Human View of Knowledge
Very interesting article here by G. Dueck of IBM. [Thanks to Psybertron for the link]. He highlights the idea that different character types have different views of what knowledge is and what it's for. And these different approaches all have to be addressed if knowledge is to be successfuly managed.
Each temperament has to be represented. The "soft" psychologist has to accept the use of technology, and the "hard" technologists have to be interested in dealing with "tacit" knowledge and communities of practice. Management should be aware that an overemphasis of economical objectives may conflict with the inner personalities of professionals. In the very end KM involves managing humans, not only knowledge.For his essay he uses the Keirsey temperament test, though as he points out, the choice of test does not really affect his argument.
Anyway, definitely worth a read.
It ties up nicely with one of Denham Gray's posts about the spectrum of knowledge, found via John on the spectrum of knowledge management. But while Denham suggests that
"everyone positions themselves somewhere along the spectrum from knowledge creation (awareness, learning, community) to intellectual capital (knowledge assets, branding, knowledge exchanges)",Dueck hints that Denham's spectrum, while making intuitive sense, may not be rich enough to be practical. And I've got a feeling he's right.