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Knowledge Management Models 89

give coherence to organizational intelligence. Permeable boundaries are essential if
ideas are to be exchanged and built upon. Finally, multidimensionality represents
organizational fl exibility that ensures that the knowledge workers have the competen-
cies, perspectives, and cognitive ability to address issues and solve problems. This is
sometimes seen as being analogous to developing human instinct.
Each of these characteristics must emerge from the nature of the organization. They
cannot be designed by managerial decree — only nurtured, guided, and helped along.
In summary, there are four major ways in which the ICAS model describes organiza-
tional knowledge management:
1. Creativity
2. Problem solving
3. Decision making
4. Implementation

Creativity is the generation of new ideas, perspectives, understanding, concepts,
and methods to help solve problems, build products, offer services, and so on. Indi-
viduals, teams, networks, or virtual communities can solve problems and they take
the outputs of the creative processes as their inputs. Decision making is the selection
of one or more alternatives that were generated during the problem solving process
and implementation is the carrying out of the selected alternative(s) in order to obtain
the desired results.
Complex-adaptive-system-theory-based KM models are defi nitely showing both an
evolution and a return to systems-thinking roots in the KM world. All of the models
presented in this chapter are relevant and each offers valuable theoretical foundations
in understanding knowledge management in today ’ s organizations. What they all
share is a connectionist and holistic approach to better understand the nature of
knowledge as a complex adaptive system that includes knowers, the organizational
environment, and the “ bloodstream ” of organizations — the knowledge-sharing
networks.

The European Foundation for Quality Management (EFQM) KM Model
The EFQM model ( Bhatt 2000 , 2001 , 2002 ) looks at the way in which knowledge
management is used to attain the goals of an organization. This model is based on
traditional models of quality and excellence, so there are very strong links between
KM processes and expected organizational results. Figure 3.12 shows the major com-
ponents of the EQFM KM model.