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Title: Enabling Knowledge Creation: How to Unlock the Mystery of Tacit Knowledge and Release the Power of Innovation by Georg Von Krogh, Kazuo Ichijo, Ikujiro Nonaka, Kazou Ichijo ISBN: 0-19-512616-5 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: May, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $30.00 |
Average Customer Rating: 5 (7 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Knowledge Enabling not KM !!
Comment: I had a pleasant surprise when a friend of mine decided to gift me "Enabling Knowledge Creation" by Georg Von Krogh, Kazuo Ichijo and Ikujiro Nonaka. It forms a sequel to "the Knowledge Creating Company" co-authored by Nonaka and Takeuchi published in 1995 . The first book was a seminal work which has profoundly influenced my views on Knowledge Creation (Nonaka refuses to entertain the concept of KM , resolutely denying that Knowledge
can ever be managed!) along with writers like Tom Davenport and Larry Prusak. However, the first book was open to a lot of criticism saying that it was just too "theoretic", "vague" and "generalised" ...Nonaka et al try and get more hands on, and tool bookish with this book.
However, this book is likely to disturb people who have read and formed ideas about KM by reading works of the American thought leaders.
In the start of the book the authors try and make the difference explicit.
In a passage titled "what's wrong with knowledge management?" they spell it out :
Pitfall I: KM relies on easily detectable, quantifiable information.
Pitfall II: KM is devoted to the manufacture of tools.
Pitfall III: KM depends on a Knowledge Officer.
While the premises of Knowledge Enabling and Creation are:
Premise I: Knowledge is justified true belief, individual and social, tacit and explicit.
Premise II: Knowledge depends on your perspective.
Premise III: Knowledge Creation is a craft , not a science.
The authors reiterate that organizational Knowledge Creation involves five main steps :
1. Sharing tacit knowledge
2. Creating concepts
3. Justifying concepts
4. Building a prototype
5. Cross-leveling knowledge.
To facilitate this the following 5 enablers need to be in place :
1. instill a knowledge vision
2. manage conversations
3. mobilize knowledge activits
4. Create the right context
5. Globalize local knowledge
The book is rich in case studies which show how different companies that follow these concepts are growing in leaps and bounds and innovating over others who remain stuck in the KM paradigm.
The authors note that in the Knowledge journey companies can be mapped in 3 phases, which might or might not be sequential.
1. The Risk Minimisers , whose focus is capturing and locating knowledge. The tools they use are data warehousing, datamining, Yellow pages, IC-Navigator, Balanced Scorecard, Knowledge Audits, IC-Index, Business Information Systems, Rule-based systems [these firms still view knowledge as a resource that needs to be collected and managed]
2. The Efficiency Seekers, who focus on transferring and sharing knowledge. The tools they use are internets, intranets, Lotus Notes/Groupware, Networked organization, knowledge workshops, knowledge workbench, Best Practice Transfer, Benchmarking, Knowledge-gap analysis, Knowledge sharing culture, Technology transfer units, Knowledge transfer units, Systems Thinking
3. The Innovators who enable Knowledge creation are typically those who embrace a knowledge vision, managing conversations, creating the right context, mobilize knowledge activists, globalize local knowledge, professional innovation networks, new organizational forms, New HRM-systems, new corporate values, project management systems, corporate universities, communities and storyboards.
Rating: 5
Summary: Highly Recommended!
Comment: Dust off those liberal arts degrees before opening this challenging treatise on knowledge management, written by a trio of academics who call themselves "constructionists," quote Sartre and speak passionately of "post-modernism." Their work explains how to gain initiative and constructive input from workers by modifying traditional command structures - a grounded approach that is much more realistic than the revolutionary conversions called for by other experts. Managers who balk at the thought of granting autonomy or increased access to their employees may well be converted away from their hierarchical dogma here. We at getAbstract particularly recommend the lively knowledge-creation case histories and the wonderful section explaining how companies can create valid, imaginative futures. (What if IBM had imagined a world in which software was more important than mainframes?)
Rating: 5
Summary: Sustainable advantage through knowledge enabling
Comment: In the many publications on Knowledge Management, the writings by Von Krogh and Nonaka (and, in this case, Ichijo) stand out in a number of aspects: 1) their emphasis of knowledge "management" as an essentially human and social process 2) their emphasis on linking knowledge management with strategic focus and business results 3) the inspiring examples and writing style.
This book is a clear showcase of these elements. It provides a profound yet pragmatic guidance on the road to becoming a learning organisation. Where capturing & locating, and transferring & sharing knowledge are essential in achieving competitive advantage through knowledge, the real source of sustainable advantage is, as the authors claim, the continuous creation of new knowledge, as a result of developing a strategic vision and an enabling organisation and culture to realise that (evolving) vision.
Being involved in implementing a number of the concepts in our organisation, I am convinced this book provides many ideas and tools that will help today's corporate world in reshaping our business for the knowledge economy.
Highly recommended!
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