Abstract
All organizations depend on communication, namely the exchange of information with the sender’s intent that the message be understood and considered by the receivers. And as organizations are designed for action, most organizational communication is intended for driving action and for promoting working relationships between actors. Indeed, communication plays a pivotal role in organizations and may be seen as the foundation of organizational action (Galbraith, 1977; Weick, 1979). Effective communication, particularly the communication of knowledge rather than the communication of facts, requires knowledge of how the message may be understood and considered by the receiver. Conversely, communication is required for knowledge communication and transfer but this issue is beyond our scope. Furthermore, our discussion is restricted to computer-based knowledge management, as well as computer mediated communication. Therefore, the terms knowledge management (KM) and communication, whenever used here, imply that these functions involve computer support.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Organizational Memory: OM is a general term for the collection of information and knowledge “known” to the organization, as well as the KM necessary to acquire, store, and utilize this knowledge.
Communication: Communication is the exchange of information between two or more people with the intent that the sender’s message be understood and considered by the receiver.
Cognitive Maps: Cognitive maps are structured representations of decision depicted in graphical format (variations of cognitive maps are cause maps, influence diagrams, or belief nets). Basic cognitive maps include nodes connected by arcs, where the nodes represent constructs (or states) and the arcs represent relationships. Cognitive maps have been used to understand decision situations, to analyze complex cause-effect representations and to support communication.
Context: Contextual information refers to several possible aspects of the core message: the situation in which the message was produced, the situation in which it is anticipated to be received, an explanation about a statement, an explanation how to go about executing a request for action, or the underlying assumptions about an argument.