Knowledge Management and Agility: Relationships and Roles

Agility is characterized as deriving from a balance of both the physical ability to act (response ability) and the intellectual ability to understand what to act upon (knowledge management). The relationship of knowledge management to response ability is discussed, and knowledge management’ s role is characterized as consisting of two parts: a top-down directed component based on knowledge portfolio management and a bottomup grass-roots component based on collaborative learning. Learning is considered central to all concepts, and the subjects of organizational learning, learning styles, collaborative learning modes, and communities of practice are put in perspective. Finally, a model of knowledge management is abstracted from a successful real world example for reuse in corporate environments that would pursue the benefits and operating modalities of agile enterprise. The arguments and conclusions are the results of a ten-year research effort into highly adaptable enterprise systems.