Knowledge Management Explained..

• “Knowledge management is the process of capturing, distributing, and effectively using knowledge.“(Davenport,1994)

• "Knowledge management is a discipline that promotes an integrated approach to identifying, capturing, evaluating, retrieving, and sharing all of an enterprise's information assets. These assets may include databases, documents, policies, procedures, and previously un-captured expertise and experience in individual workers.“(Duhon, 1998)

• Central thrust: to capture and make available

What is KM?

• KM based on IBM

• “KM as the movement to replicate information environment known to be conducive to successful R&D and deploy it broadly across the firm”.

COLLECTING (STUFF) & CODIFICATION

CONNECTING (PEOPLE) & PERSONALIZATION

COLLECTING (STUFF) & CODIFICATION CONNECTING (PEOPLE) & PERSONALIZATION

DIRECTED INFORMATION & KNOWLEDGE SEARCHEXPLOIT

•Databases, external & internal•Content Architecture•Information Service Support (training required)•data mining best practices / lessons learned/after action analysis(HARVEST)

•community & learning•directories, "yellow pages" (expertise locators)•findings & facilitating tools, groupware•response teams(HARNESS)

SERENDIPITY & BROWSINGEXPLORE

•Cultural support•current awareness profiles and databases•selection of items for alerting purposes / push•data mining best practices(HUNTING)

•Cultural support•spaces - libraries & lounges (literal & virtual), cultural support, groupware•travel & meeting attendance(HYPOTHESIZE)

EXPLICIT, IMPLICIT, AND TACIT KNOWLEDGE

• Explicit: information/ knowledge that is set out in tangible form • Implicit: information/ knowledge that is not set out in

tangible form but could be made explicit. • Tacit: information/ knowledge that one would have

extreme difficulty operationally setting out in tangible form.

EXPLICIT, IMPLICIT, AND TACIT KNOWLEDGE

• ‘True’ tacit knowledge: kinesthetic knowledge to design and engineer home bread maker • Danger of explicit-tacit dichotomy: - become easy to think overly simplistically in terms of

explicit (collecting) and tacit (connecting) knowledge. - overlook the fact that what may be needed is to convert

implicit tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge (after action reports)

1. Lessons Learned

Databases

2. Expertise Location

3. Communiti

es of Practice (CoPs)

What is involved in KM?

LESSONS LEARNED DATABASES

LESSONS LEARNED DATABASES• Databases that attempt to capture and to make

accessible knowledge that has been operationally obtained and typically would not have been captured in a fixed medium (copyright terminology).

• In KM context, the emphasis is typically upon capturing knowledge embedded in person and making it explicit.

• The lessons learned concept/practice is one that might be described as having been birthed by KM, as there is very little in the way of a direct antecedent.

• (term changed) “Best Practices” (seemed too restrictive) → “Lessons Learned”(broader and more inclusive term)

LESSONS LEARNED DATABASES• One such possible antecedent was the World War II debriefing of

pilots after a mission.

• primary purpose = to gather military intelligence,

• secondary purpose = to identify lessons learned• U. S. Navy Submarine Service, after the lengthy fiasco of

torpedo failure to detonate properly and follow up on sub captain consistent torpedo failure report, instituted a system of widely disseminated “Captain’s Patrol Report” with the intent of avoiding any such fiasco in the future.

• The Captain’s Patrol Report were very designed to encourage analytical reporting, with reasoned analyses of the reasons for failure and success.

• The military has become an avid proponent of the lessons learned concept.

LESSONS LEARNED DATABASES• The concept is by no means limited to the military.

• KM department at Wyeth Pharmaceuticals.

• Wyeth had recently introduced a new pharmaceutical agent primarily for pediatric use.

• Expectation → substantial success

• Sales of the drug started well, but, soon turned disappointing.

• Problem → the kid objected strenuously to the taste of the drug.

• Solution → Orange juice. Give a glass of orange juice with the pill to kid. Orange juice quite effectively masked the offensive taste.

LESSONS LEARNED DATABASES• The implementation of a lessons learned system is

complex both politically and operationally.

• Most successful lessons learned systems have an active weeding or stratification process.

• Without a clearly designed process for weeding, the proportion of new and crisp items inevitably declines, the system begins to look stale and usage and utility falls.

• DELETION, of course, is not necessarily loss and destruction.

• Using stratification principles, items removed from the foreground can be achieved and moved to the background but still made available.

2. Expertise Location

• Best ways to learn from experts – Talk to that experts.• Problem? To find the right experts.• Before this in the early days of KM, we have “Yellow Page” systems• Today, the term expertise locator / expertise location have become more

precise. • There are 3 areas

1.  typically supply data for an expertise locator system, employee resumes, employee self identification of areas of expertise,

2. typically by being requested to fill out a form online, or by algorithmic analysis of electronic communications from and to the employee. 

3. typically based on email traffic but can include other social networking electronic communications such as Twitter and Facebook.

3.Communities of Practice (CoPs)

• What is CoPs? –

Groups of individuals with shared interests that come together in person or virtually to tell stories, to share and discuss problems and opportunities, discuss best practices, and talk over lessons learned.

(Wenger, 1998; Wenger & Synder, 1999)• In the old days, they always sharing the knowledge in informal ways during their working hours and often taken for granted but this need to be virtual.

• But now, the workers give up a company office to work online from home or on the road

• In context of KM, CoPs are generally understood to mean electronically linked communities (not essential, but understandable and inevitable)

Cont…

• The organization and maintenance of CoPs is not easy. • For a CoP some questions that need to be thought about are;

1. Who fills the various roles of: manager, moderator and thought leader? (can be separate person in certain cases)

2. How is CoP managed?3. Are postings open or does someone vet or edit the postings?4. How is CoP kept fresh and vital?5. When and how (under what rules) are items removed?6. How are those items archived?7. Who reviews the CoP for activity?8. Who looks for a new members or suggests that the CoP may have

outlived its usefulness?

The stages of Development of knowledge management

First stage of knowledge management• Driven by information technology, IT• Also can be describe as the internet out of intellectual capital• Intellectual capital provides :

Justification and the framework The seed The abilities of the internet provide the tool

• The provided of internet can make organizations become more effectively by sharing knowledge

• Sharing knowledge Avoid reinventing the wheel Underbid with competitor Make more profits

• The important of KM in early stage – how to deploy new technology to accomplish more effective use of information and knowledge

Second stage of KM: HR and corporate culture

• Human and cultural dimension need to be addressed.

• This happened because deploying the new technology was not sufficient enough to effectively enable information & knowledge sharing.

• KM implementation involve changes in corporate culture rather than in significant changes.

• There are 2 major themes from business literature were brought into KM fold, which is about KM implementation and use, knowledge creation as well as knowledge sharing & communication:

a. Senges: work on learning organizationb. Nonaka’s: work on ‘tacit’ knowledge and

how to discover & cultivate it.

Taxonomy and Content Management

Third Stage of Knowledge Management

The importance of the arrangement, description and structure of a content

“it’s no good if they try to use it but can’t find it”

Taxonomy is the practice and science of classification

• The need to retain the knowledge of retirees. #babyboomer• Keep the retirees involved and findable through expertise

locater systems.• Interaction between the retiree and the current

employees.• The solutions arises from the interaction.• KM is seen ideally encompassing the bandwidth of

information & knowledge.• KM extends into environmental scanning and competitive

intelligence.

Other KM issues

• Bibliographic analysis – comparing the number of articles in the business literature (accounting, banking, retail trade etc) with the other business enthusiasms.• Most business enthusiasms grow rapidly and reach peak

for about five years, then decline almost as rapidly as they grow.• The power of the phrase “knowledge management” in the

title.• KM is no mere enthusiasm.

KM is here to stay

Thank you

#bookrecommendation

Knowledge Management (KM)Process in Organizations:Theoretical Foundations and Practice

By.. Claire R. Mclnerney & Mchael E. D. Koenig