Knowledge Management

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The Information Hierarchy

Wisdom
(Experience
coupled with
judgement)

Knowledge
Focus
(Tried & tested facts)

Information
(Organized facts)
Data
(Raw facts) 2
Characteristics of Knowledge
► Resource intensive organizational asset
► Exists in two main forms (tacit & explicit)
► Exists somewhere
► Is contextual (cannot be applied at random)
► Is conditional (one needs to know when to apply a certain concept)
► Demands individuals to know the why certain events happen

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 Knowledge Management (KM)
Definition
► Set of business processes developed in an organization to create, store,
transfer, and use knowledge (Laudon & Laudon, 2018)
► Knowledge management (KM) is also defined as doing the right thing to get
the most out of knowledge resources.
► KM focuses on organizing and making available important knowledge, as per
need

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 Why Practice KM?
► Knowledge is of central importance to advanced
economies
► Knowledge is key to organisational performance
► Organisations and work have become more knowledge
intensive
► Progressive organisations have embraced knowledge
management in addition to their information
management processes.

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 Why Practice KM?
► Through sharing of knowledge, a company creates
exponential benefits from the knowledge as people learn
from it.
► KM is a means of building better sensitivity to “brain drain”
► KM is a means of reacting instantly to new business
opportunities.
► KM shortens the learning curve in new environments.

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 When to adopt KM
► Is current knowledge going to be lost?
► Is proposed system needed in several locations?
► Are experts available/willing?
► Can experts articulate how the problem will be solved?
► Is there a sponsor for KM?

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 KM Driving Forces
► Increasing Domain Complexity
Intricacy of internal and external processes, increased competition,
and the rapid advancement of technology all contribute to increasing
domain complexity.

► Accelerating Market Volatility

The pace of change, or volatility, within each market domain has
increased rapidly in the past decades.

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 KM Driving Forces
► Intensified Speed of Responsiveness
The time required to take action based upon subtle changes within
and across domains is decreasing.
► Diminishing Individual Experience
High employee turnover rates have resulted in individuals with
decision-making authority having less tenure within their
organizations than ever before.

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 Who should embrace KM?
► KM is important for all organizations
► Today’s decision maker faces the pressure to make better and faster
decisions in an environment characterized by a high domain of
complexity and market volatility, even in light of:
► lack of experience typically from the decision-makers
► outcome those decisions could have such a considerable impact
on the organization

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Knowledge Management Value Chain

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 Knowledge Management value chain

► Shows that each stage adds value to raw data and

information to transform it into usable knowledge
► Effective knowledge management is 80 percent
managerial and organizational, and 20 percent
technology
► Investment in organizational capital determines how
much will be obtained from IT based systems

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Knowledge Acquisition means
► Building of information repositories (databases,
data marts, data warehouses)
► Setting up of online experts networks
► Use of knowledge workstations
► Compilation of industry reports, legal opinions,
scientific research, and government statistics

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 Knowledge Storage
► Use of databases
► Use of expert systems/ knowledge bases
► Encourage pooling and frequent updates of
knowledge stores

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 Knowledge Dissemination
The value of knowledge is obtained from systematic dissemination
Tools:-
▪ portals,
▪ websites,
▪ e-mail,
▪ instant messaging,
▪ wikis,
▪ social networks, and
▪ search engines 15
 Knowledge Application
► Knowledge needs to be built into decision making through
appropriate systems
► Incorporated into business processes
► Built into enterprise application systems
► Used to create new business practices, new products and
services, and new markets for the organization

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 An Ideal Organizational Culture
Hints for Organizational KM:-
► Develop new organizational roles and responsibilities for the acquisition of
knowledge.
► Create communities of practice (COPs) - Personnel with similar work-related
activities and interests.
► COPs support self- and group education, conferences, online newsletters, and
day-today exchange of expertise
► COPs share useful documents, create document repositories, and filter information
for newcomers.
► COPs help to reduce the learning curve for new employees
► COPs facilitate generation of new ideas, techniques, and decision making
behaviour
► Set up and use an appropriate KM system. 17
Types of Knowledge Management Systems

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 Enterprise Content Management System
► Capture, store, retrieve, distribute, and preserve knowledge.
► Manage both structured & unstructured knowledge
► Facilitate access to external sources of knowledge
► Reduce time required to search for documents, shortening project
schedules, improving the quality of decisions, and minimizing rework.
► Enable tagging of data, interfacing with corporate databases where the
documents are stored, and creating an enterprise portal environment for
employees

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 Enterprise Content Management System

Content management systems can classify,

organise and manage structured and semi-
structured knowledge availing it to the whole 20
organisation.
**Research on tools
Learning management systems (LMS)
► Tools for management, delivery, tracking, and assessment of
various types of employee learning and training
► Enable both synchronous and asynchronous learning
► Can help to keep track of skills acquisition as well as knowledge
sources for future training
► Massive open online courses (MOOCs) accessible through
membership to communities of practice can complement
employee training done through LMS
► LMS Platforms include Sakai, Moodle, Google Classroom

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Knowledge Work Systems
► Exploits tacit knowledge in experts
► Provide an online directory of corporate experts in particular
knowledge domains
► Compile and store solutions developed by experts as best
practices or frequently asked questions (FAQ) repository

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Role of Knowledge Workers
Who are they?
Scientists
Engineers
Researchers
Designers
Their main role:-
► Keeping the organization current in knowledge as it develops in the external world
► Serving as internal consultants regarding the areas of their knowledge, the changes taking
place, and opportunities
► Acting as change agents, evaluating, initiating, and promoting change projects

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Ideal Knowledge Work Station
For research and scientific work stations
these are the requirements:-
Powerful graphics,
Analytical tools,
Communications
Document management capabilities

NB. Workstations are designed to

handle specific processes

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 Knowledge Work Systems
► Create & integrate knowledge into organizations
► Either clerical or specialized
► Clerical – secretarial (use office automation systems)
► Specialized – optimized for specific tasks, e.g.
► CAD - automates the creation and revision of designs,
► Virtual reality systems - for simulation and modelling,
► Financial workstations

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 CAD Systems
► Automate the creation and revision of designs, using computers and
sophisticated graphics software
► Enable testing and change of design of products before actual
implementation
► Time & money saving systems

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 Virtual Reality Systems
► Computer-generated, interactive, three-dimensional environment
in which people become completely immersed
► Possess visualization, rendering, and simulation capabilities
► Provide a feeling of real world situations
► Used with specialized equipment that give the user direct
interaction with the computer system
► Can be used to train mechanics, surgeons, pilots, etc

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Augmented Reality Systems
► Computer-generated, interactive, three-dimensional environment
in which people maintain a presence in the real world
► Most popular in computer games
► Can be used by interior designers, sports persons and property real
estates
► Can be used by surgeons to superimpose diagnostics data with the
patient on operations

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 Artificial Intelligence Systems
► Tacit Knowledge can be captured through:
► Expert systems – narrow domain apps.
-Have a knowledge base & inference engine
-Inference engine can employ forward/ backward
chaining
► Case-based reasoning –represent knowledge as a sequence of
cases
► Fuzzy logic – capture knowledge where there are range values,
can be used in temp control
► Knowledge discovery can be performed through
► Neural networks ???
► Data mining ??? 29
 Summary -Role of KM in Business
► KM helps to create, store, transfer, and apply knowledge in
the organization.
► Determines a firm’s value
► KM promotes organizational learning
► Three major types of knowledge management systems:
► Enterprise-wide knowledge management systems,
► Knowledge work systems, and
► Intelligent techniques

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