Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Knowledge Management is an important part of all business, and yet the discipline lacks a philosophy based on systemic thinking. Exploring this gap, expert author Jon-Arild Johannessen continues his research on knowledge management with the groundwork for a new philosophy.
Across the four chapters in this book, Johannessen tackles the issues that have stopped a cohesive philosophy from being formed. Tackling the large questions first, he asks: what constitutes a philosophy for knowledge management? What quality criteria are relevant in a knowledge management philosophy? Johannessen also looks at how the emergence of the fourth industrial revolution has eroded and atomized the cohesion of social systems, and explores how knowledge management works in social systems, as well as whether social laws can be used to explain knowledge management systems.
For students and researchers of information and knowledge management, Johannessen offers a new perspective on our current philosophies, bringing systemic thinking to the front of knowledge management philosophy.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Preface (p. ix)
• Part I Philosophy for Knowledge Management
• 1 A Systemic Perspective on Knowledge
• Management (p. 3)
• Introduction (p. 3)
• Feed-pre (p. 5)
• Pre-understanding (p. 7)
• The Described System (p. 9)
• Reflections about Philosophy of Science for Knowledge Management (p. 12)
• Main Conclusion (p. 14)
• References (p. 16)
• 2 Developing Aspects of Qualitative Criteria in Philosophy of Science for Knowledge Management (p. 19)
• Introduction (p. 19)
• Criterion 1 Be Explicit about Your Premises, Suppositions, Prerequisites and Motives (p. 21)
• Description (p. 22)
• Analysis and Discussion (p. 24)
• Sub-conclusion (p. 30)
• Criterion 2 Be Explicit about the Moral and Ethical Consequences of Decisions (p. 31)
• Description (p. 31)
• Analysis and Discussion (p. 33)
• Rationality and Ethics (p. 33)
• Science Is a Morals/Ethics Project (p. 36)
• Robot Ethics (p. 37)
• Formal Logic and Ethics (p. 39)
• Sub-Conclusion (p. 42)
• Main Conclusion (p. 42)
• References (p. 45)
• Part II The Philosophy of Knowledge Management Aimed at Theory
• 3 In Search of Social Laws for Knowledge
• Management (p. 53)
• Introduction (p. 53)
• Description: Social Mechanisms and Social Laws (p. 56)
• Analysis and Discussion (p. 58)
• Aspects of Social Laws behind the Knowledge Management Variable: The Information System (p. 59)
• The Law of Requisite Variety (p. 59)
• The Self-organising Principle (p. 60)
• The Principle of Information Redundancy (p. 61)
• The Model Principle (p. 63)
• Aspects of Social Laws Behind the Knowledge Management Variable: Communication System (p. 64)
• The Law of Complementarity (p. 65)
• The Darkness Principle (p. 66)
• The Law of Communication (p. 69)
• Aspects of Social Laws in Relation to the Knowledge Management Variable: Knowledge Management Training for All Employees in the Organisation (p. 73)
• The Systemic Principle (p. 73)
• The Redundancy of Potential Command Principle (p. 76)
• Aspects of Social Laws in Relation to the Knowledge Management Variable: Considerations Concerning Moral/Ethical and Ecological Consequences (p. 80)
• The Consistency Principle (p. 81)
• Conclusion (p. 82)
• References (p. 84)
• 4 Concepts (p. 91)
• Action (p. 91)
• Butterfly Effects (p. 93)
• Calibration (p. 93)
• Causal Analysis (p. 94)
• Circular Causality (p. 94)
• Communicative Consciousness (p. 95)
• Complementary Relationship (p. 97)
• Epistemology (p. 98)
• Feed-Pre (p. 99)
• Information (p. 101)
• Intention Structure (p. 102)
• Message (p. 104)
• Non-Knowledge (p. 105)
• Pre-Comprehension (p. 105)
• Pre-Structures (p. 105)
• Sensitising Concepts (p. 106)
• Spontaneous Intuition (p. 109)
• Symmetrical Relationship (p. 116)
• 'The Context of Solution' (p. 116)
• The Epistemological Hierarchy (p. 117)
• The Naturalist Erroneous Inference (p. 117)
• The Objectivist Position (p. 117)
• The Ontological Questioning Process (p. 118)
• The Paradox of Objectivity (p. 118)
• The Theory of Science (p. 119)
• Zappfe's Paradox (p. 120)
• References (p. 121)
• Appendix 1 Epistemological Supposition for Knowledge Management and Systemic Thinking (p. 127)
• Appendix 2 Distinctions (p. 139)
• Index (p. 143)

Author notes provided by Syndetics