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Knowledge and the way it is managed is a key success factor for organizations in the current dynamic environment.  Specialists including Prusak, Davenport, Senge and Bennet have contributed through their research and analysis on how organizations can evolve by managing knowledge, as well as on the organizational factors that make the difference between success and failure. From their work, we derived the following characteristics of a knowledge organization:

An organization that anticipates and quickly adapts to a changing environment by:

• absorbing and integrating feedback from partners, suppliers and customers;
• applying practices that encourage the use of ideas of others and acknowledge the capabilities of employees to improve decision making and organizational effectiveness;
• working in teams to achieve better and more balanced decision-making and to share knowledge and learning;
• eliminating unnecessary processes while maximizing added value.

Well-functioning knowledge organizations thrive on a balanced combination of hierarchical management and individual, self-organizing (teams of) individuals who can be cross-coupled as needed. The balance achieved between these two components of the system will depend upon the specific environment, mission, and leadership of the organization. 

The question remains whether many organizations that consider themselves knowledge organizations are not in fact hierarchical or bureaucratic organizations of knowledge workers, characterized by one or more of the following:

• focus on organizational stability and the accuracy and repetitiveness of internal processes;
• autocratic decision making by senior leadership with unquestioned execution by the workforce;
• use of technology to improve efficiency and expect employees to adapt;
• fixed processes to ensure precision and stability with little concern for value.

The majority of changes that an organization has to go through to become a knowledge organization is cultural, but technology can facilitate the process. Datheon Casebook offers ways to improve communication and knowledge exchanges between individuals and teams, and facilitates  creation and exploitation of shared knowledge repositories. In addition it helps to identify the creators, organizers and brokers of knowledge.

More information on how social media and knowledge management are integrated in Casebook can be found at the following locations:
http://www.slideshare.net/datheon/social-media-and-knowledge-management
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1tHZs8Hhrvs