Week 6 – Discussion and Articles

Few key points I took away from lecture six were 1. Use stories as a way of transferring knowledge and 2. The knowledge solicitation process. I guess I am very fortunate because I feel that I am a very good story teller the only issue there is that according to the professor my stories should be true. This may through a little kink in some of my knowledge transfer sessions.

In regards to the knowledge solicitation process in its most basic form, you will have a source (Al Burns), you will have a channel on which information flows through, and then there will be a recipient (Ben Casillas). Then there is this whole concept of laminar verses turbulent data flow where laminar has one expert and one recipient in turbulent flow everybody is a so called expert.


Knowledge Management and Organizational Learning

After reading this article and viewing figure 1 (the KM cycle model) you start to realize that a lot of terms and idea’s are kind of reiterated by the different authors. Of course there are variations but quite a few similarities. Within this KM article, I feel that learning really occurs within the Utilization step of the KM cycle model. This is the step where you actually do something useful with the information you acquired. Yes you can say that you learn as you are going through the creation and acquisition phase but if you think about it, at this point you are just gathering data not necessarily knowing what you have yet.


Huber 1991

Looking at the 4 branches of the diagram in figure 1, I would have to say that media richness would mostly be found within under the Information Interpretation step as stated by the diagram. This branch is meant for deciding on how to pass on information and how you want the information that is passed on to be interpreted. We all know that the same piece of information can mean a million different things to a million different people. This is why this branch is important in making sure that the correct media is selected in the dissemination of the information.
According to the Author of the article, unlearning is the step that must take place before a new interpretation could take place. This too falls under the Information interpretation branch. Basically, that is saying that if you have a certain belief instilled in you, it may be difficult to accept another version of the truth even if presented to you with facts.