Page 102 -

Knowledge Management Models 85

Complex Adaptive System Models of KM
The intelligent complex adaptive systems (ICAS) KM theory of the organization views
the organization as an ICAS (e.g., , 1989 1981 ; Bennet and Bennet 2004 ). Beer (1981)
was a pioneer in the treatment of the organization as a living entity. In his viable
system model (VSM), a set of functions is distinguished that ensure the viability of
any living system and organizations in particular. The VSM is based on the principles
of cybernetics or systems science that make use of communication and control mecha-
nisms to understand, describe, and predict what an autonomous or viable organization
will do.
Complex adaptive systems consist of many independent agents that interact with
one another locally. Together, their combined behavior gives rise to complex adaptive
phenomena. Complex adaptive systems are said to “ self-organize ” through this form
of emergent phenomena. There is no overall authority that is directing how each one
of these independent agents should be acting. An overall pattern of complex behavior
arises or emerges as a result of all of their interactions.
The VSM has been applied to a wide range of complex situations, including the
modeling of an entire nation (implemented by President Salvador Allende in Chile in
1972). The model enables managers and their consultants to elaborate policies and to
develop organizational structures with a clear understanding of the recursions in
which they are supposed to operate, and to design regulatory systems within those
recursions that obey certain fundamental laws of cybernetics (e.g., Ashby ’ s Law of
Requisite Variety). As such, the usefulness of the VSM as a theoretical grounding for
KM becomes quite clear.
A number of researchers have made use of complex adaptive system theories in
deriving a theoretical basis for KM. Snowden (2000, 1) the director of Cynefi n, a
research group at IBM, describes his approach as follows: “ Complex adaptive systems
theory is used to create a sense-making model that utilizes self-organizing capabilities
of the informal communities and identifi es a natural fl ow model of knowledge cre-
ation, disruption and utilization. ”
Cynefi n is a Welsh word with no direct equivalent in English that can be translated
as “ habitat, ” or as an adjective, “ acquainted ” or “ familiar. ” The Cynefi n research
center focuses on action research in organizational complexity and is open to indi-
viduals and to organizations. One of the major points emphasized by Snowden (2000)
is that the focus on tacit-explicit knowledge conversion (e.g., the Nonaka and Takeuchi
model, 1995) that has dominated knowledge management practice since 1995 pro-
vides a limited, but useful, set of models and tools. The Cynefi n model instead pro-
poses the following key types of knowledge: known, knowable, complex, and chaotic.