2013 MDKE.pdf (157.49 kB)
Ignorance management
journal contribution
posted on 2013-12-16, 11:40 authored by John Israilidis, Russell LockRussell Lock, Louise CookeThis paper identifies an alternative perspective on Knowledge Management (KM)
in multinational organisations by definition of the concept of Ignorance Management.
Furthermore, this paper discusses the difficulties employees face in understanding and
comprehending what they need to know to do their jobs, and what implications this can
have within global technology intensive environments. The focus is given in particular on
multinational organisations where innovation and new knowledge is essential to both shortterm
opportunistic value capture and long-term business sustainability. Hence, this paper
discusses why managing ignorance is essential for maintaining a strategic knowledge sharing
culture within multinational organisations. Furthermore, it develops a novel theory on
the nature of knowledge and ignorance while making the distinction between knowns and
unknowns as well as between consciousness and ignorance. The theoretical findings have
been applied to technology intensive and innovative environments. A case study is explored
within the paper, based on findings from one of the largest military contractors in the world,
which employs over 100,000 people across the globe. The paper adopts an interpretative
philosophy, using the primary strategy of qualitative research. In addition, due to the
complexity of the topic, a mixed methods approach has been used for the data collection
process. Moreover, participatory action research is undertaken to study individuals’ actions
in a particular context and improve organisational strategies and KM practices. The study
shows that managing ignorance and adaptiveness in multinational organisations is becoming
increasingly important. Thus, the critical question is not just managing what is known but
also trying to find ways to manage the unknown. This viewpoint of acknowledging ignorance,
if successfully incorporated within a company’s KM strategy, will not only facilitate and
enhance knowledge storage and transmission processes but will also undoubtedly play a vital
role when referring to a company’s efficiency, productivity and overall performance.
History
School
- Science
Department
- Computer Science
Citation
ISRAILIDES, J., LOCK, R. and COOKE, L., 2013. Ignorance management. Management Dynamics in the Knowledge Economy, 1 (1), pp. 71 - 85.Publisher
© College of Management (NUPSPA) & Tritonic BooksVersion
- VoR (Version of Record)
Publisher statement
This work is made available according to the conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) licence. Full details of this licence are available at: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/Publication date
2013Notes
This article was published in the journal Management Dynamics in the Knowledge Economy [© College of Management (NUPSPA) & Tritonic Books]. The definitive version is available at: http://www.managementdynamics.ro/index.php/journal/article/view/4ISSN
2286-2668Publisher version
Language
- en