(Neg)Entropic Scenarios Affecting the Wicked Design Spaces of Knowledge Management Systems

Abstract

The envisioned embracing of thriving knowledge societies is increasingly compromised by threatening perceptions of information overload, attention poverty, opportunity divides, and career fears. This paper traces the roots of these symptoms back to causes of information entropy and structural holes, invisible private and undiscoverable public knowledge which characterize the sad state of our current knowledge management and creation practices. As part of an ongoing design science research and prototyping project, the article’s (neg)entropic perspectives complement a succession of prior multi-disciplinary publications. Looking forward, it proposes a novel decentralized generative knowledge management approach that prioritizes the capacity development of autonomous individual knowledge workers not at the expense of traditional organizational knowledge management systems but as a viable means to foster their fruitful co-evolution. The article, thus, informs relevant stakeholders about the current unsustainable status quo inhibiting knowledge workers; it presents viable remedial options (as a prerequisite for creating the respective future generative Knowledge Management (KM) reality) to afford a sustainable solution with the generative potential to evolve into a prospective general-purpose technology.

Scalability of generative knowledge management systems: designing for individuals’ and institutions’ mutual benefit

“…By integrating system dynamics, discrete-event and agent-based modeling approaches, the roots of these symptoms have been traced back to causes of information entropy and structural holes, invisible private and undiscoverable public knowledge (Schmitt, 2016a). The models confirm recent research results which have used the, it seems, ineffectual sad state of our current knowledge management (KM) and knowledge creation practices as a point of departure by: using the strengths, vulnerability and intervention assessment related to digital threats (SVIDT) methodology (Schmitt, 2018a); applying recent notions of generative fit and capacities in their technical, informational and social interpretations (Schmitt, 2019a); and focusing on entropy, syntropy and negentropy in recent knowledge creation and management contexts (Schmitt, 2020a).…”

“…Further services detailed in a previous article [e.g. reporting and notifications, learning assets and boundary objects or metrics (Schmitt, 2020a) The workflows described (prior three paragraphs) form, thus, a closed iterative cycle, which continuously removes otherwise attention-consuming entropy from the content and aggregates traceabilities (associative integrity) available to PKMS users. The rounded feedback rectangles [01FK, 67FK, 78FK, 89FK] complement the payload streams by representing micro-macro-micro feedbacks and communications within and between PKMS administration and PKMS community.…”

“…In reviewing the representative literature of KM evolution over time, Handzic suggests differentiating its historic stages as fragmentation, integration and fusion and predicts extension, specialization and reconceptualization (including decentralization) as potential KM futures (Handzic, 2017). By adjusting this perspective, prior publications argued that current KMSs can be still considered as: divorcing the interests of organizations and knowledge workers (instead of fusing them); prioritizing preservation of intellectual capital over generative innovativeness (instead of integrating them); and growing the entropy of knowledge (instead of defragmenting it) (Schmitt, 2018a(Schmitt, , 2019a(Schmitt, , 2020a.…”

Gifts, Contexts, Means, and Ends Differing: Informing Task Scenarios to Serve Knowledge Workers’ Needs in Dynamic Complex Settings

“…The PKMS workflows supporting such a decentralized solution have recently been mapped against twelve traditional dynamic organizational KM models within a three-dimensional information space (Schmitt, 2019a). The identified gaps have been elaborated in articles arguing that organizational KM objectives have continuously taken precedence over the personal concerns and motivations of knowledge workers (Schmitt, 2018b), that the prioritized protection of intellectual capital benefitting institutions has also been pursued at the expense of innovativeness and generativity (Schmitt, 2019b), and that -having been introduced in a time of information scarcity -traditional KM models lack the muscle to tackle today's world of ever-growing information abundance and dynamic complexity (Schmitt, 2020a).…”

“…However, entropic analogies have also been entertained in a different interpretation and warrant further clarification. (Schmitt, 2020a).…”