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  Studiegidsen 2008-2009
Radboud UniversiteitStudiegidsenFaculteit der Managementwetenschappen > Bedrijfswetenschappen

Knowledge Management 

(Vakcode)
Course ID
BCU322
(Studiepunten)
Credits
6
(Periode)
Period
Blok 2
(Niveau)
Level
Ba 3 en schakelprogramma R&M
(Cursuscoördinator)
Course Co-ordinator
prof. dr. P.H.J. Hendriks
Examination (Tentaminering)
Written exam, papers plus computer game.
Prerequisites (Vereiste voorkennis)
General knowledge of theories on organizations, organizational behavior and management.
Optional Course (Keuzevak) (Niet van toepassing als dit vak een verplicht onderdeel is van de opleiding)
Ja.
Objectives (Leerdoelen)
The objectives of the course are: Gaining an understanding of the intrinsics of a knowledge management perspective on organizations and coming to grips with the variety of subjects addressed when such a perspective is taken. Developing skills and insights involved in becoming a participant in knowledge management debates. Developing an ability to interpret scientific texts from a knowledge management perspective, and to share the knowledge produced by that interpretation via adequate knowledge externalization. Based on the insights gained in the course, developing the ability to perform as a knowledge manager in a KM game situation.
Contents (Beschrijving)
The Knowledge Management course explores how organizations can make the most of their most valuable asset, the knowledge their individual members and workgroups hold that becomes embedded in their products and work routines. It develops and builds on an understanding of organizations as distributed knowledge systems. This understanding confronts organizations with a fundamental challenge because a ‘supermind' that connects all possible knowledge sources within the organization cannot exist. The course explores both the strategic and operational sides to knowledge management. The strategic aspects refer to the question of how knowledge makes a difference to individual organizations in today's changing competitive landscape in the so-called knowledge economy. Typical distinguishing characteristics of such an economy are global competition, an emancipated class of knowledge workers, shortened life cycles of products, and increased turbulence in overall social and economic life. The operational side to knowledge management refers to understanding what management should or should not do to improve the organizational knowledge processes of knowledge sharing, knowledge retention, knowledge production and knowledge exploitation. The course explores the main classes of interventions that are being discussed in the knowledge management debate: interventions concerning human resource management, deployment of information and communication technology, and interventions concerning the organization of work, employment practices, organization structure and task definition. It does not discuss these primarily in a functionalistic fashion, linking typical knowledge-related problems in organizations with the best practices offered by companies and literature. Rather, the course intends to stimulate and facilitate critical thinking via concepts of knowledge. The course does not present the knowledge management domain as a discipline that has a strong theoretical unity, but as a battlefield where disparate opinions, ambiguity and dissensus are rule rather than exception. Participants in the course become knowledge managers themselves in a knowledge management game played via the Internet. In this game they have to run a company as a knowledge manager by monitoring knowledge-related indicators of the state of the company and by selecting and implementing interventions aimed at strengthening the organizational value of knowledge and the quality of the knowledge processes.
Literature (Literatuur)
  • Hislop, D. (2005). Knowledge management in organizations: a critical introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press (ISBN 0-19-926206-3).
  • Reader Knowledge Management.

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