SYSTEMATIC EVOLUTION TOWARD KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

摘要

The evolution of business knowledge and knowledge management with advancement of industrial organizations over time was discussed in view of systems perspective in this paper. As at the early stage knowledge element in companies took relative insignificant position, knowledge management naturally did not get adequate attention; in contrast, capital and other resources dominated economically. It is technological progress that shift industrial structures and change perceptions of people, which make technical innovation and information communication as the main theme of the second wave of revolution. With the quick evolution toward an open and global knowledge society, knowledge management becomes ever-increasingly crucial to the success of industrial organizations. However, the issues are that what make the difference essentially among various managements and what is the potential impact on the people and society during the transformation. From the view of evolution and knowledge theories, knowledge acquisition, knowledge creation and accumulation are time-consuming processes and involve the intensive people's interactions, which gives prominence to human factor in the organizations. Owing to characteristics of knowledge, especially tacit knowledge, human interactions play a vital role in sharing and creating knowledge or accelerating the process of knowledge conversion within organizational context. In the proper sense, productivity of knowledge workers takes over the focus on process productivity, at least in high-tech business. The shift needs responsively a fundamental change in terms of both organizational structures and shift of mind. The trust, love or caring among people that was often ignored due to relentless competitions inside and outside of organizations will be key point of sufficient considerations under the new environment. We also probed the central part of knowledge management - how to manage knowledge workers. From less important to central role, knowledge workers needs an agreeable environment for better communicating, sharing and co-existing with other people and society as well as appropriate constraints of ethical values in their pursuits of knowledge. Consensus within certain group or organization led by shared vision can be reached but the sphere of trust that constitutes the foundation for high-quality sharing both explicit and tacit knowledge is very subtle and frail. The subtlety and frailness of trust often is the major reasons for failure of effective knowledge sharing and creation. Systematic construction and management of friendly environment for knowledge workers is of the essence of knowledge management.