Human Systems Management

Kevin J. Dooley ; Steven R. Corman ; Robert D. McPhee

doi: N/Apmid: N/A

Individuals in organizations often need to access knowledge that is outside their own area of expertise. Doing so requires "know-who" knowledge-knowledge of who knows what inside (or outside) the organization. This paper develops the concept of a knowledge directory, a database that can be searched via query. The knowledge directory returns a list of individuals rank ordered by the mutual affinity between their own areas of expertise and the content of the query. The technology behind the matching of person and query is centering resonance analysis, which develops a knowledge map, representing objects embedded in text as a network graph. We also present a way to analyze a collection of knowledge maps so that clusters of people who have similar expertise may be identified. We apply these techniques to a group of ten university faculty from the areas of industrial engineering, operations management, and supply chain management. Experiments attempting to match queries to specific faculty members are presented and discussed, and clustering techniques are used to show how the faculty aggregate into cliques of similar content and methodological expertise. Extensions of the method are discussed.

Dooley, Kevin J.; Corman, Steven R.; McPhee, Robert D.

doi: 10.3233/hsm-2002-21401pmid: N/A

Individuals in organizations often need to access knowledge that is outside their own area of expertise. Doing so requires “know-who” knowledge–knowledge of who knows what inside (or outside) the organization. This paper develops the concept of a knowledge directory, a database that can be searched via query. The knowledge directory returns a list of individuals rank ordered by the mutual affinity between their own areas of expertise and the content of the query. The technology behind the matching of person and query is centering resonance analysis, which develops a knowledge map, representing objects embedded in text as a network graph. We also present a way to analyze a collection of knowledge maps so that clusters of people who have similar expertise may be identified. We apply these techniques to a group of ten university faculty from the areas of industrial engineering, operations management, and supply chain management. Experiments attempting to match queries to specific faculty members are presented and discussed, and clustering techniques are used to show how the faculty aggregate into cliques of similar content and methodological expertise. Extensions of the method are discussed.

P.N. Rastogi

doi: N/Apmid: N/A

Any enterprise can potentially grow profitably through its management of knowledge for intellectual capital. For this purpose, it however, needs to craft an innovative and viable design of its business system. A business system design (BSD) comprises a dynamic architecture which is isomorphic across firms in space and time. A dense dynamic nexus of social capital, human capital and knowledge management - the knowledge management nexus (KMN) - forms the core of BSD. KMN continually rationalises and revitalises the BSD. An inclusive concept of knowledge spectrum as the quintessential resource for value creation is elaborated briefly in terms of its dynamic configuration. A firm's intellectual capital (IC) is seen as the resultant of its KMN. IC represents a firm's meta-capability toward overcoming challenges and exploiting opportunities in its continual pursuit of value creation. A synoptic overview of the KM-IC paradigm is outlined. It provides mental firepower to radically rethink businesses as experiments and exercises in value creation.

Rastogi, P.N.

doi: 10.3233/hsm-2002-21402pmid: N/A

Any enterprise can potentially grow profitably through its management of knowledge for intellectual capital. For this purpose, it however, needs to craft an innovative and viable design of its business system. A business system design (BSD) comprises a dynamic architecture which is isomorphic across firms in space and time. A dense dynamic nexus of social capital, human capital and knowledge management – the knowledge management nexus (KMN) – forms the core of BSD. KMN continually rationalises and revitalises the BSD. An inclusive concept of knowledge spectrum as the quintessential resource for value creation is elaborated briefly in terms of its dynamic configuration. A firm's intellectual capital (IC) is seen as the resultant of its KMN. IC represents a firm's meta-capability toward overcoming challenges and exploiting opportunities in its continual pursuit of value creation. A synoptic overview of the KM-IC paradigm is outlined. It provides mental firepower to radically rethink businesses as experiments and exercises in value creation.

Liang, Thow Yick

doi: 10.3233/hsm-2002-21403pmid: N/A

Among the various industrial sectors in Singapore, healthcare was the first to exploit broadband technology. In 1997, the Singapore General Hospital installed a broadband backbone even before the technology was generally viable. Today, the system supports the transmission of high-quality X-rays, CT- and MRI-scanned images, and electrocardiogram. And the latest decision is to supplement the existing facilities with wireless technology.This paper examines the strategic use of infocomm technology in the healthcare sector focusing on some recent technologies such as electronic data interchange, the Internet, e-commerce, broadband network and wireless technology. The patient-friendliness and the intelligence level of the entire healthcare sector are also analyzed. Besides, the strong coupling between human minds and artificial infocomm systems in healthcare may have stretched the interactions between the two systems into the nonlinear domain. The consequences may be a more innovative development of new infocomm systems and a more strategic exploitation of infocomm technology.

Thow Yick Liang

doi: N/Apmid: N/A

Among the various industrial sectors in Singapore, healthcare was the first to exploit broadband technology. In 1997, the Singapore General Hospital installed a broadband backbone even before the technology was generally viable. Today, the system supports the transmission of high-quality X-rays, CT- and MRI-scanned images, and electrocardiogram. And the latest decision is to supplement the existing facilities with wireless technology. This paper examines the strategic use of infocomm technology in the healthcare sector focusing on some recent technologies such as electronic data interchange, the Internet, e-commerce, broadband network and wireless technology. The patient-friendliness and the intelligence level of the entire healthcare sector are also analyzed. Besides, the strong coupling between human minds and artificial infocomm systems in healthcare may have stretched the interactions between the two systems into the nonlinear domain. The consequences may be a more innovative development of new infocomm systems and a more strategic exploitation of infocomm technology.

Alan E. Singer

doi: N/Apmid: N/A

Dialectical tensions are very evident in almost all international business episodes, as well as in the perceptions and value-priorities of once-separated civilisations. It is regrettable indeed that these have hardly ever been mentioned in the mainstream business media, nor in professional education. At the same time, much has been communicated (and replicated) on subjects like business-ecology, product-ecology, knowledge-ecology and ecology-of-mind. Such ideas, together with the sciences of life and mind that support biotechnology and information technology, are all closely associated with the principle of dialectic (intuitively, historically and formally). Accordingly, much greater emphasis should be placed upon dialectical reasoning in contemporary strategic business analysis, not to mention political calculations.

Singer, Alan E.

doi: 10.3233/hsm-2002-21404pmid: N/A

Dialectical tensions are very evident in almost all international business episodes, as well as in the perceptions and value-priorities of once-separated civilisations. It is regrettable indeed that these have hardly ever been mentioned in the mainstream business media, nor in professional education. At the same time, much has been communicated (and replicated) on subjects like business-ecology, product-ecology, knowledge-ecology and ecology-of-mind. Such ideas, together with the sciences of life and mind that support biotechnology and information technology, are all closely associated with the principle of dialectic (intuitively, historically and formally). Accordingly, much greater emphasis should be placed upon dialectical reasoning in contemporary strategic business analysis, not to mention political calculations.

Asger Sørensen

doi: N/Apmid: N/A

Alan Singer makes a case for the relevance of dialectical reasoning and understanding in business strategy, politics and especially in ecology. He argues that dialectics is the optimal way to handle conceptually tensions, paradoxes, dilemmas and contradictions, and that dialectics has been ignored mainly as a result of "guilt by association", i.e., because of its linkages to totalitarianism and anti-capitalism. He also makes a case for philosophy informing strategy, and this is what I will attempt to do in the following comments, first, by focusing on the concept of dialectics as seen from a philosophical point of view, second, by trying to show some of the tensions in the concept as employed by Singer, and finally by sketching some implications in relation to politics and strategy. In doing this, I will distinguish between various types of dialectics, which differ in relation to method and theory, epistemology and ontology, nature and culture, and theory and practice.

Sørensen, Asger

doi: 10.3233/hsm-2002-21405pmid: N/A

Alan Singer makes a case for the relevance of dialectical reasoning and understanding in business strategy, politics and especially in ecology. He argues that dialectics is the optimal way to handle conceptually tensions, paradoxes, dilemmas and contradictions, and that dialectics has been ignored mainly as a result of “guilt by association”, i.e., because of its linkages to totalitarianism and anti-capitalism. He also makes a case for philosophy informing strategy, and this is what I will attempt to do in the following comments, first, by focusing on the concept of dialectics as seen from a philosophical point of view, second, by trying to show some of the tensions in the concept as employed by Singer, and finally by sketching some implications in relation to politics and strategy. In doing this, I will distinguish between various types of dialectics, which differ in relation to method and theory, epistemology and ontology, nature and culture, and theory and practice.