Chapter 2 :Background Bibliographic analysis

Tuesday, April 24, 2012 Knowledge Share No Comments

One measure of the influence of a discipline is to track the “formal communications” or published works in that discipline [Koenig,M., 2005, Ponzi, L., 2004]. Ponzi observed that “knowledge management is one emerging discipline that remains strong and does not appear to be fading”[Ponzi, L.,2004, p. 9]. Articles about KM were and are being published in the fields of computer science, information systems, management, engineering, communication, and library and information science. The significance of the KM growth pattern becomesmuch more apparent when one compares it with the pattern of other major business enthusiasms of recent years. The difference is dramatic. Quality Circles, Business Process Engineering, and Total Quality Management all show an almost identical pattern of approximately five years of dramatic, exponential, growth, then they peak and fall off to near nothing almost as quickly. KM, by contrast, has that same period of five years of exponential growth, 1994 to 1999, but in the decade since it has not declined, rather it has continued to grow steadily and consistently. All the hallmarks are here of a rather permanent development. There has also been substantial interest in the academic world concerning KM.The database ‘Dissertations and Theses’ includes bibliographic information about theses published by graduate students at accredited North American institutions from 1861, and from 50 European universities since 1988. A search of the database showed that all of the dissertations and theses with ‘knowledge management’ in the title or in the key word fields have been published since 1996.

The significance of the KM growth pattern becomes much more apparent when one compares it with the pattern of other major business enthusiasms of recent years. Below (Figure 2.2) are the literature growth patterns of three of those major business enthusiasms. The difference is dramatic. Quality Circles, Business Process Engineering, and Total Quality Management all show an almost identical pattern of approximately five years of dramatic, exponential, growth, then they peak and fall off to near nothing almost as quickly. KM, by contrast, has that same period of five years of exponential growth, 1994 to 1999, but in the decade since it has not declined, rather it has continued to grow steadily and consistently. All the hallmarks are here of a rather permanent development.