Foundation For Knowledge Management Research Articles

A CPD-Ontology Built in IDEF5 for Product Development

Product development is a concurrent process, which tends to be of such features as collaborative, distributed (web-based), interactive, and knowledge-intensive. Because the participants to work on a project come from different backgrounds, they will difficult to interact and understand one another. Ontology is a common language to model domain knowledge and makes the communication between people and the interoperability between systems easier. In this paper a CPD-ontology is built in IDEF5 to capture the knowledge about collaborative product development (CPD), then to serve as a foundation of knowledge management in the process of CPD.

Mapping the intellectual structure of electronic commerce research: 1997-2006

The past decades have seen extensive research on electronic commerce (e-commerce). The broad-based organisational and technological development in e-commerce research requires categorisation to be understood in its entirety. To profile the intellectual structure of e-commerce research, this study uses bibliometric and social network analysis techniques to investigate the intellectual pillars of the e-commerce literature. This study analyses 30,509 citations of over 1600 papers on e-commerce published between 1997 and 2006, resulting in an intellectual structure of e-commerce studies. The mapping of ten years of e-commerce studies presents a solid foundation for knowledge management in e-commerce area and helps identify the invisible knowledge network that traces the evolution of e-commerce research.

The ontology of a supply chain model based on IDEF5 and Ontolingua

Supply chain management realises the concept of global logistic management, and the supply chain model is the building block for supply chain management. Ontology, which increases knowledge sharing and eases communication between every entity, is the foundation of knowledge management. This paper develops the ontology of a supply chain model that can be seen as fundamental research of knowledge management in a supply chain study. After reviewing related studies of ontology and supply chain model, the ontology of a supply chain model is developed by using the IDEF5 based ontology language and the Ontolingua editor. Two models based on IDEF5 and Ontolingua ontologies are compared to show that the two totally different styles do not affect its original nature.

The Philosophical Foundations of Knowledge Management: Editors' Introduction

Our work on this Special Issue began with a showcase symposium on the philosophical foundations of knowledge management (KM) at the AoM 2004 Meeting and was continued through KM tracks at the EURAM 2005 and EGOS 2005 Conferences. Our hope was to corral the variety of approaches in the KM literature and expose solid underpinnings against which the field's development might be gauged. We were unclear whether these would be axiomatic principles that defined the field or a set of professionally accepted KM practices. The call for papers went out in Fall 2004 and was published in the November 2004 issue of Organization. In our call we asked for advances to the discussion rather than mere reiteration of the already appreciated. Our authors and reviewers made great efforts and we learned much from their submissions, both those included and those turned away, and from the many reviews. However, we found deep disagreements, both among our reviewers about the submissions—and among everyone about the topic area generally. Clearly KM frustrates readers, authors, and reviewers alike; hence the temptation to dismiss it as yet another management fad, as many do. But there is an undeniable enthusiasm for KM among managers and academics, so our first thought was ‘To what problem is KM the answer?’. Framing the question well often takes one towards the answer—so if we puzzle out KM's problematics we may find ourselves moving towards the underpinnings we are looking for.

Supporting complex problems: an examination of Churchman's inquirers as a knowledge management foundation

This paper examines the current knowledge management (KM) research through the lens of Churchman's inquiring systems. These inquiring systems are ideal foundations from which to view KM and its associated research because knowledge creation and organizational learning are critical elements of KM. Churchman proposed that organizations should support knowledge creation and learning through emphasis on problem structure and appropriate inquiring strategies. This paper discusses the characteristics of Churchman's inquirers, the problem structure for which they are most appropriate, and presents examples of each. Then, examples of previous research that share characteristics of the most complex inquirers are discussed. Organizational benefits from the inquiring system approach and guidelines for future research are suggested.

The theoretical foundations of knowledge management

Knowledge management has emerged as an important field for practice and research in information systems. This field is building on theoretical foundations from information economics, strategic management, organizational culture, organizational behavior, organizational structure, artificial intelligence, quality management, and organizational performance measurement. These theories are being used as foundations for new concepts that provide a rationale for managing knowledge, define the process of managing knowledge, and enable us to evaluate the results of this process. Based on articles published between 1995 and 2005, new concepts are emerging, including knowledge economy, knowledge alliance, knowledge culture, knowledge organization, knowledge infrastructure, and knowledge equity. An analysis of the theoretical foundations of knowledge management reveals a healthy arena with a strong foundation and clear directions for future work.

Knowledge, narrations and connoisseurship: revisiting the foundations of knowledge management

This paper attempts to revise the bases of the knowledge discussion in the field of knowledge management. The point of departure is the striking discrepancy between the great importance attributed to knowledge (knowledge economy, knowledge resources, knowledge-intensive firms, etc.) on the one hand and the largely vague and all-embracing conceptualisations of knowledge on the other hand. It is suggested that the concept of knowledge be reformulated in a much more selective and reflective way to provide an adequate template for the academic field of knowledge management. Concepts from the communicative theory of action, discourse analysis and constructivism are integrated to provide a model of the antecedents, processes and implications of a selective notion of knowledge.

Knowledge management in occupational hygiene: the United States example.

Knowledge management is an emerging field focusing on assessing the creation, transfer, and utilization of knowledge to address specific challenges. Generally, knowledge management has described efforts within and between companies to consider knowledge as a manageable asset. In this paper, we suggest that occupational hygiene knowledge can be considered a manageable asset by businesses and that the entire field of occupational hygiene in the USA can be appraised in terms of knowledge management. The knowledge cycle creates a foundation for knowledge management. Knowledge creation (research, recognition and evaluation), transfer (distribution, dissemination and diffusion), and utilization (risk management and control) make up the key elements of the knowledge cycle. Defining and understanding the roles of knowledge cycle elements facilitate the application of knowledge management to problems, systems, and situations in individual companies and in the field of occupational hygiene in general. Examples of current, effective knowledge management practices within occupational hygiene in the USA are described, and recommendations for further utilization of knowledge management principles are also presented.

Challenges in knowledge management education

The members of panel will discuss the opportunities and challenges facing knowledge management education. The panel will share their experiences in the development of four knowledge management programs at Kent State University, Dominican University, University of Oklahoma, and Nan yang Technological University in Singapore. Today's organizations are faced with many challenges, such as producing the desired objectives (efficacy), solving the right problems (effectiveness), and using the minimal quantity of resources (efficiency) in a competitive and complex environment. Among other necessities, organizations have to identify knowledge sources and assess their value when possible. They need to be proactive and/or adapt to the rapid pace of change. They should be able to recognize the needs of their costumers or users and be able to develop or adapt mechanisms that permit them to measure their intellectual capital and build the technological infrastructure that would facilitate knowledge sharing and utilization. Organizations also need assess and create a culture that allows knowledge sharing, socialization, collaboration, and the creation of communities of practice. Knowledge workers and knowledge professionals are an important, if not vital, component of the knowledge organization. Regardless of the industry, type of organization (profit or nonprofit organization), or the business sector, they all require a new breed of information professionals who are able to work closely with the knowledge workers, understand their needs and communicate their concerns to the management of the organization. Knowledge professionals will help organizations identify opportunities, deal with competition, generate synergy, and create a knowledge-sharing environment. Traditionally, information professionals' roles were limited to the identification, acquisition and organization of explicit knowledge or information. Today, that role is being expanded to include other forms of knowledge activities– tacit and implicit knowledge in the form of skills and competencies. Tacit knowledge is personal and gets transferred through human interaction, training, observation and replication in different environments. It can only be shared by socialization, interaction and training, and it requires interpersonal communication. As knowledge professionals need to deal with human resource issues as well as organizational issues, a new set of skills and competencies are needed. Such skills and competencies require a multidisciplinary program and cannot be catered for by one single discipline. Disciplines involve include information technology, information science, communication and cognitive science, and business and management. At the moment, most knowledge management practitioners and self -proclaimed experts come from various backgrounds with different levels of skills and competencies. Clearly there is a need for a formal qualification for knowledge management to the increased demand for knowledge professionals. Given the fact that knowledge management is an interdisciplinary area and requires the participation of people from different disciplines, designing a balanced and practical knowledge management curriculum will always be a challenge. There is very little agreement on what characteristics knowledge management professionals should have, and the roles that they should play. Many organizations are creating knowledge management positions, which have a diversity of names and descriptions. Some of these roles could be associated with knowledge management practices, but others may be more IT-related. As knowledge management evolves, educational institutions around the world are beginning to develop programs in response to the market needs of knowledge management professionals. These programs have taken different approaches: Library and Information Science, Information Technology, Communication Studies, or Management. An essential question for higher education institutions in the Knowledge Management arena is–how they can prepare and help students and organizations to achieve their goals in a changing environment in which the creation of knowledge and new skills is a constant necessity, and at the same time there is the need to integrate different conceptual approaches. The challenges in knowledge management education are diverse: defining the skills and competencies of knowledge management professionals based on the market needs; educating information professionals rigorously enough so that they will be able to meet the demands of knowledge management work; integrating and coordinating different disciplines that are the foundations of knowledge management.

Team Building as a Foundation for Knowledge Management: Findings from Research into Social Learning in the Australian Defence Organisation

This paper describes findings from a four-year research study which used a mixture of qualitative and quantitative research methods to identify factors that facilitate social learning and collaborative knowledge development. Social learning includes those factors which enable transmission of knowledge and practice and which foster generative learning. This paper's specific focus is on the facilitators of team building that support knowledge sharing and knowledge development.

Information Resource Management: Foundation for Knowledge Management

Today, enterprises are challenged to do things faster, better, and more cost-effectively in order to remain competitive. As a result, there is a strong need to share knowledge in a way that makes it easier for individuals, teams, and enterprises to work together to effectively contribute to an enterprise's success in an increasingly global and competitive economy. the objective is to better coordinate their activities around a common purpose, and to provide individuals and teams with access to the information and knowledge they need:when they need it, from wherever it exists, and in a form they can use.

Knowledge management, insights from the trenches

In 1999, the Software Productivity Consortium-a not-for-profit alliance of industry, government, and academia-asked our members to indicate which technological advances they need most urgently. Most respondents stressed the need to better leverage an increasingly vast and complex array of intellectual assets. Such assets represent today's new capital, marking a profound shift from more traditional types of capital. To address this urgent need, the Consortium launched a knowledge management (KM) program to develop our competency in knowledge management so that we can better serve our members and to provide products and services that will help members develop their own KM competencies. We focused first on making access to Consortium assets easier through an enterprise portal. Then, to address the larger KM issues, we also partnered with George Washington University and its new Institute for Knowledge Management, which seeks to establish a sound theoretical foundation for KM. Here, we recap the lessons we have learned in pursuing our KM mandate and set forth what we believe are the keys to KM's future success.

Systemic thinking as the philosophical foundation for knowledge management and organizational learning

In this article we will discuss the link between systemic thinking, organizational learning and knowledge management. We will develop a conceptual model to illustrate and explain this link, which will be further discussed throughout the article. The main entities of this model are: emphasis on internal motivation, relations in and among systems, in addition to the development of vision, generation of ideas and creativity. The philosophical basis for this model is systemic thinking. We will thus explain the meaning of this way of thinking, before we discuss the individual elements of the conceptual model.