Trust in Knowledge Management and Systems in Organizations

Trust in Knowledge Management and Systems in Organizations aims at tying trust to knowledge management (KM). It highlights the complexity of the invisible phenomenon of trust challenged by the global economy. Fresh insights, novel theoretical frameworks, and empirical results and ideas for future research are presented that differ from those since the 1950s. The eleven chapters (whose authors represent information studies, economics, administrative scientists, mass communications, computer science and cognitive science) explore the multidisciplinary nature of the concepts of trust and KM. The concept of trust is analyzed by presenting its extensive description in relation to knowledge and information-intensive activities and systems for understanding the dynamics of knowledge-based production at the levels of individuals, information systems, organizations, networks and society. Systems are considered from the social or the socio-technological perspective.

Maija-Leena Huotari is Professor and head of the Department of Information Studies at the University of Oulu, Finland. With her BA in economics, and MSc in information studies she received her Ph.D. on information studies at Sheffield University, UK, in 1996. She worked in the Department of Information Studies at the University of Tampere, Finland, from 1997-2002, as Assistant Professor, Associate Professor (acting) and Professor (acting), and was deputy head of the department from 2000-2002. She has published both internationally and in Finland, and is a member of the editorial board of Information Research News, UK. She was reporteur of the intermediate evaluation of the Multilingual Information Society Programme of EU in 1998-99, and chair of the Total Quality Evaluation of the Libraries of Helsinki University in 1999-2000. Her research interests focus on information needs, seeking and use, organizational information behaviour, information management, and strategic management of information and knowledge.

Mirja Iivonen received her Ph.D. in Information Studies at the University of Tampere in 1995. The topic of her dissertation was consistency in the formulation of query statements in online bibliographic retrieval. Currently she is the Director of Tampere University Library and senior scholar attached to the Department of Information Studies at the University of Oulu where she previously held a full professorship and worked as the head of the department. She has supervised several doctoral and master students. She has worked as a visiting scholar at the University of Rutgers, and at the University of Maryland, both in the United States. Her main research interest include information storage and retrieval, in which area her latest publications are focusing on the searching on the web, and knowledge management. Currently she is involved especially in management and leadership issues both in theory and practice.