User-Centred Knowledge Management: A Constructivist and Socialized View.

Context • The discipline of knowledge management (KM) begins to understand a) that it should move towards a user-centred, socialized KM and b) which business objectives provide motivation to do so. However, it lacks ideas on how to reach the objective that it suggests and justifies. We contend in this paper that this change requires a more viable understanding of knowledge combined with a suitable model of social interaction, otherwise it will fail. > Problem • The problem to be solved is to find a way to blend a model of social interaction and a suitable understanding of knowledge so that together they can contribute to the objective of implementing a "user-centred KM." In this paper we show a solution articulated in several conceptual and experimental components and phases. > Method • We use a systemic and cybernetic approach: systemic analysis of the problem, conception of a cybernetic approach, design of a systemic solution, and its evaluation in an experiment. The main methods used are systems engineering, cybernetic modelling, and knowledge engineering. > Results • We propose seven interrelated results: 1. A defect analysis of KM; 2. The concept of knowledge as the "Logic of Experience"; 3. A set of five KM design principles; 4. The principle of "Knowledge Identity"; 5. The model of "Knowledge Cooperation"; 6. The architecture of a user-centred KM system; and 7. Insights from a KM experiment. > I mplications • Our results are useful for any stakeholder in today's knowledge economy when they need to understand, design, build, nurture and support an organization's capacity to learn and innovate for the benefit not only of the company's financial owners but also of the individuals who work in it. Future research should urgently address the issues of "knowledge identity" and the "knowledge contract" and KM practice should design its next steps for moving towards a user-centred KM in conformity with the principle of "knowledge identity." The paper links explicitly to radical constructivism and argues in favour of a radical constructivist foundation for KM in which knowledge is seen as the "Logic of Experience." It also shows how this KM foundation can be extended with a social perspective and by that allow the individual and the social to be conceived of as complementary elements in one single KM system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]