Alternative Strategies for Leveraging the Knowledge Asset: A Framework for Managerial Decision-Making

Abstract

Knowledge management has become one of the dominant themes of modern management, giving visibility to many examples of different approaches and best practices. In many cases, evaluation of these examples has focused on the processes of creating, capturing, storing, and transferring knowledge. As a result, explanations of success and failure tend to center around process improvements and associated technologies. These process models, however, often do not reflect the alternative implementation strategies available to the firm. In particular, there is a need to understand how the choice of any given approach affects the ability of the organization to leverage its knowledge assets. This chapter presents a framework for making decisions about how to leverage knowledge assets in a sustained manner over time. The framework integrates the cognitive dimension of knowledge access and the structural dimension of knowledge production. Different cognitive burdens, patterns of behavior, and biases characterize each of four quadrants in the framework. As a result, the framework allows managers to explore the strengths and weaknesses of strategic options. It also provides a means of learning from other knowledge management initiatives. Thus, we believe that the framework can help organizations successfully choose among alternatives for developing a knowledge management capability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]