Is Faith important for Knowledge Management?
The answer for this post’s question is ‘yes’. However, here I am NOT talking about religious faith but other types of faith. I will explain:
1. Faith on yourself
In order to share the knowledge you possess in a proactive fashion (or even as a response to one’s request), you must trust that what you have to say or do is important, valid, and right. In other words, motivation for knowledge sharing comes first as a result of self-confidence.
2. Faith on others
In the case of knowledge sharing, it is very important to trust that others will not harm you or use the knowledge you provide in a way that you do not see fit. Otherwise, you will not feel comfortable enough for giving away the knowledge you have gathered.
3. Faith on the importance of being ethical
Ethics is essential in a KM setting. Here are some examples of ethical behavior towards knowledge sharing: a) recognizing what others do on your behalf, b) not applying the knowledge you gain from others to do something harmful or inappropriate, and c) avoid hiding the knowledge you possess if this is going to solve an important problem. Like these three, there are many other examples of ethical behavior. In an organizational level, it is very important that this kind of attitude is encouraged and valued.
Now, a quick compliment to my Dutch friends : )). Regarding ethical behavior, I trully admire the Nederlanders (as they call themselves). Although many people in this country do not believe in a supreme power (something like God), they do consider ethics as an essential part of life. For example, they generally respect individuality, tolerate racial differences, and consider poverty and violence as things that should be baned. This has made me rethink my previous assumption that morality was connected somehow with religious beliefs and practices. And I wish such ethical attitudes towards one another would be spread throughout the whole world!
1. Faith on yourself
In order to share the knowledge you possess in a proactive fashion (or even as a response to one’s request), you must trust that what you have to say or do is important, valid, and right. In other words, motivation for knowledge sharing comes first as a result of self-confidence.
2. Faith on others
In the case of knowledge sharing, it is very important to trust that others will not harm you or use the knowledge you provide in a way that you do not see fit. Otherwise, you will not feel comfortable enough for giving away the knowledge you have gathered.
3. Faith on the importance of being ethical
Ethics is essential in a KM setting. Here are some examples of ethical behavior towards knowledge sharing: a) recognizing what others do on your behalf, b) not applying the knowledge you gain from others to do something harmful or inappropriate, and c) avoid hiding the knowledge you possess if this is going to solve an important problem. Like these three, there are many other examples of ethical behavior. In an organizational level, it is very important that this kind of attitude is encouraged and valued.
Now, a quick compliment to my Dutch friends : )). Regarding ethical behavior, I trully admire the Nederlanders (as they call themselves). Although many people in this country do not believe in a supreme power (something like God), they do consider ethics as an essential part of life. For example, they generally respect individuality, tolerate racial differences, and consider poverty and violence as things that should be baned. This has made me rethink my previous assumption that morality was connected somehow with religious beliefs and practices. And I wish such ethical attitudes towards one another would be spread throughout the whole world!
posted by Renata S. S. Guizzardi at
08:51
3 Comments:
Thanks for your post, Olaf I agree with you that in KM, the organization leadership is only one part of the problem... There are many other problems that are maybe more difficult to solve, which are related with, let's say, "human nature". We are so full of atitudes and behaviors that work against the principles and requirements of productive KM. We must start changing these atitudes and behaviors very quickly if we really want to take profit from collaboration and knowledge sharing. In other words, we must start to share and collaborate in a "real sense" (with both our mind and our heart), and not only as a false declared statement.
By
Renata S. S. Guizzardi, At
October 28, 2004 at 6:52 AM
Dear Renata, I loved your blog and, in particular, this post on faith and knowledge management.
Nonehteless, I do have a comment/question in that respect. "Faith" is defined as "firm belief in something for which there is no evidence". "Belief", conversely, is the "conviction of the truth of some statement or the reality of some being or phenomenon especially when based on examination of evidence". Isn't better to replace the former by the latter in your statements above ?
G.Guizzardi
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Anonymous, At
October 28, 2004 at 2:20 PM
Dear Giancarlo,
Thank you for your comment. In fact, what I mean in the post is 'faith', i.e. one may believe in oneself or in others, even without having any evidence that these should be trusted. Then the question would be: why should they do that? I guess what I want to emphasize is that, for KM to work, there must be a predisposition for collaboration and knowledge sharing. A person should volunteer this faith, considering that the gains with collaboration are worth the risk of having his/her own knowledge misused. Hopefully, after the first attempts, feelings of insecurity and distrust will fall apart and the interaction will flow in a more natural way.
By
Renata S. S. Guizzardi, At
November 10, 2004 at 7:07 PM
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