Wharton - Chapter 15

Chapter 15, when combined with chapter 11, is a complete contradiction. Chapter 11 explains how to keep your knowledge a secret and secure it, then Chapter 15 talks of the extreme importance of sharing knowledge. The important key word in mending these ideas is in the title of Chapter 15: "Managing Dynamic Knowledge Networks". Using a horrible aviation example as the initial base (its abundant number of acronyms can make the nodes and arcs confusing", the message behind this chapter is abundantly clear: Creating a knowledge Network and establishing degree centrality and betweenness centrality usually is a good indicator of a firms' success. Whether it be from alliances, engineers in chat rooms and forums, or industry conferences, a solid interconnect of knowledge sharing can have a very significant impact on the company.In looking for further information about knowledge networks, I ran across many examples of a matter I know as "Knowledge Management" and using Ernst and Young as an example, but I found the idea of knowledge sharing best described in an article by Peter Cukor and Lee McKnight of MIT, "Knowledge Networks, Development, and the Internet": ..."Knowledge Networks, in general..., are expected, by their purpose and nature, to shift organizational culture towards collaborative activities within and among institutions."(Mcknight, Cukor, pg6, 2001). The article can be found at: http://ebusiness.mit.edu/research/papers/120 McKnight, Knowledge Networks.pdf