Strategic Sustainable Development and Knowledge Management

The purpose of this study was to explore how organizations can apply the Strategic Sustainable Development (SSD) Framework (Robert et al. 2006) as a lens and filter to a Knowledge Management Framework to move an organization towards sustainability. A conceptual framework of Knowledge Management (KM) was developed and then utilized to conduct a sustainability assessment on The Natural Step (TNS) organization as a case study. The researchers explored how an understanding of KM can support SSD and aid an organization in leveraging their existing knowledge. To achieve the objective, the most commonly accepted KM frameworks were summarized through a literature review. Then the researchers’ understanding of a conceptual KM Framework was developed. The SSD lens was used to identify gaps within the KM frameworks when an organization’s ultimate goal of success is sustainability. The conceptual KM Framework viewed through the SSD lens was utilized in conducting a sustainability assessment on TNS as a case study. The authors attempted to illustrate how using SSD as a lens could assist any organization, not just NGO’s with a sustainability mandate, to enhance any Quality Management System, such as KM, to tackle global issues. The scope of the analysis was focused on understanding the role of KM as it relates to an organization’s journey towards sustainability. Specifically a strengths and weaknesses assessment was conducted. The assessment was used to identify gaps and successes in the following areas: knowledge sharing, sharing methodology and sustainable practices.

[1]  John Holmberg,et al.  Simplicity Without Reduction: Thinking Upstream Towards the Sustainable Society , 2000, Interfaces.

[2]  I. Nonaka,et al.  The Knowledge Creating Company , 2008 .

[3]  L. J. Bock,et al.  Paper 2. , 1973, The Australian journal of physiotherapy.

[4]  Y. Wadsworth.  What is participatory action research , 1998 .

[5]  Karl-Henrik Robèrt,et al.  Tools and concepts for sustainable development, how do they relate to a general framework for sustainable development, and to each other? , 2000 .

[6]  F. Baum,et al.  Participatory action research , 2006, Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health.

[7]  R. Pace,et al.  The Contributions of Knowledge Management to Workplace Learning , 2002 .

[8]  Yulong Gu,et al.  Knowledge Management Literature Review , 2007 .

[10]  野中 郁次郎,et al.  The Knowledge-Creating Company: How , 1995 .

[11]  Greg Laugero,et al.  Managing Knowledge , 1998 .

[12]  Thomas H. Davenport,et al.  Book review:Working knowledge: How organizations manage what they know. Thomas H. Davenport and Laurence Prusak. Harvard Business School Press, 1998. $29.95US. ISBN 0‐87584‐655‐6 , 1998 .

[13]  Ruediger Kuehr,et al.  Strategic sustainable development — selection, design and synergies of applied tools , 2002 .

[14]  M. Polanyi.  Personal Knowledge: Towards a post-critical philosophy , 1959 .

[15]  Göran Broman,et al.  Sustainability Constraints as System Boundaries: An Approach to Making Life‐Cycle Management Strategic , 2006 .

[16]  E. Wenger.  Communities of practice: learning as a social system , 1998 .

[17]  Yao Min,et al.  Methodology on knowledge management , 2004 .

[18]  Mark S. Demarest.  Understanding knowledge management , 1997 .

[19]  Victor R. Basili,et al.  Support for comprehensive reuse , 1991, Softw. Eng. J..

[20]  Karl-Erik Sveiby.  The New Organizational Wealth: Managing and Measuring Knowledge-Based Assets , 1997 .

[21]  David Cook,et al.  Strategic Leadership towards Sustainability , 2004 .

[22]  Stefan Decker,et al.  Semantic web methods for knowledge management , 2002 .

[23]  Peter F. Drucker,et al.  The Coming of the New Organization , 2001 .

[24]  Cindy Johnson.  Leveraging Knowledge for Operational Excellence , 1997, J. Knowl. Manag..

[25]  D. Leonard-Barton,et al.  Wellsprings of Knowledge: Building and Sustaining the Sources of Innovation , 1995 .

[26]  H. Bradbury,et al.  Handbook of action research , 2006 .

[27]  G. Brundtland,et al.  Our common future , 1987 .

[28]  B. Kogut,et al.  Exploring internal stickiness : Impediments to the transfer of best practice within the firm , 2007 .

[29]  P. Denning.  OPERATIONAL ANALYSIS , 2004 .

[30]  I. Nonaka.  A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation , 1994 .

[31]  Jon-Arild Johannessen,et al.  Aspects of innovation theory based on knowledge-management , 1999 .

[32]  Alberto Carneiro,et al.  How does knowledge management influence innovation and competitiveness? , 2000, J. Knowl. Manag..

[33]  C. Kimble,et al.  Knowledge Networks: Innovation Through Communities of Practice , 2003 .