Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Chinese Encyclopaedias and Balinese Cockfights - Lessons for Business Process Change and Knowledge Management

  • Conference paper
  • First Online:
Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge Management Methods, Models, and Tools (EKAW 2000)

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computer Science ((LNAI,volume 1937))

Abstract

Two of the main issues that have permeated management thought in the 1990s are Business Process Re-engineering and Knowledge Management. The former rapidly achieved dizzying heights in terms of citations, publications and sales, before equally rapidly falling into disrepute. The latter may be following the same course; and perhaps deservedly so. If this seems to be an injustice to knowledge management, then the precipitous fall of BPR is also undeserved. This paper seeks to stress the strengths and weaknesses of these two trends, offering ways in which they can and should influence our practices. Taking a slightly tangential perspective to each provides the basis for a corrective to any tendency to fall into the trap of a mechanistic or IT-determined orientation; a potential inherent in both. The use of two slightly offbeat examples helps to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of both phenomena.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 39.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Softcover Book
USD 54.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Compact, lightweight edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Schön, D.A.: ‘Generative Metaphor: A perspective on problem setting in social policy’, in Ortony, A. (ed): Metaphor and Thought, 2nd edition, CUP, Cambridge (1993)

    Google Scholar 

  2. Reddy, M.: ‘The conduit Metaphor’, in Ortony, A. (ed): see above

    Google Scholar 

  3. Giddens, A.: A Contemporary Critique of Historical Materialism, Macmillan, London (1981)

    Google Scholar 

  4. Murray, P., and Meyers, A.: ‘The Facts About Knowledge’, Knowledge Management Survey, http://www.info-strategy.com (1999)

  5. Davenport, T.H., and Prusak, L.: Working Knowledge-How Organizations Manage What They Know, Harvard Business School Press, Cambridge, Mass (1998)

    Google Scholar 

  6. Zack, M.H.: ‘Managing Explicated Knowledge’, http://www.cba.neu.edu/~mzack/articles/kmarch/kmarch.htm, due to appear in Sloan Management Review, Spring 1999

  7. Demarest, M.: ‘Knowledge Management: An introduction’, http://www.hevanet.com/demarest/marc (1997)

  8. Schultze, U.: ‘A Confessional Account of an Ethnography about Knowledge Work’, internet version of paper to be published in MIS Quarterly

    Google Scholar 

  9. Meehan, J.: ‘Knowledge Management: A Case of Quelling the Rebellion?’, Critical Management Studies Conference, UMIST July 1999

    Google Scholar 

  10. Nonaka, I. and Takeuchi, H.: The Knowledge-Creating Company, OUP, Oxford (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  11. Davenport, T.: ‘The Fad that Forgot People’, Fast Company, (1995)

    Google Scholar 

  12. Bryant, A and Evans, A.: ‘OO Oversold: Obscure Objects of Desire’, Information & Software Technology, volume 36, no 1, (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  13. Boisot, M.: Information and Organization: The Manager as Anthropologist, HarperCollins, London (1994)

    Google Scholar 

  14. Suchman, L.: Plans and Situated Actions, CUP, Cambridge (1987)

    Google Scholar 

  15. Zuboff, S.: In the Age of the Smart Machine, Heinemann, London (1988)

    Google Scholar 

  16. Geertz, C.: ‘Deep Play-Notes on the Balinese Cockfight’, in C Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures, Basic Books, New York (1975)

    Google Scholar 

  17. Dreyfus, H., and Dreyfus, S.: Mind Over Machine, Free Press, (1986)

    Google Scholar 

  18. Trompenaars, F., and Hampden-Turner, C.: Brearley, New York (1997)

    Google Scholar 

  19. Bryant, A.: ‘It’s Engineering Jim, but not as we know it: Software Engineering-solution to the software crisis or part of the problem’, in Proceedings of 22nd International Conference of Software Engineering, ACM & IEEE, New York (2000), 77–86

    Google Scholar 

  20. Foucault, M.: The Order of Things, Tavistock, London (1970)

    Google Scholar 

  21. Cilliers, P.: Complexity & Postmodernism, Routledge, London (1998)

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Professor of Informatics, Leeds Metropolitan University, Beckett Park Leeds LS6 3QS, The Grange, UK

    Antony Bryant

Authors
  1. Antony Bryant
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. INRIA, 2004 route des Lucioles, BP 93, 06902, Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France

    Rose Dieng  & Olivier Corby  & 

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2000 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg

About this paper

Cite this paper

Bryant, A. (2000). Chinese Encyclopaedias and Balinese Cockfights - Lessons for Business Process Change and Knowledge Management. In: Dieng, R., Corby, O. (eds) Knowledge Engineering and Knowledge Management Methods, Models, and Tools. EKAW 2000. Lecture Notes in Computer Science(), vol 1937. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-39967-4_20

Download citation

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-39967-4_20

  • Published:

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-540-41119-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-540-39967-4

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation