The material, mental, historical and social character of knowledge

Article Summary for Week 5 Class 7

(Group: KMx6- Fatemeh, Skalk, Bee, Lanoi, Max, Roger)

Rooney, D., & Schneider, U. (2005). The material, mental, historical and social character of knowledge. In Handbook on the Knowledge Economy, New horizons in public policy (pp. 19-36). Northampton, MA: Edward Elgar.

Type of article: Introductory chapter in a book .

Audience: Academics, Knowledge Management Professionals, Public policy makers.

Aim: This chapter provides a framework within which the rest of the chapters sit.

Summary:
The author maintains that knowledge or the act of knowing entails a number of things.
Tacit knowledge enabled modern society to come into being. Where humans used myths, stories and shared social backgrounds more socially orientated, strategic, abstract and innovative thinking occurred / are occurring. To enable these advances humans have always used symbolic, non-verbal thought systems such as imagination, intuition, analogy, and metaphor. These thought systems are used as linking mechanism to link an observation in the physical world to a description. This enabled humans to make sense of the world around them. Mention is made that knowledge have got two states, it can be articulated and un-articulated. The point is made that for knowledge to be shared in group it has to be communicable. The communicability of knowledge is dependant on the social context. A further distinction is made between procedural and declarative knowledge and intuition. An argument is then made that knowledge sits within a social-related and an interpretative-relational contexts. Individuals, as knowers’, are also doers. Individuals need to be made aware and be helped to cooperate, contest, advocate and communicate in the interest of better knowing. The knowers’ situation is also defined by time and space. Models should take cognisance of how information is diffused in groups through mediating technologies. Enactment of knowledge is the key aspect of knowledge transfer. Knowers enact knowledge strategically, the intentions are purposeful to realise goals and objectives for now or in the future. Knowledge systems are not predictable or controllable. This is a problem for managers and public policy makers. Strategic interventions can be put in place to enact knowledge. Wisdom and attention to context would be key elements for good public policy. The author them lists nine key observations from the article.


Review:
This chapter is part of a group of chapters on the concepts of Knowledge Management. It is not an easy ready and is highly philosophical in nature. If the reader is not comfortable with this approach or have enough prior knowledge then it is easy to loose interest. Ok use is made of headings to guide the reader through the text. Care should be taken to follow the argument. The useful bit of the article is the summary at the end (p. 33) that provides in points the position of the authors on Knowledge management and policy. These bullet points in my opinion are really useful to keep in mind if one were to explore knowledge management within Government policy.

MISQ Article : THE INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY WORKFORCE : TRENDS AND IMPLICATIONS
MISQ Executive - The Information Technology Workforce: Trends and Implications 2005-2008
Type of article: Research Article
Audience: Managers, IT professionals, and senior executives.
Central Focus / Theme: Examining current trends in the IT workforce – in particular the idea of IT firms and departments building up the quality and quantity of their work force.

The report was based on data collected from interviews with 81 IT executives in 77 IT departments from a range of industries. A substantial number of these executives were CIOs or Senior Vice presidents.

The research report focuses on five key results of the study.
1. Most large organizations anticipated an increase in their IT staff
2. A shift from an emphasis in technical skills to project management and client facing capabilities
3. IT executives were more likely to outsource technical skills
4. CIO’s felt that systems design and analysis were often retained in-house
5. IT executives were also on the lookout for individuals with traditional technical skills, that is programming, analysis, database and operating systems.

Implications for IT professionals

The article discusses how in the past IT professionals with technical skills became middle managers through years of experience. The authors propose the idea that there needs to be a shift in the way that organizations develop or train young IT professionals so that they gain the critical project skills that are essential to organizations. This report also highlighted the fact that the younger generation of IT workers are more mobile and Human resource management will have to implement strategies to leverage this mobility. There are other points raised in this article, however I have chosen to highlight these results , as these findings are relevant not only in the IT sector but in other industries as well.

Critique
The article is intended as a challenge to organizations to acknowledge knowledge capital and manage it effectively. The authors present this information in a clear, compelling and informative way. This information is meant to challenge executives, in the way that they view and manage their workforce. A major strength of the article is that it is well researched and well supported using statistics and relevant graphs. The authors use a very accessible and reader- friendly writing style to discuss important trends in the workforce.