Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know.TITLE: Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know ISBN ISBN abbr. International Standard Book Number ISBN International Standard Book Number ISBN n abbr (= International Standard Book Number) → ISBN m : 0-87584-655-6 PUBLISHER: Harvard Business School Harvard Business School, officially named the Harvard Business School: George F. Baker Foundation, and also known as HBS, is one of the graduate schools of Harvard University. Press PUBLICATION DATE: 1998 LENGTH: 214 pages PRICE: $36 members/$45 nonmembers SOURCE: ARMA International Bookstore, http://www.arma.org or 888/298-9202 Knowledge is essentially the package of intuitions, opinions, experience, and wisdom that human beings bring to their tasks. The value of knowledge to organizations is explored in a new book entitled, Working Knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know. The book's authors assert that knowledge has value in the economic sense and operates by market forces. State the authors: "We believe the only way to have a market that works well is, first of all, to recognize that market forces exist; second, to try to understand how it functions; and third, to make it more efficient." Applying what is known about markets to knowledge exchange can help organizations understand why exchange does and does not happen. One of the strengths of Working Knowledge is that its findings and recommendations are based upon a thorough review of organizational behavior literature and a survey of knowledge management practices from 39 companies such as British Petroleum, Coca-Cola, Monsanto, and Texas Instruments. The authors have the appropriate credentials to support their literary approach. Laurence Prusak, executive director of the Institute for Knowledge Management, is a managing principal with IBM Global Services IBM Global Services is the world's largest business and technology services provider. It is the fastest growing part of IBM, with over 190,000 professionals serving customers in more than 160 countries. Consulting Group. His professional background includes work as a researcher and librarian at the Harvard Graduate School of Business Administration and as a teacher of social and economic history at several universities. Thomas Davenport is a professor in the Management Information Systems Department at the Boston University Graduate School of Management and director of the Andersen Consulting Institute for Strategic Change. He has also directed research at Ernst & Young, McKinsey & Company, and CSC Index. The book contains numerous examples of good knowledge management practices that an organization may want to adopt such as knowledge fairs, which foster "serendipitous ser·en·dip·i·ty n. pl. ser·en·dip·i·ties 1. The faculty of making fortunate discoveries by accident. 2. The fact or occurrence of such discoveries. 3. An instance of making such a discovery. knowledge sharing across the lines of department or business units." Other examples include videoconferencing networks, apprenticeships, and formal mentoring programs. The authors emphasize that managing knowledge is more dependent on people than technology; however, the availability of technologies such as Lotus Notes, intranets, and the World Wide Web have "stoked stoked adj. Slang 1. Exhilarated or excited. 2. Being or feeling high or intoxicated, especially from a drug. the knowledge fire." Most knowledge management projects involve building electronic repositories of knowledge, either structured document-based knowledge, informal discussion-type knowledge, or repositories of who knows what. Working Knowledge concludes with nine factors that make for a successful knowledge project: * knowledge-oriented culture * technical and organizational infrastructure * senior management support * a link to economics or industry value * a modicum mod·i·cum n. pl. mod·i·cums or mod·i·ca A small, moderate, or token amount: "England still expects a modicum of eccentricity in its artists" Ian Jack. of process orientation * clarity of vision and language * nontrivial nontrivial - Requiring real thought or significant computing power. Often used as an understated way of saying that a problem is quite difficult or impractical, or even entirely unsolvable ("Proving P=NP is nontrivial"). The preferred emphatic form is "decidedly nontrivial". motivational aids * some understanding of knowledge structure * multiple channels for knowledge transfer One shortcoming short·com·ing n. A deficiency; a flaw. shortcoming Noun a fault or weakness Noun 1. is the authors' lack of awareness of the value that records management adds to knowledge-based products and services. This lack of awareness may explain why the authors did not include in their literature review a classic book on information codification The collection and systematic arrangement, usually by subject, of the laws of a state or country, or the statutory provisions, rules, and regulations that govern a specific area or subject of law or practice. by Woody Horton, InfoMap: A Complete Guide to Discovering Corporate Information Resources, published in 1988. This book describes a methodology for inventorying the information assets of an organization and improving access with content and indexing searching tools. The authors conclude by saying that the human qualities of knowledge -- experience, intuition, and beliefs -- are precisely the most valuable and most difficult to manage and maximize. Working Knowledge is an excellent business resource to assist in tackling this new information management challenge. Susan L. Cisco, Ph.D., CRM (Customer Relationship Management) An integrated information system that is used to plan, schedule and control the presales and postsales activities in an organization. , is the assistant director of information management services at Oil and Gas Division of the Railroad Commission of Texas The Railroad Commission of Texas is the state agency that regulates the oil and gas industry, gas utilities, pipeline safety, safety in the liquefied petroleum gas industry, and surface coal and uranium mining. . She may be reached at susan.cisco@rrc.state.tx.us. |
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