Mark Nissen

a picture of someone waterskiing behind a military jet fighter

a bullet mark"We have much to say about this, but it is hard to explain because you are slow to learn." -- Heb 5:11

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Contact

Interests

Teaching

Background

Publications

Presentations

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See the Knowledge Superiority Certificate Program offered through the Naval Postgraduate School

·       Knowledge Superiority links and integrates dynamic knowledge, organization, strategy and command & control (e.g., see CCRP education)

·       Intermediate and advanced coursework builds upon Knowledge Flow Theory, KM & C2 applications, and consulting practice

·       Asynchronous, effective and enjoyable education (e.g., web-based, principles-focused, interactive seminar discussions) available online!

·       This Defense-focused certificate offers accredited, graduate education and certification (CKSP) at the state-of-the-art

·       Most Department of the Navy (military and government, active and reserve) personnel can participate tuition-free

OSD Command & Control Chair, Naval Postgraduate School (2007-present)

See my 2006 book entitled Harnessing Knowledge Dynamics: Principled Organizational Knowing & Learning Hershey, PA: IRM Press.

"Harnessing Knowledge Dynamics: Principled Organizational Knowing & Learning translates what is arcane and controversial today into managerial guidance that is sophisticated yet practical. It also complements the many existing management books on strategy, technology, knowledge and systems while addressing a well-recognized void."

"Harnessing Knowledge Dynamics: Principled Organizational Knowing & Learning draws from the emerging knowledge-flow theory to provide stable principles to build a practice of knowledge management. It also draws from diverse, real-world experience to provide operational applications of knowledge-flow principles in practice. This book builds upon theory but targets practice; it takes knowledge known only by a few researchers and shares it with many leaders and managers."

Director, Center for Edge Power, OSD Command & Control Research Program (2004-present)

Asynchronous Instruction Design, Distributed Learning Resource Center (2003)

Visiting Professor, Stanford University (2002-2003)

Young Investigator, Office of Naval Research (2001-2004)

Menneken Award Winner (for Excellence in Scientific Research), Naval Postgraduate School (2000)

Systems Management Department Award for Outstanding Research Achievement (1998)

Current Contact Information

Graduate School of Operational and Information Sciences
Graduate School of Business and Public Policy
Naval Postgraduate School
1411 Cunningham Road, Room GW2006
Monterey, CA 93943-5000
MNissen[at]nps.edu (e-mail)

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Research Interests

My research is directed largely toward the study of dynamic knowledge and organization. I view work, technology and organization as an integrated design problem, and I perceive the regulative, normative and cultural-cognitive institutional pillars as mutually reinforcing carriers of organizations. I have been investigating phenomenologically the dynamics of knowledge for some time and published a book (Harnessing Knowledge Dynamics) on the subject in 2006. This has involved some technical effort (e.g., development of a process-redesign expert system called KOPeR, implementation of a multi-agent system for supply chain re-intermediation called the Intelligent Mall, design of electronic employment matching markets), but my interests are largely organizational (e.g., organizing around knowledge flows, integrating human actors with software agents in the organization, understanding contingent aspects of organizational fields), and I'm working deeply now in conceptualizing and operationalizing dynamic fit. Also, I'm pushing ever farther into computational organizational theory and experimentation, am working with organizations as complex adaptive systems, and am continuing our initiative focused on organizing in virtual environments (e.g., as an elite Paladin and Priest raider).

I remain involved actively the investigation of how to design, implement and change organizations to reflect flexible structures and behaviors. This work integrates basic and applied research from multiple disciplines and involves collaboration with faculty and students at leading universities such as Stanford, Purdue, the University of Southern California and others. The Center for Edge Power was established in 2004 to coordinate the associated multidisciplinary, multi-university, multi-year research project to understand institutional, organizational, processual, technological, doctrinal and personal aspects of what the Military terms command and control (and what many academics term organization and management). Additionally, I completed a DARPA seedling study on memetics and conducted some laboratory experiments on trust-mistrust effects using the ELICIT multiplayer intelligence game.

In 2004 I completed a young-investigator project, sponsored by the Office of Naval Research, which involved basic science to develop Knowledge Flow Theory, and which led to my 2006 book noted above.

During the 2003 academic year I enjoyed a sabbatical at Stanford University working with the Virtual Design Team (VDT) Research Group in the Engineering School. The principal focus of this work was to integrate my phenomenological research on knowledge flows with the agent-based simulation tools and computational organization theory methods employed by faculty and doctoral students in the VDT Group and beyond (e.g., Management Science & Engineering Department, Sociology Department, Business School, Education School). This experience sparked my current interest in designing organizations around knowledge flows.

As an area for application of knowledge systems, I spent considerable time addressing problems of interest to the Defense acquisition community, with particular emphasis on processes associated with procurement, contracting and software project management. This included intensive study of supply chain management, commercial and military alike. As an additional application area, my colleague Bill Gates and I had been designing electronic labor markets, with particular emphasis on matching people with jobs within the hierarchy and integrating two-sided matching from Economics with multi-agent systems technology.

My research at Cal Berkeley was oriented toward the domain of electronic commerce, in which I had been contributing through two CommerceNet Working Groups. My primary focus in the CALS Working Group was on the Intelligent Hub project, where I was interested in designing more "intelligence" into the Hub, for example through the use of intelligent agents and development of knowledge-based systems to support frontend and backend commercial activities. I was also associated with the Electronic Catalogs and Directories Working Group, where I was interested in the Integrated Procurement Project. This had substantial potential for synergies with the CALS work above and represented a good fit with my previous work in the redesign of Navy Procurement.

My interest in redesigning the military procurement process began as a manager for a top aerospace & defense contractor and continued through my masters and doctoral work, the latter of which involved field research at the Naval Air Warfare Center - Weapons Division (NAWCWPNS) to investigate the major procurement process. In that effort, I developed and employed a measurement-driven, knowledge-based system to diagnose process pathologies and faults, and I used simulation to project dramatic performance improvements associated with several, system-generated redesign transformations. Some of the more promising of these transformations included intelligent acquisition agents, knowledge-enhanced workflow systems, intelligent regulatory search and just-in-time procurement training systems.

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Teaching

Naval Postgraduate School, Graduate School of Information and Operational Sciences, Graduate School of Business and Public Policy  (1996 - present)

Stanford University, School of Engineering (2002 - 2003)

UC Berkeley, Haas School of Business and Center for Information Technology & Management (1995 - 1996)

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Background

Mark holds a Ph.D. in Information Systems from the University of Southern California, in addition to a M.S. in Systems Management (USC) and B.S. in Business Administration (UC Berkeley). Mark came to the Naval Postgraduate School from UC Berkeley, where he taught MBA courses on information technology and conducted re-engineering and e-commerce research at the Center for Information Technology and Management (CITM). Before joining the CITM, Mark was a principal researcher at the USC advanced information technology lab (ATRIUM), where he conducted funded research in the application of artificial intelligence and telecommunications technologies to redesign organizational processes. Mark also acquired over a dozen years' technical and management experience in high technology industries, and has acquired considerable consulting experience. He is probably known best for his work in knowledge management, particularly as tacit knowledge flows inform the integrated design of organizations, processes, technologies and personnel systems. Mark also truly enjoys teaching and has been recognized for exceptional classroom innovation.

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Recent Publications

The Assistant Professor's Guide to Publication

Step 1: Think good thoughts.
Step 2: Write them down.
Step 3: Share them with others.
Step 4: Repeat Steps 1-3.

 

The Full Professor's Reflection on Qualities of a good researcher

Editorial Responsibilities:

Books:

Publications in Refereed Journals:

Book Chapters:

Non-Refereed Publications:

Publications in Refereed Conference Proceedings:

Technical Reports:

Working papers:

Naval Postgraduate School:

Stanford University:

University of California at Berkeley:

University of Southern California:

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Presentations

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Last updated: 7 April 2012