The new edge in knowledge: how knowledge management is changing the way we do business

Abstract

Knowledge Management Research & Practice (2012) 10, 99–101. doi:10.1057/kmrp.2011.42 Knowledge travels through social networks formed as a result of collaboration between individuals. Today, knowledge has morphed from being considered a technology activity into something that is primarily a human endeavour and, thus, qualitative in nature. The advent of digital technologies, especially 2.0 versions, is forcing many organizations to amend the way they do business. These technological developments have positive implications for knowledge management (KM). As of October 2011, more than 60,000 research artifacts with the keyword knowledge management have been indexed in the Web of Science database. Since 1998, the annual production of KM research articles has experienced a nearly six-fold increase. These data empirically show that interest in KM has only increased with time. KM is among the most frequently cited management disciplines in subject areas as diverse as computer science, management and business, water resources, and criminology and penology. The New Edge in Knowledge: How Knowledge Management Is Changing the Way We Do Business is written by executives at APQC, a non-profit organization involved in KM consultancy and benchmarking. From my point of view, the present book resembles O’Dell’s earlier book, If Only We Knew What We Know (O’Dell et al, 1998), in spirit, line of content, and even its cover. It is a major second edition of the previous book that portrays the new look of KM through the lens of developments in e-technologies, learning, and our changes in perception in general. The book ‘tells you how leading organizations achieve great results in Knowledge Management, or KM, and provides the strategic principles to help you do the same in your organization’ (p. xiii). This sentence conveys four important points about the book: (a) it is based on case studies, (b) as per authors, KM works and yields great results, (c) the best practices learned by the companies in the case studies can be emulated by other firms, and (d) the book is mainly meant for companies that are interested in implementing a formal KM programme. KM strives to decode what is tacit (internalized knowledge) into something that is explicit (externalized knowledge), thereby creating the repository of knowledge that is also known as the organizational memory. As ‘externalized knowledge’ is another term for ‘information’, ‘knowledge’, and ‘information’ remain virtually inseparable terms. We do not know how these two terms are specifically distinct and where they merge. Is Knowledge Management Research & Practice (2012) 10, 99–101 & 2012 Operational Research Society Ltd. All rights reserved 1477–8238/12