Page 207 - DCAP310_INTRODUCTION_TO_ARTIFICIAL_INTELLIGENCE_AND_EXPERT_SYSTEMS

Unit 11: Knowledge Organization and Management

products and services to achieve organizational goals. A knowledge organization also links Notes
past, present, and future by capturing and preserving knowledge in the past, sharing and
mobilizing knowledge today, and knowledge organizations can be viewed from a number of
perspectives: their general nature, networks, behavior, human dimensions, communications,
intelligence, functions, and services.

11.1 Nature of Knowledge Organizations

The nature of an organization is based on knowledge rather than industrial society notions of
land, labor or capital was not well understood. The core competencies are not what an organization
owns but rather what it knows. Knowledge organizations have a network dimension. Davis
(1977) states that networks would not replace hierarchies, but that the two would coexist within
a broader organizational concept. Similarly, Amidon (1997) points out that traditional industrial-
era hierarchies are neither flexible nor fluid enough to mobilize an organization’s intellectual
capacity and that much less constrained networked organizational forms are needed for modern
decision making. There is an underlying logic and order to the emerging digital organizational
form. It is networked, involves multiple enterprises, is based on core competencies, and
knowledge is actively created, exchanged, and used.
There is also a behavioral approach. The organizational structure is just a skeleton. Knowledge
organizations also have a physiology in the form of the flow of information and knowledge, as
lifeblood. They also have a psychology represented by people’s values and how they act as
individuals and collectively.
Knowledge is created and used by people. Strassman (1985) described the transformation of
work in the electronic age from the standpoint of education and training for managers and
employees, human aspects of the working environment, and issues of morale, motivation,
privacy, and displacements.

Did u know? The empowerment is not possible in an autocratic organization that networks
cannot be sustained in fixed hierarchical structure, and that learning is not possible in an
environment constrained by rigid policies and procedures.
Davenport (1997) used an information ecology approach, in which he explored the use and
abuse of information in the context of infighting, resource hoarding, and political battles as well
as appropriate management in such a context. Simard (2000) states that knowledge is inextricably
linked to organizational mandates. Some providers strive for objectivity, others selectively
disseminate information and knowledge, while still others use information to further their
agenda. Users must understand that information is not innocent, and that all information is not
created equal.
Knowledge organizations also have collective intelligence. From a functional perspective, in a
knowledge organization, content (objects, data, information, knowledge, and wisdom) are
generated by knowledge workers. Content is captured, organized, and preserved to enable its
reuse and leveraging by people and groups other than those who generated it. Infrastructure is
in place to enable sharing of content across all elements of an organization and with external
partners, as appropriate. Procedures are in place to integrate content from multiple sources and
mobilize it to achieve organizational goals and objectives. A learning culture promotes not
only individual learning but also results in a shared understanding. Finally, the organization
embraces continuous evolutionary change to sustain itself in a constantly changing environment.
Simard et al. (2007) described five functions of a knowledge-service organization: generate
content transform content into useful products and services preserve and manage content to
enable organizational use and external transfer use content to achieve organizational goals, and

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