Posted by Reilly Atkinson on January 27, 2003 at 19:11:26:

In Reply to: social embeddedness of knowledge posted by Nizar Mansour on January 21, 2003 at 10:00:38:

Nizar -- Since I have no idea how to "socially embed" anything, I take knowledge, whatever it is, as something that resides in our brains. To be sure, many would say that knowledge is contained in human creations -- book, film, music, TV, websites, .... There is, then, an argument that knowledge can be contained, indeed embedded, in things made by humans. So, if you were to remove the word "socially", then I would "sort of" buy what you say, in as much as I read the generalization implied that knowledge can be present in many human activities.(By my notions, the most unskilled of workers is a knowledge worker. No work can ever be done without corresponding knowledge.)

So what? Well, increasingly I think that in 5-10 years, KM will be another relic of the past -- promises more than it can deliver,and, in my view, covers only a limited area of the study and knowledge of human history, does not appear to deal at all with the extraordinary rich and growing work in Brain Sceince and Cognitive Science, and seems limited mainly to large, mainstream organizations(I have yet to see a single reference to Freud in KM, and little said about the unconscious. Yet, current research is showing that the unconscious may well play a larger role in our decision making than does "free will.")For most of history, KM has been a part of general management. One would hope that increasingly, once again, managers realize the critical importance of what people know, what they can do (Action management?), how they work together, how they get the job done.

It's the people who are important. And people are much more than knowledge carriers -- they have intellegence, skills, personalities, needs, motivations, gripes, ..... If you manage knowledge without concommitant emphasis on people, then you are heading for a train wreck.

Like, the issue is not knowledge sharing. It's how to accomplish it, and that's people management.

So, it's not only sociology, but history,psychology and psychiatry, motivational techniques,literature, teaching and learning -- anything dealing with humans. Frankly, scientists, the medical and legal professions, among others, have done superb KM (by other names, like "carrying the torch"). The historical record shows clearly that the current business version of KM has a long way to go to catch up with its historical cousins.

I say: KM today, (PM)people tomorrow.

Regards,
Reilly Atkinson

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• Re: social embeddedness of knowledge prac 18:44:15 01/30/03 (0)

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