Mata-review and scoping study of the management of knowledgement for development
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Date
2008
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
IKM Emergent Research Programme, European Association of Development Research and Training Institutes. IKM Working Paper, 1, 1-46.
Abstract
The development sector has not yet fully appreciated the strategic importance of knowledge to its work and because of this, has not developed effective responses to the knowledge asymmetries within and between organizations. Even where the strategic importance of knowledge to development is appreciated, development actors are struggling with the practical challenges of organizing and using
information and knowledge. A substantial amount has already been written on knowledge management in development, including a number of literature reviews. Consequently, this paper will draw on existing literature reviews rather than repeating this exercise, providing a ‘review of reviews’, and supplementing it with linkages to other fields. This study explores the theoretical and conceptual background to the challenges facing the broad field of knowledge for development. It starts by providing an outline of the broad knowledge for development field, tracing its origins both within and outside the development sector (Part 1) and
placing particular emphasis on the practice-based view of knowledge. Next, it provides an overview of stages and models of knowledge management (Part 2). These stages and models are of key importance as they show the perceived trends in knowledge management. A substantial part of the paper is devoted to a meta-review of literature reviews focusing on knowledge management for
development (Part 3), identifying the main issues which need to be addresses in further work on this subject, and exploring differences in knowledge management approaches beyond the Anglo-Saxon discourse (Part 4). The next section (Part 5) goes on to draw the findings from all the other parts of the working paper to identify key issues that need to be addresses in future research in the areas of: • The Northern, Anglo-Saxon bias in the dominant knowledge management for development discourse;
• Knowledge management in different constellations of development organizations;
• The human face of knowledge management;
• Knowledge asymmetries; and
• Evaluation and impact assessment of knowledge management.
Description
Keywords
Knowledge, Development
Citation
Ferguson, J.E., Mchombu, K., Cummings, S. (2008). Meta-review and scoping study of the management of knowledge for development.