Knowledge management

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Knowledge Management (KM) refers to a range of practices used by organisations to identify, create, represent, and distribute knowledge for reuse, awareness and learning across the organisation.

Knowledge Management programs are typically tied to organizational objectives and are intended to lead to the achievement of specific outcomes such as shared intelligence, improved performance, competitive advantage, or higher levels of innovation.

Knowledge transfer (one aspect of Knowledge Management) has always existed in one form or another, for example through on-the-job peer discussions, formal apprenticeship, corporate libraries, professional training, and mentoring programs. However, since the late twentieth century — additional technology has been applied to this task, such as knowledge bases, expert systems, and knowledge repositories.

Knowledge Management programs attempt to manage the process of creation or identification, accumulation, and application of knowledge or intellectual capital across an organisation. Knowledge Management, therefore, attempts to bring under one set of practices various strands of thought and practice relating to:

While Knowledge Management programs are closely related to Organizational Learning initiatives, Knowledge Management may be distinguished from Organizational Learning by its greater focus on the management of specific knowledge assets and development and cultivation of the channels through which knowledge flows.

The emergence of knowledge management has generated new organisational roles and responsibilities an early example of which was the Chief Knowledge Officer. In recent years, Personal knowledge management (PKM) practice has arisen in which individuals apply KM practice to themselves, their role in the organisation and their career development.

While it has been applied to all industrial sectors, and increasingly to Government, Knowledge Management is a continually evolving discipline, with a wide range of contributions and a wide range of views on what represents good practice in Knowledge Management.

Contents

[edit] Approaches to knowledge management

There is a broad range of thought on knowledge management with no agreed definition current or likely. The approaches vary by author and school. For example, knowledge management may be viewed from each of the following perspectives:

  • Techno-centric: Focus on technologies, ideally those that enhance knowledge sharing / growth, frequently any technology that does fancy stuff with information.
  • Organisational: How does the organization need to be designed to facilitate knowledge processes? Which organisations work best with what processes?
  • Ecological: seeing the interaction of people, identity, knowledge and environmental factors as a complex adaptive system.
  • Combinatory: Combining more than one of the above approaches where possible without contradiction.

In addition as the discipline is maturing we see an increasing presence of academic debates within epistemology emerging in both the theory and practice of knowledge management. UK and Australian Standards Bodies have both produced documents which attempt to bound and scope the field but these have received limited take up or awareness.

[edit] Schools of thought in knowledge management

There are a variety of different schools of thought in Knowledge Management. For example the Intellectual Capital movement with Professor Nick Bontis, Professor Leif Edvinsson and Tom Stewart (formerly of Fortune Magazine, currently of Harvard Business Review), a body of work derivative of information theory associated with Prusak and Davenport. Complexity approaches associated with Snowden (see Cynefin). Narrative with Denning, Snowden, Boje and others. One school takes forward the ideas of Popper (McElroy & Firestone). They are many and various and it would be invidious for an encyclopedia to list one without covering the others. Readers are commended to the reading list.

[edit] Key concepts in knowledge management

[edit] Tacit versus explicit knowledge

A key distinction made by the majority of knowledge management practitioners is Nonaka's reformulation of Polanyi's distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge. The former is often subconscious, internalized, and the individual may or may not be aware of what he or she knows and how he or she accomplishes particular results. At the opposite end of the spectrum is conscious or explicit knowledge - knowledge that the individual holds explicitly and consciously in mental focus, and may communicate to others. In the popular form of the distinction tacit knowledge is what is in our heads, and explicit knowledge is what we have codified.

Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) argued that a successful KM program needs to, on the one hand, convert internalized tacit knowledge into explicit codified knowledge in order to share it, but also on the other hand for individuals and groups to internalize and make personally meaningful codified knowledge once it is retrieved from the KM system.

The focus upon codification and management of explicit knowledge has allowed knowledge management practitioners to appropriate prior work in information management, leading to the frequent accusation that knowledge management is simply a repackaged form of information management. (Eg Wilson, T.D. (2002) "The nonsense of 'knowledge management'" Information Research, 8(1), paper no. 144 [Available at http://InformationR.net/ir/8-1/paper144.html]

Critics have however argued that Nonaka and Takeuchi's distinction between tacit and explicit knowledge is oversimplified, and even that the notion of explicit knowledge is self-contradictory.[1]

Other commonly used types of knowledge include embedded knowledge (knowledge which has been incorporated into an artifact of some type, for example a tool as knowledge embedded into its design) and embodied knowledge (knowledge as learned capability of the body’s nervous, chemical & sensory systems). These two types, while frequently used, are not universally accepted, any more than is the distinction between tacit and explicit.

[edit] Knowledge capture stages

Knowledge may be accessed, or captured, at three stages: before, during, or after knowledge-related activities.

For example, individuals undertaking a new project for an organization might access information resources to learn best practices and lessons learned for similar projects undertaken previously, access relevant information again during the project implementation to seek advice on issues encountered, and access relevant information afterwards for advice on after-project actions and review activities. Knowledge management practitioners offer systems, repositories, and corporate processes to encourage and formalize these activities.

Similarly, knowledge may be captured and recorded before the project implementation, for example as the project team learns lessons during the initial project analysis. Similarly, lessons learned during the project operation may be recorded, and after-action reviews may lead to further insights and lessons being recorded for future access.

[edit] Ad hoc knowledge access

One alternative strategy to encoding knowledge into and retrieving knowledge from a knowledge repository such as a database is for individuals to instead access expert individuals on an ad hoc basis, as needed, with their knowledge requests. A key benefit of this strategy is that the response from the expert individual is rich in content and contextualised to the particular problem being addressed and personalized to the particular person or people addressing it. The downside is, of course, that it is tied to the availability and memories of specific individuals in the organisation. It does not capture their insights and experience for future use should they leave or become unavailable, and also does not help in the case when the experts' memories of particular technical issues or problems previously faced change with time. The emergence of narrative approaches to knowledge management attempts to provide a bridge between the formal and the ad hoc, by allowing knowledge to be held in the form of stories.

[edit] Drivers of knowledge management

There are a number of 'drivers', or motivations, leading to organizations undertaking a knowledge management program.

Perhaps first among these is to gain the competitive advantage that comes with improved or faster learning and new knowledge creation. Knowledge management programs may lead to greater innovation, better customer experiences, consistency in good practices and knowledge access across a global organization, as well as many other benefits, and knowledge management programs may be driven with these goals in mind.

Considerations driving a knowledge management program might include:

  • making available increased knowledge content in the development and provision of products and services
  • achieving shorter new product development cycles
  • facilitating and managing organizational innovation
  • leverage the expertise of people across the organization
  • benefiting from 'network effects' as the number of productive connections between employees in the organization increases and the quality of information shared increases
  • managing the proliferation of data and information in complex business environments and allowing employees to rapidly access useful and relevant knowledge resources and best practice guidelines
  • facilitate organizational learning
  • managing intellectual capital and intellectual assets in the workforce (such as the expertise and know-how possessed by key individuals) as individuals retire and new workers are hired
  • a convincing sales pitch from one of the many consulting firms pushing Knowledge Management as a solution to virtually any business problem, such as loss of market share, declining profits, or employee inefficiency

[edit] Knowledge management enablers

Historically, there have been a number of technologies 'enabling' or facilitating knowledge management practices in the organization, including expert systems, knowledge bases, various types of Information Management, software help desk tools, document management systems and other IT systems supporting organizational knowledge flows.

The advent of the Internet brought with it further enabling technologies, including e-learning, web conferencing, collaborative software, content management systems, corporate 'Yellow pages' directories, email lists, wikis, blogs, and other technologies. Each enabling technology can expand the level of inquiry available to an employee, while providing a platform to achieve specific goals or actions. The practice of KM will continue to evolve with the growth of collaboration applications made available by IT and through the Internet. Since its adoption by the mainstream population and business community, the Internet has led to an increase in creative collaboration, learning and research, e-commerce, and instant information.

There are also a variety of organisational enablers for knowledge management programs, including Communities of Practice, before-, after- and during- action reviews (see After Action Review), peer assists, information taxonomies, coaching and mentoring, and so on.

[edit] Knowledge management roles and organizational structure

Knowledge management activities may be centralized in a Knowledge Management Office, or responsibility for knowledge management may be located in existing departmental functions, such as the Human Resource (to manage intellectual capital) or IT departments (for content management, social computing etc.). Different departments and functions may have a knowledge management function and those functions may not be connected other than informally.

[edit] Knowledge management lexicon

Knowledge management professionals may use a specific lexicon in order to articulate and discuss the various issues arising in Knowledge Management. For example, terms such as intellectual capital, metric, and tacit vs explicit knowledge typically form an indispensable part of the knowledge management professional's vocabulary.

[edit] Related definitions

[edit] See also

[edit] Further reading

  • Bhagat, P. M. (2005), Pattern Recognition in Industry, Elsevier, ISBN 0-08-044538-1.
  • Boisot, M. (1998), Knowledge Assets, Oxford, ISBN 0-19-829086-1.
  • Bontis, N. (2002), World Congress on Intellectual Capital Readings, Elsevier Butterworth-Heinemann , ISBN 0-7506-7475-X.
  • Callaghan, J. (2002), Inside Intranets & Extranets: Knowledge Management and the Struggle for Power, Palgrave Macmillan, ISBN 0-333-98743-8.
  • Choo, C. & Bontis, N. (2002), The Strategic Management of Intellectual Capital and Organizational Knowledge , Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-513866-X.
  • Clare, M. and Detore A. (2000), Knowledge Assets Professional's Guide to Valuation and Financial Management, Apsen Publishers, ISBN 0-15-607000-6.
  • Collison, C. & Parcell, G (2004), Learning to Fly - Practical Knowledge Management From Leading and Learning Organizations, Capstone Publishing, ISBN 1-84112-509-1
  • Cross, R. and Parker, A. (2004), The Hidden Power Of Social Networks, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, Mass, ISBN 1-59139-270-5.
  • Davenport, T. and Prusak, L. (1997), Working Knowledge, Harvard 1998, ISBN 0-87584-655-6.
  • Drucker P. F., D. Garvin, D. Leonard, S. Straus and J. S. Brown (1998), Harvard Business Review on Knowledge Management, HBS Press, ISBN 0-87584-881-8.
  • Edvinsson, L. and Malone, M. (1997), Intellectual Capital: Realising Your Company’s True Value by Finding its Hidden Brainpower. New York: HarperBusiness, ISBN 0-88730-841-4.
  • Dixon, N. M. (2000), Common Knowledge: How Companies Thrive by Sharing What They Know, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA, ISBN 0-87584-904-0.
  • Becerra-Fernandez, I., A. González and R. Sabherwal (2004), Knowledge Management: Challengers, Solutions and Technologies, ISBN 0-13-101606-7.
  • Garvin, D. A. (2000), Learning in Action: A Guide to Putting the Learning Organization to Work, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA, ISBN 1-57851-251-4.
  • Easterby-Smith, M. and M. A. Lyles (editors). (2003). The Blackwell Handbook of Organizational Learning and Knowledge Management, Oxford, Blackwell Publishing, ISBN 0-631-22672-9.
  • Malhotra, Y. (2000), Knowledge Management and Virtual Organizations, Idea Group Publishing, Hershey, PA, ISBN 1-878289-73-X.
  • Malhotra, Y. (2001), Knowledge Management and Business Model Innovation, Idea Group Publishing, Hershey, PA, ISBN 1-878289-98-5.
  • Nonaka, I. and Takeushi, H. (1995), The Knowledge-Creating Company, New York: Oxford University Press.
  • Frid, R. (2004), Frid Framework for Enterprise Knowledge Management: A Common KM Framework for the Government of Canada, IUniverse Publishing, ISBN 0-595-30699-3.
  • O'Dell, C. and C. J. Grayson Jr. (1998), If Only We Knew What We Know: The Transfer of Internal Knowledge and Best Practice, Free Press, New York, ISBN 0-684-84474-5.
  • Polanyi, M. (1967), The Tacit Dimension, Doubleday, Garden City, NY, ISBN 0-385-06988-X.
  • Rumizen, M. C. (2001), Complete Idiot's Guide to Knowledge Management, Alpha, ISBN 0-02-864177-9.
  • Schwartz, D, editor (2005), Encyclopedia of Knowledge Management, Idea Group Reference, ISBN 1-59140-574-2.
  • Stankosky, M., editor (2004), Creating the Discipline of Knowledge Management: The Latest in University Research, Butterworth-Heinemann, ISBN 0-7506-7878-X
  • Sveiby, K. E. (1997), The New Organizational Wealth: Managing & Measuring Knowledge-Based Assets, Berrett-Koehler, ISBN 1-57675-014-0.
  • Suresh, J. K. and Mahesh, K. (2006), Ten Steps to Maturity in Knowledge Management: Lessons in Economy, Chandos, Oxford, UK, ISBN 1-84334-130-1.
  • Stewart, T. (1997) Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth of Organisations, New York: Doubleday, ISBN 0-385-48228-0.
  • Tiwana, A. (2002), The Knowledge Management Toolkit: Orchestrating IT, Strategy, and Knowledge Platforms (2nd Edition), Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2002, ISBN 0-13-009224-X.
  • Wissensmanagement Forum (Hg.): An Illustrated Guide to Knowledge Management, Graz 2002, URL: http://www.wm-forum.org Download PDF Version

[edit] Articles

  • Bontis, N., Dragonetti, N., Jacobsen, K. and G. Roos. (1999) "The Knowledge Toolbox: A review of the tools available to measure and manage intangible resources", European Management Journal, 17, 4, 391-402.
  • Bontis, N. (1999). "Managing Organizational Knowledge by Diagnosing Intellectual Capital: Framing and advancing the state of the field", International Journal of Technology Management,18, 5/6/7/8, 433-462.
  • Bontis, N. (2002). "The rising star of the Chief Knowledge Officer", Ivey Business Journal, March/April, 20-25.
  • Hansen, M. R., N. Nohria and T. Tierney (1999). 'What's your strategy for managing knowledge?' Harvard Business Review (March-April).
  • Powell, J and Swart, J (2005) "This is what the fuss is about"- a systemic modeling for organizational knowing , Journal of Knowledge Management Vol . 9 no. 2 pp 45-58
  • Powell, J and Swart, J (2005) "Men and Measures" - capturing knowledge requirement in firms through qualitative system modeling, Journal of Operational Research.
  • Snowden, D J. "Complex Acts of Knowing: Paradox and Descriptive Self-Awareness." Journal of Knowledge Management, Special Issue 6, no. 2 (2002): 100-11.
  • Swart, J (2006) "Intellectual Capital" : Disentangling an enigmatic concept, Journal of Intellectual Capital Vol 7 No 2 pp 136-159 .
  • Wilson, T.D. (2002) "The nonsense of 'knowledge management'" Information Research, 8(1), paper no. 144 [Available at http://InformationR.net/ir/8-1/paper144.html]
  • Bellenger, Gene (2002) "Emerging Perspectives", Systems Thinking Knowledge Management - Emerging Perspectives
  • Ekbia, H. and Hara, N. (2004) The Quality of Evidence in Knowledge Management Literature: the Guru Version. At http://www.slis.indiana.edu/research/working_papers/files/SLISWP-04-01.pdf
  • Knorr-Siedow, T. (2005) Knowledge managment and enhanced policy application; in: Van Kempen, R. et alter: Restructuring large housing estates in Europe, Bristol, pp 321-341

[edit] External links

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