with the theme of the paper.

The Knowing Nation

Article:
Rooney, D. and T. Mandeville, The Knowing Nation: A Framework for Public Policy in a Post-industrial Knowledge Economy. Prometheus, 1998. 16(4): p. 453-467.

Type of article: Position paper

Audience: Employers, Employees, Knowledge Management Professionals, Public Policy Makers

Focus:
To provide an insight on the usefulness of effective management of intellectual capital

Summary:
Introduction
The authors recommend that investment in domain knowledge override the urge for policy making frameworks. Today’s focus is on managing tangible assets. The authors also assert that the first nation to do so will dominate in the twenty-first century.

Understanding knowledge in the management domain
Empirical research has attempted to measure intellectual capital but this is difficult. Focus has moved toward strategies for harnessing and growing knowledge within the boundaries of its domain. To do this means that strategists and policy makers must understand the ecology of knowledge taking into account that knowledge is dynamic but maybe both tangible and intangible.

Knowledge policy framework
The authors advocate that the two concepts of knowledge management and intellectual capital are related and explores how intangible assets create value for an organisation.

There are three usage domains of intellectual capitalwhich further expand on this:

• External structure – relationships that occur between staff and their customers, vendors etc. Knowledge is gained from and shared with customers.
• Internal structure - the workings of the organisation such as manuals, procedures, culture, communication networks etc. Internal structures provide the foundation for cohesion within leading to knowledge creation, sharing, and re-use.
• Individual competence - the abilities and capabilities of staff, the investment in their professional development and ultimately transfer of knowledge for the benefit of the organisation.

The usage domains can also bring about the notion of communities of practice (CoP) which shouldn’t consist of staff of the employer alone rather CoPs are sites of knowledge transfer and innovation either internal or external to the employer. Conversely, where the usage domains are not recognized and knowledge transfer fails then a deficit is eminent. Lessons are left unlearned and tacit knowledge is untapped.

Conclusion
A balanced perspective is critical. Knowledge creation, storage and sharing seem key to building a knowledge policy framework that can be used to grow an idea, an organisation, a market, an economy, trade.

Review:
While the article is greater than 10 years old, the themes and lessons to be learned remain current. The authors’ position is convincing in the context of understanding knowledge and its relevance for employers irrespective of the size of their organisation. However, I believe the authors’ intention is to demonstrate the relevance of intellectual capital and its management on the international stage. The article is text heavy. The reader may appreciate the use of models to demonstrate the same point. Just an opinion!

Summary by Huia for KM Crackers

Summary of 'A Model of the Material, Mental, Historical and Social Character of Knowledge'

Article summary for Week 5, Class 7.

Group: MIM-SUMMER (Ashwini, Dick, Eleanor, Kai, Holger)

Rooney, D. & Schneider, U. (2005). A Model of the Material, Mental, Historical and Social Character of Knowledge. In Rooney, Hearn & Ninan (eds). Handbook on the Knowledge Economy. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, 19-36.

Summary

Rooney and Schneider provide an extensive overview of what the concept of knowledge actually means, and in particular what ‘knowing’ entails. The focus is on what tacit knowledge is and how ‘enigmatic and messy’ it is. (p. 19) Their overview draws on research from the sociology of knowledge (that knowledge is socially constructed and articulated), the psychology of consciousness (how we came to know things from an evolutionary perspective), research into learning (specifically how knowledge can be declarative or procedural), and intuition (how we can form ‘relationships between different sets of ideas’). Put into this context, the act of knowing becomes something deeply human and deeply cultural.
The focus of explicit knowledge also shifts within this context. Here the importance is its ability to communicate something: ‘It is not the degree of codification which is significant, but, rather, the degree to which an idea is explained or made explicit’ (p. 22). So the focus is here on what happens when a person ‘reads’ the code, rather than on the code itself. The concept of knowledge’s communicability is dependent on a person’s ability to understand the code, and this is dependent on such factors as shared understandings, context and background. The final transformation of the knowledge comes when it is enacted by another person. The authors stress that this also takes place in a contextualized and individual way: the reenactment of the knowledge is never identical as the original ‘knower’s’ enactment, as: ’different people in different parts of social systems, having different vested interests and power, and experience different rewards and frustrations’ (p. 31).

Review

This is a heavy, academic article with much technical referencing to philosophy and sociology. Its strength is that it leaves you with an overall appreciation of how knowing is not a simple process; rather it is as individual as the wiring of a person’s mind and is inseparable with their cultural context and belief system. There are many very quotable excerpts, which illustrate complex points well. As primarily being concerned with the goal of describing knowledge there are no suggestions on how these definitions can be put into practice with the job of KM in an organizational context. This is not what the authors set out to do. The focus is also clearly on tacit knowledge as this is what the authors believe true knowledge is. For more understanding on explicit knowledge, it would be better to look elsewhere.

Summary on Effective Societal Knowledge management

Summary on Effective Societal Knowledge management

Article summary for Week 5, Class 7.

Group: Bullet Express – Pennie Sawkins, Helen Ng Lam, Ian Blood Worth,
Torrance Mayberry, Vijay Rao.

Audience: Academics, Knowledge Management Professionals, Public policy makers.Abstract:

This article summarises the Effective Societal Knowledge management, (Wiig -2007). It is a conceptual paper for building strong social knowledge management practices in nations around the world. This article highlights how knowledge based economies can contribute the development and growth of nations around the word.

The article surfaces the use of knowledge and knowledge management from society, perspective to provide acceptable conditions for citizens and business to participate in knowledge based economy.

Description:

At the grass root level, public /Citizens are seen as the key knowledge carriers and form groups within the society. The educational institutions form the basic foundations and fundamental building blocks in providing knowledge, and increasing literacy in cities, towns, national and global level. The knowledge obtained through academic qualification and practical experience is valuable asset at personal, group, society, local, national and global level. This has also improved the quality, security, social status in personal life and in communities (Polany Levitt, 2006, Prescott-Allen 2001, Wiig 2007).

Today, countries and governments globally have acknowledged the growth and development of country’s economy flourish through literacy and knowledge. Many under developed countries face challenges to spread literacy and knowledge due to social, economy, religion and geographical location. Organizations and Government bodies have to identify the key factors affecting knowledge based economy relative to requirements, task, awareness, issues, decision and governance. To balance the Society knowledge management, local bodies and governments have used various literacy programmes, mass media to educate and spread literacy and knowledge publically. Asian and other underdeveloped countries are battling to eradicate the illiteracy; through community learning, adults’ literacy programmes, volunteer programmes, free children education programmes, sponsored by World Organizations.

An effective multi – tier societal knowledge management system should be established, to focus; need and drive and society forward at various levels. The diffusion of knowledge through social service and non profit organizations has been successful in improving the social, health and economic conditions. The evolutionary ICT technologies have reduced the barrier of distant education and knowledge sharing. The use of innovative technologies has increased the market competition in small and big enterprises both locally and globally and contributes to economic growth at organizational and country levels.


Review:

Knowledge management from societal perspective is important to foster knowledge-related activities at all levels of society. It is important to build, maintain, and make the best use of the country’s broad knowledge assets to improve the quality of citizens, society’s welfare, with effective institutions, profitable commercial and industrial enterprises and personal success.


References:

Wiig (2007) Effective Societal Knowledge Management. Journal of Knowledge Management (Annual Special Issue on Knowledge-based Development), 11 (5), 141-156

Knowledge management in the public sector: stakeholder partnerships in the public policy development

Summary
This paper discusses the importance of the Knowledge Management in the public sector. The government has come to realise its importance since it plays a major role in coming up with a good public policy. A public policy is said to be effective through enhance decision making within public services. Developing a knowledge-based partnership is considered to be a critical success factor in creating, disseminating, transferring and applying the knowledge between the public sector and stakeholders. This is the KM process that needs to be practiced by the government and stakeholders to achieve greater participation and knowledge sharing. This is very important as the paper has stressed that knowledge is a core strategic asset. The partnership can result in coming up with issues as there will always be different views, misunderstanding and value-based disagreements. To have the desired results, communication must be knowledge-effective and providing a feedback will help resolved these issues. Both the government and stakeholders have their own capacity to develop a good public policy. Therefore, it is important to have an active participation in decision-making and to form a knowledge-based within partnership. This increases the collaboration that must be guided by KM goals and strategies. In this way, this can lead to effective and efficient means of sharing and transferring of knowledge. Thus, public policy becomes more effective.

Review
This paper has stressed the need for comprehensive KM within and in support of the public sector. It reveals that KM plays a vital role in the public sector for delivering an effective public policy through partnership with stakeholders. From the analysis of the issues as a cause of partnership, the commentator is suggesting to have a collaboration models between the public sector agencies themselves as well as between public sector and stakeholders. Deeper studies on KM in the public sector should be taken into consideration to look at ways of enhancing the public service delivery.

Posted by: Chariebel Enerio for Knowledge Regiment

Week 5, Class 7 - Knowledge Regiment group

Rooney, D. (2005). Knowledge, Economy, Technology and Society: The Politics of Discourse.

Knowledge Works as Fractals

Article:
Shohan, S. and A. Hasgall, Knowledge Works as Fractals in a Complex Adaptive Organisation. Knowledge and Process Management, 2005. 12(3): p. 225-236.

Type: Empirical research article

Audience: Senior Managers, CIO, Employees

Focus:
To prove that organisations that possess the characteristics of a complex adaptive system will achieve proven knowledge management capabilities, while improving the processes of knowledge performance and integration between employees. These organisations will be better able to respond correctly and quickly to dynamic changes in the environment.

Summary:
Qualitative research was undertaken to measure/understand/determine an employee’s value to an organisation when their personal knowledge bank grows. The research considered the role of the manager when this phenomenon occurred. Also, the research discusses how knowledge workers as fractals can operate sufficiently as silos regardless of organisational change. The goal of the research is to find a link between knowledge workers and the presence of knowledge management processes in an organisation. Additionally, the article discusses the impact of global commerce, technological development, media usage, a change in consumption characteristics and a change in the patterns of organisations.

Data was collected via observation sessions and interviews with members of six different organisations such as academic institutions, government departments, and a retail organisation.

Research findings included acknowledgement that:

• knowledge management is a central and strategic tool for an organisation
• knowledge management processes are inadequate or non-existent
• openness and honesty are important conduits for knowledge sharing
• Organisations must create an environment that is conducive to knowledge sharing else knowledge is lost.

According to the authors, the findings confirmed both managers and employees are responsible for synchronizing knowledge and dispersing that knowledge. The findings also affirm that the process of knowledge transfer between employees within an organisation is incompatible with dynamic reality.

Review:
The authors’ hypothesis of a link between the complex adaptive systems model and the organisation’s ability to manage knowledge was supported by observations, interviews and case studies. The authors describe well their sample selection and provide good use of statistics to demonstrate plausibility in their hypothesis. After reading the article, I feel well informed and eager to apply, in my workplace, the authors’ learnings, including their criteria used to define and develop observation sessions and interviews.

The material, mental, historical and social character of knowledge

Article Summary for Week 5 Class 7

(Group: KMx6- Fatemeh, Skalk, Bee, Lanoi, Max, Roger)

Rooney, D., & Schneider, U. (2005). The material, mental, historical and social character of knowledge. In Handbook on the Knowledge Economy, New horizons in public policy (pp. 19-36). Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar.

Type of article: Introductory chapter in a book .

Audience: Academics, Knowledge Management Professionals, Public policy makers.

Aim: This chapter provides a framework within which the rest of the chapters sit.

Summary:
The author maintains that knowledge or the act of knowing entails a number of things.
Tacit knowledge enabled modern society to come into being. Where humans used myths, stories and shared social backgrounds more socially orientated, strategic, abstract and innovative thinking occurred / are occurring. To enable these advances humans have always used symbolic, non-verbal thought systems such as imagination, intuition, analogy, and metaphor. These thought systems are used as linking mechanism to link an observation in the physical world to a description. This enabled humans to make sense of the world around them. Mention is made that knowledge have got two states, it can be articulated and un-articulated. The point is made that for knowledge to be shared in group it has to be communicable. The communicability of knowledge is dependant on the social context. A further distinction is made between procedural and declarative knowledge and intuition. An argument is then made that knowledge sits within a social-related and an interpretative-relational contexts. Individuals, as knowers’, are also doers. Individuals need to be made aware and be helped to cooperate, contest, advocate and communicate in the interest of better knowing. The knowers’ situation is also defined by time and space. Models should take cognisance of how information is diffused in groups through mediating technologies. Enactment of knowledge is the key aspect of knowledge transfer. Knowers enact knowledge strategically, the intentions are purposeful to realise goals and objectives for now or in the future. Knowledge systems are not predictable or controllable. This is a problem for managers and public policy makers. Strategic interventions can be put in place to enact knowledge. Wisdom and attention to context would be key elements for good public policy. The author them lists nine key observations from the article.


Review:
This chapter is part of a group of chapters on the concepts of Knowledge Management. It is not an easy ready and is highly philosophical in nature. If the reader is not comfortable with this approach or have enough prior knowledge then it is easy to loose interest. Ok use is made of headings to guide the reader through the text. Care should be taken to follow the argument. The useful bit of the article is the summary at the end (p. 33) that provides in points the position of the authors on Knowledge management and policy. These bullet points in my opinion are really useful to keep in mind if one were to explore knowledge management within Government policy.

Knowledge, economy, technology and society: The politics of discourse

Article Summary for Week 5 Class 7

(Group: KMx6- Fatemeh, Skalk, Bee, Lanoi, Max, Roger)

Rooney, D. (2005). Knowledge, economy, technology and society: The politics of discourse. Telematics and Informatics, 22(4), 405-422. doi: 10.1016/j.tele.2004.11.007

Type of article: Results of a discourse analysis.

Audience: Academics, Knowledge Management Professionals, Public policy makers.

Aim: To provide data and insight on how governments sees knowledge. With the aim to show that what might be possible in knowledge societies can not be seen or realised from a technocratic view point.

Summary:
Large corpus of documents on knowledge policy. Want to show that the discourse is technocratic. Makes the point that technocrats adopts “discourses of expert knowledge” and uses these in policy statements. Asserts that technocrats have a primary concern that knowledge is an object and must be co-modified; knowledge should have a commercial and / or industrial use. Gives a brief explanation of knowledge. Computer assisted text analysis software (Leximancer) that does automated grounded analysis were being used. Documents were obtained on a number of countries and supranational organisations (OECD, EU). The results at a high level indicated that out of the 20 most important concepts, governance, technological and commercial concepts are central. There is a sharp focus on technology and business. Social concepts like access, public and medical also appear, but are of less important. Governments appear to like to work harder on technologizing the community. The technological deterministic view that technology transforms the community, creates opportunities for access and makes people creative are most often mooted. Knowledge are used a vehicle to convey vested interests. Very few document mentions social and cultural aspects. It is concluded that the value and nature of knowledge as represented in the documents are seen only in the light of technology and economy. This is useful in that it (a) points to a society that choices a political context that is technocratic as opposed to emancipatory. Technocratic discourse threatens democracy and national sovereignty. (b) being aware of the dominant discourse would make policy writers aware of aspects that are not being mentioned. And it would make these kind of statements less like smokescreens. Reflexivity, creativity and culture are essential aspects of knowing. (c) Enacting knowledge is messy. This messiness should be valued since it enriches life.

Review:
This article reports on an innovative use of text analysis. The author goes to great length to explain the validity of the tests being performed. Although statistical counts are given for the various analysis areas it is sparingly used in the document. A shortcoming of this article is that there is no list given as to what, how many documents were analysed. No indication is given or assertion being made that the number of documents are actually representative of the discourse being studied. For the maps that are represented there is also no indication as to what the different access are where the items are being plotted. Although the results are very interesting and support the main argument of the author, the presentation could do with a little bit more work. It would be interesting to do a comparative analysis on the dataset to see where, New Zealand and Australia sits in the discourse on the Knowledge society.

Wisdom as an Attribute of Knowledge Work

Article: Rooney, D., B. McKenna, and F. D'Agostino, Wisdom as an Attribute of Knowledge Work

Type of article: Position paper

Audience: Academics, Knowledge Management Professionals

Focus: To define wisdom within the dimensions of psychology and philosophy and its role within knowledge management.

Summary:
Wisdom in the context of decision making is needed because judgment is easily clouded, influence misused, ethics less considered. The authors assert that wisdom is well defined by approaching it both psychologically and philosophically but affirms the approaches are different yet commonalities exist. Further wisdom embodies rational and transcendent forms of knowledge.

From a psychological perspective wisdom coordinates knowledge and judgments. While philosophically wisdom encompasses the social dimensions of shared understanding using adjectives such as prudent, sensory, visceral, worldliness, and tolerance.

To be rational is to reason for the purpose of attainment. Whereas to be transcendent is to know what is possible without rationality.

The primary objective of the article is to debate wisdom’s role in the context of knowledge management. According to Van Loon, decision making becomes increasingly difficult as the volume of sources and types of information grow and vary but Rooney suggests that perhaps wisdom shall prevail.

‘Practical Wisdom and Philosophy’ is the authors focus, from which a framework evolved:

• Ethics – humane tolerance
• Aesthetics – communicative eloquence
• Ontology – classificatory assumptions either explicit (definitions, codes, manuals etc) or implicit (assumptions or implied through practice)
• Mindlessness – to act without regard for routinized ruts, organisational coherence and predetermined destinations.
  

The author concludes warning the reader of potential pitfalls because of the inadequate theorization of knowledge.

Review:
The article’s psychological and philosophical bent aroused interest providing a multi-faceted perspective on wisdom and its application thereof. The authors substantiate their arguments citing authors of varied backgrounds. The article is aptly titled to peak interest from knowledge management specialist curious about the role of wisdom. An interesting read but the article left me wanting to know more. As aptly suggested by the authors how do you measure knowledge, exploit intellectual capital and use computer-based knowledge management systems versus applying wisdom, ethics and imagination.

Article Name: A Framework of Knowledge Management Systems: Issues & Challenges for Theory and Practice.
Author: Jungpil Hahn, Mani R. Subramani
Publication: Knowledge Management Systems 
Keywords: Information in organizations, knowledge management, knowledge management systems, organizational behaviour, organizational learning.

Summary: (259 Words)
Knowledge management concepts and practices in organizations are increasingly becoming important and firms are making momentous IT investments in deploying knowledge management systems (KMS). Knowledge management is the systemic and organizationally specified process for acquiring, organizing, and communicating knowledge of employees so that other employees may make use of it to be more effective and productive in their work.

This paper supplies an in depth research on knowledge management systems by proposing a developed framework called “Locus of Knowledge”. This framework is comprised of:
- Document Repository (Data Warehousing)
- Yellow Pages of Experts (Expertise Profiles and Databases)
- Collaborative Filtering (Internets and Search Engines)
- Electronic Discussion Forum

This framework provides a means to explore issues related to KMS and unifying dimensions underlying different types of KMS. As the basis of value creation increasingly depends on the influence of the intangible assets of firms, knowledge management systems (KMS) are emerging as powerful sources of competitive advantage. However, the general recognition of the importance of such systems seems to be accompanied by a technology-induced drive to implement systems with inadequate consideration of the fundamental knowledge problems that the KMS are likely to solve.

The possibilities that authors have discussed and raised within this paper is all about the size and diversity of networks, the maintenance of knowledge flows, and the long term effects of the use of KMS. This will facilitate a framework for the organizations as a reference that would enhance the usability of Knowledge Management System to its fullest and will also open avenues for future perspectives.

Review: (105 Words)
This article is one of unique writings from other articles. It portrays a sense of formal knowledge management framework and its methodology. One of the beauties about this article is that it explored positive, neutral and negative views of the topic and provided with clear evidences and investigations of each author.

One of the few weaknesses of the articles is that it’s not targeting one particular audience and keeping the views quite general. Conclusion is well built but leaves me with few questions to explore and search, which is on the other hand, is productive for audience. Overall it’s a nice article and worth reading.

(Posted by Jocelyn for Afraz)