Certification, as i have experienced it, not only of persons but of other
processes or objects can have a number of values, both extrinsic and
intrinsic. The certification of individuals can be beneficial, superficial
or insidious- along this spectrum
In medicine, it is obvious regarding basic competency- but fails even here
since few ever ask their physcians where they graduated in their class,
what CEU's they have taken recently or what their success/failure rate is.
In medicine it also turns the industry conservative since the
certification is based on the past body of knowledge and may, by hapstance
or choice exclude alternatives as we are seeing today- thus it also acts
to protect the vested interests in the status quo
In the area of psychology, it becomes, additionally, a marketing tool
where a person can gain identity by representing competency in a
particular school or technique or skill set
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Certification in the KM arena is dangerous at this point. The basics of
this area are evolving rapidly and are uncertain. Trying to box it in,
even with broad, ISO type standards may prove frustrating and, in the
end, dmaging at this stage
acertification appears, at this point to run counter to the main goal of
flexibility. It is attempting to certify for a body of knowledge more for
the purpose seen in psychology, above, than to codify a bady of knowledge,
which is in the proto stage. There is even talk of calling the KM area a
"science" at the very time when even the arena of "objective" knowledge is
being challenged in the traditonal sciences with the introduction of
complexity, fuzzy logic, chaos and qualitative analysis
thoughts?
tom abeles
--tom abeles <tabeles@tmn.com>
Learning-org -- Hosted by Rick Karash <rkarash@karash.com> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations -- <http://www.learning-org.com>