LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS & KM

Exploring Concepts, Interpretations and Meaning : Knowledge and Knowledge Management -- Alex and David Bennet

The authors have used the results of a 2005 study where thought leaders across four continents were interviewed regarding their ideas and feelings about knowledge and the field known as Knowledge Management, to take a closer look at these concepts and what they may mean for the future. Specifically, diverse definitions of knowledge and knowledge management are presented and then the breadth of the field of Knowledge Management explored through the 14 learning objectives developed by the Knowledge Management Working Group of the US Federal sector. Along the way, a grounded definition of information based on universal phenomena of ordered patterns is proposed and operational definitions of knowledge directly relating it to effective action is explicated, and the idea of the field of KM as a complex adaptive system is explored as well. This article is based on original research, personal experience with the US Federal sector, and is a literature review as well.

© 2008 by Alex and David Bennet with usage, printing, translation and distribution rights given to Icfai University Press. In the spirit of collaborative advantage, with attribution, any part of this paper may be copied and distributed freely. All Rights Reserved.

LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS & KM

Knowledge Management and the Zen of Seeing : Explore the Combination -- Rakesh

Zen and KM are relative. Both aim to build better humans and help them in realizing the true nature of knowledge. The form and function that KM brings to an individual is magnanimous in terms of the knowledge gained through collaboration and reuse.

© 2008, Rakesh Bhaskar. All Rights Reserved.

LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS & KM

Can Business Intelligence Promote Knowledge to Wisdom? : The God is in Details -- Dragan A Nikolik

There are new developments evolving business intelligence, a process of data gathering, extraction, and collection of information from various sources commonly accessible to the enterprise. The goal is to improve business prospects and competitiveness applying comprehensive information processing, finding possible solutions, relations, and data to support the decision-making in a perplexing dynamic business environment. Counter intelligence comes eventually as a response in order to protect information assets from frequent competitors' intelligence attempts. Along with information gathering and processing, selection of appropriate knowledge transformation presents a challenge.

© 2008 The Icfai University Press. All Rights Reserved

LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS & KM

10 Things I Learnt on my KM Journey in BPO and some Hindsight Strategies : Strengthening Sharing -- Lavanya Mohan

KM practices for the BPO industry are still evolving and information on the best practices is scarce. I am sure there are many more strategies and tools that can help in creating a strong KM practice that assures customers on the continuity of outsourced knowledge.

© 2008, Lavanya Mohan.All Rights Reserved.

LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS & KM

Developing a Learning Organization : The Top Management Leadership Factor -- Dr Clinton O Longenecker and Dr Laurence S Fink

Top managers have a huge impact in developing a learning organization and supporting its growth and quality over time. They must realize that they can accelerate or decelerate organizational learning and performance by their actions; their long-term survival is predicated on their ability to learn and develop; learning for executives must come from a wide variety of different developmental experiences; most of the responsibility for top manager development is placed on their own shoulders.

© 2008, Clinton Longenecker and Larry Fink. All Rights Reserved.

LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS & KM

The Learning Organization and Better Preparedness for KM Implementation : Fostering the Culture -- Yossi Pasher

KM is essentially about managing people, leading people in the path of sharing, openness and cooperation supported by IT systems which enables them to spread the gospel with an unprecedented amount, provided that those who design and plan the systems will do it in a user- friendly way, and those who will use them will operate with caution with respect to the knowledge and information they deposit and withdraw from the system.

© 2008 The Icfai University Press. All Rights Reserved

LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS & KM

SWIFT Skills for the 21st Century Learning Organization : For a Better Business Success -- James Milojkovic and Richard Ogle

This article is a brief introduction to the radically new set of skills required for successful innovation, marketing and sales in the current hypercompetitive global business environment. These skills are grounded in a new approach capable of accelerating success in both hotly contested current markets and new untapped markets waiting to be opened by those equipped with visionary imagination and accurate strategic foresight.

©2008 James Milojkovic and Richard Ogle. All Rights Reserved.

LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS & KM

Pragmatic Knowledge Management : A Hybrid KM Strategy -- Dr Steven Cavaleri

Adopting a PKM approach is not a quick fix to any type of performance problem which an organization may face. However, it is faster-acting that many types of KM, and its benefits are more directly focused on developing solutions to problems that impact performance.

©2008 Steven Cavaleri. All Rights Reserved.

LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS & KM

Building up Organizational Learning Capability : The Impact of Knowledge Management Activities on Performance -- Dr. S L Chau and Dr. C S Wong

Appreciating the strategic importance of learning and knowledge in organizations, the realm of organizational learning and knowledge management receive growing scholarly attention. Unfortunately, there is a lot of confusion in the use of the terms "organizational learning" and "knowledge management". This article attempts to make a clearer understanding of how knowledge management activities impact organizational learning and performance outcomes. Drawing upon the resource-based theory, we hypothesize that knowledge management activities will help build up organizational learning capability, which in turn will affect organizational performance. Results from two independent samples provide clear support to our hypotheses. Implications for management researchers and practitioners are also discussed.

© 2008 The Icfai University Press. All Rights Reserved

LEARNING ORGANIZATIONS & KM

Open net¥WORKing Organizations : Co-generating Knowledge and Innovation -- Jenny Ambrozek and Victoria G Axelrod

We understand the challenge net¥WORKing provides but contend both individuals and organizations must adopt "And Both" thinking and operating. While core functions may continue to rely on familiar, maximally efficient processes and capability—intellectual, organizational, and technology—must be added to tap and leverage the value creating potential of net¥WORK.

© 2008 Jenny Ambrozek & Victoria G Axelrod. All Rights Reserved.

INTERVIEW

The critical success factor is the buy-in of the organization. -- Colonel Steven Mains

The critical success factor is the buy-in of the organization. There has to be an emphasis on learning from bottom to top in an organization or the system will break down. If the boss does not believe in learning from his mistakes and sharing knowledge, no one below him will. The managers have to lead organizations and set the example for their lower-level managers and floor workers.

© 2008 The Icfai University Press. All Rights Reserved

INTERVIEW

A learning organization must be willing to accept that it has made mistakes and must correct them -- Vinton G Cerf

A learning organization must be willing to accept that it has made mistakes and must correct them, rather than insisting on rules that everyone has to follow and exhibiting an unwillingness to change them.

© 2008 The Icfai University Press. All Rights Reserved

INTERVIEW

A learning organization requires a certain modesty and openness of mind -- Daniel A Levinthal

A learning organization requires a certain modesty and openness of mind. To be truly committed to learning, an organization must accept the notion that there are no best ways of doing things, but rather simply ways of doing things that are yet to be shown to be inferior.

© 2008 The Icfai University Press. All Rights Reserved

LEADERSHIP

Leadership Traits : Intrinsic virtue matters most -- GRK Murty

A leader with no `legitimacy' of power and `intrinsic virtue' tends to exhibit a `leader-less' leadership behavior as it happens with Shakespeare's King John and in the process fails to influence the behavior of the organization, for he/she will be preoccupied with protecting his power.

© 2008 The Icfai University Press. All Rights Reserved