Conceptually, systems thinking (ST) and knowledge management (KM) seem to share similar grounds. At the level of practice, there is some evidence, if still patchy, that established systemic methodologies (SM) developed in the UK have been informing KM practice. This paper discusses the conceptual links between ST and KM, exploring the theoretical approaches that were embedded in the early KM literature. A survey of journals from both systems practice and KM areas is carried out to assess the exposure of SM in KM articles. Titles and abstracts of papers published in a sample of management science (MS)/operational research (OR) and KM journals between 1995 and 2005 were queried for the occurrence of SM typical keywords in order to identify articles that have used ST in general and a SM in particular. Results suggest that methods such as systems dynamics, complexity theory, soft systems methodology, viable systems model and critical systems have started to become visible in KM applications; we discuss some of these articles focusing on the methodological orientations of the approaches used. The paper aims to raise KM and systemic practice researchers' awareness of the benefits of further exchange and conversation between these two fields of management.
The importance of the cyclic transformation of tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge for the knowledge-creation organisations is strategic. Yet in many instances this transformation is supported by informal settings with low process controllability. It is critical though that this be followed by a more systematic approach. A number of models of organisational learning have been developed by extrapolating individual learning styles, as is the case of the holonomic framework. However, there is a need to relate more closely models of learning and of knowledge creation to the knowledge elicitation methods, in order to further support knowledge management practice. This paper examines the holonomic framework with the view of informing the systematic elicitation of strategic knowledge in professional practice. It draws upon the experience and practical application of elicitation methods-in particular causal mapping and scenario building methods-to elicit middle-senior managers' strategic knowledge by candidates to a Masters in Business Administration. The two methods are benchmarked against the holonomic cycle of knowledge development with regards to its learning phases, thus providing a more integrative approach to strategic knowledge elicitation methods.
The paper reviews the development of management science/operational Research (MS/OR) in management education and explore how far the syllabuses of undergraduate business courses and MBA courses in the UK, are giving space to the teaching of management sciences methodologies (MSM). The academic phase of early MS/OR is outlined and a time-based framework to map the evolution of four MS/OR discourses informing a set of MSMs currently in use is advanced. At an undergraduate level the review is based on a sample taken from Universities and Colleges Admissions Services (UCAS) of business and management studies degrees and at a postgraduate level the review considers a sample of MBA programmes offered by six UK universities. Results indicate that most of the MBA courses include a core unit in quantitative methods in the first year and that universities are still at large teaching the 'hard' end of the MSM spectrum, the type of problem solving methods developed in the 1950s and 1960s. Business courses incorporating units containing systemic thinking and management sciences methodologies developed from the 1970s to now (e.g.: soft systems methodology, viable systems model, cognitive mapping), are rarely taught at undergraduate (UG) level; and at post-graduate (PG) level they have been confined to a handful of institutions in the UK. The paper highlights the fact that MSMs associated with the soft and critical end of the spectrum are still lacking of credibility amongst the designers of management education at both undergraduate and graduate management education. Conclusions from the survey results are drawn and an agenda for further research is proposed.
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