Abstract
Although it is topical to distinguish knowledge-based organizations, work or economies as a progression from the industrial, factory era, knowledge has of course always been key to organizational success. However, partly because of the availability of appropriate technology and partly because of the IT enabled structural change in organizations the idea of knowledge systems within institutions has gained currency. This follows a long tradition of attempting to make knowledge robust and explicit through procedures and technologies, and a more mixed history of support for cultures of knowledge (Dixon, 2000) or communities of practice (Seely Brown and Duguid, 2000). As Zuboff (1989) observed, information systems and technologies can augment either, but not both of these traditions. Recent trends in networking, internet technologies, standards and markup languages such as ontologies and XML, support the former, but evidence suggests (see Kling, 2000) that on their own they will not informate the knowledge activities in organizations.
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Stephens, R. (2002). The Role of Surplus Vision in Knowledge Systems. In: Ragsdell, G., West, D., Wilby, J. (eds) Systems Theory and Practice in the Knowledge Age. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0601-0_42
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-0601-0_42
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