Journal of Information & Knowledge Management

This paper begins with a review of knowledge management (KM) literature, which highlights the problem that KM is interpreted in many different ways. This is due to the fact that different authors make different assumptions about the nature of knowledge and the nature of knowing. Up until the mid-1990s, knowledge was defined as a "thing". In the late 1990s, there was a call to define knowledge not as a "thing" but as "flows". The theories of Dervin and Snowden belong to the latter school of thought and are reviewed here.

In the British Council, the design of knowledge management projects is informed by theories and research in the discourse of management, communications studies and information science. In particular, the work of Dervin and Snowden has shaped our knowledge management journey. This paper presents a specific example to provide in-depth insight on how we have designed a project debrief workshop that is informed by Dervin's sense-making theory and Snowden's complexity theory.

This study examines capturing users' tacit knowledge in enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. To mitigate the risks in implementing ERP systems, a knowledge based approach is followed. The ERP implementation team depends upon users for their knowledge to understand the business rules and processes required for the ERP systems. The value of ERP implementation is increased when users' tacit knowledge has been integrated into ERP systems. This paper attempts to understand how Canadian organisations are capturing the users' tacit knowledge in ERP implementation. A case study methodology is followed to accomplish the research objective. Three organisations from telecommunication, government, and retail sectors participated in the study. For data collection, semi-structured interviews were conducted with four to six respondents from each firm. The findings about tacit knowledge sharing in three firms that have implemented ERP systems are presented. The findings are categorised as follows: ERP adoption by all three firms, implemented ERP modules, users' tacit knowledge capturing and conversion, activities and approaches, users' tacit knowledge for interim modification and post-implementation. The lessons learned are given by presenting a cross-comparison of three case studies.

Based on a description of a knowledge continuum and on the knowledge combustion and vehicle analogy, problems regarding the explanation facilities of knowledge-based systems (KBS) are addressed. Furthermore, drawing from the lessons learned from the analysis of the video recordings of medical diagnostic telemedicine consultations, a new approach for developing justification and strategic explanation facilities for KBS is presented. Rather than enabling computers to make profound decisions and generate convincing explanations, which is not technically feasible according to the knowledge continuum, the development of a KBS that provides relevant explanations for specific diagnostic situations is proposed. The knowledge continuum indicates that there is a narrow gap between information, declarative knowledge and some types of pragmatic knowledge. To take advantage of this knowledge characteristic, the creation of a hybrid knowledge type that integrates several more explicit knowledge types through simple processes of extraction, representation, analysis, modelling and editing is proposed.

Knowledge management (KM) systems are increasingly gaining importance in practice and in research. However, research in the field is fragmented by various theories and concepts used by scholars with diverse disciplinary perspectives. As a result, advancing research into KM systems is hindered by a general tendency to overlook previous pertinent theories in various fields and contributions by scholars in other related disciplines. We are engaged in research into KM system development from principles of practical KM. In conjunction with field work with "knowledge practitioners" we have conducted a survey of related theories and concepts across relevant disciplines. This paper offers a framework for conceptualising KM system development in organisations based on a critique of relevant theories and concepts.

This paper explores the characteristics of knowledge management (KM) for mass customisation (MC) with respect to knowledge classification. The proposed knowledge classification framework classifies horizontal knowledge areas into customer, product, and process, and vertical knowledge hierarchies into strategic, conceptual, and operational. This provides useful strategic and operations insights in KM for MC. The classification framework explained different methods of knowledge process operations and different KM strategies. Therefore, firms intending to implement KM for MC need to consider the differentiated characteristics of classified knowledge areas and hierarchies. This study was conducted through focused interviews on practitioners from companies providing MC.

This longitudinal study investigates the success and failure factors of the initiation of a strategic change effort in a panel of 17 manufacturing SMEs in Tunisia. A Baiting Environmental Attention Process (B.E.A.PRO) was developed and used to help managers make sense of weak signals in their relevant environment and how these signals could impact decision-making under conditions of uncertainty and ambiguity. The study shows that B.E.A.PRO might be an effective tactic for triggering a collective learning process, leading Tunisian SMEs to question their existing way of seeing the environment. The study also showed that a successful baiting process could not continue when the expert and the knowledge facilitator leaves. As usual, companies that believe they can rely on their own human resources, without creating the environment that will encourage them to stay, will likely fail.

Non-profit, human service organisations are continuing to struggle for limited money and are being held accountable more than ever before to prove an increase in quality and efficacy of services. Agency administrators have to think creatively in order to help their agencies stand out. Efforts include tapping not only into the knowledge of their employees but also knowledge of their consumers. Utilising qualitative methods, with a highly successful non-profit agency, this document investigates the information sharing activities and the knowledge gained from consumers when knowledge transfer backflow was allowed. Shared are findings on how public service agencies, often dealing with those individuals in need, can use knowledge management processes to inform and improve future service delivery. The thick descriptions provided in this document give context to the multi-layered knowledge dimensions involved. Highlighted is the importance of the embedded knowledge their participants come in with and the need for agencies to consider the intricacies of this knowledge. Noticeably, this study also delineates how the historical and current oppression experienced contributes to this complexity. The data reported in this study is the first step in understanding the individual and organisation factors contributing to the collaboration efforts of non-profit agencies.