In pursuit of the individual in the field of knowledge management

This paper reviews the current knowledge management (KM) practices to examine the attention (or lack thereof) paid to the individual in managing knowledge in organisations. It identifies and reviews four key practices of KM - i.e., information technology, organisational culture and structure, communities of practice, and human resource practices - to examine how knowledge is interpreted, processed and managed, and the role individuals play in such interpretations, processing and management. The review shows that existing KM practices may be improved through an increased focus on the role of individuals (an individual-centric approach) in designing and implementing KM in organisations.

Individuals need to survive and grow in changing and sometimes turbulent organizational environments, while organizations and societies want individuals to have the knowledge, skills and abilities that will enable them to prosper and thrive. Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) is a means of coping with complex environmental changes and developments: it is a form of sophisticated career and life management. Personal Knowledge Management is an evolving concept that focuses on the importance of individual growth and learning as much as on the technology and management processes traditionally associated with organizational knowledge management. This book looks at the emergence of PKM from a multi-disciplinary perspective, and its contributors reflect the diverse fields of study that touch upon it. Relatively little research or major conceptual development has so far been focused on PKM, but already significant questions are being asked, such as 'is there an inherent conflict between personal and organizational knowledge management and how best do we harmonize individual and organizational goals?' This book will inform, stimulate and challenge every reader. By delving both deeply and broadly into its subject, the distinguished authors help all those concerned with 'knowledge work' and 'knowledge workers' to see how PKM supports and affects individuals, organizations and society as a whole; to better understand the concepts involved and to benefit from relevant research in this important area.

This review paper examines whether there is a tendency towards appropriation or participation of the individual in the literature of knowledge management (KM).

Individual knowledge workers have their own way in managing personal knowledge. Despite the fact that new knowledge may be required by referring to a knowledge expert, knowledge workers within an organisation still find difficulties in searching and locating knowledge resources and experts within their own firm. With the rise of personal knowledge management trend among knowledge workers, researches have been done to understand how individuals manage their personal knowledge. The purpose of this paper is to understand the knowledge expert’s personal knowledge management, in order to propose a framework for modeling software agent in mediating the processes involved. The methods in this study starts with literature survey and review on managing personal knowledge, and a related term mostly found in literature – personal knowledge management (PKM). This is followed by a study and analysis on the activities of knowledge experts when they manage their personal knowledge, from which some hypotheses are drawn up to be quantitatively and/or qualitatively proven. A conceptual model for a non-agent mediated PKM is drawn as a result of this study, to prepare the base for applying a human-agent collaborative framework in further research. The discussion in this study concludes the aspect found in the findings, where location-based mediation and role-based mediation of software agents are to be developed in further research.

The knowledge economy, globalisation, information technologies have an unquestionable influence on human information behaviour. In the competitive environment, individuals and organizations appreciate the important role of personal knowledge and information. My concept of knowledge and information management by individuals is based on among others two theories: Personal Information Management (PIM) and Personal Knowledge Management (PKM). They were, hitherto, subject of the separate studies. Nevertheless, according to the variety of definitions of PIM and PKM (cited in the article), these concepts are similar and compatible. It seems that we need the integrated approach to PIM and PKM which could be called Personal Knowledge and Information Management (PKIM). This concept is strongly connected with Information Literacy. Some of the empirical studies results in this subject are presented below.

Background: Knowledge workers within the organisations still find difficulties in searching and locating knowledge resources and experts within their own firm. For organisations with high employee turnover, such as in the construction industry, this problem is deemed to be a risk that the organisations need to solve to succeed in achieving their goals. In another similar situation, knowledge management is highly expected to be well implemented in an organisation, especially in an institute of higher learning. Having academicians and researchers who work in silo in research projects would cause redundancy and waste of expertise, if the researchers are not sharing knowledge with each other due to lack of facilities and having an environment or culture that does not encourage knowledge sharing. There should be a facilitating condition, or ‘facilitating technology’, for sharing research expertise to these knowledge workers, to create awareness for acceptance of knowledge management. At the individual level, knowledge workers have their own way of managing knowledge, and this is considered as personal knowledge management (PKM), which has its own goals and objectives. This could lead to the collective goals and objectives of the organisation, if the PKM could be tapped in by the organisation and be made as part of the organisational knowledge management (OKM) strategy. On the technology perspective, there is still a gap between PKM and OKM, and how technology can help mediate between the two. Using artificial intelligence, or in particular, the software agent technology, PKM can be observed at individual knowledge worker level and an agent-mediated knowledge management framework, incorporating multi-agent collaborative framework, can be modelled to identify the possible ways the agent technology could be implemented to realise the OKM strategy from its roots. Aims: The aim of this paper is to study the issues in personal knowledge management and how agent intelligence can be used to identify and understand knowledge experts through their behaviour, diligence and intention. Method: The methodology starts with literature survey and review from both aspects –PKM and agent intelligence. This is followed by an analysis on how knowledge workers manage their personal knowledge from which some hypotheses are drawn up to be quantitatively and/or qualitatively proven. A conceptual model for agent-based PKM will be formalised by applying a human-agent collaborative framework. Results: Expected results are in the form of cross-reference of literature in the area of PKM and agent intelligence, with summary and outlook to conclude the literature findings. Pertinent issues and problems in PKM will be identified and a model for agent-based solutions will be proposed. Conclusion: Organisational knowledge management (OKM) starts from the individuals and their PKM. In order to achieve success in OKM strategy, there is a need to understand how individuals manage their knowledge at personal level. Agent intelligence can be used to tap into this PKM realm in order to locate and understand the behaviour, diligence and intent of the knowledge experts, and to match the knowledge and/or knowledge expert seekers. Possible Applications or Implications: Focus of area to be further developed by researchers, in terms of modelling a framework in the aspect of PKM for an agent-mediated knowledge management research. Agent technology could help knowledge workers to achieve their personal goals, and this can be further defined using a multi-agent collaborative framework.

Advances in IT Standards and Standardization Research, 2019

Knowledge-work is a discretionary behavior, and knowledge-workers should be viewed as investors of their intellectual capital. That said, effective knowledge-work is mostly dependent on the performance of individual knowledge-workers who drive the success of knowledge-intensive organizations. Therefore, the study takes the perspective of personal knowledge management in enforcing the effectiveness of knowledge-work activities. This study empirically demonstrates that knowledge-workers' behaviors are dependent on their motivation, ability and opportunity to perform knowledge-work activities. This study provides insights and future directions for research on knowledge-work as a discretionary behavior in organization and the factors influencing it. Scholars can investigate the effect of empowerment of individuals on their tendency to knowledge-creation, knowledge-sharing and knowledge-application. Since personal-knowledge often raise the issue of knowledge ownership, further attent...

Organizational Learning and Knowledge

The discipline of Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) is depicted in this chapter as a dimension that has been implicitly present within the scope and evolution of the Knowledge Management (KM) movement. Moreover, it is recognized as the dimension that brought forth Knowledge-based Development (KBD) schemes at organizational and societal levels. Hence, this piece of research work aims to develop parallel paths between Knowledge Management moments and generations and the PKM movement. KM will be depicted as a reference framework for a state-of-the-art review of PKM.

OR Insight, 2009