Sustainable systems: strengthening knowledge management systems with deferred action

The Theory of Deferred Action (ToDA), postulates that the design of sustainable Knowledge Management Systems (KMS) needs to cater to both explicit and tacit knowledge. The embeddedness, the social and tacit attributes of knowledge work require KMS designers to move beyond systems design on the basis of planned action, which can only measure explicit, codifiable knowledge. Human action reflecting tacit knowledge is characterised here as deferred action. It is argued that deferred action needs to be reflected in KMS by designing systemic deferred action, and a model of KMS design that accounts for both planned and deferred action is proposed. Conversation Analysis was used in an insurer's company to demonstrate deferred action in knowledge work. It is extended into system analysis techniques to identify deferred action for KMS design. This approach is termed research design as an instrument of praxis. The data reveals that action categories, consisting of deferred action, can be determined to account for deferment in knowledge work. Systems analysis techniques that convert deferred action categories from conversation data into systemic deferment points and systemic deferred objects for sustainable KMS design are illustrated in the research data.