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Second Edition
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT
AN INTEGRATED APPROACH
Ashok Jashapara
Knowledge Management
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Knowledge Management
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Ashok Jashapara
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First published 2004

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ISBN: 978-0-273-72685-2
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Jashapara, Ashok.
Knowledge management : an integrated approach / Ashok Jashapara. -- 2nd ed.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-0-273-72685-2 (pbk.)
1. Knowledge management. I. Title.
HD30.2.J38 2011
658.4'038--dc22
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
14 13 12 11 10
Typeset in 9/13 Stone Serif by 30

Printed by Ashford Colour Press Ltd, Gosport
This book is dedicated to the inspiring life of
SPUD BAKHLE
(1929–2003)
for our numerous conversations over a glass of wine.

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Brief contents
Preface xv
About the author xvii
Author’s acknowledgements xviii
Publisher’s acknowledgements xiv
Part 1 THE NATURE OF KNOWLEDGE

Chapter 1 Introduction to knowledge management 3
Chapter 2 The nature of knowing 33
Part 2 LEVERAGING KNOWLEDGE

Chapter 3 Intellectual capital 63
Chapter 4 Strategic management perspectives 89
Part 3 CREATING KNOWLEDGE

Chapter 5 Organisational learning 121
Chapter 6 The learning organisation 158
Part 4 KNOWLEDGE ARTEFACTS

Chapter 7 Knowledge management tools: component technologies 185
Chapter 8 Knowledge management systems 228
Part 5 MOBILISING KNOWLEDGE

Chapter 9 Enabling knowledge contexts and networks 261
Chapter 10 Implementing knowledge management 295
Epilogue KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Epilogue 325
Glossary 340
Index 345
Contents
Preface xv
About the author xvii
Author’s acknowledgements xviii
Publishers’s acknowledgements xix
Part 1 THE NATURE OF KNOWLEDGE

1 Introduction to knowledge management 3
Learning outcomes/Management issues 3
Links to other chapters 3
Opening vignette: Life in an interconnected world 4
Knowledge management: an integrated approach 6
Part 1: The nature of knowledge 6
Part 2: Leveraging knowledge 7
Part 3: Creating knowledge 7
Part 4: Knowledge artefacts 7
Part 5: Mobilising knowledge 8
Introduction 8
The knowledge economy 9
What is knowledge management? 10
Is knowledge management a fad? 14
What are the differences between data, information, knowledge and wisdom? 16
Data 16
Information 17
Knowledge 18
Wisdom 19
Early history of knowledge management: oral tradition to cuneiform 20
Knowledge management in ancient Greece and Rome 22
Management of knowledge in monastic and cathedral libraries 24
Paradigm shift from print to a digital age 26
Case study: Ernst & Young (US) 28
Summary 30
Questions for further thought 30
Further reading 31
References 31
2 The nature of knowing 33

Opening vignette: Business must learn from the new tribe 34
Introduction 35
What is knowledge? Philosophers from Plato to Wittgenstein 37
ix
x Contents
Plato 37
Aristotle 37
Descartes 38
Locke 38
Hume 39
Kant 39
Hegel 39
Pragmatists 40
Phenomenology and existentialism 40
Wittgenstein 41
Contemporary philosophers: Ryle, Polanyi and Macmurray 42
Burrell and Morgan’s framework on philosophical paradigms 44
Competing philosophical positions in knowledge management: positivism,
constructivism, postmodernism and critical realism 46
The taxonomic perspective of knowledge 49
The process-based perspective of knowing 51
The practice-based perspective of knowledge and knowing 52
Case study: World Bank (US) 54
Summary 56
Further reading 57
References 58
Part 2 LEVERAGING KNOWLEDGE

3 Intellectual capital 63
Opening vignette: A little knowledge is deadly dangerous 64
Introduction 65
What is intellectual capital? 66
History of intellectual capital 68
Problems of measuring organisational performance 68
Frameworks of intellectual capital 71
Human and social capital 75
Organisational capital 76
Intellectual property and smart patents 76
Financial reporting of intellectual capital 79
Intellectual capital as a narrative 79
Knowledge auditing in practice 81
Case study: Infosys (India) 83
Summary 85
Further reading 86
References 86
4 Strategic management perspectives 89

Contents xi

Opening vignette: A hunger for knowledge is China’s real secret weapon 90
Introduction 91
Strategic management: schools of thought 92
Industrial organisation tradition 93
Excellence and turnaround 95
Institutionalist perspective 96
Resource-based view of the firm 100
Information systems strategy 101
Developing a knowledge management strategy 103
Innovation and personalisation strategies 108
Case study: Unilever (UK/Netherlands) 111
Summary 113
Further reading 114
References 115
Part 3 CREATING KNOWLEDGE

5 Organisational learning 121
Opening vignette: Recruits fired up by virtual rivalry 122
Introduction 124
Individual learning 124
Team learning 127
Drivers of organisational learning: success or failure? 128
Single-loop and double-loop learning 130
Sensemaking 131
Organisational learning frameworks 133
Knowledge acquisition 136
Information distribution 137
Information interpretation 138
Organisational memory 139
Unlearning 140
Organisational routines 141
Dynamic capabilities 144
Absorptive capacity 147
Politics and organisational learning 148
Critique of organisational learning 150
Case study: Toyota (Japan) 151
Summary 153
Further reading 154
References 154
6 The learning organisation 158

xii Contents
Opening vignette: Teaching materials: From pen to paper to wikis and video 159
Introduction 160
US contribution: the fifth discipline 161
UK contribution: the learning company 163
Japanese contribution: the knowledge-creating company 166
The competitive learning organisation 169
Power, politics and the learning organisation 173
Empirical research and the learning organisation 174
The learning organisation and knowledge management 176
Case study: Honda (Japan) 177
Summary 179
Further reading 180
References 180
Part 4 KNOWLEDGE ARTEFACTS

7 Knowledge management tools: component technologies 185
Opening vignette: Business starts to take Web 2.0 tools seriously 186
Introduction 188
Organising knowledge tools 189
Ontology and taxonomy 189
Capturing knowledge tools 194
Cognitive mapping tools 194
Information-retrieval tools 196
Search engines 200
Agent technology 201
Personalisation 202
Evaluating knowledge 203
Case-based reasoning (CBR) 203
Online analytical processing (OLAP) 203
Knowledge discovery in databases – data mining 204
Machine-based learning 206
Sharing knowledge 206
Internet, intranets and extranets 206
Security of intranets 209
Text-based conferencing 209
Web 2.0 platform 210
Conversational media: Blogs 212
Syndication and RSS feeds 213
Mashups 213
Wikis 214
Online social networks 215
3-D virtual worlds 216
Groupware tools 217
Videoconferencing 218
Contents xiii
Skills directories: expertise yellow pages 218

E-learning 218
Storing and presenting knowledge 219
Data warehouses 219
Visualisation 220
Case study: Royal Dutch Shell (Netherlands/UK) 222
Summary 224
Further reading 225
References 225
8 Knowledge management systems 228

Opening vignette: Decision-making software in the fast lane 229
Introduction 230
Systems thinking 232
Drivers of KM systems: quality management processes 235
Deming and Juran 235
Total quality management (TQM) 236
Business process re-engineering (BPR) 237
Lean production 238
Document management systems 239
Decision support systems 241
Group support systems 243
Executive information systems 245
Workflow management systems 247
Customer relationship management systems 250
Economics of KM systems 252
Case study: Tata Consultancy Services (India) 253
Summary 255
Further reading 256
References 257
Part 5 MOBILISING KNOWLEDGE

9 Enabling knowledge contexts and networks 261
Opening vignette: Building bridges for success 262
Introduction 265
Understanding organisational culture and climate 265
Norms, artefacts and symbols 267
Values, beliefs, attitudes and assumptions 270
Typologies of organisational culture 272
Measuring organisational culture 274
Description of the twelve OCI styles 275
xiv Contents
Creating knowledge-sharing cultures 278

Cultural stickiness: developing communities of practice 282
Knowledge across organisational boundaries 286
Case study: Fluor (United States) 289
Summary 291
Further reading 292
References 293
10 Implementing knowledge management 295

Opening vignette: Box clever and keep your star performers happy 296
Introduction 297
The nature of change 298
Personal response to change 299
Leadership and change 301
Change management strategies 302
Gaining commitment for change 304
Employee involvement 306
Training and development 308
Reward and recognition 312
Cultural change management 314
Politics of change 316
Case study: Woods Bagot (Australia) 316
Summary 318
Further reading 319
References 320
Epilogue KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Epilogue 325
Introduction 325
Wrestling with knowledge: some reflections 326
Knowledge management – is there an optimal approach? 328
Organisational gymnastics: balancing learning with routines and dynamic
capabilities 329
Knowledge management between nations 330
Institutionalist perspective and the knowledge-based view of the firm 332
Communities of practice 333
Personal knowledge management 334
Knowledge management between nations 335
Concluding remarks 337
Further reading 338
References 338
Glossary 340
Index 345
Preface
The stimulus for this book came from the fact that I wanted a single knowledge man-
agement text for my postgraduate and doctoral students. During my deliberations, I
was surprised that I could not find a single book that covered the breadth and range
of material in knowledge management. Some of the scholarly offerings came from a
human resource perspective, some from practitioner orientations, while others came
from strong information systems directions. A cursory look at these texts showed that
there was little crossover between these three dominant dimensions. Scholars from one
perspective were rarely cited in the other and vice versa. The situation was as if each
perspective of knowledge management was engrossed in its little world without having
the language or foresight to engage in the other perspective.
Such a situation is not totally surprising given that knowledge management as a dis-
cipline is little over ten years old. There is currently a tremendous drive and popularity
in knowledge management as practitioners and academics have accepted that we are
collectively moving into a knowledge economy. To survive as individuals or companies
in this knowledge economy, we need tools and shared understanding of potential chal-
lenges and ways of dealing with them in knowledge-based organisations.
This book is intended for students and practitioners of knowledge management
and recognises the relevance of the book for students from a multitude of different
industrial sectors. The problems of managing knowledge and the everyday needs of
knowledge workers are common across many sectors. This book should appeal to stu-
dents and practitioners looking for a comprehensive coverage of theoretical debates
and best practice in knowledge management. The book is likely to be challenging as it
demands some philosophical introspection on the nature of knowledge given the argu-
ment that we cannot begin to manage knowledge until we know what knowledge is.
Certain management or information systems aspects may also appear daunting to the
uninitiated, particularly if this is not your background.
I suggest that you work through the uncomfortable feelings as I believe that the
strength of this emerging discipline lies in an integrated approach to knowledge man-
agement. There are rich rewards as we move into a new paradigm of work. The material
in this book is intended to provide you with some pertinent and practical frameworks
as well as offer a source of stimuli to think and find out more in depth where needed.
Even though there are questions within the text related directly to material found in
each chapter, the ‘Questions for further thought’ were designed to help you think ‘out-
side the box’ using material from your experience and wider reading.
Facebook, Twitter and Second Life didn’t exist five years ago when this book was
first published. There have been major advances in Web 2.0 technologies that facilitate
interactive knowledge sharing, interoperability and collaboration. In this second edi-
tion, I have brought these latest technologies up to date. I was never happy with the
structure of the first edition. This is inevitable when you’re trying to break new ground
in an emerging disciple. For this reason, I have revised the structure of the second edi-
tion, which provides much greater coherence.
xv
xvi Preface
One of the shortcomings of the first edition was the lack of real-life case stud-
ies for class discussion. I found myself using different sources with limited success. I
have rectified this situation by writing ten new case studies for class discussion. For my
source material, I have only used companies that have won the MAKE (Most Admired
Knowledge Enterprises) award. I felt that these international organisations would pro-
vide exemplars and important sources of learning. I have stitched together the case
studies from a variety of publicly available sources and followed the traditional case
study format of starting with a problem that needs to be resolved and set within the
context of limited real-life information. I have taken some poetic licence in order to
reinforce the intended learning.
Ashok Jashapara
November 2010
About the author
Dr Ashok Jashapara is an internationally recognised

expert in the field of knowledge management. He has pub-
lished widely in leading books and journals and has won a
number of awards for his writing. He has secured a number
of research awards from notable national and international
funding bodies such as the ESRC, NIHR, EU and the United
Nations. He has acted as External Examiner at the University
of Sheffield and led the information studies discipline in
teaching and learning as Associate Director for the Higher
Education Academy. He is a Founder Member of the Knowledge Management Research
Group at Loughborough University and the iCOM Research Group at Royal Holloway
(University of London).
xvii
Author’s acknowledgements
My special thanks go to my partner Karin. I would ance at my ramblings when I have needed to
like to thank her for her tolerance of my many talk to someone outside the confines of knowl-
absences from family life, as well as practical and edge management. John Mack and Tony Zajciw
moral encouragement throughout the writing at the ‘Swan’ have provided perfect diversions
period. She was terrific! My two daughters, Nicole into conversations around the arts. Similarly,
and Anna-Tina, have been an inspiration to me Glen Thumwood, Graham Farenden, Roberto
and I have valued their hugs and mischief when Sarah Sanchez, Terry Prudham, Tony Vaghela,
I have become overly involved with writing this Celis and Tommy have provided much-needed
book. My parents, Ramnik and Nilu, have also humour, wit and hilarity to balance the serious-
provided much-needed warmth and reassurance ness of writing a book. I am similarly grateful to
over the past year. my biking friends Al and Blossom at the ‘Coffin
A large number of people have helped me with Scratchers’ for the long bike rides and music fes-
the preparation of this book, not least Gabrielle tival diversions during the writing of this book. I
James and Emma Violet at Pearson Education, cannot forget Roger Faulks and Manu Frosch at
whose assistance and advice guided my percep- Swithland Woods for their friendship and tacit
tions of a good textbook. I would like to thank encouragement in this process.
colleagues in the School of Management at Finally, I would like to thank the reviewers
Royal Holloway (University of London) for their of this second edition and draft chapters. They
kind words and feedback on chapters and early steered the book into new and uncharted waters
drafts of the book, in particular Professor Duska and, while I do not claim to have incorporated
Rosenberg, Dr Bill Ryan, Dr Leonardo Rinaldi and all of their comments, they certainly caused
Dr Gloria Agyemang. A special acknowledgement some heart-searching reflection.
goes to members of the Knowledge Management During the course of writing the first edition
Research Group at Loughborough University who of this book, my close friend, Spud Bakhle, died.
read draft chapters and gave me their valuable I would like to dedicate this book to a celebration
comments that helped improve the final version. of his life and acknowledge our numerous conver-
I would like to thank Professor Ron Summers, Dr sations and ideas that have found their way
Mark Hepworth, Dr Tom Jackson and Dr Ann into this book. Spud Bakhle was a Hegelian and
O’Brien in this regard. Kantian scholar among other things and ideas
I owe a debt of gratitude to my friends at the around a dialectic are directly attributable to him.
‘Swan, Hope and Windsor’ for their great forbear-
xviii
Publisher’s acknowledgements
We are grateful to the following for permission to of Intellectual Capital, Vol 3 (1), pp.10–29 (Mouritsen,
reproduce copyright material: J., Bukh, P.N., Larsen, H.T. and Johansen, M.R. 2002),
Copyright © 2002, MCB UP Ltd; Figure 3.7 adapted
Figures from ‘Knowledge management: auditing and report-
Figure 2.3, 2.4, 11.1 adapted from Sociological Paradigms ing intellectual capital’, Journal of General Management,
and Organizational Analysis: Elements of the Sociology Vol 26 (3), pp.26–40 (Truch, E. 2001), copyright ©
of Corporate Life, Ashgate (Burrell, G. and Morgan, The Braybrooke Press Ltd; Figure 4.1 adapted from
M. 1985) copyright © Ashgate Publishing; Figure ‘Of strategies, deliberate and emergent’, Strategic
2.5 adapted from ‘The paradigm is dead, the para- Management Journal, Vol 6 (3), pp.257–272 (Mintzberg,
digm is dead... long live the paradigm: the legacy H. and Waters, J.A. 1985), Copyright © 2010 John
of Burrell and Morgan’, Omega – The International Wiley & Sons, Ltd; Figure 4.3 adapted from ‘The effec-
Journal of Management Science, Vol 28 (1), pp.249–268 tive organisation: forces and forms’, Sloan Management
(Goles, T. and Hirschheim, R. 2000), Copyright © Review, Winter, pp.54–67 (Mintzberg, H. 1991), © 1991
2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved; Figure from MIT Sloan Management Review/Massachusetts
2.6 adapted from Method in Social Science: A Realist Institute of Technology. All rights reserved. Distributed
Approach, Routledge (Sayer, A. 1992) copyright © by Tribune Media Services; Figure 5.2 adapted from
Cengage Learning EMEA Ltd; Figure 2.8 from ‘Moving The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning
beyond tacit and explicit distinctions: a realist theory Organisation, Doubleday Currency (Senge, P.M. 1990)
of organizational knowledge’, Journal of Information copyright (c) 1990, 2006 by Peter M. Senge. Used by
Science, Vol 33 (6), pp.752–766 (Jashapara, A.), Sage permission of Doubleday, a division of Random House,
Publications. Copyright © 2007, Chartered Institute Inc.; Figures 5.5, 5.6, 5.7 adapted from “Organisational
of Library and Information Professionals; Figure 3.1 learning: the contributing processes and the litera-
adapted from Intellectual Capital: Navigating in the tures”, Organization Science, Vol 2, pp.88–115 (Huber,
New Business Landscape, Macmillan (Roos, J., Roos, G., G.P. 1991), reproduced with permission. Copyright
Edvinsson, L. and Dragonetti, N.C. 1997) p.15, figure © 1991, the Institute for Operations Research and the
1.2, Reproduced by permission of Palgrave Macmillan; Management Sciences (INFORMS), 7240 Parkway Drive,
Figure 3.3 from ‘The Balanced Scorecard – Measures that Suite 300, Hanover, Maryland 21076, USA; Figure 6.2
Drive Performance’, Harvard Business Review (R.S. Kaplan from The Learning Organization, Gower (Garratt, B. 1987)
and D.P. Norton, Jan–Feb 1992), copyright © Harvard copyright © Professor Bob Garratt; Figure 6.3 from The
Business School Publishing; Figure 3.4a from ‘Dow’s Learning Company: A Strategy for Sustainable Development,
journey to a knowledge value management culture’, McGraw-Hill (Pedler, M., Burgoyne, J. and Boydell,
European Management Journal, Vol 14 (4), pp.365–373 T. 1991) Reproduced with the kind permission of The
(Petrash, G. 1996), Copyright © 1996 Published by McGraw-Hill Companies. All rights reserved; Figure
Elsevier Science Ltd; Figure 3.4b from Intellectual Capital: 6.4 from The Knowledge Creating Company, Harvard
Realizing Your Company’s True Value by Finding Its Hidden Business Review, 69 (Nov–Dec), pp. 96–104 (Nonaka, I.
Brainpower, Judy Piatkus (Publishers) Ltd (Edvinsson, 1991), copyright © Harvard Business School Publishing;
L. and Malone, M.S. 1997) copyright © 1997 by Leif Figure 6.5 from ‘Cognition, culture and competition:
Edvinsson and Michael S. Malone. Reprinted by per- an empirical test of the learning organization’, The
mission of HarperCollins Publishers and Little, Brown Learning Organization: An International Journal, Vol 10
Publishers Ltd; Figure 3.4c from Strategic Management (1), pp.31–50 (Jashapara, A. 2003), Copyright © 2003,
of Professional Service Firms, Handelshojskolens Forlag MCB UP Ltd; Figure 6.6 from ‘A Typology of the Idea
(Lowendahl, B. 1997) reproduced with permission; of Learning Organization’, Management Learning, 33 (2),
Figure 3.4d from The Danish Confederation of Trade pp.213–230 (Ortenblad, A. 2002), Copyright © 2002,
Unions, 1999, reproduced with permission of LO, SAGE Publications; Figure 7.13 adapted from John
Landsorganisationen Islands; Figure 3.4e from Profiting Risch at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory,
from Intellectual Capital: Extracting Value from Innovation, www.cybergeography.org/atlas/info_spaces.html,
Wiley (Sullivan, P.H. 1998) Reproduced with permission reproduced courtesy of Pacific Northwest National
of John Wiley & Sons, Inc.; Figure 3.4f from Intellectual Laboratory; Figure 9.3 from ‘Handy’s typology of culture’
Capital, Thomson Publishers (Brooking, A. 1996) from Understanding Organisations, Fourth edition 1993,
copyright © Cengage Learning EMEA Ltd; Figure 3.6 Penguin Books 1976 (Handy, C.B.) copyright (c) Charles
adapted from ‘Developing and managing knowl- Handy, 1976, 1981, 1985, 1993, 1999. Reproduced
edge through intellectual capital statements’, Journal by permission of Penguin Books Ltd; Figure 9.4 from
xix
xx Publisher’s acknowledgements
Corporate Cultures: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Vol 6 (1), pp.7–17 (Gao, F., Li, M. and Nakamori, Y.
Life, Penguin (Deal, T.E. and Kennedy, A.A. 1982) 2002), Copyright © 2002, MCB UP Ltd; Table 8.5 from
copyright © T. Deal and A. Kennedy. Reprinted by per- Working with Groupware: Understanding and Evaluating
mission of The Peters Fraser and Dunlop Group Limited Collaboration Technology, Springer-Verlag (Andriessen,
on behalf of T. Deal and A. Kennedy; Figure 9.6 from J.H.E. 2003) with kind permission from Springer
Organizational Culture Inventory, Human Synergistics Science and Business Media; Table 9.1 adapted from
(Cooke, R.A. and Lafferty, J.C. 1987) copyright © Human ‘Corporations, culture and commitment: motivation and
Synergistics International; Figure 9.7 from ‘The concept social control in organizations’, California Management
of ”Ba”: building a foundation for knowledge creation’, Review, Vol 31(4), pp.9–25 (O’Reilly, C.A. 1989), copy-
California Management Review, Vol 40(3), pp.40–54 right (c) 1989 by The Regents of the University of
(Nonaka, I. and Konno, N. 1998), copyright (c) 1998 by California; Table 9.2 from ‘Communities of practice:
The Regents of the University of California; Figure 9.11 the organizational frontier’, Harvard Business Review,
from ‘Transferring, translating and transforming: An pp.139–45 (Wenger, E.C. and Snyder, W.M., Jan–Feb
integrative framework for managing knowledge across 2000), copyright © Harvard Business School Publishing.
boundaries’, Organization Science, Vol 15, p.558 (Carlile,
P.R. 2004), Reproduced with permission of INFORMS
Photographs
Figure 1.5 © The Trustees of The British Museum; Figure
and Paul R. Carlile. Copyright © 2004, the Institute
1.6 © The British Library Board (Lansdowne 1179 f34v);
for Operations Research and the Management Sciences
Figure 1.7 © The British Library Board (C.9.d.3).
(INFORMS), 7240 Parkway Drive, Suite 300, Hanover,
Maryland 21076, USA; Figure 10.3 from The Theory and Text
Practice of Change Management, Palgrave (Hayes, J. 2002) Article on pages 262–264 from ‘Building bridges for
p.215, figure 12.2, Reproduced by permission of Palgrave success’, The Financial Times, 29/06/2007 (Grattan, L.),
Macmillan; Figure 10.8 from Employee Development copyright (c) Lynda Grattan; General Displayed Text
Practice, Pitman Publishing (Stewart, J. 1999) copyright on pages 275–278 from Organizational Culture Inventory,
© Pearson Education Ltd; Figure 11.7 from Know Your Human Synergistics (Cooke, R.A. and Lafferty, J.C.
Value? Value What You Know, Prentice Hall (Cope, M. 1987) copyright © Human Synergistics International.
2000) copyright © Pearson Education Ltd.
The Financial Times
Screenshots Article on page 5 from ‘Life in an interconnected world’,
Screenshot 7.6 from Decision Explorer ®. Reproduced The Financial Times, 03/11/2009 (Waters, R.), copyright
with the kind permission of Banxia Software Ltd. © The Financial Times Ltd; Article on page 35 from
Banxia and Decision Explorer are registered trademarks. ‘Business must learn from the new tribe’, The Financial
Times, 29/05/2009 (Twentyman, J.), copyright © The
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Financial Times Ltd; Extract on pages 64–65 from ‘A
Table 5.1 from An organisational learning framework:
little knowledge is deadly dangerous’, The Financial
from intuition to institution, Academy of Management
Times, 12/01/2010 (Stern, S.), copyright © The Financial
Review, 24 (3), pp. 522–37 (Crossan, M.M., Lane, H. and
Times Ltd; Article on page 91 from ‘A hunger for knowl-
White, R. 1999); Table 5.2 adapted from ‘Deliberate
edge is China’s real secret weapon’, The Financial Times,
learning and the evolution of dynamic capabilities’,
05/10/2005, p.12 (London, S.), copyright © The Financial
Organization Science, Vol 13 (issue 3), pp.339–51 (Zollo,
Times Ltd; Article on pages 122–123 from ‘Recruits fired
M. and Winter, S.G. 2002), Adapted with permission.
up by virtual rivalry’, The Financial Times, 04/05/2009
Copyright © 2002, the Institute for Operations Research
(Tieman, R.), copyright © The Financial Times Ltd;
and the Management Sciences (INFORMS), 7240
Article on pages 159–160 from ‘Teaching materials: From
Parkway Drive, Suite 300, Hanover, Maryland 21076,
pen and paper to wikis and video’, The Financial Times,
USA; Table 6.2 from The learning organisation simpli-
11/05/2009 (Jacobs, M.), copyright © The Financial Times
fied, Training and Development, July, pp. 30–33 (Honey, P.
Ltd; Article on pages 186–187 from ‘Business starts to take
1991), copyright © Peter Honey, Education Development
Web 2.0 tools seriously’, The Financial Times, 28/01/2009
International; Table 6.3 from ‘The Competitive Learning
(Twentyman, J.), copyright © The Financial Times Ltd;
Organization: A Quest for the Holy Grail’, Management
Article on pages 229–230 from ‘Decision-making software
Decision, Vol 31 (8), pp.52–62 (Jashapara, A. 1993),
in the fast lane’, The Financial Times, 28/02/2007 (Cane,
Copyright © 1993, MCB UP Ltd; Table 8.1 from ‘Review:
A.), copyright © The Financial Times Ltd; Article on pages
Knowledge Management and Knowledge Management
296–297 from ‘Box clever and keep your star performers
Systems’, MIS Quarterly, 25 (1), pp.107–136 (Alavi, M.
happy’, The Financial Times, 26/05/2009, p.14 (Stern, S.),
and Leidner, D.E. 2001), Copyright © 1995, Regents
copyright © The Financial Times Ltd.
of the University of Minnesota. Reprinted by permis-
sion; Table 8.2 from ‘Systems thinking on knowledge In some instances we have been unable to trace the
and its management: systems methodology for knowl- owners of copyright material, and we would appreciate
edge management’, Journal of Knowledge Management, any information that would enable us to do so.
Part 1
THE NATURE OF KNOWLEDGE
NATURE
OF KNOWLEDGE
Data, information and knowledge
History of managing knowledge
Philosophical perspectives on knowledge
LEVERAGING
MOBILISING
KNOWLEDGE
KNOWLEDGE
Intellectual capital
Enabling contexts
Strategic management
Knowledge networks
perspectives
Change management
Knowledge management
strategy
KNOWLEDGE CREATING
ARTEFACTS KNOWLEDGE
Knowledge management tools Organisational learning
Knowledge management systems Learning organisations
Chapter 1
Introduction to knowledge
management
Learning outcomes
After completing this chapter, the reader should be able to:
●● distinguish between different perspectives in the knowledge management (KM)
literature;
●● explain the diversity of disciplines and content that make up the field of knowledge
management;
●● describe the differences between the terms data, information and knowledge;
●● assess the differences in the management of knowledge from ancient to modern times.
Management issues
An introduction to the discipline of knowledge management implies these questions for
managers:
●● What is knowledge management?
●● How can knowledge improve actions in an organisation?
●● What is the difference between information management and knowledge
management?
Links to other chapters

Chapter 2 examines the history of philosophical thought on the notion of knowledge
which links directly to the history of managing knowledge from the oral
traditions to the storage of knowledge in libraries.
4 Part 1 / The nature of knowledge
OPENING VIGNETTE
Life in an interconnected world FT

‘Tech companies are hoping that the latest inno- Microsoft and IBM, is now under attack from
vations in the sphere of “collaboration software” all sides as other technology companies hunt
will revolutionise the way in which we work,’ for ways to make so-called ‘knowledge workers’
writes Richard Waters. more productive.
The Digital Age has bred a new class of infor- Cisco Systems showed its hand last month
mation slaves. They process endless streams of with the announcement of a $3bn (e2bn,
e-mail or waste time hunting for information on £1.8bn) agreement to buy Tandberg, a
their hard disks and corporate intranets. Edited Norwegian video-conferencing company, to add
and re-edited versions of the same document to widening portfolio tools. Google launched a
bounce back and forth on long e-mail threads limited test version of its own all-purpose online
among co-workers, challenging them to keep up. tool, known as Wave, in September.
For the tortuous and time-consuming nature of Undaunted by the coming clash of giants
this work, you can blame some of the world’s big- such as these, several start-ups have also set
gest technology companies. Much of the ‘collabo- their sights on the market. Typical of the breed
ration software’ that most workers use to commu- is Xobni, whose technology rides on top of the
nicate and work together – in particular the e-mail widely used Microsoft Outlook e-mail software
systems that dominate white-collar working life and aims to help users find and make use of
– has barely changed in a decade, even as the tide information in their e-mail inboxes more effec-
of messages and documents has risen. tively than Microsoft’s own tools can.
‘It’s almost been criminal, the lack of innova- Most of these companies have their sights set on
tion on the e-mail client,’ says Matt Cain, an the same things: simplification and convergence.
analyst at Gartner, the technology research firm. One manifestation of this is the growing use
Even in areas where technology has advanced, of ‘dashboards’ – screens that bring a number of
many workers are still in the Dark Ages – either applications together in one view. They are usu-
because their companies have yet to give them ally centred on the e-mail inbox, with parts of
the latest tools, or because they don’t have the the screen given over to other applications.
time or inclination to try them out. Designs such as this are meant to help workers
‘It’s a constant challenge for us to make peo- complete a task without having to close and open
ple engage with new technologies,’ says Stephen multiple windows on their PCs. They aggregate
Elop, president of Microsoft’s business division, multiple sources of information and provide a
which makes the widely used Office applications. limited amount of information integration.
The sheer number of applications that the ‘For instance, when opening an e-mail from
average worker has to juggle hasn’t helped. These a customer, a user of Xobni’s dashboard might
now range from corporate document-sharing see information alongside it drawn automatically
sites and web conferencing to Facebook and from the company’s internal customer relation-
Twitter, which are starting to encroach from the ship management system,’ says Jeff Bonforte, the
consumer world. company’s chief executive. ‘The bigger operators
‘If you count up all the applications people are are also moving quickly in this direction, with
being asked to use, it’s probably a dozen,’ says most likely to announce similar products in the
Ted Schadler, an analyst at Forrester Research. coming months,’ says Mr Schadler at Forrester.
The result, he says, is overload and frustration. In Aggregating and integrating e-mail with other
a survey last month of how 2,000 office workers sources of information and applications is only
use their PCs, Forrester concluded that the take- part of the answer. Eventually, to solve e-mail
up of collaboration tools has ‘stalled out’, leaving overload, the inbox itself needs to become smarter.
e-mail as the all-purpose default option. Change, ‘It should be able to aggregate all the sources and
however, is finally in the air. The market for recommend priorities,’ says Doug Heintzman,
collaboration software, dominated for years by head of strategy for IBM’s collaboration software.
Chapter 1 / Introduction to knowledge management 5
Research labs at companies such as IBM and hard,’ says Mr Heintzman at IBM. ‘There are so
Microsoft have been working for some time on many different work styles, people have so many
the algorithms to do this, but according to Mr different roles and come from different cultures,’
Heintzman, a working system is still three to five he explains.
years away. They also come from different technological
A second approach to simplification and con- eras: a generation of workers wedded to e-mail is
vergence focuses on ways for workers to collabo- starting to encounter a generation that grew up on
rate on tasks without having to resort to endless social networks and instant messaging. Keeping
group e-mails with multiple ‘cc’s’ and attachments. them all on the same page will not be easy.
Most new approaches revolve around software
that keeps information in a central place and lets Surf the Wave
staff jointly access and work on it. Microsoft, for It was classic Google ambition. Earlier this year,
instance, has devised a way for people in differ- Lars Rasmussen, one of the company’s star devel-
ent locations to ‘co-author’ a document simulta- opers, stood in front of thousands at a company-
neously, though their employers will need to buy sponsored conference and said that Google was
the latest versions of its Office and server-based about to reinvent e-mail.
Sharepoint software for this to work. Google Wave, now in a limited test, has been
Google is now trying to go one better. If peo- hailed as a radical departure in internet-based com-
ple can communicate in the same place that they munication, though it has also been faulted for
create and edit information, it calculates, then its complexity and poor design – criticisms that
many of the complexities caused by current soft- Mr Rasmussen and his fellow developers accept,
ware would fall away. though they say they will correct these glitches.
The result is Google Wave, an online application Like an expanded instant messaging system,
built for both consumer and work use that merges Wave lets groups of users hold a text conversation
multiple ways of working and communicating. while also creating, commenting on and jointly
That makes it the Swiss Army Knife of software, and editing documents in the same window. In a
its early reception has been mixed, reflecting the head-turning gimmick, words can be seen by any-
difficulty of such an ambitious undertaking. one connected to a ‘wave’ as they are being typed.
‘It’s the opposite of simple,’ says Mr Cain at ‘Making one tool with such broad utility is
Gartner, though he adds that it is ‘really innova-
the way to go,’ Mr Rasmussen says. ‘You don‘t
tive’. ‘There’s no doubt it will have an impact
have to learn a new way of sharing something
on the evolution of this market,’ he says. For the
for every different collaboration task. Everything
average information slave, meanwhile, none of
is just a wave.’ In spite of the simplicity which
this guarantees a quick or sure route to higher
that implies, getting the most out of Wave will
productivity and lower blood pressure. Though
demand a lot from its users. ‘We weren’t try-
many of these new ways of interacting have
ing to hit something that you could learn in an
already been tried out in the consumer world
afternoon,’ he says. ‘We were trying to build a
– ‘social’ software such as wikis, or co-authored
tool that will be with you for many hours each
documents were a staple of the Web 2.0 move-
ment – it will be some time before they find their day. You can even imagine, in time, people will
way into office life. be teaching courses in Wave.’
It takes time for experimental consumer serv- Source: from Life in an interconnected world, The Financial
Times, 03/11/2009 (Waters, R.), copyright © The Financial
ices to evolve into the stable, secure applications Times Ltd.
that corporate IT departments feel comfortable
with. Also, the slow upgrade cycle of corporate
Questions
software feels glacial compared to the red-hot
pace of innovation currently seen on the inter- 1 How can ‘information slaves’ overcome problems
net. The biggest challenge of all, though, comes of ‘information overload’?
from workers themselves. 2 What are the problems of collaborative
‘Any collaboration tool that is not adopted technologies for ‘knowledge workers’?
widely will, by definition, fail, yet devising soft- 3 How can Google Wave improve collaboration and
ware that appeals to a broad group of users is communication among ‘knowledge workers’?
Knowledge management: an integrated approach

The aim of this book is to provide a comprehensive and integrated discourse on the
various facets, emerging issues and perspectives on knowledge management. There are
numerous accounts of knowledge management as a process and a continuous cycle and
this representation has been used as a structure for this book, as shown in Figure 1.1.
The generic activities in the knowledge management cycle are subdivided into the five
parts of this book: the nature of knowledge, leveraging knowledge, creating knowledge,
knowledge artefacts and mobilising knowledge.
◗● Part 1: The nature of knowledge

Part 1 explores all the different aspects related to the notion of knowledge and knowl-
edge management. An historical perspective on how knowledge was managed across
the centuries from the bardic oral tradition to the current digital revolution is provided.
Philosophy is not often taught in our universities and its central role in understanding
knowledge is examined. This will allow future students to move beyond the current
structural, process and practice perspectives in the literature.
●● Chapter 1: Introduction to knowledge management. This chapter provides an explora-

tion of the emerging discipline and forwards an integrated model. The differences
between data, information and knowledge are examined. An historical perspective
on knowledge management illustrates the central function of libraries in knowledge
creation, sharing and transfer.
NATURE
OF KNOWLEDGE
Data, information and knowledge
History of managing knowledge
Philosophical perspectives on knowledge
LEVERAGING
MOBILISING
KNOWLEDGE
KNOWLEDGE
Intellectual capital
Enabling contexts
Strategic management
Knowledge networks
perspectives
Change management
Knowledge management
strategy
KNOWLEDGE CREATING
ARTEFACTS KNOWLEDGE
Knowledge management tools Organisational learning
Knowledge management systems Learning organisations
Figure 1.1 Web of knowledge management

●● Chapter 2: The nature of knowing. This is a thought-provoking chapter exploring issues

of ontology and epistemology. What is the nature of knowledge and reality? What
are the aspects of knowledge that we can know? The contributions of major philoso-
phers in the knowledge debate are examined and the current notions of knowledge
in the knowledge management literature are assessed.
◗● Part 2: Leveraging knowledge

Part 2 explores the fruits of knowledge management in the formation of intellectual
capital within an organisation. Knowledge is considered as the critical factor for com-
petitiveness and economic growth. The knowledge management strategies underlying
innovation and growth are assessed.
●● Chapter 3: Intellectual capital. This chapter examines some of the limitations of tradi-
tional financial measures in performance measurement and the search for non-financial
measures such as intellectual capital to supplement these conventional sources. Several
models of intellectual capital are compared and generic notions of human capital, social
capital, organisational capital and customer capital are presented.
●● Chapter 4: Strategic management perspectives. This chapter contrasts the difference
between three dominant strategy schools of thought: industrial organisation, excel-
lence and turnaround, and the institutionalist perspective.
◗● Part 3: Creating knowledge

Part 3 examines the different organisational processes involved with knowledge crea-
tion. At its heart are the various learning processes intrinsic to organisational survival and
growth. The organisational learning literature has led to the conception of a ‘learning
organisation’. The nature and debates surrounding a learning organisation are explored.
●● Chapter 5: Organisational learning. This chapter outlines the nature of individual,

team and organisational learning. An information processing perspective is adopted
to examine the processes of knowledge acquisition, information distribution,
information interpretation and organisational memory. The development of organi-
sational routines and dynamic capabilities are discussed.
●● Chapter 6: The learning organisation. This chapter contrasts the terms ‘organisational
learning’ and the ‘learning organisation’ and articulates the diversity of US and UK
models associated with the learning organisation. Empirical research in this field
is assessed.
◗● Part 4: Knowledge artefacts

Part 4 examines knowledge artefacts, which occur as different forms of information and
communication technologies to enable effective utilisation of knowledge. This part pro-
vides an understanding of the different technologies used to mobilise knowledge, especially
the new Web 2.0 platform with applications such as Twitter, Facebook and Second Life. A
number of these technologies have been integrated as knowledge management systems to
allow organisations to manage the high load and complexity of knowledge.
●● Chapter 7: Knowledge management tools: component technologies. This chapter pro-

vides a grounding in the variety of knowledge management tools that can be used
at different stages in the knowledge management cycle. These include ontology and
taxonomy tools, information retrieval tools, personalisation tools, data mining tools,
case-based reasoning tools, groupware tools, video-conferencing tools, e-learning
tools and visualisation tools.
●● Chapter 8: Knowledge management systems. This chapter elaborates on a variety of
knowledge management systems including document management systems, deci-
sion support systems, group support systems, executive information systems,
workflow management systems and customer relationship management systems.
◗● Part 5: Mobilising knowledge

Part 5 examines the softer aspects of mobilising knowledge through people and tech-
nology. Apart from conducive social environments, organisations are increasingly
providing a mixture of physical and virtual spaces for their knowledge workers. The
intention is to enable them to engage actively in discussion and dialogue in formal and
informal settings. Innovation and new initiatives can often face hostility and difficul-
ties. The various human resource interventions for the successful implementation of
such initiatives are explored.
●● Chapter 9: Enabling knowledge contexts and networks. This chapters contrasts the lit-
erature on organisational climate and culture and explores the debates around
knowledge-sharing cultures. Informal networks called ‘communities of practice’ are
explained along with the role of storytelling and narratives within them.
●● Chapter 10: Implementing knowledge management. This chapter provides the latest
thinking on the effective implementation of knowledge management initiatives. It
examines how high levels of commitment can be developed through leadership and
a variety of human resource interventions. The role of politics in change manage-
ment programmes is highlighted.
Introduction
Knowledge management has similar parallels with the rise of English as an academic
discipline in the early twentieth century. In the 1920s it was unclear why anyone
should study English and, by the 1930s, it was a question of whether students should
study anything else at all. English was initially a poor man’s Classics and was taught in
working men’s colleges and mechanic institutes. The subject was considered an upstart
and rather amateurish affair compared with the traditional subjects such as Classics and
Philology. Similarly, knowledge management in the twenty-first century has risen from
practitioner and consultancy knowledge and has only recently become a subject for
academic study. Today English is often associated with creative or imaginative writing.
However, in the eighteenth century, English covered all the valued writings in society
including history, philosophy, essays, letters and poems (Eagleton 1999; Palmer 1965).
Similarly, today knowledge management can be confused with information systems by
some commentators and human resource management by others. In reality, it has roots
in a wide variety of disciplines such as philosophy, business management, anthropol-
ogy, information science, psychology and computer science.
In fashioning knowledge management into a serious discipline, this chapter will
explore the nature of knowledge management and propose a definition of this field
from an interdisciplinary perspective. To provide a balanced appraisal of the literature,
a critical understanding of reservations in this field will be forwarded. The terms ‘data’,
‘information’ and ‘knowledge’ can often be used synonymously in the literature and
the distinction between these terms is explored.
Knowledge, and the way it is managed, has been with humankind since the
beginning of time. This chapter shall proceed to explore the history of knowledge
management, taking a broad perspective and including the vital role of libraries in the
ancient and modern worlds. The development of oral knowledge from the oral tra-
ditions to the first writing of cuneiform among Sumerians is discussed. A journey is
conducted through the flourishing libraries in ancient Greek and Roman periods such
as the Alexandria library and the Ulpian library. The influence of Christianity in the
rise of monastic and cathedral libraries is explained together with the emergence of
early universities. The paradigm leap in knowledge creation and dissemination that
has occurred through the development of print, computers and telecommunications is
fully explored.
The knowledge economy

Peter Drucker (1992, 1993) argued that the workplace was changing and there was an
increasing distinction between the manual worker and the ‘knowledge worker’. To him,
a manual worker used his hands to produce goods and services, whereas a knowledge
worker used his head to create ideas, information and knowledge that could add value
to the firm.
Subsequently, knowledge workers have been defined as professionals, associate pro-
fessionals or managers with graduate level skills in critical thinking, communications
and technology. In 2006 knowledge workers accounted for 42 per cent of all employ-
ment in the UK (Brinkley, 2006). The concept of a knowledge economy has emerged to
represent a ‘soft discontinuity’ from the past. It is not a new economy with new laws.
Instead it is an economy driven by knowledge intangibles rather than physical capital,
natural resources or low-skilled labour. The OECD (1996) has recognised that knowledge
and technology have become drivers of productivity and economic growth in modern
economies. The new focus for economic performance is on knowledge, technology and
learning. The role of governments and policy makers is shifting towards the greater
development and maintenance of this knowledge base. It is not purely an increased
commitment to R&D but rather the mobilisation of knowledge to add value to goods
and services. A number of definitions of the knowledge economy are provided below:
‘….one in which the generation and exploitation of knowledge has come to play the pre-
dominant part in the creation of wealth. It is not simply about pushing back the frontiers of
knowledge; it is also about the most effective use and exploitation of all types of knowledge
in all manner of economic activity.’ (DTI 1998)
‘. . . economic success is increasingly based upon the effective utilisation of intangible

assets such as knowledge, skills and innovative potential as the key resource for competitive
advantage. The term ‘knowledge economy’ is used to describe this emerging economic struc-
ture.’ (ESRC 2005 quoted in Brinkley 2006)
Unlike the use of scarce resources in previous economies, knowledge is not a

resource that is depleted after its use. Instead, knowledge grows through transfer and
exchange and an abundance of knowledge can be seen to exist on the internet. Firms
are no longer restrained by the physical location of partners in a supply chain. Instead
they can exist as virtual organisations and engage in economic activity within virtual
marketplaces across the world. This can make it difficult for governments to regulate
and control this economic activity through laws and taxes on a national basis.
Globalisation is closely related to the knowledge economy. Firms have added value
through knowledge to new products in the West and have had them built and assem-
bled in lower-wage economies such as China and India. However, the same low-waged
economies are now investing heavily in knowledge through greater investment in R&D
as a proportion of their GDP and increased numbers of home-grown graduates. They are
developing their knowledge economies through greater share of highly educated labour
and greater production and utilisation of information and communication technologies.
In 2007 a Booz Allan Hamilton (a consulting firm) report on global innovation showed
that the top global innovating firms had established 80–90 per cent of their new corporate
R&D sites and personnel in India and China (Teagarden et al., 2008). Is this an example of
the use of ‘cheap smarts’ rather than use of more expensive home-grown talent?
What is knowledge management?

In the post-industrial or knowledge economy (Bell 1973; Drucker 1992), knowledge
management has become an emerging discipline that has gained enormous popularity
among academics, consultants and practitioners. It has been argued that it is no longer
the traditional industrial technologies or craft skills that drive competitive performance
but, instead, knowledge that has become the key asset to drive organisational survival
and success.
To the uninitiated reader, the multitude of offerings on knowledge management in
books, journals and magazines can appear rather daunting and confusing at first. The
fact is that it is a relatively young discipline trying to find its way, while recognising that
it has roots in a number of other, very different disciplines. Some literature on knowl-
edge management is heavily information systems oriented, giving the impression that
it is little more than information management. Other literature looks more at the peo-
ple’s dimension of knowledge creation and sharing, making the subject more akin to
human-resource management. These are the two most common dimensions and there
is often little crossover between them. Each world fails to comprehend the other, as the
language and assumptions of each discipline vary significantly. However, it is precisely
these interdisciplinary linkages that provide the most rewarding advances in this field.
Given the interdisciplinary nature of this emerging field, conventional academic
demarcations in traditional subject areas do not help. For example, it is relatively rare
for computer or information science graduates to gain sufficient grounding in human
resource management and vice versa with traditional business management students.
This impasse is often based on fear on both sides about the nature and relative merits of
their respective skills and expertise. Beyond these two dominant dimensions, there are
some additional perspectives within the KM literature, ranging from strategy to cultural
change management. It is not surprising that there is little coherence between these offer-
ings, as many authors orientate the subject area to their singular discipline perspective.
Critical thinking and reflection

What does knowledge mean to you? If you were asked to detail your specialist knowledge,
how would you describe your knowledge? Have you ever thought of the market value
of your knowledge and what this may be? Given that there is a competitive market for
knowledge and skills, how do you ensure that your knowledge is state-of-the-art and kept
up to date?
The strength and challenge of knowledge management as an emerging discipline

comes from its interdisciplinary approach, as shown in Figure 1.2. For example, if
knowledge management was purely information systems, current tools and business
processes would suffice. However, the reality is that different information systems
approaches such as data processing, management information systems and strategic
information systems have been found wanting. There are numerous examples of major
investments made in this area, particularly in the financial services sector, that have
yielded little or no benefit to host organisations. Instead, the real synergies in knowl-
edge management are more likely to occur from boundary-spanning individuals who
can see beyond the narrow margins of their own disciplines and recognise the value of
dialogue and debate with other disciplines.
Given the multidisciplinary nature of knowledge management, it is not surprising
that the variety of current definitions comes from a number of different perspectives,
as shown in Table 1.1. Some come from an information systems perspective (Mertins
et al. 2000), while others suggest a human-resource perspective (Skyrme 1999; Swan et
al. 1999a). A few definitions have begun to adopt a more strategic management per-
spective, recognising the importance of knowledge management practices for gaining
competitive advantage (Newell et al. 2009; uit Beijerse 2000). However, none of these
definitions expands on the alliances with particular strategic schools of thought, and
the basic assumptions of the nature of competitive environments (such as highly tur-
bulent) or strategic positioning (such as continuous innovation) need to be questioned
KNOWLEDGE KNOWLEDGE
CREATION TRANSLATION
KNOWLEDGE KNOWLEDGE
MOBILISATION TRANSFER
ACTIVITIES
C u l t ur e
ge In t ell e c t
a n m ent ca p i t a u
n g io n ge KM
ma Ch
al
t
na
o r g a n r ni
i sa
sy
Lea
ste
S t r a te g ic
ms
ge m e
an a nt CONTENT
m
O l e a r n i ng l
a n i s a t io na
K M tool
rg
INFO
G Y RMA
ATE SCIE TION
GY STR NCE COMPU
TER
OP OLO E SCIENCE DISCIPLINE
RC PH
THR ILO
AN I CS S OU T SO ROOTS
OM RE EN PH PSYC
ON MAN GEM Y HOLO
GY
C A
E HU AN
M MANAGEMENT
O G Y
I O L SCIENCE
S O C
Figure 1.2 Tree of knowledge management – disciplines, content and activity
(Newell et al. 2009). External environments may shift from turbulent to more stable
environments over time and competitive environments may favour efficiency rather
than innovation in a given period. The basic fact is that we live in uncertain times and
any assumptions about competitive environments and approaches to organisational
alignment and adaptability need to be considered carefully.
Table 1.1 Representative sample of knowledge management definitions
Author/s Definition Perspective
Davenport and ‘Knowledge management draws from existing Integration

Prusak (1998) resources that your organisation may already have (information
in place – good information systems management, systems and
organisational change management, and human human resources)
resources management practices.’
Swan et al. ‘… any process or practice of creating, acquiring, Human resource

(1999b) capturing, sharing and using knowledge, wherever process
it resides, to enhance learning and performance in
organisations.’
Skyrme (1999) ‘The explicit and systematic management of vital Human resource
knowledge and its associated processes of creating, process
gathering, organising, diffusion, use and exploitation,
in pursuit of organisational objectives.’
Mertins et al. ‘… all methods, instruments and tools that in a holistic Information
(2000) approach contribute to the promotion of core systems
knowledge processes.’
uit Beijerse ‘The achievement of the organisation’s goals by Strategy

(2000) making the factor knowledge productive.’
Newell et al. ‘… improving the ways in which firms facing highly Strategy
(2009) turbulent environments can mobilise their knowledge
base (or leverage their knowledge ‘assets’) in order to
ensure continuous innovation.’
From the definitions of knowledge management given in Table 1.1, it is clear that any
advancements in this field need to adopt an integrated (Davenport and Prusak 1998),
interdisciplinary and strategic perspective, as shown in Figure 1.3. The strategic pur-
pose of knowledge management activities is to increase intellectual capital and enhance
organisational performance (see Chapters 3 and 4). There is a human dimension of
developing knowledge in individuals, teams and organisations and this fundamentally
occurs through different learning processes (see Chapter 5). Once knowledge is cre-
ated, the sharing of knowledge remains one of the fundamental challenges in this field.
As human beings, we need support to help us explore and exploit knowledge (tacit –
‘know-how’ – and explicit – ‘know what’, see Chapters 2 and 5) more fully. There is a
wide variety of tools, technologies and systems that can fulfil these functions, such as
the continuous cycle of knowledge creation, capture, organisation, evaluation, storage
and sharing (see Chapters 7 and 8). However, KM tools and organisational processes are
insufficient in themselves to achieve success. Many well-planned initiatives have proved
futile, as they have failed to acknowledge the cultural and change-management dimen-
sions (see Chapters 9 and 10) of successful implementation.
Intellectual Organisational
capital performance
Strategy
Change
management
KNOWLEDGE Systems and

Culture
MANAGEMENT technology
Implementation
Organisational
learning
Exploration Knowledge
sharing
Exploitation
Figure 1.3 Dimensions of knowledge management
These different dimensions of knowledge management have been brought together

into an integrated definition. From an interdisciplinary perspective, knowledge man-
agement can be defined as:
‘the effective learning processes associated with exploration, exploitation and sharing of
human knowledge (tacit and explicit) that use appropriate technology and cultural environ-
ments to enhance an organisation’s intellectual capital and performance.’
Is knowledge management a fad?

As is common with any new field of discourse, knowledge management has its critics
and its antithesis. The most vociferous so far has come from information scientists who
appear to feel threatened by the prospect that it may marginalise their own discipline
(Ponzi and Koenig 2002; Wilson 2002). This is clearly unjustified, as information sci-
ence is an essential component of knowledge management, although not the only one. A
number of arguments have been put forward to show that knowledge management is no
more than ‘old wine in new bottles’ where, as with Alice through the looking glass, terms
can mean what anyone chooses them to mean. Let us explore some of the arguments.
The first argument posed is that knowledge management is no more than a fad
or a fashion. The difference between a fad and a fashion is the duration of time over
which the phenomenon lasts. Fads develop a high level of interest in a short time, then
die away. However, fashions have a much longer maturity of interest. Bibliometric
techniques have been adopted to examine the volume of bibliographic records as an
indicator of discourse popularity over time. The assumption is that knowledge man-
agement is similar to other management fads such as quality circles, total quality
management and business process re-engineering. However, the empirical evidence
goes counter to these arguments. Bibliometric studies (1991–2001) show that knowl-
edge management has had almost exponential growth in the past six years and shows
no signs of abating (Ponzi and Koenig 2002).
The second argument posed by such critics is that knowledge management does
not stand up to rigorous analysis, as it has emerged from consultancy practice (Wilson
2002). This is clearly not the case, since knowledge has roots within organisational
learning and strategy literatures with a much older lineage of rigour. The organi-
sation of knowledge was being considered by some scholars as early as the 1960s
(Etzioni 1964). More recently, scholars have been debating the knowledge-based view
of the firm (Grant 1996; Spender 1996) descending from a resource-based view of
the firm (Barney 1991; Barney 2001) and institutional theory (Penrose 1959; Selznick
1957). At practitioner levels, there have been studies exploring knowledge manage-
ment strategies and approaches in eminent journals such as the Harvard Business Review
(Hansen et al. 1999; Nonaka 1991). The corpus of rigorous knowledge is emerging in
this field, including critical analysis of the literature as well as alternative insights such
as postmodernist orientations (Kalling and Styhre 2003; Styhre 2003).
The third argument against knowledge management is that many top business
schools have failed to respond to these advances in knowledge management in their
curricula (Wilson 2002). Some business schools may incorporate the material associated
with knowledge management on a variety of modules such as strategic management,
human resource management and information management strategy. It would be
remarkable if any business school ignored the learning base associated with knowl-
edge management. At some schools in the UK, such as the Open University Business
School, there is a specialised module on knowledge management attracting a signifi-
cant number of students. The knowledge management discipline is around seven years
old, and it is not surprising that some business schools have been pioneering in this
new field whereas others have been assessing its likely impact.
The final argument is that knowledge management is no more than ‘search and
replace marketing’ (Wilson 2002). This means that many software houses simply
relabel their products with ‘knowledge’ or ‘knowledge management’ somewhere within
their brand. There is certainly an element of this. Such organisations may be forgiven
for cashing in on the popularity of knowledge management in the corporate market-
place. An example of this is Lotus Notes software relabelling itself as ‘Knowledgeware’
rather than groupware. However, knowledge management is more than software and
systems, even though they are important aspects of it. Some confusion may arise when
critics wrongly assume that knowledge management has developed an entirely new
toolkit in the past five years rather than building and adapting existing information
systems to serve its own ends. Future KM technologies are likely to explore ways of tap-
ping into the vast reservoir of tacit knowledge in organisations.
Table 1.2 Some typical examples of knowledge management job titles
• Chief knowledge officer • Director of knowledge management
• Director of intellectual capital • Knowledge department manager
• Knowledge manager • Knowledge economist
• Knowledge consultant • Knowledge resources librarian
• Knowledge management analyst • Knowledge administrator
• Knowledge coordinator • Knowledge management project manager
A convincing counter-argument against many critics is the clear empirical evidence

demonstrating that knowledge management has become an accepted part of the cor-
porate agenda, particularly among large firms. Specialist roles have emerged such as
chief knowledge officers, knowledge managers and directors of intellectual capital (see
Table 1.2 for a list of typical KM job titles). For instance, a survey conducted by KPMG
Consulting in 1999 (KPMG Consulting 2000) of 423 organisations in the UK, main-
land Europe and the US showed that 81 per cent were considering a KM programme,
and 38 per cent of these already had one in place. This survey was conducted predomi-
nantly among executives and chief executives of large organisations with a turnover
exceeding £200 million a year. The survey confirmed that 64 per cent of these firms
had a knowledge management strategy and the main drivers of KM strategy were senior
management or board level engagement. The most common KM problems encountered
were information overload, lack of time for sharing knowledge and the inability to use
knowledge effectively. The main causes of failure in KM initiatives revolved predomi-
nantly around human resource issues. These included the lack of user uptake due to
insufficient communication, inability to integrate KM practices with normal working
practice, the lack of time to learn and the lack of adequate training. In addition to this
survey, there are numerous well-documented examples of firms engaged in KM strat-
egies and practices, such as Buckman Laboratories and BP in the private sectors and
World Bank and the United Nations in the public sectors.
What are the differences between data, information,

knowledge and wisdom?
◗● Data
The dictionary definition of data is ‘known facts or things used as a basis of inference or
reckoning’. Let’s try to unravel this multifaceted term and show that a definition of data
depends on context. We acquire data from the external world through our senses and
try to make sense of these signals through our experience. This external data becomes
internal fact. The assumption about facts is that they are true. But our senses can play
games with us. An example is the optical illusions contained in Escher’s drawings, which
can be seen in two different ways. Escher made an art of creating impossible figures,
such as people ascending and descending stairs at the same time, that were clearly con-
tradictory. We can also exclude data in a number of ways that can affect our inference or
reckoning of it. The first is by not focusing on the data, such as with the ‘cocktail party’
effect where we are bombarded with lots of data but are able to ignore most of it (back-
ground noise) and concentrate on the data of the person speaking to us. We also exclude
data when our senses are not able to respond to signals such as ultraviolet light or ultra-
sound, and we may exclude data voluntarily by putting on a blindfold or inserting ear
plugs (Meadows 2001) or involuntarily through data overload.
So far we have explored data from the perspective of the receiver of the signal. In
this context, a signal is a set of data transmitted to our senses. What about the source
of the signal and the channel or medium through which it is transmitted? Each one of
these can contain a distortion and this can affect the nature of data coming to us. The
traditional game of ‘Chinese whispers’ at the dinner table shows how an initial message
can become totally distorted by the time it has gone around the table.
There are differences between quantitative and qualitative data. For example, the
numbers 72 and 83 per cent are pieces of data that can have multiple meanings and are
highly context dependent. They may refer to mean examination scores or the perform-
ance of a new carburettor undergoing trials, so the data is meaningless when taken out
of context and requires an association with something else. Qualitative data is much
more troublesome as it depends on the perceptions of the transmitter and receiver
of the data. Ten participants in a meeting are likely to provide ten totally different
accounts depending on their perspective and their selective inclusion or exclusion
of data. In this sense data is also value laden. An example of this is two artists, one
European and the other Chinese, who painted ‘faithful representations’ of the same
landscape in the English Lake district (Gombrich 1960). To European eyes, the paint-
ing by the Chinese artist was typical of a Chinese painting. This example shows the
‘conceptually saturated’ character of observation and data where it is difficult to distin-
guish between what is observable (empirical) and what is unobservable (theoretical or
conceptual). We may have ‘sensations’ in our eyes without concepts, but we have no
perception of data without concepts (O’Connor and Carr 1982).
◗● Information
The dictionary definition of information is ‘something told’ or ‘the act of informing
or telling’. However, this doesn’t help us distinguish between data and information.
Information could be considered as ‘systematically organised data’ (Meadows 2001).
The notion of ‘systematic’ implies the ability to predict or make inferences from the
data assuming it is based on some system. If we are given a sequence of odd num-
bers such as 7, 9, 11, 13, we can predict from the information that the next number
in the sequence will be 15. To inform, the data needs to be organised. This may be
done through some form of classification scheme set up to provide a framework for
our thinking. For example, libraries classify their books using a bibliographic classifica-
tion scheme. A common one is the Dewey Decimal Classification which is based on
dividing all of knowledge into ten fields ranging from 0–999. Dewey has essentially fol-
lowed a Darwinian model in which different aspects and parts of knowledge are related
to each other either by direct descent or by collateral kinship. All knowledge is divided
into genera and species using a similar approach to Darwin’s. The ten encompassing
classes (000, 100 … 900) are subdivided, first into 401, 402 …, then 410, 411, and then
by adding further numbers after the decimal point that are related to numbers which
can also appear before the point (an example is that the number after the decimal
point is the same for certain periods covered in related subject domains such as English
history and English literature).
Another conception of information is data that are endowed with meaning, rele-
vance and purpose. This does not have to have a scientific meaning such as the Dewey
classification system but may have a subjective meaning given by the receiver of the
data or message. Information gives shape to the data and makes a difference to the
outlook or insight of the receiver of the data. In this sense, it is the receiver of the data
that determines whether a message is data or information. A consultancy report may
be written to inform senior managers of critical issues but may be judged as ramblings
and noise by the recipients (Davenport and Prusak 1998). Meaning in data often occurs
through some form of association with experience or relationships with other data.

From your experiences, can you describe situations where you have made decisions with
wrong data or information? How do you guard against this? What strategies do you
adopt to evaluate a situation with conflicting information or data? How do you
manage ‘noise’ or irrelevant data or information related to a particular problem? How
do you manage too much data or the problem of ‘information overload’?
◗● Knowledge
In a practical sense, knowledge could be considered as ‘actionable information’, as
shown in the hierarchy of data, information and knowledge in Figure 1.4. Actionable
information allows us to make better decisions and provide an effective input to dia-
logue and creativity in organisations. This occurs by providing information at the right
place, at the right time and in the appropriate format (Tiwana 2000). Knowledge allows
us to act more effectively than information or data and equips us with a greater ability
to predict future outcomes.
However, knowledge is much more complex than this simplistic notion. We have
devoted the whole of the next chapter to exploring how over the past two millennia
western philosophers have grappled with the question of what knowledge is. There is
still no consensus on the nature of knowledge except that it is based on perceptions
that can provide rational justifications for it. Such perceptions are based on our onto-
logical and epistemological assumptions of reality. Put simply, we all wear ‘different
coloured glasses’ whether we are aware of it or not. These ‘glasses’ contain assumptions
about reality, such as whether it is subjective or objective (ontology) and assumptions
about what we can know (epistemology). Continuing this analogy, the knowledge of a
certain phenomenon is likely to be different if one individual wears ‘pink’ glasses and
PURPOSEFUL ACTION
Truth
Wisdom
Truth
Knowledge
Wisdom
Information
Knowledge
Data
Information
Data
Figure 1.4 Data, information, knowledge and purposeful action
another wears ‘blue’ ones. Hence, for example, it is no surprise that the knowledge of
costs and benefits of organisational restructuring is often viewed very differently by
the workforce and by senior management. The interpretation of the same data and
information will vary significantly depending on these perceptions and the original
knowledge base of the individual.
The most common notion of knowledge in the current KM literature has its roots
in the ideas of logical behaviourism based on the writings of Gilbert Ryle and Michael
Polanyi. From this perspective, knowledge exists along a continuum between tacit
knowledge (know-how) and explicit knowledge (know what) (Polanyi 1967; Ryle 1949).
(See Chapter 2 for more in-depth coverage of knowledge frameworks and typologies.)
One of the major challenges in knowledge management is exploring creative ways to
convert the tacit knowledge base in organisations into explicit knowledge (Nonaka
1994). Organisational routines, practices and norms can also act as part of this tacit
knowledge base. Despite the logical behaviourist perspective of tacit and explicit
knowledge being dominant at present, there are numerous alternative perspectives on
the nature of knowledge. As the literature gains in maturity, it is likely that other per-
spectives such as postmodernism, critical theory and realism may provide new insights
and advances in this field.
◗● Wisdom
Wisdom and truth have been shown to have higher qualities than knowledge in the
hierarchy of Figure 1.4. These terms are even more elusive than knowledge. Wisdom
is the ability to act critically or practically in a given situation. It is based on ethical
judgement related to an individual’s belief system. Wisdom is often captured in famous
quotes, proverbs and sayings. Some examples of proverbs from around the world
include the following:
●● Children have more need of models than of critics (French).

●● You can’t see the whole sky through a bamboo tube (Japanese).
●● There is plenty of sound in an empty barrel (Russian).

●● Trust in Allah, but tie your camel (Muslim).
●● Wonder is the beginning of wisdom (Greek).
Truth is even more problematic, since there is a growing realisation that social
phenomena are theory laden, as illustrated in the above example of the Chinese and
European artists. Theory-neutral observations do not exist, as our tacit theories or con-
ceptions of the world affect our observations. The notions of ‘truth’ and ‘objectivity’
can appear meaningless if the social world can be understood only through particu-
lar ways of seeing. This implies that there are multiple truths rather than one absolute
truth of social phenomena. A pessimistic outlook on information, knowledge and
wisdom has been captured in the well-known lines from T.S. Eliot in the ‘Choruses’
from The Rock:
Where is the life we have lost in living?

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?
Early history of knowledge management: oral tradition

to cuneiform
One of the oldest forms of managing knowledge is the oral tradition and the use of
human memory to store knowledge. This oral transfer of knowledge occurs through a
process of transmitting messages by word of mouth over time, as can be found in many
bardic traditions around the world. The process of transmission begins when messages
are repeated over time and ends when they disappear, for a variety of reasons. The mes-
sage may represent news such as eyewitness accounts, hearsay or visions, dreams and
hallucinations in some societies. The other group of messages are interpretations such
as reminiscences of childhood, explanatory commentaries and historical tales, poetry,
songs and sayings. Epic poems may be memorised to achieve a consistency over each
recitation, but the fact is that actual wordings are likely to change over time. Songs pro-
vide more faithful transmission of messages as their melodies act as mnemonic devices.

Think about your work or social life. What are your difficulties in people giving you
knowledge or information verbally? Despite these difficulties, what do you prefer
about the spoken word over other forms of communication? Have you ever played
Chinese whispers at dinner parties? What are the likely problems with passing down
knowledge second, third or fourth hand? Are there similar problems with spoken
knowledge being passed down over many years?
The unique characteristics of the oral tradition are that messages are not written
down and they accumulate interpretations as they are transmitted. Successive accumu-
lation and selection of interpretations can mean that messages from the oral tradition
become constrained by previous interpretations. Consequently, although the reliabil-
ity of messages from oral traditions may be questionable, nevertheless they do provide
‘inside’ knowledge about how news is interpreted by a community of people.
The limitation of the oral tradition is the fallibility of our memories and the diver-
gence from or direct contradiction of written sources. This can occur when certain
groups or individuals selectively discard certain knowledge and retain only that which
they consider important at the time. People may also add new meanings to the old
knowledge, giving a degree of bias to the former knowledge. Oral traditions that are
older than two or three generations can also suffer from the unreliability of the knowl-
edge that is preserved (Vansina 1985).
Given the limitations of the oral tradition, the first evidence of attempts to pre-
serve knowledge through writing dates back to around 3000 bc. The Sumerians settled
in southern Mesopotamia and found that their rivers had a plentiful supply of good
clay and reeds. They fashioned the clay into tablets, the reeds into three-cornered
writing instruments or styluses and perfected a style of writing called ‘cuneiform’
based on simple lines and wedges (see Figure 1.5). The combination of these simple
wedges (Latin cunei) and lines represented many hundred words and sounds. Scribes or
‘dubsar’ underwent many years of training as apprentices to a headmaster or ‘ummia’.
The scribes were highly venerated in this society, ranking just below high priests in
social status. The knowledge recorded on these clay tablets ranged from administrative
records, Hammurabi’s laws and marriage contracts to legends and mythology.
Before long, collections of these clay tablets developed and the challenge became
one of organising knowledge in tablets into some form of cataloguing system. In 1980
archaeologists discovered a room full of clay tablets at the ancient royal palace of Ebla
in Syria dating back to around 2300 bc. The Eblaites gave us our primitive form of cata-
logues in the shape of long lists of words, objects, place names and species. The palace
library provided a training ground for scribes and promoted the creation and preser-
vation of knowledge similar in nature to our modern universities (Lerner 1998).
Figure 1.5 Example of cuneiform writing (this records the allocation of beer) (© The
Trustees of the British Museum)
One of the greatest stores of knowledge in the ancient world covered over 10,000
works contained in 30,000 clay tablets found at Assurbanipal’s palace library (around 650
bc) in Nineveh. These Assyrian collections were essentially archives created as a public
memory for the state. Scribes and scholars were employed to compile, revise and edit dif-
ferent varieties of knowledge. The tablets were kept in earthenware jars, properly arranged
on shelves in different rooms. Each tablet had an identification tag showing its precise
location in a jar, shelf and room. There were also ‘catalogue’ tablets in each room pro-
viding a brief description of the tablets and their location in the room (Harris 1995).
Even though the library contained literary materials such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, omen
texts tended to predominate, reflecting some of the preoccupations of that society. These
included astrological omens, dream omens and practices for conducting exorcisms.
In ancient Egypt the chosen medium for transmission and storage of knowledge
was papyrus. This was made from the stem of the common reed found growing abun-
dantly on the Nile delta. Papyrus had the advantage over clay tablets of being much
lighter, easily transportable and much less brittle. Papyrus was essentially used for less
formal records. More formal records were inscribed on stone, as can still be seen on
many Egyptian monuments today. The most famous library of Pharaonic Egypt was
the complex built by Rameses II called the ‘sacred library’ and inscribed with the phrase
‘Healing place of the Soul’ (Lerner 1998). The library contained texts on poetry, astron-
omy, history, engineering, agriculture and fiction that awaited the king in his afterlife.
Knowledge management in ancient Greece and Rome

While literacy was the sole domain of scribes and scholars in ancient Mesopotamia and
Egypt, it was much more widespread in ancient Greece. Books were written on papyrus
even though parchment was also available. One of the central events of ancient Greek
history was the Trojan Wars, captured and shaped by Homer in the epic poems, the
Iliad and the Odyssey. These verses were recited and transmitted orally by generations of
bards. One of the early concerns was to establish a complete text of Homer’s epics. This
was attempted in the sixth century bc by the tyrant Peisistratus who also founded the
first public library in Athens (Lerner 1998).
The selling of knowledge through books was flourishing by the time of the famous
philosopher Socrates towards 400 bc A few decades later, book collecting became more
common and it is most probable that Plato’s Academy and Aristotle’s Lyceum pos-
sessed their own private libraries. Alexander the Great, a Macedonian, recognised the
contributions that books and libraries made in the classical Hellenic culture he had
conquered. However, it wasn’t until after his death in 323 bc that Ptolemy I, one of
his generals, became king of Egypt and commissioned the greatest library of antiquity
in Alexandria. This library was housed in the Museum, which flourished for hundreds
of years, attracting many noted writers, poets, scientists and scholars and over 600,000
rolls of text. The Museum or ‘the place of the Muses’, included works of history, phi-
losophy, music and the visual arts. In addition, it provided studies in language and
literature and a multitude of commentaries, glossaries and grammar on such notable
texts as the Iliad and the Odyssey. Rare and archaic words found in Homer were given
meaning in a compilation by Philitas called Miscellaneous Works. This glossary of dif-

ficult or metaphorical words was a tremendous success among the many avid readers
of Homer. The great library of Alexandria came to an end in 48 bc when 400,000 rolls
were accidentally destroyed in Caesar’s brief Alexandrian war.
The main rival to the Alexandria library was the library of Pergamon, built in the
time of Attalus I (247–197 bc). This possessed around 200,000 rolls and focused more
on Homeric studies, geometry and art criticism. There was tremendous rivalry between
Pergamon and Alexandria for scholarship and their collections. However, this came to
an end in 41 bc when Pergamon came under Mark Anthony’s rule and he gave the
entire collection of 200,000 rolls to Cleopatra, presumably in compensation for the
losses by Julius Caesar in the library at Alexandria.

Imagine that you were tasked to collect all the knowledge and received wisdom in your
organisation. How would you go about carrying out this assignment? Where would you
start? For example, what do you think would be the most appropriate medium for
storing your found knowledge? Do you think paper records could play a role? If so,
how? How would you go about organising all the knowledge you had collected? What
are the main difficulties with such an assignment?
Even though the Romans conquered Macedonia in 168 bc, the invading forces were
astonished by the richness of Greek culture and their collections of books. Many of
these books found themselves back in Rome as spoils of war. The learning captured in
these books was revered by many generals such as Paulus Aemilius who developed one
of the first notable Roman libraries (Harris 1995). Julius Caesar commissioned a public
library in Rome to surpass the library in Alexandria, but the plan was never realised due
to his untimely death.
The first public library in Rome was founded in 39 bc by a politician and gen-
eral named Gaius Asinius Pollio. He had made a personal fortune from the conquest
of Dalmatia and used part of this to amass a number of private collections and form
a library in the Temple of Liberty (Atrium Libertatis) on the Aventine Hill, contain-
ing both Greek and Latin books. The tradition of founding public libraries continued
throughout the Roman era, although private libraries were also common in this period
and their size was often related to the wealth of the owner. One of the greatest of
Roman libraries was the Ulpian library found in the Forum of Trajan and built by
Emperor Trajan in 114 bc. This was a public library on a grand scale, with two large
chambers, one for the Greek collection and the other for the Latin one. Their sole pur-
pose was to serve the readers of their collections in large and sumptuous surroundings.
The chambers were decorated with huge sculptures, with lavish use of stone and marble
throughout. Books were easily accessible to the reader and not stacked in vast rows, as
was common in Greek libraries. The organisation of the library required the services of
a specialist for cataloguing, reshelving and repairing damaged rolls. Some remains of
the Forum of Trajan still exist in Rome near the Via dei Fori Imperiali (Casson 2001).
The knowledge contained in rolls among Roman libraries was susceptible to a

number of hazards. These included frequent fires, insect attack on the rolls and damp-
ness in the libraries. Various scholars and poets might also fall out of favour with an
emperor and have their entire collection banished from library shelves. This occurred
with Ovid under the rule of Augustus and the works of Livy and Virgil under the rule of
Caligula (Wiegand and Davis 1994). Hence, the selectivity of knowledge from the oral
tradition can apply equally to knowledge arising from written sources.
Management of knowledge in monastic and cathedral libraries

The rise of Christianity in the fourth century had a dramatic influence on the nature
of the knowledge that was collected and stored in libraries. Religion was elevated
above other knowledge domains and libraries became associated more with churches
and monasteries. The most common western library for the next millennia was found
in a monastery where monks were involved with reading scripts, copying theological
texts (scriptorium) and writing commentaries on key texts. This was the main form of
learning in this period. The Bible was of course the core text and numerous volumes
and print sizes would be kept. Other texts in these collections might include works by
early church fathers, lives of martyrs and saints, church service books, Latin textbooks
and classics, and local literature and history (Harris 1995). Many of these collections
were kept in book chests or small closets and were closely guarded under lock and key.
Monks were often allowed to gain access to only one book at a time.
Flavius Aurelius Cassiodorus, a politician and intellectual in Rome, abandoned public
life around ad 550 to set up a model monastery called Vivarium. The name derived from
a common daily activity conducted by monks of raising fish (vivaria). Cassiodorus’s pri-
vate collection became the core of the monastery’s library which contained Christian
writings and all the major ‘pagan’ Latin and Greek authors. His major contribution to
monastic life was the publication of Institutiones Divinarum et Saecularum Litterarum.
This provided the template for monastic practice and a curriculum of theological
study which influenced many future monasteries and cathedral schools. Cassiodorus
elevated the role of monks as scribes in the scriptorium (see Figure 1.6) as one of the
highest duties to God. Apart from reading and understanding the Bible, theological
study included history, science and mathematics as part of understanding God’s crea-
tion (Casson 2001; Lerner 1998). Similarly, a key figure in western monasticism was St
Benedict. When he established Monte Casino and established his rule, a key element
was the requirement on all monks to read and copy manuscripts. The scriptorium
and the library became a central part of the Benedictine discipline. Like Cassiodorus,
Benedict had been educated in the classical and Christian traditions and did not ban the
reading or copying of pagan classical texts – a critical factor in their survival.
In the twelfth century intellectual life was moving from the rural monasteries back
to urban centres, as there was a need to educate and train people in the growing and
increasingly complex economies and governments of Europe. Cathedrals had tradition-
ally acted as training grounds for monks in theology, music and canon law. They took
on the new role and enlarged their book collections to include more secular interests
such as arithmetic, rhetoric and astronomy. Some cathedral libraries such as Canterbury
Figure 1.6 Scribe comparing two texts in a monastery (© The British Library Board
(Lansdowne 1179 f34v))
contained around 5,000 books by 1300. This led to the demise of many monastic librar-
ies. The rule of Henry VIII in England led to a further fall in scholarly collections with
the dissolution of the monasteries in the 1530s when numerous collections were scat-
tered or destroyed (Harris 1995). Yet, despite the loss of thousands of manuscripts,
relatively little knowledge was lost compared with that lost in the fifth and sixth centu-
ries when various Germanic tribes destroyed the western Roman empire.
At the same time as the emergence of cathedral schools, certain cities became
renowned for groups of teachers with specialities in particular subjects such as law or
theology. This started to attract many students, and before long teachers and students
were organising and regulating themselves. The resulting bodies were called universities
or organised guilds. For example, the University of Paris evolved around 1200 and was
renowned for theology. It gained recognition to certain rights and privileges through a
charter from King Philip II. In 1167 some English students withdrew from the University
of Paris and went back to England to help in the foundation of Oxford University. The
undergraduate student was more likely to be a twelve-year-old schoolboy and the six-year
curriculum contained the seven liberal arts (Lerner 1998). Surprisingly, classical literature
from Greek and Rome was absent from this curriculum, being treated with great suspi-
cion. The trivium helped to train the student in reasoning and argument:
●● grammar;
●● rhetoric;
●● logic.
The quadrivium helped to train the student in the natural laws of the universe:
●● arithmetic;
●● geometry;
●● music;
●● astronomy.
The early university libraries resembled monastic libraries. They were normally
formed through the bequests of ecclesiastical or lay patrons, such as the collection
of Robert de Sorbonne which led to the founding of the Sorbonne in 1257. The pre-
dominant part of the collection was religious works, followed by classics and, lastly,
the natural laws of the universe (mathematics, medicine, astronomy and law). There
were strict rules and regulations for library membership and conduct in the library.
For instance, students at Oxford could use the library only if they had studied philoso-
phy for eight years, and there was a fine at the Sorbonne for leaving books lying open
(Harris 1995). Books were expensive and knowledge was for the privileged few.
Paradigm shift from print to a digital age

The dramatic change in the storage and dissemination of knowledge came with the
advent of print in 1455. Johann Gutenburg of Mainz is normally credited with the
invention of printing in the West even though it is most likely to have been a Chinese
invention in the eighth century. The first printed book in Europe was Gutenburg’s
42-line Bible which resembled a fine manuscript. Manuscripts were expensive to
produce, whereas printed texts cut the cost of books and allowed much wider dissemi-
nation. An example of Gutenburg’s fine print is shown in Figure 1.7. Soon thousands
of volumes were rolling off presses, with particular demand for Greek and Latin classics.
These books found their way to private collections as well as to communal use in mon-
asteries, cathedrals and the emerging universities.
The consequence of print was the striking rise in the size of libraries and their
complexity. This gave way to modern librarianship so that basic functions of collec-
tion, organisation, preservation and access to this ubiquitous knowledge could be
conducted. In 1545 Conrad Gesner, father of modern bibliography, published his
Figure 1.7 Paradigm shift to print: an example of Gutenburg’s print (© The British
Library Board (C.9.d.3))
Bibliotheca Universalis to help keep track of the ever-increasing volumes of books. An

early attempt to index and find an appropriate classification scheme in libraries was
made with the Index Librorum Prohibitorum in 1559.
The impact of this growth in libraries was to attract new readers and increase the
levels of literacy among ordinary people. The introduction of printed texts also allowed
lay people to enjoy a private reading of the Bible which had been the select domain of
monastic and cathedral libraries in the past. Around the seventeenth century, there was
an explosion of learning and knowledge concerning science and this saw the formation
of many learned societies which started to disseminate the latest thinking and specialist
knowledge in their fields through journals (Eisenstein 1979; Wiegand and Davis 1994).
The next major quantum leap was the introduction of computers in the late twenti-
eth century which resulted in an explosion in the ways in which knowledge could be
captured, organised, stored, shared and evaluated. Digital computers operate by convert-
ing symbols, pictures and words into a binary digit called a bit (represented by 0 or 1). A
string of eight bits is called a byte. The advancement of computer technology has meant
that greater quantities of knowledge can be stored on computers at lower costs each year.
A megabyte (million bytes) of computer storage capacity is fairly common for individual
users and large organisations can have knowledge repositories measured in terabytes (1
trillion bytes). The increase in microprocessor power has meant that some powerful com-
puters can process a single machine instruction in a nanosecond (a billionth of a second).

How important are computers in your everyday life? For example, do you feel you could
live without them? As the power of computers and telecommunications has increased,
what real differences have they made to your daily life? For example, how do
computers assist you in making better-quality decisions or storing your personal
knowledge for later retrieval? Are there aspects of your personal knowledge that
would be impossible to store in a computer?
The major impact of computers has come through telecommunications, allowing

computers to link up and knowledge to be shared through networks across the world.
This can be local area networks (LANs) in an organisation or more global networks such
as the information superhighway (internet). Technology has also developed wireless
communication where knowledge can be transferred over a mobile phone or through
personal digital assistants (PDAs). The most common form of knowledge transfer is
electronic mail. The physical separation of people over long distances has become less
of a barrier. Groups of people can meet electronically over the phone through telecon-
ferencing or can modify data files simultaneously through data conferencing or meet
each other visually on video screens through video-conferencing. The World Wide
Web is at the heart of this knowledge explosion, with a subsequent rise in the publish-
ing of knowledge over the internet. The new Web 2.0 applications means that there is
greater ability of diverse organisations and systems to work together, users to interact
with one another and change website content at an instant. Control has shifted from
governments and organisations more towards the user. This will have new and exciting
challenges for the future management of knowledge.
CASE STUDY
Ernst & Young (US)

Mala Garg, Ernst & Young’s Chief scanned for new ideas, theories and conceptual
Communications and Knowledge Officer, had frameworks that could be applied to businesses.
just returned from the MAKE (Most Admired The centre collaborated with universities and
Knowledge Enterprises) awards having won the research centres and was on the look out for
top award in the ‘learning organisation’ cat- innovative solutions to business problems.
egory. This was their eleventh consecutive MAKE The Centre for Business Transformation was
award. But this morning there were more press- about transforming knowledge into tools and
ing issues ahead. Paul Smith, Managing Partner methodologies that consultants could apply effi-
of Ernst & Young Ireland was making a special ciently and effectively to business problems.
trip to meet her on Friday to discuss the ongo- The Centre for Technology Enablement was
ing knowledge crisis involving an ageing work- concerned with research and development of
force that was having an adverse effect on their tools, information systems and technologies to
activities in Ireland. The ‘brain drain’ from the improve and leverage business processes.
retirement of senior colleagues had become of The Centre for Business Knowledge (CBK)
strategic importance. Many retired colleagues was the backbone of Ernst & Young’s knowl-
had critical knowledge and expertise of certain edge management activities. The centre created,
aspects of the consultancy business that could revised and maintained a repository of knowl-
not be found elsewhere.1 Was this purely the edge used by consultants in their everyday work.
fault of careless succession planning or were A consultant could make any enquiry to the call
there creative solutions to this problem? centre. If a query was not answered within thirty
Mala joined Ernst & Young as it was one of the minutes, it was referred to the Business Research
‘Big 5’ consulting firms with a presence in over division. CBK held the latest client and industry
130 countries. However, consulting was a highly specific information including all consultancy
competitive market with the advent of globalisa- reports. One essential component of CBK was
tion and the main tool of consultancy was adding the development of ‘Powerpacks’; vital filtered
value to client products and services in the form information database used by consultants in
of knowledge and information. Knowledge man- their everyday work – the consultant toolkit.
agement was critical to organisational survival Despite these important structures, there was
in this industry where consultants primarily sold crucial knowledge lost each day from the retire-
their knowledge and expertise. With a total work- ment of the first baby boomers. These skilled
force of over 80,000, there was the additional workers possessed crucial technical and manage-
problem of dispersed knowledge and getting the rial knowledge of specific industries such as aero-
knowledge or expertise to the right person at space, nuclear and the defence industries that
the right time; namely ‘just-in-time’ knowledge.2 was difficult to replicate. Clear and major voids
In this regard, consultants worked in teams to of knowledge were looming in different parts of
enable sharing of their disparate knowledge. But the business.
this could be a ‘hit and miss’ affair as teams were Mala decided to ring Helen Walsh, Director
put together for the needs of any project rather of Ernst & Young’s alumni, to ask about the
than the needs of the individual in the form of recruitment of ‘boomerangs’; employees previ-
interpersonal knowledge sharing. ously employed by the firm who returned after a
In order to facilitate organisational-wide period of absence. Helen’s words were encourag-
knowledge sharing, four centres were set up in ing and she suggested that boomerangs repre-
the 1990s: the Centre for Business Innovation, sented over 25 per cent of current recruits. As a
the Centre for Business Transformation, the former boomerang herself, Helen Walsh indicated
Centre for Business Knowledge (CBK) and the that boomerangs were also a good vehicle for
Centre for Technology Enablement. encouraging women back into the workplace. 3
The Centre for Business Innovation was the However, it was much harder recruiting retired
ideas and thinking arm of Ernst & Young. It ex-employees as the tax system could work against
people in some countries. For example, a British job is to keep all of them moving ahead at the
employee cannot receive a pension and a salary same time. To concentrate on one or two of
from the same employer. However, there are ways them and let the others slide is a surefire formula
around this difficulty and firms have sought to for failure’6. He sees it as the leveraging of the
sub-contract this work through other legal entities. interdependencies between the pillars that leads
Mala takes a break and logs onto Ernst & to business transformation rather than consid-
Young’s Facebook website. At Ernst & Young, at ering each element in isolation. And it is the
least 16,000 workers have a Facebook account.4 knowledge rather than the information in organ-
She smiles as she remembers social networking isations that leads to competitive advantage. He
was about meeting at the water cooler or a drink contends that there is too much information in
after work. Times have changed. She decides to organisations and not enough knowledge.
put her deliberations about older workers into Mala removes two pieces of paper from her
the forum. Within five minutes, she has over desk. One piece is to help her understand the
twenty replies from around the world and to her nature of the problem she is tackling and the
surprise most of the responses are from older other is to explore potential solutions. She starts
employees. This certainly defies any notion of doodling on each paper and a mind map slowly
Facebook as a tool for the younger generations. emerges on each.
Mala picks up the phone to Geoff Trotter,
Chief Knowledge Officer at CBK and a partner References
at Ernst & Young, to ask him about how knowl- 1 Schweywer, A. (2006) ‘Knowledge crisis ahead?’
edge management activities would be affected Human Resources Magazine.
by the ageing workforce. Geoff Trotter is rather 2 Lara, E. (2002) ‘A case study of knowledge manage-
frank on the business aspects. ‘If a business is ment at Cap Gemini Ernst & Young’, Cranfield, UK,
agile it can deliver a competitive advantage, and The European Case Clearing House.
KM builds on the theme of agility to deliver a 3 Special Report (2006) ‘Turning boomers into boomer-
sustainable competitive advantage. A business angs – The ageing workforce’, The Economist.
4 Green, H. (2007) ‘The water cooler is now on the
can then leverage people and information and is
web; With a nod to Facebook, large companies are
generally better organised to manage a fast pace
starting in-house social networks’, Business Week.
of change and uncertainty. We have the neces- 5 Gyopos, S. (2008) ‘It’s what you know; Pooling stores
sary processes in place to capture, store and share of information in an organisation is a key way for
know-how, know-what and know-who, and we business to stay ahead in today’s globalised econo-
are optimally organised across our organisation my’, South China Morning Post.
to make great use of newer technologies’.5 His 6 NZ Management Magazine (2006) ‘In touch: Five pil-
reservations are more about the agility and open- lars of wisdom’, NZ Management Magazine.
ness of older people towards new technologies.
For him, it is the ability of CBK to embed older Questions
people’s knowledge into services that is the key 1 What are potential ways forward to overcome
to competitive advantage. It is how one codifies the problem of an ageing workforce at Ernst &
this knowledge into the ‘Powerpacks’ for use by Young?
all employees at Ernst & Young.
2 How would you codify critical knowledge of
Finally, Mala Garg decides to watch an
clients and industries currently being lost when
archived video of James Harrington, past presi-
employees retire?
dent of the International Academy for Quality
and currently serving as international quality 3 What are the strengths and pitfalls of using social
advisor to Ernst & Young. James Harrington sees networking sites such as Facebook for Ernst &
five key pillars to performance improvement in Young?
any organisation: process management, project
management, change management, knowledge
management and resource management. He
believes in a balanced approach between these
five elements and stresses. ‘Top management’s
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Part 1 THE NATURE OF KNOWLEDGE

Part 2 LEVERAGING KNOWLEDGE

Part 3 CREATING KNOWLEDGE

Part 4 KNOWLEDGE ARTEFACTS

Part 5 MOBILISING KNOWLEDGE

Epilogue KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Part 1 THE NATURE OF KNOWLEDGE

2 The nature of knowing 33

Part 2 LEVERAGING KNOWLEDGE

4 Strategic management perspectives 89

Links to other chapters 89

Part 3 CREATING KNOWLEDGE

6 The learning organisation 158

Part 4 KNOWLEDGE ARTEFACTS

Skills directories: expertise yellow pages 218

8 Knowledge management systems 228

Part 5 MOBILISING KNOWLEDGE

Creating knowledge-sharing cultures 278

10 Implementing knowledge management 295

Epilogue KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

Dr Ashok Jashapara is an internationally recognised

THE NATURE OF KNOWLEDGE

Links to other chapters

Life in an interconnected world FT

Knowledge management: an integrated approach

◗● Part 1: The nature of knowledge

●● Chapter 1: Introduction to knowledge management. This chapter provides an explora-

Figure 1.1 Web of knowledge management

●● Chapter 2: The nature of knowing. This is a thought-provoking chapter exploring issues

◗● Part 2: Leveraging knowledge

◗● Part 3: Creating knowledge

●● Chapter 5: Organisational learning. This chapter outlines the nature of individual,

◗● Part 4: Knowledge artefacts

●● Chapter 7: Knowledge management tools: component technologies. This chapter pro-

◗● Part 5: Mobilising knowledge

The knowledge economy