Managing orphan knowledge: current Australasian best practice
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/14691930110409679 |
| Pages | 384-397 |
| Published date | 01 December 2001 |
| Date | 01 December 2001 |
| Author | Ian Caddy,James Guthrie,Richard Petty |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & finance,HR & organizational behaviour,Information & knowledge management |
JIC
2,4
384
Journal of Intellectual Capital,
Vol. 2 No. 4, 2001, pp. 384-397.
#MCB University Press, 1469-1930
Managing orphan knowledge:
current Australasian best
practice
Ian Caddy
School of Management, University of Western Sydney, Australia
James Guthrie
Macquarie Graduate School of Management, Macquarie University,
Sydney, Australia, and
Richard Petty
School of Business, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Keywords Information, Intellectual capital, Management, Intangible assets, Liability
Abstract To date, managing intellectual capital has focussed on maximising possibilities to
create knowledge, while minimising chances of losing knowledge. However, effective intellectual
capital management should consider another dimension: orphan knowledge. Orphan knowledge
relates to questions such as: Do organisations ``unlearn'' things or forget things and repeat past
mistakes? Do some organisations unnecessarily duplicate equivalent activities within different
areas of the organisation? If orphan knowledge exists, then organisations need to understand
their potential for creating orphan knowledge. This paper defines orphan knowledge, and
provides evidence of its potential by developing various scenarios and relating case-study analysis
from a sample of Australasian organisations. Indications are that even in organisations
considered current ``best practice'' in managing intellectual capital, there is a medium to high
potential for orphan knowledge to be created. Future research will determine whether different
knowledge types, namely explicit versus tacit knowledge, have differing potentials for knowledge
orphaning. Further research will consider the chief knowledge officer's role in preventing and
recovering organisation orphan knowledge.
Introduction
The world's developed nations have seen a significant movement in the
important economic activities comprising their GDP. Today, these economies
are less reliant on either traditional primary (i.e. resource based) commodities
or even secondary (low value-added) commodities such as manufactured goods.
In the ``new'' economies the emphasis, in terms of high economic value-added, is
on service activities and intangible-based outputs (Tissen et al., 1998; Petty and
Guthrie, 2000). In Australia, globalisation has delivered an imperative to move
towards an information or knowledge-based economy. There has been a
dramatic internal transformation of the economy, with large sums of public and
private funds being directed towards fundamental and more applied research
to establish Australia as a leader in diverse knowledge-based fields such as bio-
technology, financial and insurance products, software development, and
education and training (Guthrie and Petty, 2000a). The corporate landscape has
changed forever: whereas previously, companies in industries that required
heavy capital investment dominated Australia's corporate top 50, this same
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