Stages of Growth in Knowledge Management Technology

Stages of growth models have been used widely in both organizational research and information technology management research. According to King and Teo (1997), these models describe a wide variety of phenomena — the organizational life cycle, product life cycle, biological growth, and so forth. These models assume that predictable patterns (conceptualized in terms of stages) exist in the growth of organizations, the sales levels of products, and the growth of living organisms. These stages are (1) sequential in nature, (2) occur as a hierarchical progression that is not easily reversed, and (3) involve a broad range of organizational activities and structures.

Resource-Based Strategy for Knowledge Management

Business strategy has traditionally focused on products and services to gain competitive advantage. Recent work in the area of strategic management and economic theory has begun to focus on the internal side of the equation — the firm’s resources and capabilities. This new perspective is referred to as the resource-based theory of the firm.

IS/IT Strategy for Knowledge Management

Developing an IS/IT strategy for knowledge management is taken to mean thinking strategically and planning for the effective long-term application and optimal impact of electronic information to support knowledge management in the organization. Strategy can simply be defined as principles, a broad based formula to be applied in order to achieve a purpose. These principles are general guidelines guiding the daily work to reach business goals. Strategy is the pattern of resource development and application decisions made throughout the organization. These encapsulate both desired goals and beliefs about what are acceptable and, most critically, unacceptable means for achieving them.

Approaches to Knowledge Management

There is a growing recognition in the business community about the importance of knowledge as a critical resource for organizations. Traditionally, this resource has not been treated with the degree of systematic, deliberate, or explicit effort devoted to managing human, material, and financial resources. But in the coming years, the firm that leaves knowledge to its own devices may be putting itself in severe jeopardy. More and more practitioners and researchers believe that knowledge resources matter more than the conventionally tended resources (material, labor, capital) and must be managed explicitly, not left to fend for itself (Holsapple & Joshi, 2000).

IS/IT in Knowledge Management

As we trace the evolution of computing technologies in business, we can observe their changing level of organizational impact. The first level of impact was at the point where work got done and transactions (e.g., orders, deposits, reservations) took place. The inflexible, centralized mainframe allowed for little more than massive number crunching, commonly known as electronic data processing. Organizations became data heavy at the bottom and data management systems were used to keep the data in check. Later, the management information systems were used to aggregate data into useful information reports, often prescheduled, for the control level of the organization – people who were making sure that organizational resources like personnel, money, and physical goods were being deployed efficiently. As information technology (IT) and information systems (IS) started to facilitate data and information overflow, and corporate attention became a scarce resource, the concept of knowledge emerged as a particularly high-value form of information (Grover & Davenport, 2001).