To share or not to share: a critical research perspective on knowledge management systems

Abstract

This paper looks at Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) from the perspective of critical research. Using the concepts of ‘gaze’ and ‘face’, we examine the development and use of a web-based KMS in Taiwan. The findings indicate that, although a web-based KMS was developed to enable knowledge sharing, the capabilities for surveillance inherent in the KMS severely limited sharing. This study raises broader questions about the relationship between cultural values and the production of knowledge in KMS.

Keywords:

• knowledge management systems
• critical research
• Foucault
• gaze
• face

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Mei-Lien Young

About the authors

Mei-Lien Young (Ph.D., Information Management, Sun Yat-Sen University, Taiwan) is an Associate Professor of Information Management at Nan-Hau University, Taiwan. Dr. Young’s research interest is knowledge management. She has published articles in Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (JASIST), Computers in Human Behavior, and Cyberpsychology and Behavior.

Feng-Yang Kuo

Feng-Yang Kuo holds a Ph.D. degree in Information Systems from the University of Arizona. He was the Faculty of Information Systems at the University of Colorado at Denver from 1985 to 1997 and is currently a Professor of Information Management at the National Sun Yat-Sen University, Taiwan. Professor Kuo's research interests include cognition and consumer/managerial decision making, information ethics, knowledge management, and human-computer interactions. He has published articles in Communications of the ACM, MIS Quarterly, Decision Support Systems, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology (JASIST), Journal of Business Ethics, Information & Management, Journal of Systems and Software, Computers in Human Behavior, and Internet Research.

Michael D Myers

Michael D. Myers B.A., M.A., Ph.D. – is a Professor of Information Systems and head of the Department of Information Systems and Operations Management at the University of Auckland Business School, New Zealand. He won the Best Paper award (with Heinz Klein) for the most outstanding paper published in MIS Quarterly in 1999. He currently serves as senior editor of Information & Organization, as senior editor of Pacific Asia Journal of the AIS, and as an Editor of the AIS World Section on Qualitative Research. He previously served as senior editor of MIS Quarterly, as a Senior Editor of Information Systems Research, and as an Associate Editor of Information Systems Journal. He also served as the President of the Association for Information Systems (AIS) in 2006–2007 and as Chair of the International Federation of Information Processing (IFIP) Working Group 8.2 from 2006 to 2008. Michael is a Fellow of the Association for Information Systems.