Lecturer

A SENSEMAKING MODEL OF KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT IN ORGANISATIONS
Dubravka Cecez-Kecmanovic
School of Information Systems, Technology and Management
Faculty of Commerce and Economics UNSW, Sydney NSW 2052,Australia
Tel [phone], Fax [phone], [e-mail]
Cate Jerram
IS-KOMO Research Group, School of Management, College of Law and Business
UWS, Blacktown Campus, Locked Bag 1797, Penrith South DC NSW 1797, Australia
Tel [phone], Fax [phone], [e-mail]

ABSTRACT
The paper investigates the phenomenon of knowledge management in an organisational context with the aim to improve understanding of its inherent nature and characteristics. The research is based on the assumption that better understanding of knowledge management and the actual needs of actors and organisations are required to design meaningful Information Technology (IT)-based systems to assist them. By drawing from a case study of a university restructure process, where change highlighted many, normally invisible, knowledge management issues, the paper introduces a sensemaking model of knowledge management and demonstrates how it may contribute to our understanding of knowledge in organisations. The paper also tests the model as a conceptual tool to identify distinctive features of knowledge at different levels (individual, interpersonal, organisational and cultural) and related knowledge creation and sharing processes, which provide a basis for investigating required IT support.

1.

INTRODUCTION

How to manage knowledge, knowledge work and knowledge workers, so as to achieve competitive advantage have become acutely critical questions for all organisations, not only for so called knowledge-intensive firms. Companies are investing in various knowledge management initiatives with urgency, yet with dubious results (Storey and Barnett, 2000; Schultze and Boland, 2000). It is not surprising that issues in knowledge management have caught

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