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£50.00 Amazon.co.uk
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Details: |
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ISBN: 075463812X
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Published by Ashgate Publishing
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Written by Edward Truch
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Book published January 2004
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Other opinions: |
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Review and customer comments at amazon.co.uk
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Title:
Knowledge Orientation of Organisations
Review:
This book is not an easy read, but it is a thoroughly researched work
with a fascinating set of results to the hypotheses that were tested.
My rough ideas about knowledge in organisations were formalised by
this book and some of my views about the management of knowledge were
strengthened. For instance, tacit knowledge is still a large part of
an organisation's knowledge, regardless of type, and there is still
work to do providing systems which encourage knowledge transfer
and use.
It roughly divides into three sections:
The first third is a thorough literature review. If you want to know
where to find material on knowledge in organisations, this is the
place to look.
Half of the book covers how the research questionnaire was developed,
the questions and the results. This is a statistician's paradise. 56
hypotheses were tested against the four strategic types of
organisations: Prospector, Analyser, Defender and Reactor. For each
hypothesis you get the results and the validation tests. Truch chose
the Bonferroni over the Tukey HSD! The questionnaire looked at
companies in a variety of sectors and represents results from 162
organisations. It compares the truth of various statements such as,
"Prospector firms are more effective than defender-type firms at
acquiring and/or creating new knowledge assets". Not all hypotheses
produce the results you might expect.
The final sixth includes the conclusions, which are:
- There are major differences between strategic organisation types.
- There are some major factors in knowledge orientation.
- The knowledge orientation of an organisation can predict its
success.
- The four category topology 'networker', 'follower', 'scanner' and
'loner' is valid.
- Networkers create successful prospector organisations and scanners
do the same for defenders.
So what is the value of this book to someone who works in an
organisation or advises organisations? It is a thorough guide to how
you can characterise knowledge in organisations. It provides useful
insights into the use and lack of use of knowledge in different
organisation types. You can use it to characterise and benchmark an
organisation and its people. It is a reference work, not an
inspirational read. I would dip in and out of it whilst reviewing an
organisation's strengths and weaknesses in knowledge orientation. The
book has all the keywords for conducting further research on the web
but the only URL included is that of the publisher.
Free Pint Reviewer:
Andrew Wilcox is an independent consultant with strengths in the
Supply Chain and Knowledge Management. He uses MindManager
<http://www.mindjet.com> to manage his own knowledge. In working with
clients this provides a new tool to enable them to manage services,
projects, products and their development in a more holistic, visual
and creative way. Using this approach, he has recently developed a
service called Aucquire <http://www.ajwilcox.co.uk/aucquire> which
saves clients money by acquiring assets at auction. According to
Edward Truch's definitions, he is both a networker and a scanner.
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