Managing Knowledge in Policymaking and Decision Making

The combined effect of increasing problem complexity and growing demand for participation in decisions has forced policymaking and decision making in organizations to become less an analytic endeavor and more a process of "knowledge management ' This requires an intermediarv to mediate among conflicting perspectives and integrate the different forms and levels of knowledge This article describes one such approach to knowledge management that utilizes a third party to create and facilitate a temporary task organization Following a brief case example, some research resultsfrom an evaluation of six past applications of the approach are presented These results provide insight into the effective structuring and conduct of knowledge management proceduresPeer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/68626/2/10.1177_107554708600800106.pd

Knowledge management and policymaking

Each policy process is in need of knowledge. Policy research is supposed to provide it, but it does so only in part. One of the reasons is that a policy researcher tends to produce new knowledge, although the need is more general. Knowledge management is considered to be a necessary prerequisite to nourished policymaking. Apart from the production of knowledge it includes activities like translation, structuring, interpretation, and so on, of both existing and newly produced knowledge elements. The primate of the two-cultures approach is rejected. Knowledge types are articulated, rules for handling knowledge are explored. A framework is developed for harmonizing the requirements of both pol icymaking and research