ABSTRACT
It is appropriate, perhaps even necessary, in a book dealing with the sharing of knowledge in organizations, to include a chapter that focuses on circumstances in which knowledge, expertise, data, and facts are not shared but rather intentionally concealed, obscured, altered, or otherwise distorted. Organizations can benefit from a shared vision and purpose (Collins & Porras, 1994) and they can become more efficient if they can discover ways to move information about successful strategies from places where the innovations evolved to places where the innovations are needed. However, organizations also often have a stake in concealing information about their operations, and the focus of this chapter is on strategies and tactics of a particular type of concealment.
