Journal of Knowledge Management

Karl M. Wiig

2003 Journal of Knowledge Management

doi: 10.1108/13673270310505340

Enterprise performance is determined by the effectiveness of how situations are handled throughout the organization and is determined by many factors, the most important are the quality and availability of pertinent knowledge. Important situations vary widely. Some are well‐known and are handled with routine, even automatized knowledge. Others are complex and require extensive, at times abstract, knowledge. In routine cases, effective situation‐handling involves many steps and relies on different kinds of knowledge to support the primary tasks of sensemaking, decision‐making/problem‐solving, implementation and monitoring. Similar tasks are required for simple and complex personal situation‐handling cases and organizational situation‐handling. This paper presents a situation‐handling model for people and organizations. Its purpose is to strengthen knowledge‐related, and deliberate and systematic knowledge management (KM). The paper portrays processes associated with delivering competent work. It does not deal explicitly with learning or innovation mechanisms. Nor does it detail mechanisms within the primary tasks.

Pierre‐Marie Fayard

2003 Journal of Knowledge Management

doi: 10.1108/13673270310505359

The concept of ba was introduced in 1996 by Ikujiro Nonaka and Noboru Konno. Since then, it has played a major role in the Japanese way of knowledge creation. It now belongs to the specialized jargon of KM out of the archipelago whose approach of KM is different from the IT oriented one in the USA. The print of Japanese culture in this concept makes it not so easy to understand through Western languages using a unique word, clear, distinct and without any shadow. Therefore this paper proposes an equivalent through the formulation of strategic knowledge community. This contribution is organized in three parts. First, it strives to define the ba concept from a Japanese cultural point of view. Then, it considers some philosophical implications of the concept, and last, it presents some case studies from the Human Health Care’s program from the Eisai Company. This paper was made possible because of an investigation program about the Japanese way of knowledge creation that is supported by the French Embassy in Japan. The global results of this investigation will be available in a book this year.

Alexander Styhre

2003 Journal of Knowledge Management

doi: 10.1108/13673270310505368

Knowledge has been theorized as being an elementary form of organization in the so‐called knowledge management literature. Although there are numerous analytical strengths in this literature, a reductionist view of knowledge dominates the field. From a reductionist view, knowledge is an extension from data and information. As opposed to this image of knowledge, this paper suggests that knowledge is what is inherent in practices and concepts employed and invented to denote such practices. The notion of knowledge is therefore constituted on a single plane or surface wherein practices and concepts are entangled. As a consequence, knowledge is always indeterminate and fluid because it is immanent in a multiplicity of undertakings and changing language games. In addition, data and information only represents a sub‐set of what we call knowledge. This processual and fluid view of knowledge represents an epistemological break with reductionist views of knowledge and enables for new perspectives on how knowledge is managed as an intangible resource in organizations.

Jenny Darroch

2003 Journal of Knowledge Management

doi: 10.1108/13673270310505377

Knowledge management has recently emerged as a new discipline and is generating considerable interest among academics and managers. Given its newness, there is still little guidance in the extant literature on how to measure knowledge management. This paper presents the first scale developed to measure knowledge management behaviors and practices and in so doing provides construct boundaries that should enable the development of a theory of knowledge management (Zaltman et al. , 1973).

John D. Politis

2003 Journal of Knowledge Management

doi: 10.1108/13673270310505386

The latest buzzwords in organizational change and development literature are “knowledge management” and “knowledge transfer”, which proponents claim are successful ways of improving and enhancing employees’ performance. Moreover, trust and the ability of employees to work in an autonomous manner are often cited as being essential for the effectiveness of self‐managed teams. Little however, is known on the effect of interpersonal trust on knowledge management (acquisition) of team members, and the consequences for team performance. A survey of 49 self‐managing teams was carried out to investigate the relationship between the dimensions of interpersonal trust, knowledge acquisition, and team performance. Overall, findings support that most interpersonal trust dimensions are positively related to the variables of knowledge acquisition. The results also showed that the effects of interpersonal trust on team performance to a large extent are mediated by the intervening variables of knowledge acquisition.

Kaj U. Koskinen

2003 Journal of Knowledge Management

doi: 10.1108/13673270310505395

This article introduces a model with the help of which the management of businesses can evaluate what kind of a role tacit knowledge plays in their organizations. At the beginning of the article basic elements from which an individual’s competence is derived are described. After that the structure of the model is discussed. Four different systems, namely memory, communication, motivational, and situational systems, which all include numerous factors that affect tacit knowledge utilization in organizations are illustrated. The article ends with the introduction of the model and a brief speculation about its application possibilities in different work units.

Simon Carpenter; Sarah Rudge

2003 Journal of Knowledge Management

doi: 10.1108/13673270310505403

This paper discusses a knowledge management (KM) benchmarking exercise conducted at British Energy Power and Trading (BEPET). Current knowledge management activities were benchmarked against key areas in the British Standard Guide to Good Practice in Knowledge Management, PAS 2001. The knowledge performance categories identified by the international knowledge management Most Admired Knowledge Enterprises (MAKE) awards for 2001 were used as a basis for a staff survey to determine KM activity within the division. A knowledge audit of BEPET staff was also carried out to gain greater insight of the knowledge flows within the organization. In addition to the study’s findings, the paper discusses the concepts of benchmarking, organizational culture and knowledge audits, providing a context for their application in KM.

Claude Paraponaris

2003 Journal of Knowledge Management

doi: 10.1108/13673270310505412

The structures of R&D have evolved towards a bigger articulation between the development of the technological potentialities and exploitation of commercial opportunities. The third generation R&D supplies a more rational frame of action to reconcile several objectives which can turn out contradictory: dedicate enough resources to create new technologies, develop a wallet of industrial and academic co‐operation to accelerate the acquisition of new knowledge. The strategies of high‐tech firms succeed to create a great variety of knowledge. It is necessary to organize the diversity of the internal and external sources to use knowledge fully as a true competitive advantage. We show how the memory must be constituted of the firm to reach that point. From a study on several cases of MNC we characterize the difficulties of the capitalization of the knowledge, and then we present how the firms can take advantage of an active management of knowledge flows.

Henning Gebert; Malte Geib; Lutz Kolbe; Walter Brenner

2003 Journal of Knowledge Management

doi: 10.1108/13673270310505421

The concepts of customer relationship management (CRM) and knowledge management (KM) both focus on allocating resources to supportive business activities in order to gain competitive advantages. CRM focuses on managing the relationship between a company and its current and prospective customer base as a key to success, while KM recognizes the knowledge available to a company as a major success factor. From a business process manager’s perspective both the CRM and KM approaches promise a positive impact on cost structures and revenue streams in return for the allocation of resources. However, investments in CRM and KM projects are not without risk, as demonstrated by many failed projects. In this paper we show that the benefit of using CRM and KM can be enhanced and the risk of failure reduced by integrating both approaches into a customer knowledge management (CKM) model. In this regard, managing relationships requires managing customer knowledge – knowledge about as well as from and for customers. In CKM, KM plays the role of a service provider, managing the four knowledge aspects: content, competence, collaboration and composition. Our findings are based on a literature analysis and six years of action research, supplemented by case studies and surveys.

Mats Edenius; Janet Borgerson

2003 Journal of Knowledge Management

doi: 10.1108/13673270310505430

Identification, generation, transfer, storage and efficient integration of knowledge occupy today’s corporate managers, and there is increasing interest in different strategies for managing knowledge. Many strategies correspond to different kinds of information technology, for example, intranet. An intranet can be regarded both as an information and strategic management tool in the context of knowledge management. A lack of reflexivity in intranet use is based on the assumption that an intranet is a tool in its masters’ hands. Key elements in managing an intranet (such as, activity level and information input) are not just tools to control the transportation of information and knowledge in a convenient and efficient way. Rather, as constituents, these elements create the intranet. Several empirical examples suggest how information presented in an intranet – and knowledge about the information – is co‐created in the process of using an intranet. A Foucauldian vision of knowledge as discursive practices, including representation, extends the overly static realist version of knowledge found in much KM. Furthermore, if highest demand for intranet activity levels were met, professional investment managers would be forced to become generalists