Related Course/s:

A unit of study in the Bachelor of Business Information Systems, Bachelor of Science (Computer Science and Software Engineering), Bachelor of Information Technology, Bachelor of Science (Information Technology) and Bachelor of Science (Professional Software Development)

Aims & Objectives:

This unit is designed to facilitate students’ learning of key Knowledge Management (KM) principles, and to investigate the proliferation of KM practices today for organizational learning.

Learning Outcomes
By the end of the unit of study, students should be able to:

• Describe the nature of knowledge and the way in which it is created
• Describe a set of knowledge management (KM) processes
• Identify and describe the nature and scope of KM
• Describe some recent examples of the application of KM principles and the degree to which successful outcomes were achieved
• Describe ways in which computer-based information systems (CBISs) may facilitate KM practice and the critical importance of this contribution
• Apply principles learnt to personal and group knowledge management
  

Teaching Methods:

Lectures (24 hrs) and tutorials (12 hrs)

Assessment:

Tutorial participation, Presentation and Report, Examination

Content:

The following issues are explored:

• The nature of knowledge, knowledge creation and KM processes
• Kinds of knowledge and their interaction
• The organizational context of KM
• Guidelines for undertaking personal, group and corporate knowledge management
• The contribution of IT to KM practice
• The social technical and business orineted views of KM
• The establishment of change programmes to introduce corporate KM
• The role of KM is corporate strategic management and achieving competitive advantage
• Review of some published case studies
  

References:

A number of relevant journals are available in electronic form via the Swinburne library home page. These include:

• Communications of the ACM
• Decision Sciences
• Harvard Business Review
• IBM Systems journal (particularly vol. 40, iss. 4)
• Information Strategy: the Executive's Journal
• Information Systems Management
• KM review
• Organizational Dynamics
• Sloan Management Review.