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Abstract
Often knowledge management (KM) initiatives are built on an assumption that the relationship between knowledge and action starts with knowledge, that is, we know something and we act upon it. Such an assumption can lead KM initiatives to develop knowledge that is not necessarily useful for the actions that an organization is willing to take. However, if the organization derives knowledge from the actions they are willing to take or they are taking, the knowledge can be much more useful as it will directly facilitate the actions. In this article, we argue that the relationship between knowledge and action is reciprocal and offers two-way learning. As such, KM initiatives are most apt to be successful by considering how to derive knowledge from action as well as how to deliver knowledge. The paper develops five principles for action-oriented KM.
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Notes on contributors
Heather A Smith
Heather A. Smith ([email protected]) is Senior Research Associate with Queen's University School of Business, specializing in IT management issues. A former senior IT manager, she is a founder and co-director (with James McKeen) of the IT Management Forum, the CIO Brief, and the KM Forum, which facilitate inter-organizational learning among senior executives, and co-author (with James McKeen) of Management Challenges in IS: Successful Strategies and Appropriate Action (1996). She is also a Research Associate with the Lac Carling Conference on E-Government, the Society for Information Management, and Chair of the IT Excellence Awards University Advisory Council. Her research is published in a variety of journals and books including CAIS, JITM, Information and Management, Database, CIO Canada, and the CIO Governments Review. Her book, Making IT Happen: Critical Issues in IT Management with James McKeen was published by Wiley in January 2003 and she is co-author of a new book, Information Technology and Organizational Transformation: Solving the Management Puzzle published by Butterworth-Heinemann.
James D McKeen
James D. McKeen ([email protected]) is Professor of MIS at the School of Business, Queen’s University at Kingston, Canada, and is the Director of the Monieson Centre – a research center focused on the study of knowledge in organizations. He received his Ph.D. in Business Administration from the University of Minnesota. His research interests include IT strategy, user participation, the management of IT, and knowledge management in organizations. His research is published in a variety of journals including the MIS Quarterly, JITM, CAIS, the Journal of Systems and Software, the International Journal of Management Reviews, Information & Management, CACM, Computers and Education, OMEGA, Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences, JMIS, KM Review, and Database. He currently serves on the Editorial Board of the Journal of End User Computing and was the MIS area editor for the Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences for seven years. Jim and Heather Smith’s most recent book: Making IT Happen: Critical Issues in IT Management was published in January 2003 by Wiley.
Satyendra Singh
Satyendra Singh ([email protected]) is a doctoral student in Management Information Systems at the School of Business at Queen’s University. He holds an MBA from Queen’s University, a Masters in Computer Applications from Andhra University in India, and a B.Sc. from Osmania University in India. Prior to starting his graduate studies, Mr. Singh spent 12 years working in the software industry. His research interests include organizational strategy, IT strategy, and knowledge management. His papers appear in journals such as Communications of the AIS and the Journal of Information Science and Technology. Mr. Singh also presented his research results at a number of conferences.