Personal Knowledge Management: Individual, Organizational and Social Perspectives

Citation

Pircher, R. (2012), "Personal Knowledge Management: Individual, Organizational and Social Perspectives", Library Review, Vol. 61 No. 2, pp. 165-167. https://doi.org/10.1108/00242531211220799

Studies suggest that information overload, interruptions during work and innovation barriers dramatically hamper productivity, both of individuals and of organizations. Knowledge and innovation are deemed core success factors in today's economy, yet the editors' claim that this book is the first on personal knowledge management (PKM) appears to be correct (apart from those in other languages, e.g. the German monograph by Reinmann and Eppler (2007)).

PKM, like the parent discipline knowledge management (KM), has grown out of a combination of fields such as cognitive psychology, philosophy, management science, education, communications, etc. The editors have collected contributions from scholars, consultants and expert practitioners, which are expected to develop “an accessible, holistic and detailed understanding of PKM as it concerns the individual and individuals in relation to organizations and society as a whole.” The target group consists of academics, students and reflective practitioners. The 12 Chapters of the book are not clustered according to topic but put together in a sequence intended to be coherent and to represent a “natural flow of ideas.”

In the preface the editors note a lack of empirical research and significant conceptual development around PKM, an inherent conflict between KM and PKM, and PKM as a potential path for effectively instilling a KM ethics into the organization. On the one hand, “knowledge workers must be responsible for their own growth and learning” and need a certain amount of freedom and self‐organization to do a good job. On the other hand, the company has to provide this organizational freedom to enable them do so. PKM as a form of self‐management may trigger much more existential questions than KM usually does. Technology should only be a non‐dominant part.

In their introductory chapter the editors suggest that PKM not only empowers workers but also helps to link individual strategies of the workers with those of the organization they are part of. The concept is expected to:

[…] help individuals manage more than just their careers: it also serves as the impetus to consider lifelong learning and the development of skills and networks to extend one's horizons – to become not only more knowledgeable about “things”, but to become more reflective and ultimately wiser about life.

As such, the editors regard it as serving the individual, the organization and society as a whole.

Brief glimpses at the chapters of the book are supposed to give an impression of the “free flow of ideas” and of the multi‐faceted character of PKM mirrored in this volume.

In Chapter 2 by Case and Gosling “Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?” core characteristics of knowledge, both personal and organizational, are discussed. It is suggested that western civilization has rejected wisdom in favor of data, information and knowledge. The authors propose that we could learn from pre‐modern philosophies like Stoicism and the work of Aristotle.

Peter Murphy claims in Chapter 3 that creation requires ambiguity, symbiosis of analogy and paradox.

Mark Wolfe stresses the significant point of the crucial meaning of communication and communication theory for KM and moreover for PKM in Chapter 4.

The notion of systems intelligence represents the core topic in Chapter 5. It offers the opportunity to discover the significance of the individual's ability to be aware of the systems around themselves and their personal role within. As such, it shows a link between (organizational) KM and PKM. Parallels to Scharmer's (2009) Theory U may be drawn.

Prusak and Cranefield propose four foundational practices for PKM in Chapter 6: scan and reinvent, vet and filter, invest in your networks and get out of your office. Helpful examples of and insights into information filtering and assessment are offered.

Chapter 7 is based on an interview with the well‐known KM expert Dave Snowden and mainly focuses on social knowledge networking by means of technological tools. Seven notable principles highlight his understanding of what underpins successful KM.

Chapter 8 by Kolb and Collins addresses benefits and downsides of connectivity which require management in order to achieve a valuable status of connectivity flow.

William Jones emphasizes the role of information in Chapter 9.

In the following chapter Tom Davenport, a KM pioneer, summarizes findings on knowledge workers' behaviour and challenges presented from an organizational perspective.

The links between PKM and organizational learning from a KM perspective are explored in Chapter 11 by Cheong and Tsui. The authors suggest that PKM is an enabler for effectively managing both individual and organizational learning.

Finally Karl Wiig links PKM with the knowledge society. He argues that PKM requires in‐depth understanding of societal contexts, knowledge work, etc. He regards PKM as a necessary societal challenge.

We may summarize that the book is not an introduction to PKM for beginners or for practitioners keen to apply PKM immediately. It does not offer an easy grasp of PKM models or a set of methods and tools ready to use the next working day. Nor does it provide a kind of guiding map or model that would help to obtain an overview of PKM and to easily locate the chapters of the book within the field of PKM (which would support learning and the application of PKM for the reader). However, through the “free flow of ideas”, which includes high‐level contributions, the book discloses a complex and sometimes contradictory offer of what PKM could mean and include.

PKM presents itself as a conglomerate of different approaches and perspectives that provide for a rich and multi‐faceted discourse. Some aspects recur: technology is often useful but represents only one aspect subordinated to personal PKM skills. These may include information management skills such as retrieving and vetting, but even more important is awareness of the self, of emotions and of systems, strategic competency development, to know how to learn and to know oneself and to reflect on performance comprehensively on a regular basis.

PKM as presented here invites the ambitious individual to try to find out more about themselves, to improve the ability to deal with personal knowledge systematically and according to personal goals and preferences. Viewed like this, PKM turns out to be of essential assistance in our time of information overload, attention economy, changing nature of work, lack of orientation and stress‐induced diseases.