Illusions of control and social domination strategies in knowledge mapping system use

Abstract

In recent years, the overload of information has driven companies to develop visualization technologies as a way to graphically represent knowledge for decision making. On the basis of visualization technologies and on knowledge modeling techniques, knowledge maps (Kmaps) help represent the knowledge assets of a company as graphical discrete objects. Yet such systems, because of their visual representation of knowledge, are prone to creating illusions. Using a case study of three firms’ use of Kmaps in their Human Resource departments and drawing upon Bourdieu's social theory, illusion of control theory, and IS as signal and symbol theory, our study provides a critical perspective on the use of Kmaps by groups of actors to reinforce their social domination in business organizations. We find that Kmap use can lead to illusions of knowledge control and illusions of executive control and that in response to the potential for knowledge illusions, three social domination strategies – a signal and symbol strategy, an avoidance strategy and an evidence strategy – are employed. Implications of these results on Knowledge Management and Information Systems Management future research are discussed.

Keywords:

• knowledge management
• knowledge management systems
• illusion of control
• social domination
• case study

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Aurélie Dudezert

About the authors

Aurélie Dudezert, PhD, is Associate Professor in Ecole Centrale Paris and Head of the Knowledge Management Research Group of the Laboratoire Génie Industriel. She served previously as Knowledge Manager in the Ernst&Young's Center for Business Knowledge and in TOTAL. She serves as reviewer for several international conferences and journal in Information Systems.

Dorothy E Leidner

Dorothy E. Leidner, PhD, is the Randall W. and Sandra Ferguson Professor of Information Systems at Baylor University. Her research has been published in MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Organization Science, the Journal of Management Information Systems, and Decision Science, among others and serves as senior editor for MIS Quarterly Executive.