Knowledge Management: Classic and Contemporary Works

Book Description

This book provides an introduction to the field of knowledge management. Taking a learning-centric rather than information-centric approach, it emphasizes the continuous acquisition and application of knowledge. The book is organized into three sections, each opening with a classic work from a leader in the field. The first section, Strategy, discusses the motivation for knowledge management and how to structure a knowledge management program. The second section, Process, discusses the use of knowledge management to make existing practices more effective, the speeding up of organizational learning, and effective methods for implementing knowledge management. The third section, Metrics, discusses how to measure the impact of knowledge management on an organization. In addition to the classic essays, each section contains unpublished works that further develop the foundational concepts and strategies.

Customer Reviews:

The learning-centric alternative for knowledge management.......2005-03-26

At the start of each episode of the mysterious, brain-twisting 1960s spy/science fiction series, The Prisoner, Patrick McGoohan would declare: "I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed, or numbered!" This could well be the rallying cry for the perspective on knowledge management taken by the contributors to this 451-page volume. The 18 pieces are gathered into three groups covering strategy, process, and metrics. Although the volume can certainly serve well as a general introduction to knowledge management, the editors make no bones about their distinctly learning-centric (as distinct from information-centric) perspective that they take.

The information-centric approach, which has been dominant in the field until recently (and still is among consultants with IT systems to sell), emphasizes knowledge as explicit, and as susceptible of being captured, stored, and processed. The contributors to this book instead emphasize the continuous generation, acquisition and application of knowledge in its human and cultural context. This perspective permeates each of the essays and all three of the sections. Those sections begin with a classic work then move onto more contemporary thinking along compatible lines.

The "Strategy" section, which begins with two pieces by Peter Senge, examines the motivation for knowledge management and explores how to structure a knowledge management program. Takeuchi and Nonaka's classic paper, "Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation" opens the "Process" section, which looks at how managers can implement knowledge management effectively, applying it to help make existing practices more effective and to speed up organizational learning. The final section on Metrics covers the use of the Balanced Scorecard, the measurement of intangibles, and metrics for knowledge sharing.

Busy executives need not be deterred by the length of this book. They can read the opening classic pieces, then look only at those following pieces with the most relevance to their concerns and circumstances. Margaret Wheatley's introduction, "Can Knowledge Management Succeed Where Other Efforts Have Failed?", is well worth reading for her concise and lucid account of the common beliefs in organizations that have caused problems for KM. These include beliefs that organizations are machines, only material things are real, that only numbers are real, that you can only manage what you can measure, and that technology is the savior.

Not the best KM book out there.......2004-12-17

There are certainly a few nuggets to be extracted from this volume but it is not a very compelling read. The MIT slant is obvious due to the multiple inclusions of Peter Senge. Yes there is a reprint of the seminal Balanced Scorecard article from the HBR included in this compilation but I really considered most of the papers included in this collection to be extremely uninteresting. Many of the articles provide nothing other than a state of affairs for knowledge management and while they are well researched they are totally dated. Anyone who has read a relatively recent book on the subject of KM will be familiar with the content contained within this volume. Furthermore many of these articles can be found free of charge on the internet as they were published far and wide at their inception. Sure it touches on the major components of knowledge mangement but in my opinion I found the case work to be so general that any *term of the moment* could be substituted for knowledge management. Spend your cash elsewhere.

Packed with Knowledge!.......2004-03-02

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, we are 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.

List of included works.......2001-01-23

I am the editor for this book and I thought it would be helpful to include an overview of the target audience and highlights of the included works in the collection.

This collection is a targetted at leaders in government, industry, or academia who are interested in starting or evaluating a knowledge management program, are currently implementing a knowledge management program, or are simply interested in expanding their understanding of knowledge management.

Featured works include:

Introduction by Margaret Wheatley on, "Can Knowledge Management Succeed Where Other Efforts Have Failed?"

A reflection by Peter Senge on what has been learned since his seminal, "The Leader's New Work: Building Learning Organizations"

Dr. David J. Skyrme on "Developing a Knowledge Strategy: From Management to Leadership"

An introduction by Bipin Junnarkar, CKO of Gateway, on "Sharing and Building Context"

A reflection by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka on what has been learned since their seminal work, "The Knowledge Creating Company"

Dorothy Leonard on "Tacit Knowledge, Unarticulated Needs and Empathic Design in New Product Development"

Dr. Karl-Erik Sveiby on "Measuring Intangibles and Intellectual Capital"

Dr. Nick Bontis on "Managing Organizational Knowledge by Diagnosing Intellectual Capital"

List of included works.......2001-01-23

I am the editor for this book and I thought it would be helpful to include an overview of the target audience and highlights of the included works in the collection.

Featured works include:

Introduction by Margaret Wheatley on, "Can Knowledge Management Succeed Where Other Efforts Have Failed?"

A reflection by Peter Senge on what has been learned since his seminal, "The Leader's New Work: Building Learning Organizations"

Dr. David J. Skyrme on "Developing a Knowledge Strategy: From Management to Leadership"

An introduction by Bipin Junnarkar, CKO of Gateway, on "Sharing and Building Context"

A reflection by Hirotaka Takeuchi and Ikujiro Nonaka on what has been learned since their seminal work, "The Knowledge Creating Company"

Dorothy Leonard on "Tacit Knowledge, Unarticulated Needs and Empathic Design in New Product Development"

Dr. Karl-Erik Sveiby on "Measuring Intangibles and Intellectual Capital"

Dr. Nick Bontis on "Managing Organizational Knowledge by Diagnosing Intellectual Capital"

Average customer rating:
Knowledge Management: Classic and Contemporary Works
Daryl; Maybury, Mark T.; Thuraisingham, Bhavani M. Morey
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OQVXL0

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Knowledge Management: Classic and Contemporary Works
Daryl, Mark Maybury, and Bhavani Thuraisingham (editors) Morey
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OQCSZK

Book Description

The secrets of true productivity have only been mastered by a few companies, and Jason Jennings, author of the New York Times bestseller It's Not the Big that Eat the Small...It's the Fast that Eat the Slow has located ten great examples. The companies profiled here, which range from finance, manufacturing, and industry, all share one secret: they operate at peak productivity. Jennings studied their methods and operations and lays out the secrets to success in clear, easy-to-follow steps. An invaluable resource for everyone in business.

Customer Reviews:

Well Done.......2006-04-22

Stories of successful businesses fill this book. The author got "down and dirty" and did in-the-trenches research to find the best performing companies in the world. Then he spoke with the CEO's to find out what makes them and their businesses tick.

Insightful !.......2005-02-23

This is not just another book about the secrets of famous companies. It is, instead, a book about the secrets of somewhat obscure but great companies. The principles that author Jason Jennings propounds are familiar enough, but most of his examples will not be familiar to the general reader. That is no drawback. Although some of these companies are less well known, they have all achieved great business success (if not fame) by applying some of the most tried, true and proven axioms of management. Treat people with respect, pay them for performance, focus on one clear and understandable mission - there is nothing new about these principles, except that they keep proving their efficacy even in the unlikeliest places. Do not look for a deep examination of management here. The book provides frustratingly scant background information about the companies themselves. But we assure those seeking a handbook of solid if venerable management advice that you will not go wrong with this interesting little book.

On the lean culture of cost leadership firms.......2004-08-02

This spring, I had a night-flight from Houston to Europe. I never got any sleep due to this book. It reads like a fiction novel while the focus is very much on the softer issues of productivity businesses. The well-written behind-the-wall stories and interviews with successful top executives give us insight to many issues that usual case stories do not explain.

Business magazines often glorify top executives by telling about the grand strategic plan behind the success. This little book shows us a different story. It provides insight to the many seemingly small traits of the lean culture that only works because they taken serious by the organization and used in combination. These are the 11 traits required for the leader of a highly productive enterprise: attention to detail, high moral fiber, embracing simplicity, competitiveness, long-term focus, disdain for waste, coach leadership, humility, rejection of bureaucracy, belief in others, and trust.

I'm sure you're really not impressed of this list. Neither am I. But try challenging some of the advice. Humility? When was the last time you saw a big company using this as a standard. When you hear the story of many head offices visited in this book, you'll understand humility. Often you'll find a very simple and humble office building for a huge company. No art on the walls! No lavish entrance hall! In these companies, you don't find huge corporate staff creating immense bureaucracy and all sorts of information requirements from their operating companies or business units. These organizations do actually "walk-the-talk" on lean - unlike many fad-driven major firms who's paying lip service to a lean culture.

PERSISTENCE is a word missing from the 11 traits, though attention to detail and long-term focus do include some of it. They never lose sight of their BIG idea or focus. It includes their performance measurement. "Everyone who works for SRC gathers once a week in their respective lunchrooms and takes part in a review of the business's financial performance for the previous week. By DOING IT WEEK IN WEEK-OUT FOR MANY YEARS the exercise has also become a system".

Okay, I'm sure that the book's research on productivity could have been better. And some of the firms reported on may experience difficulties, though most are still flourishing. But don't read this book for the hard stuff. Read the soft issues that over time usually turn out to be the hardest to beat.

I agree that it resembles "In Search of Excellence" to some degree, but remember that this book is on the lean culture of Cost Leadership firms (my interpretation, not the author's).

Peter Leerskov,
MSc in International Business (Marketing & Management) and Graduate Diploma in E-business

You Can Successfully Be a Corproate Leader.......2004-03-15

This book is an excellent example of the types of practices and procedures almost any company can follow to be successful both financially and ethically.
Jennings cites numerous companies who have carved out success while still remaining true to their customers, their employees and their values.
Not surprisingly, few of these companies are ones that so called pundits regularly review.
As the other reviews have noted, these companies are very successful financially, but they get there by asking the really pertinent business questions, and not by hiding behind an air of executive invulnerability. The leaders are real leaders, more focused on growing the company, serving customers, and doing right by employees.
What vividly differentiates these companies from the "name brands," is that in the "name" companies, executives are more concerned with their own compensation, preserving their own existence, and with profits at all costs, than long term success.
The questions you should ask yourself after reading this book are, "Where have all the leaders gone?" and "Why don't all companies follow many of Jennings' researched best practices?
After that, I would run, not walk, to one of these companies and see if you can start at the bottom and learn what it's like to work in a real company.

Very interesting but divisive and of limited value.......2003-12-30

Jennings reads his book on the unabridged audiocassette. He definitely has an announcers voice and is easy to understand. I found his inflections sort of larger-than-life/not natural at first but I quickly got acclimated, not a big issue. The book is fairly long and repeats many important themes like the need for healthy culture, process and vision in many different ways. It might be able to be shorter.

The research method Jennings and his team utilized for the book is the driver that makes the book so interesting. By carrying out detailed analysis to locate several under-the-radar, but incredibly productive companies, they managed to isolate some of the common threads for corporate success without being sucked into the vortex of large mega-companies whose stories are already well known and perhaps over-documented. The companies chosen represent a fairly good cross-section of international business, but I would have like to have seen at least one very high tech computer vendor make the cut. There are probably good reasons why there wasn't one, but there was no mention of this if my memory serves... In addition to the excellent research on the case companies, there are also some good insights into legendary companies like Ford and Toyota briefly provided for specific instances.

The significant flaw in this book is that when it is taken as a whole, it amounts to not much more than a very interesting, carefully crafted, indictment of most executive management in corporations today. The executives profiled all really know the nuts and bolts of their business and have been with them long enough to really cast Deming-like vision into reality. That plays well for well a while, but with 6 tapes, I'd like something more practical I can start at work tomorrow since I'm not an executive and probably never will be. The book does try to service this need for mid-managers like me towards the end of the book by encouraging that we apply at least some of the key principles to some degree in the hope of making a grass roots difference at least within our department. Actually, the department I work with abides by many of the principles given and they do help. But that doesn't stop large-scale lay-offs, frozen budgets and other realities that most managers really have to live with. The book's untitled theme is that strong success only flows from the top down. In the highly successful cases analyzed, each has exceptional Level 5 leaders (to use Jim Collins terminology). What if where I work is like 90% of all places where the executives turn-over a lot, are forced to optimize all decisions for short-term profit on Wall Street and de-rail some good plans due to economic realities? The book's primary advice to me would seem to be: go to work somewhere else, find that 10% club. Maybe true, but not particularly helpful today.

Even for those top-level executives whom this book will reach, it is likely to fall on deaf ears. Not because executives really are the "wing tip shoe wearers, peacock strutting" jerks Jennings occasionally alludes to. No, it is Jennings own inflammatory and derisive language that will tend to make executives shut the book. I wanted to lend my tapes to the president of my company because of the good macro-productivity ideas, but decided I wouldn't because he might take it as my endorsement of this class-warfare attitude.

There are other sources out there for most of the information here on egalitarian culture, continuous process improvement, open-book management, profit sharing incentives, etc. I'd be interested to know the average working hours of the employees in the case study companies as a cultural factor but I don't recall this being mentioned. In any case, the productivity measures would factor this in, just a cultural question I have about these companies.

Much of what Jennings says is true and interesting. There are some things that can be learned here, but much of it comes down to re-invent almost everything, starting with your executives. Who can implement that? Again, it is the detailed case study research that puts compelling value into this book.

Book Description

Sinners and Citizens explores how sexual habits changed in Sweden during its development from an agrarian society into a modern welfare state. Jens Rydström examines the history of homosexuality and bestiality in that country to consider why these sexual practices have been so closely linked in virtually all Western societies. He limns sharply the distinctive experience of rural life, showing that to regularly witness farm animals stirred passions and sparked ideas, especially among young farmhands.

Based on medical journals, psychiatric reports, and court records from the period, as well as testimonies from men in diaries, letters, and interviews, Sinners and Citizens reveals that bestiality was once a dreaded crime in Sweden. But in time, mention of the practice disappeared completely from legal and medical debates. This, Rydström contends, is because models of penetrative sodomy shifted from bestiality to homosexuality as Sweden transformed from a rural society into a more urban one. As the nation's economy and culture became less identified with the countryside, so too did its idea of deviant sexual behavior.

Productive Men, Reproductive Women: The Agrarian Household and the Emergence of Separate Spheres During the German Enlightenment

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Productive Men, Reproductive Women: The Agrarian Household and the Emergence of Separate Spheres During the German Enlightenment
Marion W. Gray
Manufacturer: Berghahn Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Rural Gender Studies in Europe (European Perspectives on Rural Development)

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Rural Gender Studies in Europe (European Perspectives on Rural Development)
Leendert van der Plas , and Maria Fonte
Manufacturer: Van Gorcum and Comp BV
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

Rural Women Workers in Nineteenth-Century England: Gender, Work and Wages

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Rural Women Workers in Nineteenth-Century England: Gender, Work and Wages
Nicola Verdon
Manufacturer: Boydell Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Workplace | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Economic History | Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

19th Century | World | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Social History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

General | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

History | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0851159060

Book Description

Despite the growth of women's history and rural social history in the past thirty years, the work performed by women who lived in the nineteenth-century English countryside is still an under-researched issue. Verdon directly addresses this gap in the historiography, placing the rural female labourer centre stage for the first time. The involvement of women in the rural labour market as farm servants, as day labourers in agriculture, and as domestic workers, are all examined using a wide range of printed and unpublished sources from across England. The roles village women performed in the informal rural economy (household labour, gathering resources and exploiting systems of barter and exchange) are also assessed. Changes in women's economic opportunities are explored, alongside the implications of region, age, marital status, number of children in the family and local custom; women's economic contribution to the rural labouring household is established as a critical part of family subsistence, despite criticism of such work and the rise in male wages after 1850.NICOLA VERDON is a Research Fellow in the Rural History Centre, University of Reading.

Shulamit and Margarete: Power, Gender, and Religion in a Rural Society in Eighteenth-Century Europe (Studies in Central European Histories)

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Shulamit and Margarete: Power, Gender, and Religion in a Rural Society in Eighteenth-Century Europe (Studies in Central European Histories)
Claudia Ulbrich
Manufacturer: Brill Academic Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

General | Interior Design | Home & Garden | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

History | Religious Studies | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0391041452

Book Description

Shulamit and Margarete takes a microhistorical look at a small village on the border of Germany and France in the eighteenth century. Drawing on the rich source material of the village, it casts a searching light on the boundaries created by language, states, religions, cultures, sex, and gender. By writing the history of the village from multiple perspectives, the author is able to uncover fascinating artefacts of a cultural contact between Christians and Jews, and to gain insights into the agency and experiences of women in rural society. The book is enhanced by a variety of sources and illustrations relating to Jewish history, such as the last will of Abraham Levy and the previously unknown portraits of Fromette Levy and Bernard Lipmann.

Widows in White: Migration and the Transformation of Rural Women, Sicily, 1880-1928 (Studies in Gender and History)

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Widows in White: Migration and the Transformation of Rural Women, Sicily, 1880-1928 (Studies in Gender and History)
Linda Reeder
Manufacturer: University of Toronto Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Europe | History | Subjects | Books

General | World | History | Subjects | Books

Social History | Historical Study | History | Subjects | Books

Emigration & Immigration | Administrative Law | Law | Subjects | Books

Emigration & Immigration | Social Sciences | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books

General | Women's Studies | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0802037313

Book Description

The transnational migrations of the early twentieth century had a profound impact on the lives of many people, but none more so than those who were left behind. In this lively interdisciplinary study, Linda Reeder examines the lives of rural Sicilian women and the changes that took place as a result of male migration to the United States.

Tracing the changing notions of female and male in rural Sicily, Reeder uses a wide variety of primary sources, including birth and death records, government records, novels, and newspapers, to explore the impact of industrialization on motherhood, family, wage-work, and female civic identity, and show how the processes of migration, globalization, and nation formation are deeply gendered. Grounded in empirical evidence, Reeder uses the methods and theories of social history, women's history, anthropology, and cultural studies in order to understand how migration altered women's identities. The choices these women made regarding family, work, schooling, and material wealth redefined the boundaries of community and nation, and helped them to claim a central place in the rapidly expanding global market.

Book Description

This textbook begins with an overview of NMR development and applications in biological systems. It describes recent developments in instrument hardware and methodology. Chapters highlight the scope and limitation of NMR methods. While detailed math and quantum mechanics dealing with NMR theory have been addressed in several well-known NMR volumes, chapter two of this volume illustrates the fundamental principles and concepts of NMR spectroscopy in a more descriptive manner. Topics such as instrument setup, data acquisition, and data processing using a variety of offline software are discussed. Chapters further discuss several routine stategies for preparing samples, especially for macromolecules and complexes. The target market for such a volume includes researchers in the field of biochemistry, chemistry, structural biology and biophysics.

Customer Reviews:

A nice book for your NMR.......2005-11-11

This book clearly illustrates the major aspects of NMR spectroscopy, instrumentation and applications in a relatively simple language without the use of complicated mathematics. The questions at the end of each section reflect the main points of the contents. It can be used as a self study textbook for beginners, as well as a reference for teaching and research in NMR spectroscopy.

NMR for Novice Master and Refresher.......2005-09-27

The book is a complete saga of NMR with relevant references. To learn NMR for macromolecules, just go through it.........you will reach the destination.

the first totally thorough book on the subject!.......2005-09-02

This is an impressive and detailed book for anyone who wants to know NMR. I found in this book all what I need about protein NMR from basic level up to most advanced triple-resonance experiments. This textbook (or reference book) is helpful for all levels of students and experts. After reading through the book, I feel like I am an NMR expert because the book not only teaches the new thing I did not know but also summarizes what I already knew. I showed it to my friends and they all like it just by looking at the table of contents. I totally agree with the reviewer's comments printed on the book cover:
"This is the first totally thorough book on the subject..." by Lawrence J. Berliner, University of Denver
"While NMR treatises abound, there exists no single text that provides both the information necessary to understand the experiments and processes, as well as the practical details for their successful implementation. This considerable gap in the literature is now happily bridged by Quincy Teng's timely contribution." By Gerd N. La Mar, University of California, Davis.

An excellent text!.......2005-05-13

This is a great addition to the NMR catalog. Dr. Teng combines theory, instrumentation and application in a text that is easily accessible to everyone. A must have for any student of biological NMR!

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