**9. Conclusion**

Given that knowledge is essential for most design tasks, it can be made more accessible, applicable and useful if approached and represented in new forms. It can be recycled by

**4** 

*Nigeria* 

**A Stakeholder Model for Managing** 

Constantine Imafidon Tongo

**Knowledge Assets in Organizations** 

*Business School, Pan African University, Ajah, Victoria Island, Lagos* 

*Department of Human Resource Management and Organizational Behaviour, Lagos* 

The valuable and visible things that were made centuries ago to make life meaningful for men in the earth never fell from the skies; they were first of all produced in human minds, and those that will be created in future shall also spring from the same source. The above adage suggests that the specific knowledge required to produce these things in olden days preceded their physical existence. Nevertheless, from time immemorial, knowledge has played the second fiddle to other factors of production like land, capital and labour within organizations. This is a bit absurd, especially when we consider the fact that there is no single product or service that organizations can offer to markets without being first of all produced in the minds of people in the form of a specified knowledge needed for it to see

Therefore one wonders that it is only a few years ago that knowledge as an asset was brought into the mainstream of organizational theory. It is now very clear that the primary business of organizations is to sell knowledge based products and that competitiveness hinges on the effective management of all organizational knowledge assets (Grover and Davenport, 2001; Hillman and Keim, 2001; Alavi and Leidner, 2001; Anand, et. al., 2002;

Given the above truism, how can knowledge assets be effectively managed in organizations? This question is very pertinent since the knowledge management literature is rife with the idea that these assets can exist in various forms (Falconer, 2011; Lytras and Ordonez de Pablos, 2009; Schiuma, 2009; Alavi and Leider; 2001; Becerra-Fernandez and Sabherwal, 2001; Akbar, 2003). Hence they all need to synergistically interact and depend on each other for the promotion of organizational effectiveness. However, in order to achieve synergy in the management of knowledge assets, it is important to know the specific roles that each knowledge asset will be playing within organizations. This can only be achieved by extensively differentiating them according to the purpose that they are meant to serve in

Previously, the process of differentiating knowledge assets has been mainly based on the forms by which they exist (i.e. tacit and explicit knowledge), their sources (i.e. knowledge generated within organizations and externally generated knowledge) and where they are stored (e.g. knowledge in human mind, organizational structure, culture and process, etc.). However, differentiation of knowledge assets in terms of what forms they exist, their

**1. Introduction** 

the light of day.

Quinn, 2005).

organizations.

analyzing relevant design precedents and re-synthesized to derive new emergent solutions. These are represented in this chapter as seven precedent-based design recycling models. Knowledge can also be made more useful if transformed from one discipline into another. This is shown in this chapter as biomimetics-inspired design (BID) approach to architectural design. In all of these knowledge management methods including recycling, modeling and transformation; problem-solving can be made more externalized, informed and systematic. Furthermore, applying these methods may provide new sources not only for learning but also for innovation.

#### **10. References**

Alexander, C. (1977). *A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction.* Oxford University Press Benyus, J. (1997), *Biomimicry: Innovation inspired by Nature*. New York: William Morrow.

