Knowledge by narration : the role of storytelling in knowledge management

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Storytelling is gaining recognition as areas of inquiry in management and organisationtheory, but it is difficult to ascertain to what extent it is useful for organisational knowledgemanagement. The thesis argues that although the existing literature on organisationalstorytelling is focused on the knowledge sharing aspects of storytelling, it is also useful forknowledge capturing. Whilst most knowledge management systems focus on explicitknowledge, the capture of tacit knowledge, which is hard to identify and manage, is a majorchallenge.The thesis uses Becerra-Fernandez et al.'s knowledge management framework to establish therequirements for knowledge management, and specifically highlighting the important role oftacit knowledge in organisational knowledge processes. Thereafter the role of storytelling inorganisations is described by way of a literature review that includes the work of Snowden,Denning, Boje and Czarniawska. The outcome of this review is to show that storytelling is aninformal process in organisations and that attempts to formalise it are still in its infancy.The various insights about the role of stories in organisations are then mapped against therequirements for knowledge management. It is shown that the storytelling literature almostwholly concentrates on the area of knowledge sharing and less so in the areas of knowledgediscovery, capture and application. Since knowledge capture involves the externalisation oftacit knowledge and because tacit knowledge is more easily expressed in narrative form, it isargued that storytelling can also contribute to knowledge management as a way to captureknowledge.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University