Transcending Knowledge Management, Shaping Knowledge Governance

Abstract

From knowledge management to knowledge governance „Knowledge management as an academic discipline is realizing phenomenal growth and international acceptance.“ However, reviewing three of the most popular models Nonaka’s SECI (Japan), March’s Ex-Ex (USA) and Boisot’s I-space (Europe) Curado and Bontis have to confess, that „there still exists no universally accepted framework or model of knowledge management“ (Curado & Bontis, 2011). But it seems to be a minor problem, if we recognize, that the major approaches of classical knowledge management, distilled to cook-book definitions and consultant practices, are increasingly viewed as inadequate in addressing the growing complexity of information and knowledge flows in modern organizations and societies facing with rapidly changing environments. It is enough to refer to the VUCA-paradigm (volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity) or the disruptive market and technology transformations. Reflecting a new normative push towards conceptual innovation, knowledge governance has emerged as a new paradigm to describe, understand, and analyze the expanding “knowledge domain” in a holistic and comprehensive way. Knowledge governance involves the design of structures and mechanisms to support the processes of sharing and creating knowledge in the (almost) exclusive frame of strategic management. In this chapter we try to draw the portrait of this pretender theory and practice with deep case studies.