To read this content please select one of the options below:

The intranet and the management of making and using skills

Yakhlef Ali (Yakhlef Ali is Associate Professor at the School of Business, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden.)

Journal of Knowledge Management

ISSN: 1367-3270

Article publication date: 1 December 2001

1768

Abstract

Most knowledge‐related initiatives underlying the much‐vaunted discourse on knowledge management tend to lionise recursive, using activities (i.e. documenting, sharing and measuring knowledge, etc.) at the expense of making and innovative using activities (such as inventing, innovating and designing). An over‐emphasis on recursive use of codified knowledge can stifle entrepreneurial creativity. In discussing the tension between making and using skills, the paper draws on case study material derived from a rapidly expanding firm where the implementation of the intranet is considered as a “creativity killer”, an infrastructure that supports recursive using activities. Employees remained faithful to their informal, social networks, referred to as “community of practice”, as the principal mode of sharing and developing knowledge. One of the main implications of the study is that firms that mainly rely on activities of making – a characteristic of firms that are in their initial and expanding phases – should put premium on a collaborative infrastructure that promotes making activities.

Keywords

Citation

Ali, Y. (2001), "The intranet and the management of making and using skills", Journal of Knowledge Management, Vol. 5 No. 4, pp. 338-348. https://doi.org/10.1108/13673270110411760

Publisher

:

MCB UP Ltd

Copyright © 2001, MCB UP Limited

Related articles