New KM book by Dr Kimiz Dalkir

The world of knowledge management (KM), which I take an interest through the New South Wales KM Forum, goes through cycles and at times even comes across as a bit faddish. At the moment the use of narrative, the application of complexity concepts and social network analysis (SNA) are the hot topics and require special skills. So it was surprising to see the publication of a new generalist book on KM, called Knowledge Management in Theory and Practice.

Dr Kimiz Dalkir's (no, I hadn't heard of her either...) new book promises to provide "a comprehensive overview of the field on knowledge management with an emphasis on translating theory into practice." It apparently contains a whole bunch of case studies, but to be honest it doesn't look like they tread any new ground. However, have a look at the table of contents and judge for yourself.

I was also a bit worried by this comment in one review of the book that said, "One reason we like this book for executives is that Dalkir gives effective summaries of key points that provide for an intelligent scan of the work if one doesn't have time to read the whole thing." And they think that's a good thing??? IMHO KM fails when stakeholders don't engage fully with the concept.

PS If you can hold on long enough a new KM Standard will soon be released in Australia...

Tags: knowledge management