Mapping Network Warfare Techniques to KM: Applying Lessons and Theories from the Most Demanding Arena of All

Abstract

As the economy struggles to rise out of recession, early attempts to implement knowledge management solutions are being evaluated, and some truths about online knowledge sharing are becoming clear as indications for the future. Organizations in the future will do a better job of finding relevant knowledge, distributing it, and putting it to use because some pioneering companies and analysts are discovering today what works and does not work. This paper is to study knowledge management from a new theory point of view, a theory that is effectively used in the recent warfare. The new theory is known as network-centric warfare, which has four main tenets. The main tenets are social domain, cognitive domain, information domain, and physical domain, which will be mapped by knowledge management main elements in this paper. The new perspective shows the knowledge management from a new lenses which can act as a roadmap for organizations to address when adopting knowledge management. For academics, it also provides a common language for them to discuss and study the knowledge management in both organizations and warfare. This study is probably the first to provide a warfare view for studying knowledge management. It gives valuable information and guidelines which hopefully will help the leaders to accomplish knowledge management through military/civil organizations in an effective way.

Keywords: Knowledge Management, knowledge sharing, information technology, cognition, Network-Centric Warfare, NCW