Encyclopedia of Knowledge Management (2nd ed.)

Citation

Gorman, G.E. (2012), "Encyclopedia of Knowledge Management (2nd ed.)", Online Information Review, Vol. 36 No. 3, pp. 480-481. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684521211241468

The fact that this is the second edition in four years, and totalling 1574 pages in two volumes (volume 1 contains chapters 1‐76; volume 2, chapters 77‐149) suggests that there is a market for this non‐encyclopaedic encyclopaedia. Whether this is warranted in fact remains to be seen, as the content is neither encyclopaedic nor comprehensive.

This work, like most in the IGI stable labelled “encyclopaedias”, follows a standard format. The front matter includes the Editorial Advisory Board, List of Contributors, Table of Contents and Preface (which is both clear and interesting). The 149 chapters are listed numerically rather than thematically as far as one can determine. The Table of Contents is arranged by category: Theoretical Foundations of KM, Processes of KM, Technologies for KM, Application‐specific KM, Organisational Aspects of KM, Social Aspects of KM, Managerial Aspects of KM. These headings are indeed appropriate divisions for the broad nature of KM, and promise much of value. Each of the categories is further subdivided; Social Aspects, for example, consists of ten categories, such as best practices, emotional capital, networks and so on. Often there is only one chapter to a heading, which to this reviewer suggests a less than thorough understanding by the editors of how knowledge in knowledge management should be organised. It is not always clear how chapters are grouped, and mostly the grouping seems contrived; in Theoretical Foundations of KM, for example, there are subsections on help desk KM, KM models, philosophical underpinnings, types of knowledge. In what sense help‐desk KM “theoretical”?

Articles (entries, chapters) vary hugely in length, arrangement and level of scholarship; they really are discursive and opinion‐laden articles rather than factual entries. Chapters are generally clear and insightful for the most part; some are both interesting and informative and bear reading even by experts in the field, but others are rather pedestrian and more like undergraduate lectures.

Standard opening sections are abstract, introduction and background, followed by sections according to the topic, then conclusions and references, and finally key terms and definitions. Tables and figures are used to good effect, sparingly and very readable. Definitions of terms appear in some chapters but not others; the two volumes should have a consolidated section defining terms. Also a better, more detailed and comprehensive index would help, given the highly discursive nature of the “entries” and the unclear arrangement of content.

Overall? This is good reading if you are not looking for a “real” encyclopaedia and have the time to read entire chapters. There is much to learn from here by both students and academics, but the frustration of unclear organisation and sometimes lengthy narratives rather than pithy, pointed entries will drive many away. My suggestion is that the editors learn how to structure an encyclopaedia, how to instruct their contributors to present the entries, and how to edit opinion pieces into more factual statements – we might then have a genuinely useful encyclopaedia in a field needing this sort of vade mecum.