Chapter 2: Background Bibliographic Analysis

One measure of the influence of a discipline is to track the “formal communications” or published works in that discipline [Koenig,M., 2005, Ponzi, L., 2004]. Ponzi observed that “knowledge management is one emerging discipline that remains strong and does not appear to be fading”[Ponzi, L., 2004, p. 9]. Articles about KM were and are being published in the fields of computer science, information systems, management, engineering, communication, and library and information science.

Ponzi’s research on knowledge management publications is deep and comprehensive, but limited in that his latest results are from 2001. Ponzi and Koenig [2002] were able to project early on that KM was either an unusually broad-shouldered business enthusiasm or a rather permanent development.

The authors have continued that tracking of theKMliterature time series (Figure 2.1 below) through the 2009 literature. The KM business literature continues to grow. Note that Figure 2.1 almost certainly underestimates the size of the KM literature. In the early years of KM, it was probably a very safe assumption that almost all KMarticles would have the phrase “knowledge management” in the title, but as the KM field has grown, that almost certainly is no longer a safe assumption. There are now numerous articles about “communities of practice” or “enterprise content management” or “lessons learned” that clearly are KM focused, but they do not use the phrase “knowledge management” in the title.

The significance of theKMgrowth pattern becomesmuch more apparent when one compares it with the pattern of other major business enthusiasms of recent years. Below (Figure 2.2) are the literature growth patterns of three of those major business enthusiasms. The difference is dramatic. Quality Circles, Business Process Engineering, and Total Quality Management all show an almost identical pattern of approximately five years of dramatic, exponential, growth, then they peak and fall off to near nothing almost as quickly. KM, by contrast, has that same period of five years of exponential growth, 1994 to 1999, but in the decade since it has not declined, rather it has continued to grow steadily and consistently. All the hallmarks are here of a rather permanent development.

There has also been substantial interest in the academic world concerning KM.The database ‘Dissertations and Theses’ includes bibliographic information about theses published by graduate students at accredited North American institutions from 1861, and from 50 European universities since 1988. A search of the database showed that all of the dissertations and theses with ‘knowledge management’ in the title or in the key word fields have been published since 1996. The specific departments and disciplines in which the dissertations were written range from mathematics to mass communication, with business administration being strongly represented. See Figure 2.3 below for the publication pattern. In general, the number of dissertations focusing on some aspect of knowledge management rises gradually until 2006 and has remained steady with about 100 theses produced each year in English with, however, a decline in 2008 and 2009. The number of scholarly papers and dissertations devoted toKMdemonstrates that there has been and continues to be a scholarly interest in knowledge management even if that research has taken a small downturn.An examination of the types of research being conducted shows that over the years the subject matter of KM studies has changed somewhat from an emphasis on technological systems to a focus on communication and interaction among people. Also, the terminology has changed as well. Although ‘knowledge management’ may have been commonly used in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s, scholars have adopted terms such as ‘knowledge sharing,’ ‘communities of practice,’ and ‘learning organizations’ as knowledge management processes became more mainstream in organizations. As the twenty-first century has progressed, searches on ‘knowledge management’ have revealed that scholarly works on knowledge sharing have increasingly been combined with research on social networking and social media.

The data seem to indicate that there continues to be a lively interest in research and writing about knowledge management, and presumably that scholars and ordinary people are interested in reading about KM as well. The specific departments and disciplines in which the dissertations were written range from mathematics to mass communication, with business administration being strongly represented. See Figure 2.3 for the publication pattern.

An interesting observation is that there was a very brief spurt of articles about KM in journals devoted to education, but that interest soon waned. This is likely a function of the fact that KM, as mentioned previously has a very corporatist and organizational emphasis, while for most academic principals, the faculty, their commitment to their field, their discipline and sub-discipline, their “invisible college” comes first. Their commitment to their nominal home institution is quite secondary. And, for most of those faculty, their invisible college already functions as their community of practice.