did no one know about the [Firestone] tire problem? Two reasons.
First, knowledge is best shared within communities. People
with something in common talk more than strangers do....
Second, the more widely dispersed knowledge is, the more power-
ful the force required to share it.”^13 Even the most sophisticated
systems can’t overcome the fundamental cultural behaviors in an
organization.
- It’s a Fad
Not that all fads are bad, but it’s important to recognize when that
label rings true. KM as a concept rose and fell in lockstep with the
dotcoms. It was fueled with the same excited type of “if we could
just put information at people’s fingertips!” naiveté. One great mea-
sure of when the KM bubble burst is the number of books published
on the topic. According to the Knowledge Management Resource
Center, that number fell from a high of fifty-seven in 2001 to a low
of fifteen in 2002. That sound you hear is that last nail entering the
KM coffin.
How Knowledge Management Can WorkDespite this dreary landscape, the potential remains to actually
manage real knowledge in organizations and realize the financial
benefits from doing so. What it takes to do this right however,
involves more than a new Web server and a fat consulting contract.
It means paying attention to how people actually acquire knowl-
edge and how they can most effectively transfer it to others.
The definition of knowledgestated earlier provides the key to
how organizations can improve their capability in this area. Knowl-
edge is gained through experience or association, something no
database can give you but your experienced peers, superiors, and
subordinates can. True knowledge management means acknowl-
edging that increased person-to-person contact is the only sure way
to improve the shared level of knowledge in an organization.
NEITHERKNOWLEDGE NORMANAGEMENT 45