The Systems Approach and Its Enemies (C. West Churchman, 1979) is one of Churchman’s most significant works. In this particular writing he displayed two main tendencies, that he was a Skeptic and that he showed Socratic Wisdom. In this book the editors seeks to follow up on these two themes and reveal how modern authors interpret Churchman’s ideas, apply them to their own line of thinking and develop their own brand of Systemics.
This book reinvigorates the use of wisdom in management and work practice, promoting it as an important research topic and demonstrating how it can be applied across a number of important management areas such as knowledge innovation and strategy.
In traditional business circles, wisdom is viewed with a certain scepticism, which is in part due to its historical associations with wisdom traditions and spiritual cultures. However, in business today, wisdom is emerging not only as a viable but also a necessary organizational and management practice. In particular, practical wisdom is being updated and retranslated for today’s issues and concerns in organizations. In recent years, leadership and organizational studies have initiated important changes in the way in which business-as-usual is conducted. In response to the increasingly complex and uncertain conditions of our international business environment, a growing community of ‘scholar-practitioners’ are pushing the boundaries of traditional organizational and leadership thinking and acting, making inroads into processes and applications of practical wisdom and ways of wise leading and managing. Given the unprecedented levels of challenges, dynamics and uncertainties that today’s organizations are exposed to, there is a need for a more integrative and sustainable approach to managing. Following the need for a reconsideration and revival of the meaning of wisdom, the editors explore vitalizing possibilities for the learning of wise practices in organizing and leading. This expansive range of domains where wisdom is currently being explored suggests a promising number of perspectives and possibilities for future inquiries and explorations into the nexus of wisdom and organization, leadership/management education and learning that benefits from cross-disciplinary synergies. This book will be of interest to those seeking to understand the growing significance of wisdom in relation to learning and teaching, especially in business and management education.
Knowledge Management Matters: Words of Wisdom from Leading Practitioners is a collection of works penned by this amazing and diverse group of thought leaders. Each of these trailblazers has generously shared their knowledge with a view to helping you and your organization succeed in the knowledge environment. The tips, tactics, and techniques they suggest are time-tested and proven concepts that will help you achieve your organizational objectives. Their collective works are based on decades of experiences with real-world organizations. This is not a book of untested theories that might work, but rather a compilation of genuine words of wisdom from experienced KM practitioners who know knowledge management. Knowledge Management Matters starts with a brief overview of the evolution of knowledge management. Building on this historical foundation, we launch a wide-ranging exploration of the domain. Throughout the book are excellent examples of what works, what doesn't, and some thought-provoking teases about the future. The authors offer great advice on a variety of subjects including storytelling, big data, creativity & innovation, leading communities, knowledge assets, co-creation, catering for a transient workforce and so much more. The contributing practitioners, in alphabetical order, are: - Stephanie Barnes, Director of Doing Things Differently at Art of Innovation - Shawn Callahan, Founder of Anecdote - Paul Corney, Founder of knowledge et al - Nancy M. Dixon, Author of Common Knowledge, HBSP - Stan Garfield, Knowledge Management Author, Speaker, and Community Leader - Anthony J. Rhem, President/Principal Consultant of A.J. Rhem & Associates, Inc. - Arthur Shelley, Founder of Intelligent Answers - Douglas Weidner, Chairman & Chief Instructor of KM Institute - Ron Young, Founder of Knowledge Associates International
The current financial and on-going ecological crises have taught us that without practical wisdom, business, organisations and leadership cannot be sustainable. In response to this situation, the Handbook of Practical Wisdom presents a critically informed understanding of wise practices, contributing to more integrative organizational and leadership studies and practice. The focus on integration emphasises the interdependencies of practical wisdom in relation to members, groups and cultures of organisations in their socio-cultural spheres. Wisdom has long slipped from the scholarly map, and so this handbook provides revived and new mappings for today and the future. Seeking to actualize creative potentials of practical wisdom, this book and series aspires to contribute to the contemporary odysseys and quests for orientation in organisation and management research and practice. Wisdom research, as presented in this book, provides bridges to underestimated, neglected or forgotten knowledge and offers transformative passages between Scylla - the rocks of dogmatic modernity - and Charybdis - the whirlpool of dispersed post-modernity. Practical wisdom allows for a better equipped and more experiential and reflexive journey and fosters the art of mindful travelling, beyond a reactive, moralizing sentimentalism. Accordingly, this handbook serves as a medium for reassessing and rearticulating more responsible ways of ‘praxis’ in the field of organization and management. In this spirit, each chapter opens a space for dialogue and debate, inviting further inquiries, conversations and explorations by and among its readers: students, academics and practitioners.
"This book outlines a new way of approaching the development and implementation of information systems. Not only does the book explore a different approach to determining an organization's opportunities and solving its problems, but it also highlights methods for optimal decision making"--Provided by publisher.
This book provides a thorough overview of the Wisdom Web of Things (W2T), a holistic framework for computing and intelligence in an emerging hyper-world with a social-cyber-physical space. Fast-evolving Web intelligence research and development initiatives are now moving toward understanding the multifaceted nature of intelligence and incorporating it at the Web scale in a ubiquitous environment with data, connection and service explosion. The book focuses on the framework and methodology of W2T, as well as its applications in different problem domains, such as intelligent businesses, urban computing, social computing, brain informatics and healthcare. From the researcher and developer perspectives, the book takes a systematic, structured view of various W2T facets and their overall contribution to the development of W2T as a whole. Written by leading international researchers, this book is an essential reference for researchers, educators, professionals, and tertiary HDR students working on the World Wide Web, ubiquitous computing, knowledge management, and business intelligence.
Most people can name dozens of knowledgeable people in their private and business lives, but highly value the very limited number deemed as wise. The fields of gerontology, psychology, and social science have attempted to study the phenomena of wisdom with little significant clarity or understanding of the construct within the expansive workforce development field. Wisdom, as an important aspect of a growing global knowledge economy, lacks the frameworks and theories needed for fostering workplace wisdom. This book brings a scholarly scrutiny to the study of wisdom, propelling the attribute to prominence within the broad field of workforce development and particularly within the growing context of a global knowledge economy. It investigates the characteristics of wisdom and offers theories, frameworks, techniques to foster wisdom in the workplace, recognizing it as a vital key to success for individuals and society. The ideal audience of this book includes senior learning specialists, organization development managers, HRD directors and workforce scholar-practitioners. These key individuals in organizations understand talent management and have a vested interest in the career construction of individuals in their organizations.
Without question, Starbucks Coffee is one of the greatest business success stories of the past decade. Since going public in 1992, it has grown yearly revenues to more than $6.5 billion, achieved a stock price increase of more than 6,500%, and opened over 11,000 locations worldwide. But for a company that has accomplished so much, outsiders really know very little about the Starbucks secrets to success. That’s because much of the company’s sage advice and weathered truisms exist solely in the hearts and minds of longtime Starbucks employees. This so-called “tribal knowledge” includes pithy quotes uttered by Starbucks executives, mantras used by Starbucks project groups, learnings from failed pilot programs, and “ah-ha” moments from successful projects. It’s company stories passed down from one generation of employees to the next. It’s intense. It’s poignant. It’s thought provoking. It’s actionable. It’s a language of Starbucks “tribal knowledge” that has never been written – only spoken – and only within the Starbucks tribe. Until now. In Tribal Knowledge: Business Wisdom Brewed from the Grounds of Starbucks Corporate Culture, longtime Starbucks marketer John Moore shares untold, behind-the-scenes stories of the processes, the programs, and the products that have made Starbucks a remarkable business success, including: · Why Starbucks was purpose driven to make a difference in the world. · How Starbucks goes beyond simply having a mission statement to living its mission statement. · How the Starbucks principled, innovative, and cause-related approach to marketing built an endearing and enduring brand. · Why efforts to extend the Starbucks brand into lifestyle offerings such as a literary magazine and full-service restaurants failed. · How the Starbucks approach to employee career growth has created a passionate workforce. · How to apply the Starbucks “tribal knowledge” to your business, entrepreneurial venture, or project group. Tribal Knowledge gives you unprecedented access to the many business lessons that helped Starbucks find prosperity by selling a commodity – all from a marketer who lived inside the Starbucks tribe.
