Cambridge Business Association
Knowledge Management
Book

Knowledge Management

Classic and Contemporary Works

Daryl Morey, Mark Maybury and Bhavani Thuraisingham
MIT Press, 2000
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Editorial Rating

9

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

This book offers a learning-centered introduction to the field of knowledge management. Each of the three sections (Strategy, Process, Metrics) sets the tone with an opening essay by a well known authority in the field. Several previously unpublished essays that develop the chapter follow each opening piece. This convenient plan makes it possible for time-pressed readers to get the gist of the matter by reading only three or four essays in the area that most concerns them. It also allows readers with a consuming interest in the subject to get all of the details they could possibly desire. Some of the essays are accessible; some are quite heavy going, laden with jargon and dense academic prose that only a specialist could decipher. Thus, getAbstract.com is grateful that the editors have made it so easy for readers to find what they need to know in this well-organized, thorough study of the field of knowledge management.

Summary

Strategy

In knowledge management, strategy means a plan, with clear metrics, that is designed to achieve a goal. Strategy does not determine whether the goal is worth achieving or not. The "vision and purpose" of the organization determine that. Strategy merely lays out a path to the goal. Confusing strategy and vision can blur the focus and weaken the discipline of your organization. Therefore, your organization’s knowledge management strategy must recognize the importance and nature of leadership, including these facts:

  • Leadership belongs to the organization. It is not the peculiar province of executives.
  • Leadership is an organization’s ability to change, create and work more knowledgably.
  • Knowledge is the ability to act and have an effect.
  • Leaders make change possible by enabling the organization to grow in knowledge.

Knowledge management does not move in a straight line. Knowledge grows organically. Technology may be neat, orderly and fast, but progress in knowledge is chaotic, messy and slow. One must distinguish knowledge from data. Data is merely an aggregation of facts and observations. Knowledge is the ability to do...

About the Authors

The three editors of this book all work at the MITRE Corporation, Daryl Morey is the Senior Knowledge Management Engineer; Mark Maybury is the Executive Director of the Information Technology Division; and Bhavani Thuraisingham heads the Data and Information Management Department.

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