To manage knowledge by intranet

Mats Edenius is an Assistant Professor at the Center for Information and Communication Research, Stockholm School of Economics, Stockholm, Sweden ([email protected]). Janet Borgerson is an Associate Professor at Stockholm University/ Royal Institute of Technology, Stockholm, Sweden ([email protected]). Abstract IdentiŽcation, generation, transfer, storage and efŽcient integration of knowledge occupy today’s corporate managers, and there is increasing interest in different strategies for managing knowledge. Many strategies correspond to different kinds of information technology, for example, intranet. An intranet can be regarded both as an information and strategic management tool in the context of knowledge management. A lack of reexivity in intranet use is based on the assumption that an intranet is a tool in its masters’ hands. Key elements in managing an intranet (such as, activity level and information input) are not just tools to control the transportation of information and knowledge in a convenient and efŽcient way. Rather, as constituents, these elements create the intranet. Several empirical examples suggest how information presented in an intranet – and knowledge about the information – is co-created in the process of using an intranet. A Foucauldian vision of knowledge as discursive practices, including representation, extends the overly static realist version of knowledge found in much KM. Furthermore, if highest demand for intranet activity levels were met, professional investment managers would be forced to become generalists