Facilitating and Enabling Global Change: Towards a Model of Knowledge-Based Paradigm Shift

At present, our society is near a tipping point where fundamental change must occur to ensure continued growth and prosperity for future generations. Can this change be managed for future benefit? This paper investigates how knowledge management (KM) principles and practice, exemplified by Holsapple and Joshi’s (2004) “KM episode,” may yield a set of fundamental strategies for global change. To this end, the notion of a KM episode is extended and supplemented with insights from Thomas Kuhn’s theory on the “Structure of scientific revolutions.” The resultant model describes and explains the interrelationships between knowledge triggers, resources, activities, influences, and potential outcomes associated with knowledge-based communal change. Moreover, an initial finding of this paper is that knowledge management practices and processes may provide the driving mechanism for required global change