Page 399 -
P. 399
382 Chapter 11
interactions ” ( Huysman and de Wit 2002 , 21). Knowledge management consists of
the systematic processes for acquiring, organizing, sustaining, applying, sharing, and
renewing both tacit and explicit knowledge by employees to enhance the organiza-
tional per formance and create value ( Davenport and Prusak 1998 ; Allee 1997 ; Alavi
and Leidner 2001 ; Al-Hawamdeh 2003 ; Choo 2006 ). Knowledge processing (also
referred to as knowledge sharing in the KM literature) supports learning that occurs
in organizations.
Huysman and de Wit (2002) identify three fundamental stages in knowledge pro-
cessing: (1) internalization, where knowledge is learned and understood by the knowl-
edge sharers; (2) externalization, where knowledge is exchanged or reused and new
knowledge can be derived from the shared knowledge; and (3) objectifi cation, where
shared knowledge is accepted and institutionalized as organizational knowledge.
Keong and Al-Hawamdeh (2002) defi ne knowledge sharing as “ the deliberate act in
which knowledge is made reusable through its transfer from one party to another ”
(p. 49). Alavi and Leidner (2001) note, “ to be credible, KMS [The authors use the term
KMS, for knowledge management systems] research and development should preserve
and build upon the signifi cant literature that exists in different but related fi elds ”
(p. 107). Knowledge processing is highly dependent on having access to this content
in the fi rst place, which fi rmly roots it in the territory of information studies.
Employees cannot benefi t from the accumulated experience of an organization
unless that valuable experiential learning has been captured, coded, and made acces-
sible through the organizational memory. Organizational learning and organizational
memory systems are therefore integral components of KM that aim to facilitate the
access, use, and reuse of valuable knowledge resources ( Dieng-Kunz and Matta 2002 ).
Examples of valuable knowledge resources would be an innovation (improved practice,
policy), a postmortem to identify why a particular project failed (which is subsequently
documented as a lesson learned) and a library of reusable knowledge objects that
others may easily incorporate into their work (such as a company profi le, a tool to
show which topics are most active in a discussion forum, or a starter kit to get you
up and running on a new process or technique). The value of these knowledge
resources lies in the fact that they have been digitized (rendered explicit), and
that people other than the creators fi nd them useful and time-saving for their own
work.
Knowledge “ access ” refers to the ability to know about existing knowledge and to
easily fi nd it from collective organizational knowledge systems such as intranets (used
to preserve and make available organizational knowledge to individuals). Knowledge
“ use ” refers to the manner by which organizational members (e.g., policy makers,