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Review: The Knowledge Management Fieldbook

I have finally finished reading The Knowledge Management Fieldbook by Wendi R. Bukowitz and Ruth L. Williams. Yes, this book has been out for quite a while now (published 2000), but I have had other things on my reading list.

This book provides an introduction to the many different knowledge management issues and challenges facing organisations. Stepping through each of these in turn, it offers background details, and talks about possible directions.

The most valuable aspect of the book are the large number of case studies which follow almost every section. These range widely, although some of the organisations appear a few too many times.

Beyond these case studies, though, this book fails to deliver on the "Fieldbook" in its title. There are no practical methods or techniques presented, and it is left to the reader to work out how to convert the very general descriptions into tangible action.

Other readers of the book may jump in and ask: what about the "Think about it!" sections?. Certainly, these encourage the reader to tackle the problems, but in reality, the "fill-in-the-blank" approach is somewhat naieve, and gives little value.

What frustrated me most were the half-page tables that allow the reader to calculate the importance of a particular issue ("Need x Ability"). These are duplicated at the end of each section, and by my quick count consume about 25 pages of the book in total. This could easily have been explained once, and then left to the reader to follow through themselves.

Overall, this book provides a good introduction to the various knowledge management challenges facing organisations. If, however, you are already familiar with KM, and are looking for practical techniques and approaches, this book is not for you.

Posted by jamesr on October 16, 2002 11:08 AM
Categories: Book & product reviews, Knowledge management