Introduction to Knowledge

Management

Chapter 1
OBJECTIVES
• What is Knowledge Management?
• Why Knowledge Management
• How It Came About
• KM Myths
• Implications for Knowledge Management

1-2
“Knowing ignorance is strength;
ignoring knowledge is sickness”
-Lao Tsu

• The knowledge race is on

1-3
Economic reliance on knowledge
workers is increasing
• Knowledge gap
• Customers and businesses want a more integrated
approach
• Best to say you are in the knowledge business

1-4
Three primary causes of
change

• Global literacy
• Invention of electronic infrastructures
• Social revitalization

1-5
Source:http://www.erols.com/mwhite28/literacy.htm
1-6
Revitalization and
Education
• Educators, parents, communities are concerned
about the well-being of children
• Revitalization movements are increasing
• More people are calling for values education ,
spiritual training, and customized learning
programs

1-7
Working Smarter, Not
Harder
• Overlapping Human/Organizational/ Technological
factors in KM:
• People (workforce)
• Organizational Processes
• Technology (IT infrastructure)

1-8
 WHAT IS KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT?
• Process of capturing and making use of a firm’s
collective expertise anywhere in the business
• Doing the right thing, NOT doing things right
• Viewing company processes as knowledge processes
• Knowledge creation, dissemination, upgrade, and
application toward organizational survival
• Part science, part art, part luck

1-9
 OVERLAPPING FACTORS
OF KM

PEOPLE

• Knowledge
ORGANIZATIONAL
PROCESSES

TECHNOLOGY

1-10
EXPLICIT AND TACIT
KNOWLEDGE
Oral Communication
“Tacit” Knowledge

50-95%

Information Request
“Explicit” Knowledge

Information Feedback Explicit Knowledge Base

1-11
 THE KNOWLEDGE
ORGANIZATION
Culture
Competition
Collect
Create
Organize
Techno- Intelligence
logy Maintain Knowledge
Organization

Refine
Disseminate
Knowledge
Management
Leadership
Process
KM Drivers

1-12
THE KNOWLEDGE
ORGANIZATION
• The middle layer addresses the KM life cycle
• A knowledge organization derives knowledge from
customer, product, and financial knowledge. Also
from financial practices
• Indicators of knowledge: thinking actively and
ahead, not passively and behind
• Using technology to facilitate knowledge sharing
and innovation

1-13
 IDEAL KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT
Outside
Existing methods/
processes
• New products
Environment
• New markets
• Smarter problem-
solving
• Value-added innovation
Learning
Conversion • Better quality customer
PEOPLE service
Insights New
ideas • More efficient processes
Knowledge • More experienced staff
Creation

Organizational
Knowledge
Benefits
Base

Codified Technology

1-14
IDEAL KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT
Strategy Measurement Policy Content Process Technology Culture

Knowledge
Internalization
Knowledge Knowledge
People Assets Reuse
Knowledge
Exchange
Knowledge
Capture

Knowledge
People Exchange Knowledge
Reuse People

1-15
IDEAL KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT (Fig. 1.4)
• The ideal knowledge organization allows people to
exchange knowledge across functional areas via
technology and established processes
• Knowledge internalized and adopted within the
culture of the organization

1-16
THE KM CYCLE AND THE
ORGANIZATION
Organizational
Organizational Managemen
personnel
personnel t
Decision
making

KM Life
Cycle
. capture
. gathering
. organizing
. refining
. transfer
Information
Culture technology

Figure 1-6 The KM cycle and the organization

1-17
 WHY KNOWLEDGE
MANAGEMENT?
• Sharing knowledge, a company creates exponential
benefits from the knowledge as people learn from it
• Building better sensitivity to “brain drain”
• Reacting instantly to new business opportunities
• Ensuring successful partnering and core competencies
with suppliers, vendors, customers, and other
constituents
• Shortens the learning curve

1-18
KM System Justification
• Is current knowledge going to be lost?
• Is proposed system needed in several locations?
• Are experts available/willing?
• Can experts articulate how problem will be solved?
• Is there a champion in the house?

1-19
THE DRIVERS
• Technology Drivers.
• Process Drivers
• Personnel-Specific Drivers
• Knowledge-Related Drivers
• Financial Drivers

1-20
FACTORS TRIGGERING
INTEREST IN KM
• Innovation as core competency
• Globalization and geographic dispersion changed the
organization’s scope
• Downsizing and reengineering resulted in staff attrition
and knowledge drain
• Networking and data communications made it easier and
faster to share knowledge
• Increasing dominance of knowledge as a basis for
improving efficiency and effectiveness triggered the need
for utilizing knowledge gained from previous experiences

1-21
KEY CHALLENGES
• Explaining what KM is and how it can benefit a
corporate environment
• Evaluate the firm’s core knowledge, by employee, by
department, and by division
• Learning how knowledge can be captured,
processed, and acted on
• Addressing the still neglected area of collaboration
• Continue researching KM to improve and expand its
current capabilities
• How to deal with tacit knowledge
1-22
KM MYTHS ‫اساطير‬
• KM is a fad
• KM and data warehousing are essentially the same
• KM is a new concept
• KM is mere technology
• Technology distributes human intelligence
• KM is another form of reengineering
• Company employees have difficulty sharing knowledge
• Technology is a better alternative than face-to-face
• It is “no brainer” to share what you know

1-23
KM LIFE CYCLE
Four-Process View of KM:
• Capturing – data entry, scanning, voice input,
interviewing, brainstorming
• Organizing – cataloging, indexing, filtering, linking,
codifying
• Refining – contexualizing, collaborating,
contexualizing, collaborating, compacting,
Projecting, mining
• Transfer – flow, sharing, alert, push

1-24
PROMOTING TRUST
• Decentralize organization structure to allow decision
making by teamwork
• Reduce control-based management and encourage
management by results
• Revisit company’s mission statement and ethics policy to
demonstrate its new views about values
• Assess and improve employee responsibilities and
accountability
• Eliminate unnecessary directives or barriers
• Install programs to improve employee commitment to
knowledge sharing
1-25
Conclusion
Literacy + Electronic Infrastructure +
Social Revitalization =

Opportunity for New

1-26
• Strategists needs all three change elements
• Literacy and Electronic infrastructures relate to
knowledge distribution
• Social revitalization relates to motivation

1-27
THE WORLD OF RE-
EVERYTHING
• Knowledge is productive ONLY when captured in
people’s mind
• Shareability requires decentralized intelligence
• We need to empower knowledge workers
• Top performers can be a problem; they are not the
most humble

1-28