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

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.

Title: Many Rivers to Cross from ICT to Knowledge Management Systems.

ARTICLE SUMMARY & Review (Week3-Class4) by Torrance Mayberry
(Group: Pennie, Ian, vijay, Helen Ng )

Author: Paul H. J. Hendricks
Audience: Academics, Knowledge Management Change Agents.
Theme: ICT acts as catalyst for knowledge management and ICT alone cannot make organizations more knowledgeable.
Aim: Discern relationships between ICT tools and knowledge.

The relationship between ICT tools and knowledge management has proven to be problematic. The advocates of ICT-driven knowledge management suggest ICT alone enables knowledge acquisition, knowledge transfer and distribution, and knowledge creation. In other words, alone, a pure engineering approach can make organisations more knowledgeable.

The advocates against a pure engineering approach acknowledge that ICT can act as a catalyst for knowledge management but they also argue that ICT tools primarily address data and information and not knowledge. In other words, a pure engineering approach ignores the management approach to knowledge.

Research conducted in the period 1993 – 1998 has shown that much of the knowledge management literature was biased towards a technological agenda. This research cites the engineering approach to knowledge was the dominant position in the knowledge management space. Moreover, the engineering approach to knowledge steered away from wider organisational issues and it ignored social and behavioral factors.

To address the ICT-knowledge management problem, one must make a clear distinction between the engineering approach and the management approach. Additionally, one needs to discern between the four classes to knowledge: the knowledge storage approach; the knowledge flow approach; the organizational learning approach; and the knowledge measurement approach. An understanding of these distinctions combined with a set of assessment criteria will provide rationale to establish a meaningful link from ICT to knowledge management.

Review
In conclusion, this article and title assumes the reader of the article has a clear understanding that there are many rivers to cross get knowledge and that we, in knowledge management, know where the rivers to be crossed are located.

A few questions to ponder for the reader of this summary:

1. What are the many rivers in your organisation?
2. Have the many rivers been defined?
3. Where are the crossings located for the many rivers?
4. What are the bridges that need to be constructed to reach the other side?

Many rivers to corss: from ICT to knowledge managment systems

Read a summary and review of the article "Many rivers to cross: from ICT to knoweldge management" by Susan Yang (Knowledge Regiment group) click here.

The Eleven Deadliest Sins of Knowledge Management

MIM-SUMMER -- Ashwini, Dick Eleanor, Holger, Kai

MMIM503 – Week 2 - Class 3 (Article Summary & Review)

The Eleven Deadliest Sins of Knowledge Management
Liam Fahey, Laurence Prusak. California Management Review. Berkeley: Spring 1998. Vol. 40, Iss. 3; pg. 265, 12 pgs

Review
The article highlights to the reader eleven errors (pit-falls) that can be avoided by having a proper understanding of knowledge itself and their key implications in an organisation settings. The significance of understanding these errors is that knowledge management does not become another management craze or even worse managing knowledge based upon faulty principles.

Summary
The focus is on fundamental errors, if left uncorrected will impede genuine knowledge from being developed and leveraged.
Error I: Not Developing a Working Definition of Knowledge
Error 2: Emphasizing Knowledge Stock to the Detriment of Knowledge Flow
Error 3: Viewing Knowledge as Existing Predominantly Outside the Heads of Individuals
Error 4: Not Understanding that a Fundamental Intermediate Purpose of Managing Knowledge Is to Create Shared Context
Error 5: Paying Little Heed to the Role and Importance of Tacit Knowledge
Error 6: Disentangling Knowledge from Its Uses
Error 7: Downplaying Thinking and Reasoning
Error 8: Focusing on the Past and the Present and Not the Future
Error 9: Failing to Recognize the Importance of Experimentation
Error 10: Substituting Technological Contact for Human Interface
Error 11: Seeking to Develop Direct Measures of Knowledge

What can be done?

Identifying and correcting these errors is important. There are three critical sets of actions that managers can take to avoid these errors and move their organization toward becoming a more knowledge-driven enterprise.
1) Reflect on knowledge as an organizational asset. Develop shared understanding at local levels; since knowledge tends to be a "local" phenomenon and only later do it at the enterprise level.
2) Understand the flow perspective of knowledge: substantial portions of knowledge content are always tentative, temporary, and subject to change. Reframe from the inevitable focus of a data- or information-dominated (stock) view of knowledge.
3) Must be vigilant about detecting and correcting errors in their processes of generating, moving, and leveraging of knowledge throughout the firm.

Week 2 & 3 - Knowledge Regiment Group

Week 2: David J. Pauleen (2004)
Knowledge Management: A Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

Week 3: Paul Hemp
Death By Information Overload