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KNOWLEDGE MANAGMENT EXAMPLE 1 The Status of the Knower (page 100-101) People judge the information and knowledge they get in significant measure on the basis of who gives it to them. Organisations who ignore this fact are likely to be disappointed by the results of knowledge transfer projects. It is common for companies to send juniors to seminars or conferences because the business can spare them. Their work isn't considered as important as the senior staff members. The junior staff often come back from these events and say "We learned these things. We think the company can benefit". But few listen to them, whether they are right or wrong. The knowledge they bring back will be rejected for the same reason as they were chosen to go on the assignment. Another example given of a CEO in a company who needed information on market conditions in another country. He asked for a report from the corporate librarian, a marketing director and a senior vice-president. The librarian's information was by far the best. It was a carefully organised report using recent data from the World Bank and other sources. The senior VP threw together a couple of articles from weekly business magazines. The CEO thought the senior VP's information was the most valuable and gave the librarians report the lowest rating. Therefore the status of the provider and the CEO's personal opinion biased his judgment when it came to assessing the material. REFERENCE SOURCE: Working Knowledge
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