SYSTEMS THINKING ON KNOWLEDGE AND ITS MANAGEMENT - SYSTEMS METHODOLOGY FOR KNOWLEDGE MANANGEMENT

摘要

Knowledge topics are the highlights in academia. Most of management pundits agree thernsociety has undergone a fundamental change from resource-based into knowledge-basedrnsociety. Knowledge itself, knowledge creation, accumulation, diffusion and applicationrnas well as knowledge management become increasingly imperative, which is regarded asrnthe key determinants of a firm, industry or country for its survival and sustainable growthrnin knowledge era. However, which kind of knowledge, how knowledge can berneffectively created, accumulated, diffused, and applied, and how massive knowledge canrnbe managed systemically to perform their functions, are more fundamental than thernbarren advocacy of knowledge management to a practical knowledge user.rnVarieties of disciplines have made contributions to knowledge and knowledgernmanagement. Drucker outlined the grandiose landscape of knowledge society in a socioeconomicrnperspective; Nonaka used the essence of oriental philosophy to pave the way ofrnknowledge creation during the processes of knowledge conversion; the creativity andrnempathy theories was discussed by Leonard; Edvinsson & Malone defined the intellectualrncapital concept for effective leverage and protection of knowledge organizationally;rnBoisot emphasized information and competition. Each research focuses on one or morernspecific fields. However, for adequate understanding of the complex issue of knowledgernand its management as well as effective application, careful and purposeful explorationrnare needed, on which holistic thinking is essential and imperative.rnWe try to examine knowledge-related matters holistically from the viewpoint of systemsrnscience and systems theory. By using critical systems thinking (CST), soft systemsrnthinking (SST), social systems design (SSD), total systems intervention (TSI), etc., plusrndiverse findings of knowledge in major fields, a new systematic perspective onrnknowledge, its creation, accumulation, networking or its management, was developed,rnaiming for providing a new way of thinking on knowledge management to practitioners.rnA methodology package for knowledge management is formed, as a convenient andrnuseful toolbox in systematically identifying and analyzing the complex situations out ofrnintertwined jungle of information and data as well as knowledge per se.