Book Reviews***
***
a) Michael
E. D. Koenig and T. Kanti Srikantaiah. Editors,
Knowledge Management Lessons Learned: What Works and What Doesn't.
Medford
,
NJ., Information Today, 2004
b)
Chun
Wei Choo, Brian Detlor, and Don Turnbull. Web Work: Information
Seeking and Knowledge Work on the World Wide Web. Norwell,
MA., Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2000
See also my Webliography: Knowledge Management: Society / Community Wise
Listmania! Institutional (aka Corporate or organizational) Memory
Literature Survey:
Knowledge-intensive services and
knowledge-intensive products can be produced if the society is aware of the
value of the knowledge capital that goes in our daily life. The Government of
Netherlands has a report that deals at length with applications of the idea of
knowledge management, entitled: "Intangible assets :
Balancing accounts with knowledge"
"Knowledge
Management for Distributed Enterprises" (Abstract: The GNOSIS project in
the Intelligent Manufacturing Systems international research program is
concerned with the use of advanced information technology for knowledge
systematization to support the complex intellectual and managerial processes
involved in the manufacturing life cycle. It has developed technologies to
coordinate distributed manufacturing enterprises, and these technologies have
also proved useful in supporting the similar intellectual and managerial
processes involved in distributed collaborative research. This article gives
the background to the project, and illustrates its use of information
technology to provide a corporate memory, its use of knowledge acquisition and
modeling tools to model the project objectives and conceptual structures, and
the architecture of the Mediator system to support knowledge processes in
distributed enterprises)
WWW Virtual
Library on Knowledge Management http://ksi.cpsc.ucalgary.ca/KAW/KAW96/gaines/KMDE.html
Forums, Articles, Magazines, Events, Resources,
Analyses and News
"Largest Collection of Knowledge Management Literature"
-- The Wall Street Journal
"Best Sources for Knowledge Management and
Intellectual Capital" -- Fast Company
"Hub for all kinds of Knowledge
Management Information on Web" -- Harvard Business Publishing
"E-Business
Advice, Discussion Group on Technology" -- Business Week
"Knowledge Portal
Leading the Way" -- Knowledge Management Review
"Tool for Raising Your
Company's IQ" -- Forbes
"The Best Web Site on the topic of Knowledge
Management" -- InfoWorld
"Fast-growing Wealth of Academic and Mainstream
Business Content" -- Chief Executive
The
Knowledge Chronicle objective is to bring forth a better
understanding of Knowledge Management. The Knowledge Chronicle
explores the definition of knowledge, the value of people to knowledge
projects, and practical applications of knowledge management.
Questions such as how can companies repeat successful projects and
also learn from lost opportunities. Understanding, developing, and
promoting Knowledge Management will transform these question into a
reality.
Book Reviews:
Michael E. D. Koenig and T. Kanti Srikantaiah.
Editors, Knowledge Management
Lessons Learned: What Works and What Doesn't.
Medford , NJ., Information Today, 2004. $44.50;
ISBN: 1573871818; 595pp. (ASIST Monograph Series). Compare prices / Buy
Reviewed by Dr. Mohamed
Taher
Let us start with the background of how one can
conceptualize the text, context and management of these lessons. It all
started with the information explosion that was noticed in 1960s, received a
boost with ‘publish or perish’ winds of 1970s, and then the saga continues
even to this day.1 The tremendous output of information led to
conscious measures (a.k.a. benchmarks / best practices) and these were
systematically developed through the decades of 1980s and 1990. With an input
from multi-disciplinary information harnessing strategies (such as,
information gathering from non-traditional sources, data mining, customizing,
sharing, and building user-friendly repositories) there emerged an independent
discipline, called knowledge management (henceforth KM) Chapter 2 has more
details on disciplinary perspectives and its impact factor. Interestingly,
this nascent field followed the same set of principles--borrowing, lending,
intrapolating, extrapolating, etc., -- so common in the formation of new
disciplines.2
The need and value of KM is well catalogued in the previous
work by the Editors, Koenig and Srikantaiah. Consequent to this
preliminary task, they felt a need to assess the impact of the field as it
evolves with new interfaces. In addition, professionals, in every walk of
life, are baffled by knowledge explosion (data, information, ideas, graphics,
media, in both forms: analog and digital). Specifically, to knowledge workers
it has dawned that the path, loaded with interfaces of all kinds, is not all
that rosy. And given the burst of the bubble and impending financial scenario,
one would expect knowledge workers to be on 24 X 7 call just-in-time improving
benchmarks regularly (Chapter 31 visualizes roles of the knowledge worker as
they are evolving).
Seeing through the lenses of an
organization’s intellectual audit, a balanced summary of significant lessons
learned could be one that comes as a result of “painful experiences”. These
lessons are: Lesson 1, Connection is as important as Collection; Lesson 2,
Context is as important as Content; and Lesson 3, Do Not ‘Do’ KM, Apply to
specific problems (Chapter 28: Integrating Knowledge Management and
Competitive Intelligence, Integrating Offense and Defense, by Steve Barth,
Editor and Publisher, KM magazine). This is just a sample of so many lessons
that constitute What Works and What Doesn’t.
Ontologically, knowledge
management comprises of three inter-related facets, viz., a) capturing the
tacit knowledge, b) storing it in appropriate digital environment and c) a
virtual dissemination among all the team players in a knowledge sharing
milieu. Based on these categories as well lessons learned, we are in a
somewhat better position to visualize the future of this discipline. The book
provides sufficient base to state that the discipline is evolving in a
positive way. Against the earlier management incarnations, such as, total
quality management, business process engineering, and so on, KM is
externalizing the processes in best possible ways that would make it an
inclusive and accommodative explorer in the journey as a goal towards
improvement of knowledge return-on-investment (see some highlights in Chapter
9).
Knowledge
Management Lessons Learned is then a good summation of such
information handling anecdotes and narratives. Its contributors’ represent
expertise from as varied areas as consultants in business and competitive
intelligence, scholars in organizational behavior, operations research
specialists, system analysts, executives, bureaucrats, and so on. Contributing
thirty-two chapters in 600 pages, these historians of knowledgeware don’t
claim to report every thing they learned in this handbook. Nevertheless this
team of practitioners and academicians has definitely made a humble, albeit
systematic attempt to synthesize the Lessons Learned.
Given the extensity of KM as a field, it is not logical to
expect that the book cover all tools / knowledge infrastructure that would
have aided in this capture, storage and sharing vistas. To name only a few,
Lessons Learned databases, e-mails, teleconferencing, telecommuting, bulletin
boards, Lotus Notes, instant messenger technologies, etc., are missing in this
book. One does get a consolation with a brief discussion on KM solutions in
Chapter three. Moreover, if we are to really understand in a holistic manner
all the lessons learned, how can we miss “tools for measuring and managing
intellectual capital.”3 A future study could analyze the lessons
learned in this dimension.
This work does, however, focuses on many current issues or
themes in KM, such as, Outsourcing (pp. 415-418); Faceted Taxonomy (pp. 215-
217); Resource Description Format (pp. 191-208), Counterintelligence (pp. 437
– 438), Downloading Tacit Knowledge (pp. 371 - 76) etc. The added value which
this book portrays is its balance by giving equal importance to quantitative
measures (Chapters on Cost Analysis) and qualitative forces (Chapters on
Content Management and Competitive Intelligence), thereby contributing
positively for a sound knowledge managing system so much desired in today’s
volatile business environment. The editors need to be congratulated on a good
combination of people, process and programs.
Apart from this consolidated knowledge audit, there is a
concern tag. A student who uses this book will be surprised to find that
Chapters three, twenty-one, and thirty lack any references or citations,
whatsoever. This is glaring. Citations are indispensable, because KM by its
nature deems this component as ‘most wanted.’ Lest we forget, KM gets it
status as a field of managing the knowledge, only if it is accompanied with
authenticity. Logically this is a befitting characteristic of a discipline
that lays its claim to the following contexts: first, capturing tacit in order
to convert it as tangible, second, transform private knowledge to public
domain, third mobilize a total solution of casual voices being rendered now as
soundproof history, and most importantly the fourth, visualize information.
This last factor, acts as a causal effect in strengthening KM’s position as a
discipline (despite some calling names, such as fad, fallacy, and oxymoron4).
While the book is all-ado-about business and corporate
culture, it lacks a similar orientation towards the application of KM in a
broader world that includes everyday life, i.e., human development, culture,
leisure entertainment, etc. For instance, KM has a potential for funding and
greater prospects even in other areas, such as, community development,
non-profit / humanitarian / charitable / voluntary sectors, disaster recovery
of a neighborhood, etc.5
Overall the book is an essential compendium as an
alternative knowledgeware to capture tacit information and share intellectual
assets. I would recommend it to
all libraries in social and behavioral disciplines.
------
References:
1.
Information Explosion Confirmed, From: zillman, 11/06/2003,
www.stargeek.com/item/21997.html
2.
Ganesh Bhatacharya, “Study of
Subjects For Information Work And Service,” Library Science with a Slant To
Documentation, 12 (1975), Paper G.
3. Stewart, Thomas A. Intellectual Capital:
The New Wealth of Organizations. New
York , Doubleday, 1997. Pp. 222-227.
4. G E
Gorman . "The Uniqueness of Knowledge Management – or the
Emperor’s New Clothes?" Library Link, April 2004
http://juno.emeraldinsight.com/vl=3296259/cl=61/nw=1/rpsv/librarylink/management/index.htm#article
5. “Knowledge
Management Society / Community Wise.” (A reading list), by Mohamed Taher.
http://taher.cjb.net
Web Work: Information Seeking
and Knowledge Work on the World Wide Web. By Chun Wei Choo, Brian
Detlor, and Don Turnbull. (Norwell, MA., Kluwer Academic Publishers, September
2000). Information Science & Knowledge Management Series, Volume 1. ISBN
0-7923-6460-0. $100.00. xiv. 219pp. [Review: Information Resources Management
Journal Vol. 16 (1) Jan – Mar 2003, 62-64.]
Reviewed by Dr. Mohamed Taher
|
Compare prices /
Buy |
|
Web Work:
Information Seeking and Knowledge Work on the World Wide
Web
(view table of
contents) |
|
| Authors |
Chun Wei
Choo
Brian
Detlor
Don
Turnbull |
| Publisher |
Kluwer Academic
Pub |
| Publication date |
September 1,
2000 |
| Pages |
219 |
| Binding |
Hardcover |
| Edition |
01 |
| Book
category |
Adult
Non-Fiction |
| ISBN |
0792364600 | |
| Dimensions |
0.75 by 10 by 6.75
in. |
| Weight |
1.15 lbs. |
| Published in |
Europe |
Subjects
| |
Amazon.com editorial descriptions of this
work:
Book Description: This book brings together
three great motifs of the network society: the search for and use
of information by individuals and groups; the creation and
application of knowledge in organizations; and the fundamental
transformation of these activities as they take place on the World
Wide Web and corporate intranets. As research endeavors, these
streams overlap and share conceptual constructs, perspectives, and
methods of analysis. Although these overlaps and shared concerns
are sometimes apparent in published research, there have been few
attempts to connect these ideas explicitly and identify
cross-disciplinary themes. This book is an attempt to fill this
void.
Audience: The book's primary audience is faculty
and students in masters and doctoral programs in information
science, information systems, and management schools. Consultants
and organizations designing and implementing intranets and portals
will find the book useful in providing research-based insights
into how information search and knowledge sharing may be
enhanced.
| |
 |
Information
seeking has been the concern of business organizations at least for two
decades, and in the Web-based environments since a decade. This became more obvious with study,
research and applications in the areas of knowledge creation, knowledge
diffusion and knowledge utilization. Web Work is a significant lead in
understanding these perspectives. The continued business-university
connectivity is also evident here. The three authors, as faculty of the
University of
Toronto , attempt to
present real-time knowledge management scenario in business organizations.
Web Work then, presents significant theoretical and practical vistas of
the Web-based knowledge management practices and processes in an
organizational framework:
“This book
brings together three great motifs of the network society: the seeking and
using of information by individuals and groups; the creation and application
of knowledge in organizations; and the fundamental transformation of these
activities as they are enacted on the Internet and the World Wide Web (From
the Preface p. xi)”
Web Work has three sections, and the
common thread between these is the knowledge management perspective. Section
One - Information Seeking and Knowledge Work - describes the theoretical
foundation and the broader contexts in which information seeking and knowledge
work is situated in organizations. Section Two - Knowledge Work on Intranets -
has a much sharper focus, concentrating on the Intranet as a new kind of
information infrastructure that is particularly well suited to supporting
knowledge work. Section Three - Information Seeking on the World Wide Web -
most directly addresses the research and application implications of the World
Wide Web as an information source and channel
Contents: Section
One - Chapter 1: Information Seeking, pp. 3-28;
Chapter: 2 The Structure and Dynamics of Organizational Knowledge, pp. 29 -
71; Section Two - Chapter 3: The Intranet as Infrastructure for
Knowledge Work, pp. 71 - 100; Chapter 4: Designing Intranets to Support
Knowledge Work, pp.101 - 132; Section Three - Chapter 5: Models of
Information Seeking on the World Wide Web, pp. 133 - 158; Chapter 6:
Understanding Organizational Web Use, pp. 159 - 188; Coda, pp. 189 – 190;
References, pp. 191- 210; Index, pp. 213 - 219.
Web
Work adds value to the existing knowledge base in
two specific areas. First, it is a valuable textbook on Web-based knowledge
assembly in the corporate environment. A major part of Section One mirrors the
first author’s book The Knowing Organisation (1998). Section Two
contains published and original research. Section Three is, basically research
conducted for an understanding of the working of the Web in organizational
culture. Re-stated, the first section provides what of the organizational
know-how, second demonstrates where the organizational knowledge assembles
utilizing the Intranet and Web technologies, and the third tests how does the
Web Work in practical situations.
Second, Web Work provides some insight into the
organizational dimensions of the corporate Web activity,
which
comes right from the desktop of the end-user. This is demonstrated
in section three, along with activity log. Interestingly, this real-time
interface diminishes the theoretical overload of the book.
Section Three is likely to be the point of attraction for both the
practitioners and the decision makers. Hence, it is apt to glance at the
sources and results of this study. It deals with the corporate Web Work, and
brings in a direct sample from the Canadian mosaic:
“In total, 52 participants from nine different companies
participated in various stages of the project. Specifically, the nine
participating companies comprise one large international bank, two large
utility companies, one large computer hardware and system solution provider,
one large magazine publisher; one medium-sized university research library,
one medium-sized marketing agency, and two small software consulting firms The
participants were predominantly a mix of information technology specialists
and managers from various departments: 23 held IT technology / analyst job
titles; 15 were managers; 12 held research / marketing / consultant positions;
and 2 were administrative support staff. Only a small percentage of
participants were novices to the World Wide Web, most routinely used the Web
as part of their daily work”(p. 159).
With the help of a questionnaire the book gathered “insights into
the frequency and accessibility of the World Wide Web in relation to other
information sources typically used by organizational participants in their
day-to-day activities” (p. 162). In terms of the frequency of information
source usage, the study found that the most frequently used source was
Radio/Newspapers. “The World Wide Web was the second-most frequently used
source” (p. 162). Other sources, of lesser importance, listed in the Figure
6.3 (p. 163) in the decreasing order of frequency are: Colleagues in same
dept.; Managers / Supervisors; External reports / Studies; Business
associates; Colleagues in other dept.; Internal memos; Internal reports /
Studies; Internal library / Info centre; Customers; Competitors. Other
analysis of the data relates to perceived source quality in Figure 6.2,
perceived source accessibility in Figure 6.3, etc. Correlating the frequency
of source use and perceived source quality in Table 6.2 the study finds that
“there is no significant relationship between World Wide Web use and source
quality” (p. 164). Interesting is the other findings: “the World Wide Web was
the fourth highly-rated source in terms of accessibility” (p. 166).
In addition to the questionnaire, it uses another tool, WebTracker,
to measure the Web Work. This tool reached the desktops of the respondents’
workplace. In this process the authors gathered the tacit knowledge: ‘The
study began by recruiting participation from corporations with guarantees of
confidentiality and promising to deliver an anonymized report of overall Web
usage to compare and contrast individual and inter-organizational Web use’
(p.159).
From practical utility, it has a few limitations. One of these
relates to the Web-based tools that are used in instant messaging, or
knowledge sharing in real-time environments. While it deals with groupware in the
design of the intranet (pp. 80-81, 90, 92-96), it, however, misses a thorough
discussion, on its existence or absence, while dealing with real-time issues,
including the Web-based best business practices.
The book is,
nevertheless, essential for students / researchers, in information science,
information systems, library science, and management schools and more
specifically in areas such as: MIS, information management, knowledge
management, records management, and digital asset management. Consultants,
practitioners and organizations designing Web work would find valuable
insights into information seeking and knowledge sharing.
In short, the
book under review does provide a framework for assessment of knowledge
management and best business practices. It, also, facilitates furthering
knowledge management studies in relation to return on investment in a
corporate culture. To achieve this end a direct route is prescribed in this
book. It has to be based on the integration of organizational knowledge, i.e.
using Choo’s favorite trio: tacit knowledge, explicit knowledge and cultural
knowledge.
Thursday,
December 08, 2005
