The mid-1990s saw the rise
of an important movement: a recognition that organizational knowledge, in its various
forms and attributes, could be an important source of competitive advantage in the
marketplace. Knowledge management has become one of the core competencies in today's
competitive environment, where so much value in companies resides in their people,
systems, and processes. Creating Value with Knowledge: Insights from the IBM Institute for
Knowledge-based Organization examines a variety of important knowledge-related topics,
some of which has been previously published in such journals as the Harvard Business
Review, the California Management Review, and the Sloan Management Review, such as the use
of informal networks, communities of practice, the impact of knowledge on successful
alliances, social capital and trust, narrative and storytelling and the use of human
intermediaries in the knowledge management process. It includes contributions from such
leading thinkers as Lawrence Prusak, Dorothy Leonard, Eric Lesser, Rob Cross, and David
Snowden. This book synthesizes some of the best thinking by the IBM Institute for
Knowledge-Based Organizations, a think tank whose research agenda focuses on the
management methods for deriving tangible business value from knowledge management and
their real-world application.
Table of Contents
1 Laurence Prusak and Don
Cohen: How to Invest in Social Capital
2 Eric Lesser and Joseph
Cothrel: Fast Friends - Virtuality and Social Capital
3 Daniel Z. Levin, Rob
Cross, Lisa C. Abrams, Eric L. Lesser: Trust and Knowledge Sharing
4 Rob Cross, Nitin Nohria
and Andrew Parker: Six Myths About Informal Networks - and How to Overcome Them
5 Rob Cross, Andrew Parker,
Laurence Prusak and Stephen P. Borgatti: Knowing What We Know: Supporting Knowledge
Creation and Sharing in Social Networks
6 Rob Cross, Stephen P.
Borgatti, and Andrew Parker: Making Invisible Work Visible: Using Social Network Analysis
to Support Strategic Collaboration
7 Eric L. Lesser and John
Storck: Communities of Practice and Organizational Performance
8 Michael Fontaine: Keeping
Communities of Practice Afloat: Understanding and Fostering Roles in Communities
9 Eric Lesser and Michael
Fontaine: Learning from the Connected Customer: Enhancing Customer Web Sites With
Community
10 Salvatore Parise and John
C. Henderson: Knowledge Resource Exchange in Strategic Alliances
11 Salvatore Parise and Lisa
Sasson: Leveraging Knowledge Management Across Strategic Alliances
12 Walter Swap, Dorothy
Leonard, Mimi Shields, and Lisa Abrams: Using Mentoring and Storytelling to Transfer
Knowledge in the Workplace
13 David Snowden: Narrative
Patterns: The Perils and Possibilities of Using Story in Organisations
214 pages