Systems failure approach for knowledge management

Abstract

So far research in Knowledge Management has struggled against what constitutes a failure, suggested some causes of failure, or warily tried to predict failure. The aim of this paper is to propose a methodology to unveil causality, enhance predictability, and inform practitioners on how to handle and learn from Knowledge Management failure by adopting a more rigorous failure analysis methodology. Building on prior work in the fields of Information Systems and Knowledge Management, the authors propose learning from Information Systems failures research limitations, or ironically failures, when studying Knowledge Management failures. In order to achieve this we adopt the systems failure approach. Despite the difficulty associated with keeping focused throughout such a multi-phased approach, the systems failure approach practicality is derived from the balanced scheme it represents. The proposed way to approach Knowledge Management failures should out-perform the current simple factoring approach, while providing a clearer roadmap for practitioners' use as opposed to a complex interpretive approach.