The mid-1990s saw the rise of an important movement: a recognition that organizational knowledge, in its various forms and attributes, could be an important source of competitive advantage in the marketplace. Knowledge management has become one of the core competencies in today's competitive environment, where so much value in companies resides in their people, systems, and processes. Creating Value with Knowledge: Insights from the IBM Institute for Knowledge-based Organization examines a variety of important knowledge-related topics, some of which has been previously published in such journals as the Harvard Business Review, the California Management Review, and the Sloan Management Review, such as the use of informal networks, communities of practice, the impact of knowledge on successful alliances, social capital and trust, narrative and storytelling and the use of human intermediaries in the knowledge management process. It includes contributions from such leading thinkers as Lawrence Prusak, Dorothy Leonard, Eric Lesser, Rob Cross, and David Snowden. This book synthesizes some of the best thinking by the IBM Institute for Knowledge-Based Organizations, a think tank whose research agenda focuses on the management methods for deriving tangible business value from knowledge management and their real-world application.

1. How to Invest in Social Capital; 2. Fast Friends - Virtuality and Social Capital; 3. Trust and Knowledge Sharing; 4. Six Myths About Informal Networks - and How to Overcome Them; 5. Knowing What We Know: Supporting Knowledge Creation and Sharing in Social Networks; 6. Making Invisible Work Visible: Using Social Network Analysis to Support Strategic Collaboration; 7. Communities of Practice and Organizational Performance; 8. Keeping Communities of Practice Afloat: Understanding and Fostering Roles in Communities; 9. Learning from the Connected Customer: Enhancing Customer Web Sites With Community; 10. Knowledge Resource Exchange in Strategic Alliances; 11. Leveraging Knowledge Management Across Strategic Alliances; 12. Using Mentoring and Storytelling to Transfer Knowledge in the Workplace; 13. Narrative Patterns: The Perils and Possibilities of Using Story in Organisations