Posted by Yogesh Malhotra on June 14, 1997 at 17:21:50:

In Reply to: What Is Knowledge Management posted by Don Mezei on June 13, 1997 at 05:39:35:

Don,

Your note reminds me of the 'Knowledge Management is an Oxymoron' piece
by Manville. Your note, and some other pieces in literature are attempting to suggest the difficulty in reconciling the 'soft issues' such as innovation and creativity with the 'hard issues' of performance benchmarks, measurements and assessments.

One may argue that the diametrically opposed nature of 'knowledge' and
'management' stems from our assumptions about what is meant by the two
terms. In fact, one may perceive that you are considering 'management'
and 'control' to be synonymous, however that may not necessarily be the case. For example, see the following article:

Landau, M. & Stout, Jr., R. "To Manage is Not to Control: Or the Folly of Type II Errors," Public Administration Review, March/April 1979, pp. 148-156.

The same goes for the notion of what is "control"? Again, one may argue
that the current notion of control perhaps considers the 'controllee' as an impassive and an inactive organism. It is recognized by the extant literature on work behavior that the traditional notion of control, particularly control aimed at seeking compliance, may be pretty limited. This limitation is based on the recognition that the individual controllees may exercise 'choice' and choose not to be 'controlled.'

For example, see the following article:

Manz, C.C., Mossholder, K. W. & Luthans, F. "An Integrated Perspective of Self-Control in Organizations," 19(1), Administration & Society, May 1987, pp. 3-24.

Most such 'controls' happen to beget 'temporary compliance' that is different than 'commitment' to the focal goals of the organization.

For example, see the following article:

Kohn, Alfie, "Why Incentive Plans Cannot Work" Harvard Business Review,
pp. 54-63, Harvard Business Review, Sep-Oct. 1993.

and its follow up discussion in

Stewart, G. Bennett, et al. "Rethinking Rewards," pp. 37-49, Harvard Business Review, Nov-Dec. 1993

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Follow Ups:

• Re: Is 'Knowledge Management' an Oxymoron?: 'Control', 'Compliance' & 'Performance' don 21:28:55 6/17/97 (7)
  • Re: Is 'Knowledge Management' an Oxymoron?: 'Control', 'Compliance' & 'Performance' Yogesh Malhotra 22:52:24 6/17/97 (6)
    • Re: Is 'Knowledge Management' an Oxymoron?: 'Control', 'Compliance' & 'Performance' Brenda Jamnik 07:34:58 11/12/97 (0)
    • Japanese Management Process HARESH TILANI 22:51:50 10/27/97 (2)
      • Re: Japanese Management Process andy hayes 13:25:23 4/07/98 (1)
        • Re: Japanese Management Process Jum 12:56:06 11/26/98 (0)
    • Re: Is 'Knowledge Management' an Oxymoron?: 'Control', 'Compliance' & 'Performance' Don Mezei 10:43:16 6/19/97 (1)
      • Re: Is 'Knowledge Management' an Oxymoron?: 'Control', 'Compliance' & 'Performance' Yogesh Malhotra 19:02:59 7/16/97 (0)

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