Organising Knowledge: Taxonomies, Knowledge and Organisational Effectiveness

Citation

Barker, P. (2007), "Organising Knowledge: Taxonomies, Knowledge and Organisational Effectiveness", The Electronic Library, Vol. 25 No. 5, pp. 632-633. https://doi.org/10.1108/el.2007.25.5.632.6

In many ways, taxonomies are a fundamental aid to human existence within a variety of different contexts. For example, in many countries it is important to know and recognise which snakes are poisonous and which are not. The human mind has a remarkable ability to develop and use taxonomic structures. Needless to say, such structures play an important role in many areas of human endeavour, particularly those related to information and knowledge management. Indeed, most people will be familiar with the need to organise files on a personal computer and to classify their “favourite” internet sites using a web browser. Of course, in these situations, each and every individual is likely to use his/her own rules of classification in order to produce taxonomies that meet his/her own particular circumstances. For those who are less well‐versed in the basic principles of classification and knowledge management, this book provides a useful introduction to the concepts involved and the derivation (and application) of taxonomic systems for use in various target domains.

There are ten chapters in the book. These are organised logically into two equal parts.

The first part of the book (Chapters 1 through 5) explores introductory issues and provides a foundation and framework for the material that follows later in the second part (Chapters 6 through 10). This latter section of the book has a more pragmatic orientation; it deals with the more practical aspects of designing and implementing a taxonomy project.

The opening chapter of the book serves to define terminology and introduce the basic concepts with which the book deals. The following chapter then discusses the various forms that taxonomies can take (such as lists, tree structures, matrices, system maps, and so on) and the relative merits of each approach. In chapter 3 the author discusses the meaning of organisational effectiveness and explains its dependence on knowledge articulation and knowledge management (KM); taxonomies are then introduced as a KM tool to facilitate the prevention of organisational inefficiency. Chapter 4 examines the broader role of taxonomies in relation to helping organisations to function effectively; a number of case studies are used to illustrate how this goal can be achieved. One of the main objectives of taxonomy work is to simplify access to and management of a knowledge domain. This latter issue is considered in Chapter 5 which addresses the different roles that taxonomies can play within the context of knowledge management.

In Chapter 6 the author surveys and summarises the various functions that taxonomies can perform within an organisational perspective; much of this chapter is devoted to a consideration of the Cynefin framework (based upon known, knowable, complex and chaotic domains) and its impact on the application of taxonomic processes. Subsequent chapters then go on to present a 12‐stage approach for creating and controlling taxonomy projects that fall within the known and knowable domains of the Cynefin classification. The various procedures that are involved are organised into three basic phases. The first of these deals with preparatory aspects (Chapter 7), the second is devoted to design and testing issues (Chapter 8) and the third covers implementation considerations (Chapter 9). The final chapter of the book discusses the future of taxonomy work. Amongst the topics considered in this chapter are ontologies (and machine intelligence) the growing use of folksonomies and the future possibilities offered by “spimes”.

This book introduces some interesting new perspectives on the importance of taxonomies within organisations – both for the purpose of knowledge management and for improving organisational effectiveness. The claims that are made in the book are well‐illustrated and supported by a rich collection of relevant case studies. For people who are new to taxonomy work, this book would undoubtedly be a very useful asset. Established practitioners in this area might also find this volume a valuable “refresher” – especially in terms of the range of case studies that are presented.