Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge
The Knowledge Management Landscape
• Important dimensions of knowledge
• Knowledge is a firm asset
• Intangible
• Creation of knowledge from data, information, requires
organizational resources
• As it is shared, experiences network effects
• Knowledge has different forms
• May be explicit (documented) or tacit (residing in minds)
• Know-how, craft, skill
• How to follow procedure
• Knowing why things happen (causality)
11.2 © 2010 by Prentice Hall
Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge
The Knowledge Management Landscape
• Important dimensions of knowledge (cont.)
• Knowledge has a location
• Cognitive event
• Both social and individual
• Knowledge is situational
• Conditional: Knowing when to apply procedure
• Contextual: Knowing circumstances to use certain tool
11.3 © 2010 by Prentice Hall
Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge
The Knowledge Management Landscape
• To transform information into knowledge, firm must expend
additional resources to discover patterns, rules, and contexts where
knowledge works
• Wisdom: Collective and individual experience of applying
knowledge to solve problems
• Involves where, when, and how to apply knowledge
• Knowing how to do things effectively and efficiently in ways other
organizations cannot duplicate is primary source of profit and
competitive advantage that cannot be purchased easily by
competitors
• E.g., Having a unique build-to-order production system
11.4 © 2010 by Prentice Hall
Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge
The Knowledge Management Landscape
• Knowledge management: Set of business processes
developed in an organization to create, store, transfer,
and apply knowledge
• Knowledge management value chain:
• Each stage adds value to raw data and information
as they are transformed into usable knowledge
• Knowledge acquisition
• Knowledge storage
• Knowledge dissemination
• Knowledge application
11.5 © 2010 by Prentice Hall
Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge
The Knowledge Management Landscape
The Knowledge Management Value Chain
Figure 11-2
Knowledge management
today involves both
information systems
activities and a host of
enabling management and
organizational activities.
11.6 © 2010 by Prentice Hall
Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge
The Knowledge Management Landscape
• Three major types of knowledge management
systems:
• Enterprise-wide knowledge management systems
• General-purpose firm-wide efforts to collect, store, distribute, and
apply digital content and knowledge
• Knowledge work systems (KWS)
• Specialized systems built for engineers, scientists, other knowledge
workers charged with discovering and creating new knowledge
• Intelligent techniques
• Diverse group of techniques such as data mining used for various
goals: discovering knowledge, distilling knowledge, discovering
optimal solutions
11.7 © 2010 by Prentice Hall
Management Information Systems
Chapter 11 Managing Knowledge
The Knowledge Management Landscape
Major Types of Knowledge Management Systems
There are three major categories of knowledge management systems, and each can be
broken down further into more specialized types of knowledge management systems.
Figure 11-3
11.8 © 2010 by Prentice Hall
