e04dfd73_UKAIS_2003__Abstracts__Title
[ID#] 56 [Author(s)] L Bellarby [Abstract] This is a preliminary report based upon a case study of a charitable organisation in the �caring sector�. The organisation has requested that its identity remain anonymous. The research was initially inspired by ideas drawn from the Knowledge Management (KM) arena. It sought to investigate Nonaka�s ideas about KM in organisations (Nonaka, 1995), and to explore Snowden�s view that a �volunteer society� is required for knowledge elicitation to take place (Snowden, 2000c). The research investigated whether sharing expertise and knowledge occurred in a truly voluntary setting. It found that they do, and in a way that could not be envisaged working in a commercial organisation. The charity also, did not have any reliance upon technology. This led a o return to the KM literature from a different perspective, whereupon Tom Wilson� s recent article (Wilson, 2002) was discovered, which reached similar conclusions, but coming from an alternative angle. Wilson talks about managers and management consultants rebranding management fads, such as Business Process Re-engineering, total quality management and benchmarking, as KM. The organization that was studied, as well as being voluntary, also happens to be predominately female with a 5:1 ratio of women to men, so it exemplifies two main features that distinguish it from organisations in the for-profit sector. Knowledge creating and sharing seems to occur effortlessly in the charity, and yet there are no monetary motivations and very little management influence. The only idea that seems to make sense from the KM literature is that of communities of practice (Wenger and Snyder, 2000). [Title] 
Volunteers Not Conscripts: Knowledge Management in the Voluntary Sector.
UKAIS 2003: Abstracts
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