Conceptions Of Knowledge Creation Knowledge And Knowing

The creation and management of knowledge has become a central concern to business and management, both as a source of value and as an opportunity to achieve and sustain competitive advantage. This new book brings together leading thinkers in the area of knowledge and innovation management in a state of the art collection of studies in this field.

This book responds to calls for further advancing knowledge creation in schools. It examines sixteen Chinese Language teachers from Singapore, since language teachers are primarily responsible for the basic literacy that is the foundation of students’ lifelong learning. Positing that people’s cultural beliefs and the language(s) they use are inseparable, the book argues that Chinese language teachers possess a unique understanding of the various phenomena that reflect the influences of Chinese culture by virtue of the language they speak and teach. For the purposes of the investigation, it employs phenomenography — a methodology aimed at finding and systematising how people interpret the world around them — to determine and describe Chinese language teachers’ conceptions of these phenomena.

When The Knowledge-Creating Company (OUP; nearly 40,000 copies sold) appeared, it was hailed as a landmark work in the field of knowledge management. Now, Enabling Knowledge Creation ventures even further into this all-important territory, showing how firms can generate and nurture ideas by using the concepts introduced in the first book. Weaving together lessons from such international leaders as Siemens, Unilever, Skandia, and Sony, along with their own first-hand consulting experiences, the authors introduce knowledge enabling--the overall set of organizational activities that promote knowledge creation--and demonstrate its power to transform an organization's knowledge into value-creating actions. They describe the five key "knowledge enablers" and outline what it takes to instill a knowledge vision, manage conversations, mobilize knowledge activists, create the right context for knowledge creation, and globalize local knowledge. The authors stress that knowledge creation must be more than the exclusive purview of one individual--or designated "knowledge" officer. Indeed, it demands new roles and responsibilities for everyone in the organization--from the elite in the executive suite to the frontline workers on the shop floor. Whether an activist, a caring expert, or a corporate epistemologist who focuses on the theory of knowledge itself, everyone in an organization has a vital role to play in making "care" an integral part of the everyday experience; in supporting, nurturing, and encouraging microcommunities of innovation and fun; and in creating a shared space where knowledge is created, exchanged, and used for sustained, competitive advantage. This much-anticipated sequel puts practical tools into the hands of managers and executives who are struggling to unleash the power of knowledge in their organization.

This book brings together the research of a number of scholars in the field of knowledge creation and imparts a sense of order to the field. The chapters share three characteristics: they are all grounded in extensive qualitative and/or quantitative research; they all go beyond the mere description of the knowledge-creation process and offer both theoretical and strategic implications; they share a view of knowledge creation and knowledge transfer as delicate processes, necessitating particular forms of support from managers.

This book presents perspectives on the knowledge creation metaphor of learning, and elaborates the trialogical approach to learning. The knowledge creation metaphor differs from both the acquisition and the participation metaphors. In a nutshell trialogical approaches seek to engage learners in joint work with shared objects and artefacts mediated by collaboration technology. The theoretical underpinnings stem from different origins, including Bereiter and Scardamalia’s theory on knowledge building and Engeström’s activity theory. The authors in this collection introduce key concepts and techniques, explain tools designed and developed to support knowledge creation, and report results from case studies in specific contexts. The book chapters integrate theoretical, methodological, empirical and technological research, to elaborate the empirical findings and to explain the design of the knowledge creation tools. The target audiences for this book are researchers, teachers and Human Resource developers interested in new perspectives on collaborative learning, technology-mediated knowledge creation, and applications of this in their own settings, for higher education, teacher training and workplace learning. The book is the result of joint efforts from many contributors who took part in the Knowledge-practices Laboratory (KP-Lab) project (2006-2011) supported by EU FP6.

This book presents the latest management ideas in knowledge creation and management in readable and non-technical chapters. Leading experts have contributed chapters in their fields of expertise. Each distils his or her subject in a chapter that is accessible to managers who want to learn what can be applied to their organizations without the distracting details of research methodology. Each chapter, however, is based on careful research. The book is organized so that readers can easily find chapters of most interest and value to them. The emphasis is on the practical applications of knowledge to a wide variety of organizations and functional areas.

Written by some of the leading international scholars in the field, this book presents the current state-of-the-art in knowledge management. The book offers a strong response to the need for a body of scientific knowledge on the understanding, managing and measuring of knowledge in organizations and brings an international perspective to bear on the issues bridging theory and practice through case study illustrations from Europe, Japan and American companies.

Explaining how to improve our knowledge-based society, this book addresses problems in collecting, synthesizing, coordinating, and creating knowledge. It provides knowledge engineering tools and a framework for integrating knowledge creation, discovery, and management. The text covers knowledge technology, knowledge management, knowledge discovery and data mining, knowledge synthesis, knowledge justification, and knowledge construction. Experienced researchers in decision science, artificial intelligence, systems engineering, behavioral science, and management science present new methods for creating technological innovation from existing knowledge, such as IT techniques, organizational theory, and mathematical systems theory.