Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
Suliman Hawamdeh
University of Oklahoma, College of Arts and Sciences, Schusterman Center, 4502 E 41" St. Tulsa, OK. 74135
Email: suliman@ou.edu 0
Thomas J. Froehlich
Kent State University, P.O. Box 5190 314 University Library, Kent, OH 44242-0001. Email: tfroehli@kent.edu
Yun-Ke Chang
University of Oklahoma, College of Arts and Sciences, Schusterman Center, 4502 E. 41st St., Tulsa, OK 74135
Email: yunke@ou.edu
The members of panel will discuss the opportunities information professionals who are able to work closely
and challenges facing knowledge management education. with the knowledge workers, understand their needs and
The panel will share their experiences in the development communicate their concerns to the management of the
of four knowledge management programs at Kent State organization. Knowledge professionals will help
University, Dominican University, University of organizations identify opportunities, deal with
Oklahoma, and Nanyang Technological University in competition, generate synergy, and create a knowledge-
Singapore. sharing environment.
Today's organizations are faced with many challenges, Traditionally, information professionals' roles were
such as producing the desired objectives (efficacy), limited to the identification, acquisition and organization
solving the right problems (effectiveness), and using the of explicit knowledge or information. Today, that role is
minimal quantity of resources (efficiency) in a competitive being expanded to include other forms of knowledge
and complex environment. Among other necessities, activities-- tacit and implicit knowledge in the form of
organizations have to identify knowledge sources and skills and competencies. Tacit knowledge is personal and
assess their value when possible. They need to be gets transferred through human interaction, training,
proactive and/or adapt to the rapid pace of change. They observation and replication in different environments. It
should be able to recognize the needs of their costumers can only be shared by socialization, interaction and
or users and be able to develop or adapt mechanisms that training, and it requires interpersonal communication. As
permit them to measure their intellectual capital and build knowledge professionals need to deal with human
the technological infrastructure that would facilitate resource issues as well as organizational issues, a new set
knowledge sharing and utilization. Organizations also of skills and competencies are needed. Such skills and
need assess and create a culture that allows knowledge competencies require a multidisciplinary program and
sharing, socialization, collaboration, and the creation of cannot be catered for by one single discipline. Disciplines
communities of practice. involve include information technology, information
Knowledge workers and knowledge professionals are an science, communication and cognitive science, and
important, if not vital, component of the knowledge business and management.
organization. Regardless of the industry, type of At the moment, most knowledge management
organization (profit or nonprofit organization), or the practitioners and self -proclaimed experts come from
business sector, they all require a new breed of various backgrounds with different levels of skills and