Chinese encyclopaedias and Balinese cockfights – Lessons for Business Process change and Knowledge Management

Abstract: Two of the main issues that have permeated management thought in the 1990s are Business Process Re-engineering and Knowledge Management. The former rapidly achieved dizzying heights in terms of citations, publications and sales, before equally rapidly falling into disrepute. The latter may be following the same course; and perhaps deservedly so. If this seems to be an injustice to knowledge management, then the precipitous fall of BPR is also undeserved. This paper seeks to stress the strengths and weaknesses of these two trends, offering ways in which they can and should influence our practices. Taking a slightly tangential perspective to each provides the basis for a corrective to any tendency to fall into the trap of a mechanistic or IT-determined orientation; a potential inherent in both. The use of two slightly offbeat examples helps to illustrate the strengths and weaknesses of both phenomena.

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