Knowledge governance to create socially understanding communities

This chapter discusses the knowledge governance mechanisms and
approaches in formal and informal group settings, with a particular
focus on the motivation structures that can make knowledge sharing and
creation successful. Physical and virtual settings are reviewed as part of
this discussion because the work procedures have increasingly become
remote, and geographical isolation is growing. It is proposed that the
knowledge work and its governance should be about achieving a good
for the community at large even in virtual and geographically dispersed
work settings, and this can be done by inducing appropriate desired
incentives within group members. Along with those incentives, ethical working procedures should encourage moral principles to help build
trustworthy relationships among group members, and with community
stakeholders, as the latter are recognized and consulted. Inducing such
pro-social extrinsic or intrinsic motivations as part of knowledge governance
procedures will help build a socially understanding community,
or communities, leading to wise decisions and creating a world worth
living in.