KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AS COMPLEXADAPTIVE SYSTEMS

摘要

A knowledge management system is a complex system with an infrastructure comprising of strategies, technologies, structure,rnleadership and culture. On top of the infrastructure, knowledge is managed through a set of processes that deals with thernacquisition, assimilation, dissemination and protection of knowledge The complexity of the system comes from the difficulty ofrnattributing success or failure to any one part. It is the interaction of the parts that determines the success or failure of the whole.rnIn this study, I propose complexity theory as a new theoretical lens to examine the interaction between parts of the knowledgernmanagement system and the effect of the interaction on the success or failure of these programs. The emerging theory of complexrnsystems focuses principally on the micro-domain to explain emergent behavior and overall outcome at the macro level. Onerndistinguishing feature of a complex system is the ability of the parts to self-organize rather than being subdued by a centralrncontrol. The parts are constantly seeking to improve performance driving the system away from equilibrium to the edge of chaos.rnWhat is of significance is how the parts co-adapt to improve their fitness and that of the system as a whole. Most of the earlierrnstudies on knowledge management were able to deduce that failure to adopt knowledge management is a result of the inabilityrnof some organizations to realize the effect of the interaction between elements of the infrastructure but none, that I am aware of,rnhave studied the interplay between elements of the knowledge management infrastructure and how they coevolve to renovaternlessons learned into new marketing opportunities. The main objectives of the research project are to identify the nature andrncharacteristic of the interrelationships that exist between elements of the knowledge management system and the effect of thesernrelationships on the performance of the whole system. In this study I only focus on the strategies that govern knowledgernmanagement programs and their effect on the processes for capturing and disseminating knowledge, technologies in place tornmanage knowledge, roles that support the development and reuse of knowledge assets, and the cultural beliefs that sustain thernwhole effort. In particular the research attempts to answer the question of how knowledge management strategies affect processes,rntechnologies, structure, and culture and how they collectively evolve to improve the performance of the whole knowledgernmanagement system.