Managing knowledge in organisations : a critical analysis of extant approaches and conceptual aids

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Given the increased interest in the management of knowledge in corporations, there is aneed for an analysis of the current level of sophistication of the most salient approaches andconceptual aids to knowledge management (KM). This study investigates the currentlypopular approaches to conceptualise knowledge and its management, in order to ultimatelycontribute towards a better understanding of the concept of KM. The study was conducted byway of investigation of the concept of knowledge as an organisational resource and theprovision of critical analyses of current approaches and conceptual aids to KM. Theoreticalinvestigations involving a comprehensive study of international research, both popular andacademic, on relevant aspects of KM were undertaken in view of the purpose of this study.The most important conclusion that can be forwarded was that extant KM approaches andconceptual aids are not sufficiently sensitive to the resource they seek to manage, viz.knowledge.An investigation of the concept of knowledge, as the resource to be managed through KM,was first undertaken. The investigation revealed that particularly important for theconceptualisation of knowledge in a business context, are the complex properties of thisresource that impact its manageability. It was demonstrated that recent thinking on theseproperties has undergone a consolidation, through which two key aspects are crystallising,viz. firstly that knowledge can be tacit or explicit; and that it can, secondly, reside at the levelof the individual employee, the group, organisational, or interorganisational level in thecorporation. A significant conclusion was that the extant two-dimensional conceptualisationof knowledge does not encapsulate all aspects of knowledge that are impacting itsmanageability.A critical analysis of the concept of KM was subsequently made. For this purpose, threeconceptual models of KM that are currently popular among scholars, and that exemplify thepotential of extant conceptual aids for managing knowledge in organisations, have beenchosen eclectically: i) Spender (1996), ii) Hedlund (1995), and iii) Nonaka and Takeuchi(1995). Strengths and deficiencies of these models were discussed in order to enhance anunderstanding of the potential of the KM concept as it is currently portrayed in the literature.It was established that the three models analysed all use the above-mentioned inadequatetwo-dimensional conceptualisation of knowledge as a platform and conceptual frame ofreference. This commonality was shown to compromise the potential of extant approachesand models for managing knowledge in organisations, and recommendations were made toovercome these deficiencies in future research in the KM field.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University