Application Cases in Government

Abstract

This chapter concentrates on knowledge flow visualization and analysis in the public sector. The authors look at a military organization involved with maritime warfare. The discussion turns then to examine a federal government agency involved with a knowledge management program. The third case examines a public service organization involved with large-scale IT integration. In each case, the authors draw from secondary data sources for background. This should prove helpful to the reader who is interested in following up to consider more details than presented in this volume. They draw also from their own research and professional experience to fill in missing information, and they apply principles and techniques of this book to contribute new insights through examination of knowledge flows in the cases. Each application case concludes with exercises to stimulate critical thought, learning, and discussion. In conjunction with the principles articulated in Section 1 of the book, the application cases explain how organizations from across a very wide range of sizes and domains both succeed and fail at harnessing dynamic knowledge; hence, through case-based reasoning, they provide both positive and negative examples for the leader and manager to use in comparison with his or her own organization.