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ScheduleDate Room Topic Assignment

1/31 3258 AVW Introduction

2/7 No Class

2/14 3258 AVW Introduction, N&T Ch. 1-5 N&T Essay

2/21 1112 AVW N&T Ch. 6-8, presentations

2/28 1112 AVW Brown & Duguid, Winograd & Flores lecture

3/7 1112 AVW Examples of KM tools

3/14 1112 AVW Examples of KM tools

Spring Break

3/30 1112 AVW Student presentations, TBD

4/10 3258 AVW Student presentations, TBD

4/11 1112 AVW Student presentations, TBD

4/18 1112 AVW

4/25 1112 AVW

5/2 1112 AVW

5/9 1112 AVW

5/16 1112 AVW

5/19

8-10am1112 AVW Final Exam (need to change the date) Oral Project

Presentations

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Middle Up-Down Management

The Hypertext organization most dated part of the book book may have had an impact

In terms of knowledge management bureaucracies good at conducting routine

• dysfunctional in time of change or uncertainty

• adaptation precludes adaptability

• operational and systemic knowledge (internalization, combination) task forces are more dynamic

• but are temporary

• not good at disseminating knowledge

• conceptual and sympathized knowledge (externalization, socialization)

3

Middle Up-Down (con’t)

The hypertext organization three simultaneous layers/contexts business layer project-team layer knowledge-base layer

The Knowledge-base layer tacit knowledge: corporate vision explicit knowledge: technology solutions recontextualize knowledge to a larger audience

• the need for knowledge librarians, etc.

4

Knowledge-Based Organizations

Most focus on the products they produce knowledge held by employees is secondary change is difficult

The Kao example products in toiletries and cosmetics but knowledge included surface science, polymers, etc. therefore positioned to get into floppy disk market

5

Eastern and Western Business

One of their weakest contributions

I have a hard time swallowing their tacit vs. explicit stereotypes

yet there is a propensity toward documenting procedures in Western culture

“We discovered a strong propensity in the West to view the world in terms of a dichotomy.” [p. 236]

Their desire to merge the traditions is admirable

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The Book’s Stated Goals

Construct a new theory of organizational knowledge creation

their best success

Explain the success of certain Japanese companies

no new ground broken here

Develop a universal management model converging Japan and the West

re-casting the middle manager as a knowledge engineer

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Knowledge Creation

Knowledge dissemination if you “train, train, train these knowledge workers, they will

learn, learn, learn” [p.227] leads to the unilateral movement of knowledge their spiral accounts for movement in both directions

Current “Knowledge Management” tools focus on the dissemination problem

they focus on the human processes of creating knowledge tacit assumption that creating new knowledge leads to

business success

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Discussion Questions

What are the most important points in the book?

How much of this is now common practice?

What are the implications for software engineering?

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Implications for Software Engineering

Heavy emphasis on explicit models use of manuals, etc. documenting software processes

Tacit knowledge receives little attention meetings are largely demonized

How can the knowledge transfer be facilitated?

tacit <--> explicit