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Dissertation open access links: ProQuest | GW ScholarSpace
The Unified Theory of Knowledge Management Explained
The Unified Theory of Knowledge Management explains what Knowledge Management (KM) is.
Simply stated, when you get a phone number, write it down, and organize it alphabetically with others,
you are accumulating, representing, storing, and organizing contact knowledge. Adding an address
refines. Using or sharing completes the set of KM activities: accumulating, refining, organizing, using,
representing, storing, and communicating. “If an entity is doing one of these things, it is KM” (Sisson and
Ryan 2016b, 1085).
The theory also integrates KM roles and KM competencies (what you need to be able to do).
Source: Adapted Philip William Sisson, dissertation, figure 3-3.
There are other things that you might want to know:
1. Historically there has been some confusion about when people are doing KM from a role
perspective. If you are using knowledge, doing direct KM (such as storing knowledge), or
managing a KM process (such as a database), you are managing knowledge (KM). If you are
managing the KM practice, you are also doing KM. Each role performs needed activities.
2. To do KM well, you need to be able to accumulate and organize knowledge (curacy), refine and
use knowledge (cognitacy), and work with KM mediums: represent, store, and communicate
knowledge (mediumacy). Kennacy is the overarching competency of KM.
3. My dissertation shows that the seven functions are sufficient and necessary to describe KM in
differentiating it from its implementing and supporting disciplines, such as management,
engineering, information technology, asset management, and many other disciplines.
That’s it—the Unified Theory of Knowledge Management. Proving it was a lot more complicated.
If you want to dig in, the dissertation is available on ProQuest and GW ScholarSpace. Chapter 1, section
1.2 summarizes it.