List of figures and tables
Figures
1.1 Business and IT relationship 7
2.1 Organisational learning process 14
2.2 Business knowledge 15
2.3 Data, information and knowledge 20
2.4 Three varieties of knowledge 23
2.5 The duality of knowledge 24
2.6 Five types of knowledge 25
2.7 Knowledge conversion lifecycle (simplistic view) 28
2.8 Ba and the SECI Model (adapted by Depres and
Chauvel, 2000 from Nonaka, 1991) 29
3.1 Lotus Solutions Framework – part 1 44
3.2 Lotus Solutions Framework – part 2 45
3.3 Lotus Solutions Framework – part 3 45
3.4 Lotus Solutions Framework – part 4 46
3.5 Knowledge management process model 50
3.6 Knowledge management process model – activities 51
3.7 Three levels of knowledge management 52
3.8 Evolution of knowledge management 53
3.9 KPMG’s five-step implementation stack 59
4.1 The intellectual capital model 68
4.2 Positioning the three domains of intellectual capital 70
5.1 Learning, working, and innovation interrelationships 77
Coping with Continuous Change in the Business Environment
5.2 An organisation’s three domains 78
5.3 Enterprise model 81
5.4 Successful enterprise learning 83
5.5 Learning spiral 87
5.6 Individuals learn in the context of the organisation 87
5.7 From organisational learning to a knowledge-enabled
organisation 90
6.1 Evolution of business cultures and knowledge management
technologies 95
6.2 Positioning of communities of practice 100
7.1 Knowledge transfer cycle 105
7.2 A model for best practice transfer 106
8.1 Knowledge management becomes ‘just business’ 113
9.1 The e-business implementation spiral 127
9.2 E-business model 129
10.1 Knowledge management process model 136
10.2 Knowledge management broad categories
10.3 Knowledge management technology conceptual 137
framework
10.4 Knowledge management technology framework – 138
processes and activities
10.5 Knowledge management technology framework – 139
enablers and applications
10.6 Knowledge management technology framework – 139
six categories model 141
11.1 Complexity of different knowledge base sources 149
11.2 The ‘smart’ data continuum 153
11.3 Semantic web services 157
11.4 Example of a taxonomy 159
11.5 Ontology levels 161
11.6 The ontology spectrum: from weak to strong semantics 162
11.7 Metadata and semantic annotations 163
11.8 Positioning the XML stack architecture 163
12.1 Concise knowledge conversion spiral model (left) 176
13.1 Systems positioning 183
13.2 The three ‘C’s link people to process to information 185
13.3 Areas of groupware 187
13.4 Time and distance barriers 188
13.5 Collaboration technologies for time and place 188
13.6 Concise knowledge conversion spiral model (right) 190
14.1 Growth in global volume of knowledge 202
14.2 Examples of the values in the information overload 202
16.1 Conceptual knowledge portal 220
16.2 Typical knowledge portal system configuration 222
17.1 Information filtering and knowledge discovery 224
17.2 Pattern recognition algorithms 226
17.3 Key text-mining technologies
Tables 232
2.1 Artificial expertise preferred to human expertise 19
2.2 Human expertise preferred to artificial expertise 19
2.3 Information versus knowledge 22
2.4 Tacit and explicit knowledge 27
2.5 Knowledge conversion 27
2.6 Knowledge conversion lifecycle
3.1 Summary of the knowledge management principles of 31
O’Dell and Grayson (1998) and Tobin (2003) 43
3.2 Information management versus knowledge management 60
3.3 Business intelligence versus knowledge management 61
4.1 Comparison of the three domains of intellectual capital 71
Coping with Continuous Change in the Business Environment
5.1 Transformation in organisations 79
9.1 Knowledge management responses to e-business demands 128
9.2 Differences between client/server and e-business
applications 131
13.1 Connecting people, process, and information 185
13.2 Knowledge conversion lifecycle 191
16.1 Comparison of knowledge retrieval and a knowledge
portal 220
17.1 Comparison of document-handling technologies 228
Preface
Rapid change is a defining characteristic of the modern world. It has a huge impact on society, governments and businesses. Businesses are forced to transform themselves fundamentally to survive in a challenging economy. Transformation implies change in the way business is conducted, in the way people perform their contribution to the organisation, and in the way the organisation perceives and manages its vital assets, which increasingly are built around the key assets of intellectual capital and knowledge.
The latest management tool to respond to the challenges of the economy in the new millennium is the idea of knowledge management. A large body of literature has emerged recently, covering knowledge management and related topics, as well as technologies applicable to knowledge management.1 However, various academic and practitioner approaches are still necessary to clarify definitions, taxonomies for positioning knowledge management, etc. There is presently some confusion among outsiders to the field as to what the knowledge management phenomenon entails and how to comprehend various claims and issues related to it. Promoters of various technologies are making claims with a view to aligning their products with the current interest in knowledge management. A number of articles covering ITrelated subjects are also contributing to this confusion, treating the subject from different perspectives and adopting multifarious ‘definitions’ of the numerous concepts.
This book aims to clear some of this confusion by proposing a comprehensible set of representative insights and frameworks. It is based on the authors’ collective background, which includes not only research into the vast literature on this topic, but also many years of active involvement with, exposure to and experience in the information technology industry. This collective background provides a baseline for synthesising and critiquing many aspects of a fast-evolving knowledge management industry, which is rapidly reaching maturity. The result is a book which not only addresses those themes that are fundamental to
Coping with Continuous Change in the Business Environment
knowledge management, but which also identifies recent value-added contributions to the modern knowledge-based business – both of a technological as well as a non-technological nature.
The book is comprised of two parts. The first investigates the concepts, elements, drivers and challenges involved in knowledge management. It describes various perspectives on the many notions in the field. A set of models is proposed for comprehending the positioning, challenges and practical nature of knowledge management.
The second part of the book distils this into an initial technical framework for knowledge management practitioners. By ‘technical and technology issues and challenges’ we specifically mean to concentrate on the technologies and technical knowledge management approaches a
modern organisation can employ to survive and prosper in this rapidly changing business environment.
Note
1. See, for example, the numerous references listed in Liebowitz (1999) and Malhotra (2001). As another example, note that Bontis (2001) cites more than 200 references on the single sub-theme of managing aspects of intellectual capital.