Knowledge Management Foundations (KMCI Press) (Paperback)

by Steve Fuller (Author) "Knowledge management," "knowledge society," and not least the burgeoning employment prospects of "chief knowledge officers" ("CKOs") are signs of our times..." (more)
Key Phrases: metapublic goods, dumb organizations, physics market, Cold War, United States, The Challenge (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review
“Knowledge Management Foundations provides a much sought after intellectual platform for thinking about the management and development of knowledge in private and public organizations. He has created a reconstructive critique of Knowledge Management that goes far outside of the borders of traditional writing on the topic. This book offers a straightforward and major policy program for universities and corporations alike in thinking about their most valuable resource: knowledge. Managers on all levels should read this book, as should philosophers and sociologists of science who want to know about the ongoing real-world applications of their ideas. Fuller’s book will become a classic.”
—Tomas Hellström
Fellow at the Institute for Management of Innovation and Technology
Stockholm School of Economics and Chalmers University of Technology

“Steve Fuller has written a book that finally takes a critical look at the guru-hype that passes for Knowledge Management (KM). Fuller points out that prior work is so ridiculous that universities are now classified as the ‘dumb organizations’ and any McDonald’s franchise is a ‘smart’ one. We are witnessing the deskilling of the knowledge worker, and the McDonaldization of the university. As Steve puts it, there is no ‘free lunch’ in cyberspace. This book will set the KM field upside down, where it belongs.”
—David Boje
Editor of Journal of Organizational Change Management and TAMARA: Journal of Critical Postmodern Organization Science -- Review

“...a much sought after intellectual platform for thinking about the management and development of knowledge in private and public organizations.” -- Tomas Hellström, Fellow at the Institute for Management of Innovation and Technology, Stockholm School of Economics and Chalmers University of Technology

“This book will set the KM field upside down, where it belongs.” -- David Boje, Editor of Journal of Organizational Change Management and TAMARA: Journal of Critical Postmodern Organization Science

Review
"Knowledge Management Foundations provides a much sought after intellectual platform for thinking about the management and development of knowledge in private and public organizations. He has created a reconstructive critique of Knowledge Management that goes far outside of the borders of traditional writing on the topic. This book offers a straightforward and major policy program for universities and corporations alike in thinking about their most valuable resource: knowledge. Managers on all levels should read this book, as should philosophers and sociologists of science who want to know about the ongoing real-world applications of their ideas. Fuller's book will become a classic."
-Tomas Hellström
Fellow at the Institute for Management of Innovation and Technology
Stockholm School of Economics and Chalmers University of Technology

"Steve Fuller has written a book that finally takes a critical look at the guru-hype that passes for Knowledge Management (KM). Fuller points out that prior work is so ridiculous that universities are now classified as the 'dumb organizations' and any McDonald's franchise is a 'smart' one. We are witnessing the deskilling of the knowledge worker, and the McDonaldization of the university. As Steve puts it, there is no 'free lunch' in cyberspace. This book will set the KM field upside down, where it belongs."
-David Boje
Editor of Journal of Organizational Change Management and TAMARA: Journal of Critical Postmodern Organization Science

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Butterworth-Heinemann; 1st edition (December 7, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0750673656
• ISBN-13: 978-0750673655
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.9 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,723,389 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The "Das Kapital" of KM?, January 5, 2002

By	Morris Carney (Pacific Northwest, USA) - See all my reviews

This is definitely a book for those who want to see through the charlatanry and the hype that passes for "KM" these days. What's surprising is that it's taken so long for a serious academic who doesn't work for a business school to produce a book like this. Fuller's goal here is basically to tell us how we got to a position where sticking "knowledge" in front of "management" has even gotten university presidents excited. It's a story that should be familiar to Marxists, since Fuller believes that knowledge is "capitalism's final frontier," but this no knee-jerk Marxist tract. Fuller is very open - perhaps too open - to alternative social and economic philosophies. His main point is that knowledge is a "positional good," which basically means that it's valuable only if it's scarce. And so, KM is really is in the business of manufacturing this new form of scarcity by things like computerized expert systems, intellectual property law, etc. This point cannot be repeated too many times, and Fuller does a great job exploring all its ramifications, especially for universities.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A confusing title, February 18, 2003

By	Bill Godfrey (Mt Stuart, TAS Australia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Despite its title, this is not a basic text introducing the key KM theories and concepts. Fuller attempts to place knowledge management on a 'secure intellectual footing' by tracing the historical, philosophical, and sociological underpinnings of KM. While it may offer an alternative view to the hype that abounds in the KM literature, it is a heavily theoretical text and there is very little in it for the practitioner.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The "Das Kapital" of KM?, January 5, 2002

By	Morris Carney (Pacific Northwest, USA) - See all my reviews

This is definitely a book for those who want to see through the charlatanry and the hype that passes for "KM" these days. What's surprising is that it's taken so long for a serious academic who doesn't work for a business school to produce a book like this. Fuller's goal here is basically to tell us how we got to a position where sticking "knowledge" in front of "management" has even gotten university presidents excited. It's a story that should be familiar to Marxists, since Fuller believes that knowledge is "capitalism's final frontier," but this no knee-jerk Marxist tract. Fuller is very open - perhaps too open - to alternative social and economic philosophies. His main point is that knowledge is a "positional good," which basically means that it's valuable only if it's scarce. And so, KM is really is in the business of manufacturing this new form of scarcity by things like computerized expert systems, intellectual property law, etc. This point cannot be repeated too many times, and Fuller does a great job exploring all its ramifications, especially for universities.