Definitions from Knowledge Management in Organizations

Question 1

Post-industrial society

Answer 1

A society where the service sector is dominant and knowledge-based goods/services have replaced industrial, manufactured goods as the main wealth generators.

Question 2

Epistemology

Answer 2

Philosophy addressing the nature of knowledge. Concerned with questions such as: is knowledge objective and measurable? Can knowledge be acquired or is it experienced? What is regarded as valid knowledge and why?

Question 3

Positivism

Answer 3

While Comte, a nineteenth-century French philosopher, founded what is now called positivism, Durkheim was arguably the first to translate these ideas into the realm of sociology. Durkheim was concerned to make sociology into a science, and advocated the use of a positivistic philosophy. This philosophy assumes that cause and effect can be established between social phenomena through the use of observation and testing, and that general laws and principles can be established. These general laws and principles constitute objective knowledge.

Question 4

Practice

Answer 4

Practice refers to purposeful human activity. It is based on the assumption that activity includes both physical and cognitive elements, and that these elements are inseparable. Knowledge use and development is therefore regarded as a fundamental aspect of activity.

Question 5

Perspective making and taking

Answer 5

Perspective making is the process through which an individual develops, strengthens, and sustains their knowledge, beliefs, and values. Perspective taking is the process through which people develop an understanding of the knowledge, values, and ‘worldview’ of others.

Question 6

Knowledge worker (‘professional knowledge work’ perspective)

Answer 6

Someone whose work is primarily intellectual, creative, and non-routine in nature, and which involves both the utilization and creation of abstract/theoretical knowledge.

Question 7

Knowledge worker (‘all work is knowledge work’ perspective)

Answer 7

Anyone whose work involves the use of a reasonable amount of tacit and contextual and/or abstract/conceptual knowledge.

Question 8

Organizational learning

Answer 8

The embedding of individual- and group-level learning in organizational structures and processes, achieved through reflecting on and modifying the norms and values embodied in established organizational processes and structures.

Question 9

Learning organization (propagandists)

Answer 9

An organization which supports the learning of its workers and allows them to express and utilize this learning to the advantage of the organization, through having an organizational environment which encourages experimentation, risk taking, and open dialogue.

Question 10

Learning organizations (sceptics)

Answer 10

An organization where socially based control systems are used to create value alignment around the benefits to all of learning, which has the potential to reinforce managment power, and contradict the logic of emancipation embodied in the learning organization rhetoric.

Question 11

Open innovation

Answer 11

A distributed innovation process based on the deliberate management of knowledge across organizational boundaries.

Question 12

Absorptive capacity

Answer 12

An organization’s ability to understand, absorb, and use external knowledge.

Question 13

Unlearning versus forgetting

Answer 13

Unlearning refers to the ability to deliberately dispose of or discard obsolete, outdated, or unwanted knowledge. Forgetting refers to the loss of knowledge that is not necessarily intended or planned.

Question 14

Knowledge leakage

Answer 14

The accidental or deliberate disclosure of confidental organizational knowledge which, when intercepted, may significantly erode or impact the competitive advantage of the firm from which the knowledge leaked.

Question 15

Knowledge repository

Answer 15

A comuter-based system for storing and organizing codified organizational knowledge, in all sorts of different formats, with the aim to make this knowledge easily accessible for other people.

Question 16

Knowledge-based system

Answer 16

A computer-based system containing knowledge about a particular domain and that can use this knowledge to diagnose or solve problems in that domain. Such systems are also referred to as expert systems since they intend to mimic the capability of an expert to diagnose or solve a particular problem.

Question 17

Big Data

Answer 17

Big Data refers to a massive amount of data being analysed, where the amount of data is typically characterized by four ‘v’s: Volume, Variety, Velocity, and Veracity.

Question 18

Transactive memory system

Answer 18

Knowledge relating to the distribution of expertise within teams whereby team members have an understanding of who possesses what specialist knowledge.

Question 19

Social Media

Answer 19

A web-based service or platform, based on web 2.0 technology, that enables the sharing, co-creation, discussion, and modification of user-generated content.

Question 20

Trust

Answer 20

The belief people have about the likely behaviour of others, and the assumption that they will honour their obligations (not acting opportunistically). A trusting relationship is based on an expectation of reciprocity or mutual benefit.

Question 21

Community of practice

Answer 21

A group of people who have a particular activity in common, and as a consequence have some common knowledge, a sense of community identity, and some element of a shared language and overlapping values.

Question 22

Boundary-spanning collaboration

Answer 22

A form of heterogeneous group collaborating involving people who have distinct differences between them such as knowledge base, sense of identity, native language spoken, etc.

Question 23

Power (resource-based perspective)

Answer 23

Power is a (scarce) resource whose use allows people to shape the behaviour of others.

Question 24

Power (power/knowledge perspective)

Answer 24

Power is produced and reproduced through the evolution of social relations. Power is embedded in language and is implicated in struggles over truth claims whereby the veracity of certain knowledge or truth claims are negotiated.

Question 25

Organizational commitment

Answer 25

The sense of emotional attachment that people feel to the organizations they work for, which may be reflected in the alignment of individual and organizational values and objectives.

Question 26

Organizational culture

Answer 26

The beliefs and behaviours shared by an organization’s members regarding what constitutes an appropriate way to think and act at work.

Question 27

Transformational leadership

Answer 27

A mode or style of leadership focused on the development of long-term visions, values and goals which also involves persuading workers to become attached to them and to work towards achieving them.