science

Ignorance management

Ignorance management is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Ignorance management rather than just read about it. In short: Ignorance management is a knowledge management practice that addresses the concept of ignorance in organizations. Overview Logically, ignorance management is based upon the concept of ignorance.

Key takeaways

Ignorance management belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Ignorance management to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Ignorance management from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Ignorance management is a knowledge management practice that addresses the concept of ignorance in organizations.

Overview Logically, ignorance management is based upon the concept of ignorance. John Israilidis, Russell Lock, and Louise Cooke of Loughborough University described ignorance management as:

"[...] a process of discovering, exploring, realising, recognising and managing ignorance outside and inside the organisation through an appropriate management process to meet current and future demands, design better policy and modify actions in order to achieve organisational objectives and sustain competitive advantage."

The key principle of this theory is that knowledge management (KM) could better be seen as ignorance management, due to the fact that it is impossible for someone to comprehend and understand everything in a complete way. The only real wisdom is in recognising the limits and extent of one's knowledge, and therefore KM is essentially a matter of sharing the extent of one's ignorance with other people, and thus learning together. This process of knowing what is needed to know, and also acknowledging the power of understanding the unknown, could develop a tacit understanding and could improve both short-term opportunistic value capture and longer term business sustainability.

Research Several attempts have been made to explore the value of managing organisational ignorance in order to prevent failures within knowledge transfer contexts. The need to recognise the role and significance of power in the management of ignorance has been introduced to further enhance such efforts. Also, a growing body of psychology research shows that humans find it intrinsically difficult to get a sense of what they do not know, and argues that incompetence deprives people of the ability to recognise their own incompetence (the Dunning–Kruger effect). The viewpoint of developing our understanding of organisational ignorance can yield impressive benefits, if successfully incorporated within a company's KM strategy.

See also Agnatology I know that I know nothing Ignoramus et ignorabimus There are known knowns Unknown known

References

Further reading Roberts, Joanne (2009). "From Knowledge Management to Ignorance Management". Vrije University Amsterdam. Retrieved April 25, 2012. Roberts, Joanne (2012). "Organizational ignorance: Towards a managerial perspective on the unknown". Management Learning. 44 (3): 215–236. doi:10.1177/1350507612443208. S2CID 145792956. Roberts, Joanne; Armitage, John (2008). "The Ignorance Economy". Prometheus. 26 (4): 335–354. doi:10.1080/08109020802459322. S2CID 151413898. Balda, Wesley D. (Ph.D). "Minding the Gaps: Organizing Ignorance and Managing Development (abstract)". St. George's University. Archived from the original on March 4, 2016. Retrieved April 25, 2012. Gross, Matthias (2010). "Ignorance And Surprise: Science, Society, and Ecological Design". Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Galvin, Tammy (June 1, 2004), Ignorance management (editor's notebook)

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Ignorance management

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Ignorance management claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Ignorance management before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Ignorance management ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Ignorance management

In research: Ignorance management appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Ignorance management in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Ignorance management is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Ignorance, Information systems, Knowledge management, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Ignorance management outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Ignorance management in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Ignorance management means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Ignorance management out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Ignorance management in simple terms?

Ignorance management is a knowledge management practice that addresses the concept of ignorance in organizations. Overview Logically, ignorance management is based upon the concept of ignorance.

Why does Ignorance management matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Ignorance management?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Ignorance management.