denotes premium content | May 24 2013 Inside Knowledge Magazine /Knowledge Management Magazine Archive
Volume 2 Issue 9
Features
Business Intelligence versus Knowledge Management
This article is an academic argument designed to stimulate thought and provoke wider debate around the role and function of Business Intelligence in relation to Knowledge Management. It approaches Knowledge Management and Business Intelligence from the perspective that both activities have a common objective, the persistence and prosperity of the organization. Shaun McCarthy explores the means to which this is achieved through generating and applying Intellectual Capital.
From Strip Mining to Sustainability in E and P Industry
A healthy evolution of Knowledge Management (KM) practice in the EandP industry is essential to the sustainability of business knowhow and human resources. But this is being impeded by lack of trust in the workplace. The most significant contributions from KM will come through the dynamic sharing of knowledge within the operational heart of a multidisciplinary team. Knowledge sharing cannot work in the absence of an atmosphere of honesty, trust and humility. The continuing cycle of mergers, acquisitions and downsizing, exacerbated by the oil price uncertainty, has destabilized the work ethic with the result that KM practice has shifted towards a strip mining mode and a non renewing consumption of knowledge assets. According to Michael Ring and Ted Lumley, while recovery from the deficit spending KM trend is not likely in the short term, it is important for management to understand their long term KM processes.
Narrative Technology and the New Millennium
Usually, when story telling takes place on a massive scale within daily life, thousands of people fill stadiums or halls to hear preachers, speakers and the modern story tellers of the nineties. But IBM do not need the physical stadium to communicate stories across a corporatewide globally dispersed population. John Thomas explains the various narrative approaches they are developing.
The future of Knowledge Management
The term knowledge management is everywhere. Our journal was one of the first to specialise in this subject and since then, similar specialist journals have multiplied and flooded the market. It crops up in conferences, seminars and exhibitions. There are hundreds of KM solutions and numerous KM consultants, so are we really in danger of flogging the proverbial dead horse yet?According to Professor Clive Holtham, knowledge management as a real and influencing movement within business is far from becoming a phrase of yesterday.Phrases date when they lose their power, but knowledge management still drives companies to instill its philosophies.
Virtual Knowledge
Diversity in technology has transformed BP Amoco into an effective virtual knowledge pool. Video conferencing, intranets, web cameras, audio conferencing have all helped to create a dynamic virtual environment where body language and the unseen nuances vital to clear communication can still exist. Chris Collison, Catherine Robertson and Robin Yellow outlines the development of the virtual corporate backbone which transcends the dichotomy between localisation and globalisation.
Culture is Power
This second article based on Good Practices in Knowledge Creation and Exchange argues that without a knowledge sharing culture no initiative will be worth its salt. That is why many attempts have produced more pain than gain. Dr. Amin Rajan and Kirsty Chapple summarise the efforts of companies developing knowledge management strategies and their various methods for tackling the out-moded traditional forms of corporate communication.
