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CONCLUSIONS 231

organization and tacit understandings of the way outcomes are achieved which
are most relevant to making decisions. It follows therefore that in this kind of
environment, power and authority need to be decentralized – indeed they will
almost inevitably be so to some extent – so that empowered workers can use
their knowledge and experience to develop solutions to problems and opportu-
nities that confront them on a day-to-day basis.

>> STRATEGIC KNOWLEDGE PURPOSES

This trend is apparent across a range of industries, jobs and tasks. It is most
advanced, however, in the jobs, tasks and industries that we have characterized
as knowledge-intensive. Here, we see a very different approach to managing
knowledge work, one that recognizes the strategic significance of knowledge for
sustained competitive advantage. In these contexts management strive to imple-
ment and promote the use of specific knowledge processes and actively foster an
enabling context to achieve their overall strategic aims around managing knowl-
edge, that is their strategic knowledge purpose. Throughout this book we have
focused on the core aspects of knowledge work in these knowledge-intensive
settings. The aim has been to highlight that depending on the overarching stra-
tegic knowledge purpose (e.g. knowledge exploitation, knowledge exploration
or a combination of both), then particular knowledge processes need to become
embedded at individual, team, project, organization and/or inter-organization
levels in order to achieve the overarching purpose. Policies and techniques also
need to be established in order to create the necessary enabling context to sup-
port and promote the practice of these knowledge processes.
Figure 10.1 depicts the relationship between the overarching purposes that
lie behind a strategic approach to managing knowledge and the knowledge prac-
tices and processes that can help achieve them.
Broadly speaking, organizations that adopt a strategic approach to managing
knowledge have one of two main purposes in mind – knowledge exploration or

High
Craft Community

Create/Integrate Share/Integrate
EXPLORATION
Status Quo Connect

Codify/Share
Low
Low EXPLOITATION High
Figure 10.1 Purposes and process involved in managing knowledge

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