Knowledge Management: An Introduction

Dr. Kevin C. Desouza
Scott Paquette
Find on LibraryThing. Find on WorldCat.
Add to cart
ALA Member
$73.80
Price
$82.00
Item Number
978-1-55570-720-0
Publisher
ALA Neal-Schuman
Pages
275
Width
6"
Height
9"
Format
Softcover

You don't need to be an ALA Member to purchase from the ALA Store, but you'll be asked to create an online account/profile during the checkout to proceed. This Web Account is for both Members and non-Members. Note that your ALA Member discount will be applied at the final step of the checkout process.

If you are Tax-Exempt, please verify that your account is currently set up as exempt before placing your order, as our new fulfillment center will need current documentation. Learn how to verify here.

More Ordering Information
  • Description
  • About the authors

Knowledge management as a discipline has matured over the last decade. It has moved from being a mere buzzword to an inherently fundamental concept. Simply put, the knowledge-based assets of the organization are the only source of sustainable competitive advantage in today’s marketplace. Traditional resources such as land, labor, and capital, while important, are no longer sufficient for survival in today’s fiercely competitive marketplace.

Here, Desouza, a faculty member at the University of Washington’s Information School and a leader of more than 100 knowledge management efforts in businesses and governments in thirty countries, and Scott Paquette, a faculty member at the College of Information Studies, University of Maryland who is involved in knowledge management research and corporate projects, provide an introductory overview of KM today.

This book balances the theory and practice of KM. Desouza and Paquette consider the issues organizations encounter in the global marketplace. Their book is the first to integrate social media and networking into KM practice.
The book’s nine chapters are divided into three major parts:

• Part I covers foundational concepts and introduces the reader to the key elements of knowledge management.
• Part II explores critical activities of knowledge management.
• Part III offers a strategic view of knowledge management in organizations.

Each chapter provides a broad overview, graphics that help readers visualize key points, and several vignettes documenting case scenarios that will help the reader digest concepts.

Knowledge Management will prove ideal for instructors who have been forced to design courses around KM business texts, augmented with scholarly articles. It will also be useful to anyone who needs to better understand KM to apply it in his or her organization.

Dr. Kevin C. Desouza

Dr. Kevin C. Desouza is an associate professor at the University of Washington Information School. He holds adjunct appointments in the UW's College of Engineering and at the Daniel J. Evans School of Public Affairs. He currently serves as the Director of the Institute for Innovation in Information Management (I3M) and is an affiliate faculty member of the Center for American Politics and Public Policy, both housed at the University of Washington. He founded the Institute for National Security Education and Research, an inter-disciplinary, university-wide initiative, in August 2006 and served as its Director until February 2008. He holds a visiting professorship at the Faculty of Economics, University of Ljubljana. He has held visiting positions at the Center for International Studies at the London School of Economics and Political Science, the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, Groupe Sup de Co Montpellier (GSCM) BusinessSchool in France, and the Accenture Institute for High Business Performance in Cambridge, MA. In the private sector, he founded the Engaged Enterprise and its thinktank, the Institute for Engaged Business Research. The Engaged Enterprise was a global strategy consulting firm with expertise in the areas of knowledge management, crisis management, strategic deployment of information systems, and government and competitive intelligence assignments. He has authored numerous books and articles in prestigious practitioner and academic journals, and is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Scott Paquette

Scott Paquette is a Visiting Professor in the College of Information Studies at the University of Maryland. He is affiliated with the Center for the Advanced Study of Communities and Information (CASCI), and the Center for Information Policy and e-Government (CPEG). He completed his Ph.D. at the Faculty of Information Studies of the University of Toronto where his research focused on the management of customer knowledge and knowledge management systems. His professional experience includes working as a manager of domestic banking systems for a Canadian bank, extensive project management and consulting experience with a telecommunications company, and in a large professional accounting firm as a senior consultant in technology risk management and IT security. He has also consulted with many organizations on knowledge management and social media strategy. His work has appeared in the International Journal of Information Management, Journal of Information Science, the Journal of Internet Commerce, among other journals. He has presented at conferences worldwide.