Knowledge Management

[Pages:193]Knowledge Management

System and Practices

A Theoretical and Practical Guide for Knowledge Management in Your Organization

Emil Hajric

Copyright ? 2018 Emil Hajric All Rights Reserved

Introduction

This is a knowledge management book covering the theories, frameworks, models, tools, and supporting disciplines that are relevant to both the student and the practitioner. The goal of this book is to provide a comprehensive overview of knowledge management by examining its objectives, scope, strategy, best practices, knowledge management tools, and so on. The book is structured very much like a textbook, with introductory concepts at the top, more subject-specific discussions in the latter half.

Introducing Knowledge Management

Knowledge management is essentially about getting the right knowledge to the right person at the right time. This in itself may not seem so complex, but it implies a strong tie to corporate strategy, understanding of where and in what forms knowledge exists, creating processes that span organizational functions, and ensuring that initiatives are accepted and supported by organizational members. Knowledge management may also include new knowledge creation, or it may solely focus on knowledge sharing, storage, and refinement. For a more comprehensive discussion and definition, see my knowledge management definition.

It is important to remember that knowledge management is not about managing knowledge for knowledge's sake. The overall objective is to create value and leverage and refine the firm's knowledge assets to meet organizational goals.

Implementing knowledge management thus has several dimensions including:

Strategy: Knowledge management strategy must be dependent on corporate strategy. The objective is to manage, share, and create relevant knowledge assets that will help meet tactical and strategic requirements.

Organizational Culture: The organizational culture influences the way people interact, the context within which knowledge is created, the resistance they will have towards certain changes, and ultimately the way they share (or the way they do not share) knowledge.

Organizational Processes: The right processes, environments, and systems that enable KM to be implemented in the organization.

Management & Leadership: KM requires competent and experienced leadership at all levels. There are a wide variety of KM-related roles that an organization may or may not need to implement, including a CKO, knowledge managers, knowledge brokers and so on. More on this in the section on KM positions and roles.

Technology: The systems, tools, and technologies that fit the organization's requirements - properly designed and implemented.

Politics: The long-term support to implement and sustain initiatives that involve virtually all organizational functions, which may be costly to implement (both from the perspective of time and money), and which often do not have a directly visible return on investment.

In the past, failed initiatives were often due to an excessive focus on primitive knowledge management tools and systems, at the expense of other areas. While it is still true that KM is about people and human interaction, KM systems have come a long way and have evolved from being an optional part of KM to a critical component. Today, such systems can allow for the capture of unstructured thoughts and ideas, can create virtual conferencing allowing close contact between people from different parts of the world, and so on. This issue will also be addressed throughout the site, and particularly in the knowledge management strategy section.

At this point, the articles presented on this site focus on the first five dimensions. For now, at least, the political dimension is beyond the scope of this site.

Throughout the site, I will explain and discuss known theories, occasionally contributing with some of my own frameworks. I will also discuss the potential role of knowledge management systems from a broad perspective, and in the section on KM tools I will provide specific advice on this topic. I have tried to organize the site as logically as possible, moving from a general introduction to knowledge and KM to introducing key subjects like organizational memory, learning, and culture. The later sections discuss several models and frameworks as well as knowledge management initiatives, strategy, and systems, before finally presenting an overview of various tools and techniques.

Knowledge, Information and Data

Defining Knowledge, Information, Data

Before one can begin to talk about knowledge management (KM), one must start by clearly defining the meaning of the word "knowledge". It is important to understand what constitutes knowledge and what falls under the category of information or data. Unfortunately, this is a more difficult task than may be apparent at first. Within everyday language, within specific fields, and even within the same disciplines, the word "knowledge" often takes on a variety of meanings.

Perspectives on Knowledge, Information, Data

In everyday language we use knowledge all the time. Sometimes we mean knowhow, while other times we are talking about wisdom. On many occasions we even use it to refer to information. Part of the difficulty of defining knowledge arises from its relationship to two other concepts, namely data and information. These two terms are often regarded as lower denominations of knowledge, but the exact relationship varies greatly from one example to another.

Within more technologically oriented disciplines- particularly involving information systems- knowledge is often treated very similarly to information. It is seen as something one can codify and transmit, and where IT plays a pivotal role in knowledge sharing. For instance, the encyclopedia at fact- defines it as: "information that has a purpose or use."

This kind of simplistic view of knowledge was particularly widespread during the 90s when information technology became increasingly more common. However even today, some KM systems are little more than information management systems using knowledge as a virtual synonym for information.

To illustrate, Theirauf (1999) defines the three components as follows: data is the lowest point, an unstructured collection of facts and figures; information is the next level, and it is regarded as structured data; finally, knowledge is defined as "information about information".

However, increasingly one sees definitions that treat knowledge as a more complex and personal concept that incorporate more than just information. The Longman online dictionary has one definition that begins to approach the way that knowledge is usually regarded within KM. It states "the information, skills, and understanding that you have gained through learning or experience." Although still

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