KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

1
KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT

• THE NEXT IT TOOL OR CHANGING THE ORGANISATIONAL
  CULTURE?

2
PERSPECTIVES ON KM

• As many definitions as writers on the subject!
• Views on what it is depends on discipline you are
  coming from information systems, computer
  science, management, organisational behaviour,
  sociology
• Optimistic view of ICTs to enable and support
  knowledge sharing
• Pessimistic view of ICTs nature of knowledge
  makes it difficult to share it using technology

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PERSPECTIVES ON KM

• KM as a technological solution
• Taking a process approach identify, acquire,
  catalogue and store for subsequent retrieval and
  use. Use techniques and tools to map and model
  know how
• Tends to over emphasise processes and modelling
  and little emphasis on human factors

4
PERSPECTIVES ON KM

• KM as people
• Encouraging a knowledge culture so that knowledge
  is created and shared
• Communities of practice where knowledge is shared
• ICTs as facilitative ie to enable knowledge
  sharing and distribution

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THE PROCESS VIEW

• Knowledge can be captured, codified, stored and
  distributed
• Important tacit knowledge can be abstracted from
  content, made portable, transferred
• Strategy to capture and distribute knowledge
  through the use of IT systems

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THE PROCESS VIEW

• Capturing knowledge how to capture tacit
  knowledge and convert it into rules that the
  computer can use. Different techniques to elicit
  knowledge
• Codify the knowledge put it into a form to make
  it useful for transfer and effective use
• Store the knowledge in a knowledge repository
• Distribute the knowledge promote and share
  knowledge, collaboration, networking

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THE PROCESS VIEW

• Build organisational memory (eg Morrison 1997)
  through acquisition, searching, retrieval and
  maintenance of information
• Information comes from transaction data,
  processes, documents, articles and paperwork,
  knowledge of individuals, unofficial culture,
  databases

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THE PROCESS VIEW

• Too much emphasis on processes rather than the
  knowledge
• Access to information and knowledge is no
  indication of how it will be used
• Process driven approach may inhibit innovation
  and creativity
• Does not address barriers to KM
• Treating knowledge as a commodity underplays the
  role of the staff
• Tacit knowledge is embedded in social and
  cultural values

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THE KNOWLEDGE ORGANISATION

• Nonaka and Takeuchi Knowledge Spiral as a
  framework for a learning organisation
• How tacit knowledge and explicit knowledge
  interact to create knowledge in an organisation
  through four conversion processes
• Individual knowledge becomes organisational
  knowledge and vice versa
• Organisational knowledge is embedded in
  documents, databases, routines, processes,
  practices and norms

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THE KNOWLEDGE CONVERSION PROCESS

• Socialisation tacit-to-tacit where
  individuals acquire new knowledge directly from
  others through observation and dialogue
• Externalisation tacit-to-explicit the
  articulation of knowledge into tangible form
  through discussion and documentation
• Combination explicit-to-explicit combining
  different forms of explicit knowledge, such as
  that in documents or databases
• Internalisation explicit-to-tacit such as
  learning by doing, where individuals internalise
  knowledge from documents into their own experience

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THE KNOWLEDGE CONVERSION PROCESS
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KNOWLEDGE CONVERSION

• Still quite process oriented
• Is this really how knowledge is created?
• Issues eg internalisation depends on the
  individual
• Can tacit knowledge be easily converted to
  explicit? See above!

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THE COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVE

• Emphasis on the idea of developing communities of
  practice for effective sharing of knowledge
• Linking and connecting people a cultivation
  approach
• Technology alone cannot make organisations more
  knowledgeable use of ICTs for knowledge
  sharing is limited
• Too much emphasis on technology ignores social
  and cultural factors.

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THE COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVE

• Knowledge flows through social networks that
  connect people
• Knowledge is social in nature and important tacit
  knowledge is situated in the communities that
  create it
• Sharing knowledge involves people constructing
  meaning from different experiences
• Tacit and explicit knowledge are inseparable and
  are mutually constructed

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THE COMMUNITY PERSPECTIVE

• Development of communities of practice who
  develop their own ways of working, values etc
  which shape the way knowledge is developed and
  shared
• Strategy is to develop knowledge sharing between
  individuals

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ICTs AND KM

• For effective sharing of tacit knowledge, a
  significant amount of social interaction is
  required.
• Technology based knowledge sharing needs to be
  supported by other mechanisms
• IT supported KM succeeds best where there is a
  degree of common knowledge between the parties
  involved
• People have to be willing to share the knowledge
  in the first place!

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ICTs AND KM

• Over-emphasis on the use of technology to capture
  and communicate knowledge neglects the importance
  attached to its validation and application
• ICTs can support the social processes through
  which knowledge is validated, but it is not a
  substitute for these processes

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KM TOOLS

• Knowledge repositories data warehouses, document
  management, databases in general
• Knowledge discovery data mining, text mining
• Knowledge development simulation and modelling
  software
• Collaborative technologies Group Decision
  Support Systems, Intranets
• It has been said that the real tools of KM are
  email and word processing

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KM FAILURE

• Jumping on the technology bandwagon
• Interventions which attempted to convert tacit
  knowledge to explicit knowledge
• Lack of understanding of the difference between
  information and knowledge
• Insufficient attention paid to the human
  dimension eg culture, environment, behaviour

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KM SUCCESS

• Flexible organisational structure
• An organisational culture which supports
  knowledge sharing and creation
• Leadership and support
• Processes in place to enable people to share and
  create knowledge
• Appropriate technology support

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PROBLEMS WITH KM

• Problems of polarisation of debates IT v social
  relations
• Problem of assumption that knowledge can be
  objectified and can be separated from the
  individuals and the context in which it is
  applied
• How to assess the relationship between
  organisational knowledge and ICTs?