Common Knowledge: How Companies Thrive by Sharing What They Know

The changing emphasis on knowledge rather than information, or as well as it, is reflected in a mushrooming literature on knowledge management. Information managers will recognise the importance of information flow and intellectual assets in the company, and readily subscribe to the view that decision making, needed in the right place at the right time by the right people, has its origins in familiar library, as well as business, practice. Knowledge work involves analysis and interpretation, and not just storage and organisation, and, in the view of Bill Gates (in Business @ the Speed of Thought, Penguin Books, 1999), knowledge management starts with business objectives and processes and a recognition of the need to share information. It involves and enables new ways of working and thinking – what employees do, how they solve problems, who they ask – and integration with information systems; new value‐added relationships can be created in processes and in the supply chain for competitive advantage. Tom Stewart (in Intellectual Capital, Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 1997), defines the knowledge company as one of networking knowledge, customising goods and services, and leveraging value.

Part of the literature of knowledge management highlights ways in which explicit, implicit, and tacit knowledge are elicited, shared, and used. Such ideas draw on organisations as they work and learn, information systems and what they provide decision‐makers, and the know‐how of the company (the intellectual capital, from what it knows and knows it knows, its intellectual property such as patents, its goodwill and brand equity, what exists in the company in the databases and intranets as well as well as what walks out the door when employees leave). Nancy Dixon is a professor of administrative sciences at The George Washington University in Washington DC, and common knowledge draws on extensive consultancy with firms which have developed knowledge management to a significant extent. The book deals with five kinds of knowledge transfer which have transformed the ways people work and given the companies competitive advantage. She deals clearly and convincingly (in a field where there is a lot of hype) with the transfer processes and challenges, knowing that other works deal with the actual information systems development and design.

Serial transfer is where a team learns from doing and gets it right the next time (like After Action Reviews in the armed forces), knowledge is explicit and tacit and many teams are virtual. Near transfer occurs when the source team transfers knowledge to another team (like Ford’s Best Practice Replication and Ernst & Young’s KnowledgeWeb). Far transfer shows tacit knowledge going from source to receiving team, where knowledge is complex and non‐routine (such as BP’s Peer Assist Programme and Chevron’s Cap Project Management). Strategic transfer is where complex and non‐routine tacit and explicit knowledge is needed by senior managers (as in company mergers and IPOs). Expert transfer occurs where explicit technical expertise is sought (for example by e‐mail or intranet) within an organisation or community of practice. Dixon moves the argument on clearly, providing timely real‐life examples as she goes. For the information, and information systems specialist, the wider scenario of knowledge flow (or information audit) in the company is of importance, but even more critical is the role of the information and knowledge manager – how knowledge management and systems development are acknowledged as fitting with organisational objectives, information strategy with business strategy, and then how sharing, structures and processes are integrated with information/knowledge systems to achieve value‐added outcomes. Dixon’s book provides topical examples of (mainly US) business knowledge management which are thoroughly recommended for any lecturer, student, or practitioner keeping up with the field, and for any academic/professional collection aiming to be on the mark and comprehensive.