Abstract
This chapter is designed to serve as a comprehensive introduction to a few aspects of knowledge management (KM) practices of particular relevance for temporal knowledge-intensive organizations. The aspects considered are the contribution of KM pratices to value creation, the dissemination and adoption of KM practices and the enabling role of KM practices in the interpretation of states of affairs. The value creation aspect focuses on the impact of KM practices in temporal knowledge-intensive organizations creating value for their customers/users. The behavioral nature of KM practices is of critical relevance for temporal knowledge-intensive organizations as there are attitudes that will be very influential in individuals’ intention to adopt such KM practices. Finally, because the individuals in a temporal knowledge-intensive organization should share the same interpretation on a given state of affairs or about the data at hand, the interpretative aspect of KM practices focuses in the enabling role of KM practices in reaching common understanding.
Key Terms in this Chapter
Equivocality: Information with multiple meanings.
Value (of a Product/Service in Marketing): The ratio between the utility perceived by the customer/user of the product/service and the actual amount paid for it.
Knowledge-Worker: Individual whose work consists largely of (1) using his/her own knowledge, (2) using organizational knowledge and (3) contributes to the acquisition of organizational knowledge.
Attitude: Learned predisposition to respond in a consistently favorable or unfavorable manner with a respect to a given object or state of affairs.
Value Shop Configuration: Application of project management in order to align planning and execution to the requirements of the contracting party.
Knowledge-Intensive Organization: Organization where intellectual capital makes up a large part of the market value of the organization.
Temporal Organization: Organization that exists for a limited period of time.