I’ve just been reading a fabulous book called “knowledge management” by a couple of Kiwis, Carl Davidson and Philip Voss from Massey University.
I’m only half way through, but already two things have really struck me…

1. the issue of valuing knowledge is amazingly complex, and not easily (of at all) captured within our traditional accounting systems. Davidson and Voss suggest that the capturing of narratives of what happens in our organisations is an essential first step towards valuing knowledge – I’m inclined to agree. They even point to some models that have been developed overseas, one called The Knowledge Capital Scoreboard, developed by Baruch Lev of the the NY School of Business and the other from the Swedish insurance company, Skandia, called The Navigator” that are well down the track of “accounting for knowledge” in an organisation. I’d love to see these strategies employed in some of the contexts I’m currently working in!
2. Another chapter I really enjoyed for its thoroughness dealt with the oft-talked about taxonomy of data-information-knowledge-wisdom. Reminded me of a model that I drew up for lectures I gave at Christchurch College of Ed back in 1992 (View image) which I happened to ‘dust off’ the other day for an online course I’m running at present as a discussion starter. Funny how things go round…

REFERENCE: Davidson, C & Voss, P (2002) Knowledge Management – an introduction to creating competitive advantage from intellectual capitalTandem Press: Auckland