A Sociotechnical Approach for Knowledge Management (KM)

TL;DR

This paper introduces a sociotechnical framework for knowledge management that integrates social and technical perspectives, aiming to clarify paradigms and mechanisms underlying KM practices.

Contribution

It develops a sociotechnical vision of KM, distinguishing social and technical components, and provides a comparative analysis of different organizational and technical approaches.

Findings

Identifies key social and technical mechanisms of KM.

Provides a comparative table of organizational, managerial, biological, and technical visions.

Clarifies paradigms and challenges in KM practices.

Abstract

This article presents a sociotechnical framework for KM. This sociotechnical vision of KM allows: (1) to remove KM from a commercial concern; (2) to divide the different KM technologies; and (3) to question the paradigms associated with the social and technical components of KM. It is precisely this last point that this article develops to identify the generic mechanisms of KM. More precisely, the social aspect is explained through the organizational approach to KM, the managerial approach to KM, and the biological approach to KM. In contrast, the technical aspect is described through the knowledge and skills engineering approach to KM. These approaches also lead us to provide a comparative table between these organizational, managerial, and biological visions of KM.