Knowledge Management

Concepts and methods for delivering

knowledge in the digital age

VISION SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT

UDAIPUR ROAD, CHITTORGARH (RAJ.)
Email: vision_mgmt@yahoo.com Manish Sharma
www.visionmanagement.org MBA II Sem
Objectives for this session

 To explore the concepts & theory

of Knowledge Management (KM)
 To learn about some KM programs
 To discuss the idea of KM in
Postsecondary Education and in IR
 To identify some of the
controversies around KM
Knowledge Management
What is Knowledge Management?
 Defined in a variety of ways.
 KM in education: a strategy to enable
people to develop a set of practices to
create, capture, share & use knowledge to
advance.
 KM focuses on:
 people who create and use knowledge.
 processes and technologies by which knowledge is
created, maintained and accessed.
 artifacts in which knowledge is stored (manuals,
databases, intranets, books, heads).
What is Knowledge Management?
“Knowledge management is a discipline
that promotes an integrated approach
to identifying, managing and sharing all
of an enterprise’s information needs.
These information assets may include
databases, documents, policies and
procedures as well as previously
unarticulated expertise and experience
resident in individual workers.”
A Community College’s Definition

“A discipline and framework

designed to help our
organization acquire, package
and share “what we know” to
enable decision-making,
creativity, innovation and
communication.”
Where does KM come from?
 Technology
 Infrastructure, Database, Web, Interface
 Globalization
 World wide markets, North American integration
 Demographics
 Aging population, workforce mobility, diversity
 Economics
 Knowledge economy
 Customer relations
 Quality
 Increase in information
 Specialization, Volume, Order
The Rise of the
Knowledge Worker
100%

90%
80%

70%
60%

50%

40%
30%

20%
10%

0%
1900 1910 1920 1930 1940 1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000

farmworkers labourers & operators crafts

service clerical sales
managerial & admin. prof. & tech.
Why KM?
Need of KM
 Marketplaces are increasingly competitive and the
rate of innovation is rising.
 Reductions in staffing create a need to replace
informal knowledge with formal methods.
 Competitive pressures reduce the size of the work
force that holds valuable business knowledge.
 The amount of time available to experience and
acquire knowledge has diminished.
 Early retirements and increasing mobility of the work
force lead to loss of knowledge.
 There is a need to manage increasing complexity as
small operating companies are trans-national
sourcing operations.
 Changes in strategic direction may result in the loss
of knowledge in a specific area.
 What is Knowledge?
 Knowledge is justified true
belief. Ayer, A.J. (1956). The Problem of
Knowledge.

 Knowledge is information in
action. O’Dell C. & Grayson Jr., C.J. (1998). If only
we knew what we know.
Data, Information & Knowledge

DATA I NFORMATI ON KNOWLEDGE

Definition Raw facts, figures Data placed into Information in
and records a form that is context to make
contained in a accessible, timely it insightful and
system. and accurate. relevant for
human action.
Reason Processing Storing / Insight,
Accessing. innovation,
improvement.
Two types of knowledge
Know-how & learning
Documented embedded within the
information that can minds people.
facilitate action.
Explicit knowledge Implicit (Tacit)
 Formal or codified knowledge
 Documents: reports,  Informal and
policy manuals, white uncodified
papers, standard
procedures  Values, perspectives &
 Databases culture
 Books, magazines,  Knowledge in heads
journals (library)  Memories of staff,
suppliers and vendors
Knowledge informs decisions and actions.
 Layers of knowledge
Explicit
Implicit (Tacit)
In people’s heads. Individual Personal documents
on my C:\

• Undocumented
ways of working in • Formalized process
teams, teaching. for developing
Organizational curriculum.
• Cultural
conventions • Corporate polices
known and and
followed procedures.
but not
formalized.
In the Business World
 KM is becoming a “big deal” in
industry.
 KM involves collaboration,
organizational learning, best
practices, workflow, IP management,
document management, customer
focus and using data meaningfully
[data mining].
 KM requires understanding the soft
skills necessary to work with people.
What are Indian companies doing?
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Capture & share

best practices

Corporate learning
strategies

CRM

Competitive
intelligence

81% of businesses with KM solutions

see productivity improvements.
What are organizations doing in
India?
1. Knowledge capture and acquisition
 E.g., environmental scanning.
2. Developing strategies for implicit K
sharing:
 E.g., CoPs, virtual teams, list of experts
& mentoring.
3. Using technologies to store, analyze
& distribute explicit K.
 Corporate portals, business K base,
process control inventories, CRM.
Relevance to Public Sector
 Not on the agenda of most
 However, universities and
colleges are in the knowledge
business.
 Many have KM organizational
initiatives
(e.g., IIT Bombay, IiM Bangalore etc.)

 Some use technology

 and some offer KM education.
 Technology Components of a KM
Solution
 Portals
 Websites
 Search Engines
 Shared Drives
 Specialty Knowledge Applications
• Share Point

• FAQ and Lessons Learned

• Online survey tool

 Knowledge and Information Tools

 Web Portals
An electronic gateway to a comprehensive pool of
information and services that is organized and
presented to serve the needs of a defined user
population.
 Visual appeal; ease of navigation

 Organized around user’s information and

transaction needs
 Is customized by system to meet user’s needs and

convenience
 May be personalized by user to meet user’s

preferences
Illustrated KM Models
Tiered Knowledge Management Model (TKMM)
in Institutional Research

Tiers:
Tiers:
Data Mining
three Classical Knowledge Base
multivariate one
statistics
Knowledge
Workers

Querying Portals
two
OLAP CRM Collaborative
Working two
Environment
(CWE)
one Data Warehouses Knowled three
Enterprise Resource ge
Planning (ERP) Mapping

Explicit Knowledge Tacit

Knowledge
KM Courses
 Knowledge Management - An Overview .
 Organizational Culture – Adapting to
Change.
 Knowledge.
 Training and Development. Mapping an
Organization
 KM Process Management:
 Creating, structuring, storing knowledge.
 Retrieving, acquiring and using knowledge.
KM is Nonsense
 KM is a management consultant conspiracy
(search and replace marketing).
 KM practitioners don’t know what
“knowledge” really is.
 KM is the ‘Learning Organization’
rebranded.
 KM cheerleaders misunderstand tacit
knowledge (Polanyi’s sense).
 KM is nothing new.
KM is here to stay

KNOWLEDGE IS LIKE LIGHT. Weightless

and intangible, it can easily travel the
world, enlightening the lives of people
everywhere. Yet billions of people still
live in poverty unnecessarily. Knowledge
about how to treat such a simple ailment
as diarrhea has existed for centuries but
millions of children continue to die from
it because their parents do not know
how to save them.