Knowledge is power, or so we have been told. However, as Uncle Ben once said in the comic series Spiderman, "with great power comes great responsibility." Thus raising the question, how are we in society managing the responsibility of knowledge, this can be answered by saying that knowledge is no longer rooted in a single managed foundation (Weinberger, 2011). Knowledge today is a networked web of entanglements.
Knowledge management (KM) has undergone a paradigm shift. It has gone from being a static clearing house approach towards a dynamic communication based or network style approach. KM can be looked at as being an influential people-centric approach to sharing knowledge. For instance, when it comes to cultural or ethnic knowledge, people simply Google the issue at hand. Even with items such as medical information or more scientific understanding of knowledge, Google has opened doors that only students in particular fields have had access. However, again with great power comes great responsibility. Weinberger (2011) criticizes the internet and specifically Google in the fact that it is essentially dumbing down society. I agree with this, people and students alike are not having to memorize or fully learn concepts; they simply Google what they need. Google has continued peoples need for instant gratification.
In training I did recently as a live webinar, an employ was asked about specific specs of a new product. The student seemingly looked at the screen (apparently his webcam was embedded in the top of his laptop) after a few seconds he then rattled off the entire spec list. He read from the site where he apparently found the specs. In many respects, being resourceful is a keen skill to have, however in specific fields if you do not acquire the knowledge to do your job and leave it to Google to be your assistance, precious time slips away. In a customer service aspect, this could aggravate the client however in more life threatening situations this could be fatal. The interesting thing about the situation above is that the instructor, congratulated him and moved on, I being an observer was shocked, but then again what was anyone to say. His use of other sources of knowledge seemed like a regular occurrence and thus was not commented on because he did not do anything outside the normal. Even in a traditional (and the virtual), classroom setting, the cultural norm is to use other sources of knowledge to either confirm that your answers are correct or to find the answers because you do not know.
Knowledge and the process to acquire knowledge, learning has evolved over the past few decades. Dixon (2009) examines the evolution of KM. The primary aspect is that learning has developed from a private affair to a more public affair (Dixon, 2009). The process which people are more communicative and collaborative assists that knowledge is, in fact, a network.
Knowledge is a collective process that allows people to exchange and interexchange information throughout the world, making it a global information consortium. Because of the physical location of people being spread out over the Earth's surface. If we take into account that only 29% of the Earth's surface is land, then the total area of the surface is 148,326,000 km2 (57,268,900 square miles) (Sharp, 2014). That's a lot of lands to cover; there is no possible way anyone person can travel and cover that much ground to gain knowledge. Therefore, the Internet has helped us to cover that distance in a click of our mouse. The Internet is not designed to process knowledge it is simply the filing cabinet we keep our files. People utilize software and applications to process and display knowledge; such as Wikis, blogs, collaborative tools such as Prezi and countless others. These types of software or we can look at it as a file sleeve or folder helps to organize and exchange the knowledge that if inside the sleeve once it is placed in the filing cabinet called the internet.
As a leader, the responsibility of knowledge management is no longer solely yours. At any point before the dawning of the Internet, knowledge in most organizations was a trickle-down communication chain. The internet and digital communication have changed the way leaders and organization process knowledge. Weinberger (2011) explains that in many organizations leadership is no longer just at the top but in this new age of knowledge management that leadership can be found throughout the organization. As a leader, the responsibility is no longer to disseminate knowledge but rather guide it in the direction that the organization needs and desires to be. Once again the words uttered by Uncle Ben and the words that drive Spiderman, echo through our organizations, knowledge give us great power, however with this power we have a great responsibility to others.
Reference
Dixon, N. (2009). Conversation Matters: Where Knowledge Management has been and Where It’s Going-Part Two. Retrieved from http://www.nancydixonblog.com/2009/05/knowledge-management-where-weve-been-and-where-were-going—part-two.html
Sharp, T. (2014, Septemeber 17). How big is the Earth? Space.com Retrieved from http://www.space.com/17638-how-big-is-earth.html
Weinberger, D. (2011). Too big to know: Rethinking knowledge not that the facts aren’t the facts, experts ae everywhere, and the smartest person in the room is the room. New York, NY: Basic Books.
You had me at "Uncle Ben" ... I grew up on the original Spiderman!
ReplyDeleteI have to disagree with one statement you made - "....The Internet is not designed to process knowledge it is simply the filing cabinet we keep our files. People utilize software and applications to process and display knowledge; such as Wikis, blogs, collaborative tools such as Prezi and countless others. These types of software or we can look at it as a file sleeve or folder helps to organize and exchange the knowledge that if inside the sleeve once it is placed in the filing cabinet called the internet."
This supposes that information is finite and fixed. In Dave Weinberger's previous book, Everything is Miscellaneous, he discusses how the old idea of the library card catalog no longer works on the internet - you cannot put an idea in one place, like you could a book in a library. That same idea might work in multiple places.
Your visualization of the internet as a lot of folders just does not work for me any longer.
I would like to offer a slightly different perspective on the current internet which is neither a group of files nor a stand alone thinking machine, but a tool that allows us to take action. Although, this visualization will only be valid until such time as ideas are created by artificial intelligence. Much like a shovel, or multiple shovels that can be used to dig holes, Prezi, Wikis, LinkedIn or anything else we researched last week didn’t come up with the idea, supply the mechanical force or understand why you are digging in the dirt. Rather it allows you to communicate the idea created in your head and link to other humans who may find an easier method to dig. Thus, it seems to be more like the pneumatic tube system found at Costco where information can be sent to where it can be best utilized, by another human.
DeleteIf you read my blog for this week it seems we agree on many issues including the need to exercise responsibly the power the Web grants us over knowledge management. Where we may differ a little is in the idea of organizations of the future. Whereas you seem to suggest organizations will distribute leadership throughout the organization it is my belief that this new economic age starts to spell the end of industrial era big businesses that needs leadership spread throughout the organization. For the first time we are starting to see that being big has disadvantages because economics of scale and lack of flexibility make companies susceptible to demand and volume issues. For these reasons I think our notion of supply chain is being rewritten as we speak and instead we are going to see, much like a network, smaller loosely connected distribution and integrated linkages where if one party fails there is no “broken chain”, but you easily turn to another “link” or node to keep the system working. It’s because of this perception that I see more of an entrepreneurial democracy going forward and that there will be little need for leadership throughout a hierarchal organization.
ReplyDeleteWendy:
ReplyDeleteThanks for a thorough and thought provoking post. The example you provided about the use of Google during a webinar touches on many benefits to the evolution of knowledge management over the years. The webinar, the tools used to make it possible and accessible by hundreds to thousands of people, and the ability by the person to access information real-time during the session is a testament to the advancement of knowledge and information management. It is inclusive of all three eras described by Dixon (2009).
One of the questions we have to asks ourselves as scholarly students is how do we use the internet in its vast capacity an maintain or enhance its use in our efforts to build advance knowledge scientifically? As I am about to engage in the DIP process, I am not certain that the current guidelines are clear in this regard.
Organizational leaders in the public sector, private sector, and academic organization have a responsibility to provide the parameters of how knowledge and information management will be embraced and integrated into its culture. This cannot be accomplished autocratically. Credible and valid integration of progressive knowledge management will include aspects of information management, experience management, and idea management (Dixon, (2009). Consequently, a collaborative and participative approach using stakeholders inside and outside the organization structure is necessary. The internet is a vast repository for information and knowledge. Though all the information is not scholarly knowledge and scientifically valid and reliable, some of it is. Our challenge is to provide the parameters whereby it can be a value to expanding knowledge academically and organizationally.
Your point about students needing to know certain materials struck a chord with me. Being an educator at a college that specializes in healthcare education, I have had many conversations with fellow instructors regarding the types of knowledge that we should expect our students to retain versus how much latitude we should allow for “googling” information. For instance, many of our students, who the majority are nurses, may face a situation during their professional duties where they have to act based on their knowledge to save a life. In that situation, a nurse may not have sufficient opportunity or time to “google” a solution that would offer the best action to take in order to save a patient’s life. Thus, many would say that the knowledge they have or have retained would be critical in any prompt life-saving action. Therefore, it appears that there has to be a balance between core knowledge and the knowledge acquired from googling it.
ReplyDeleteHaving said that, I am reminded of another important aspect of learning—critical thinking. During my current tenure as an instructor, I can’t begin to tell you how many times I have seen students submit work that is nothing more than a patchwork of disparate quotes gleaned from various sources and authors with little attempt made to analyze and connect it.
Thus, educators and leaders in education must stress the importance of critical thinking. As articulated by Weinberger (2011), knowledge is dynamic; it is simply impossible to share complex chunks of knowledge with students and expect that it will all remain statically and perpetually relevant. The widely accepted notion that the role of educators has now evolved and transformed to be facilitator of information gathering and knowledge formation means that educators have a tremendous responsibility in making sure that googled information is not only put in the right context, but also Into the right frameworks that remains relevant and current.
Weinberger, D. (2011). Too big to know: Rethinking knowledge not that the facts aren’t the facts, experts ae everywhere, and the smartest person in the room is the room. New York, NY: Basic Books.
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ReplyDeleteWendy,
ReplyDeleteWhile, I appreciate Uncle Ben’s comment, I believe Yoda is equally on track when it comes to knowledge management. Yoda stated, that a Jedi uses the Force for knowledge and defense, never for attack. When we apply this nugget of information to leadership it highlights the responsibility we have as leaders to disseminate knowledge (as you stated) and transition from knowledge keepers to knowledge sharers. I spent the past week in Kansas City attending a workshop. I was surprised during the consultation portion to hear many groups make statements like “Yes, but if you’re not here then how we will remember that?” Fast-forward to our team’s consultation process and I really enjoyed the opportunity to witness our leader's facilitation of the discussion. People were able engage one another, everyone had an opportunity to ask questions, acquire expertise, and it had a real sense of collaboration. However, what I noticed ... our leader actually said very little. At the end she summarized our comments, checked for clarification, repeated our collaborative goals and then she added some additional thoughts. At the end the group walked away with a clear picture of our goals and next steps. In this particular example, she paced how and when she shared knowledge. In doing so, she gave us an opportunity to network with one another, give feedback and create knowledge from our discussion.