Foundation Course in Information Technology

This document has been prepared by Archana Shrivastava with data from various sources to aid classroom discussion . For private circulation only. Not for sale.

The basic economic resource is no longer capital, nor natural resources, nor labor. It is and will be knowledge. Peter Drucker

Understanding KM
Understanding Knowledge Management requires an understanding of knowledge and the knowing process and how that differs from information and information management.

Classic Data to Knowledge Hierarchy

Wisdom Knowledge Information Data

Volume Completeness Objectivity

Less is More

Value Structure Subjectivity

Wisdom Knowledge Intelligence

Information Facts

What is Knowledge Management?

What is Data? What is Information? What is Knowledge? What is Wisdom? Can Knowledge be Managed?

Data are facts, numbers or individual entities without context or purpose. Eg- map giving detailed driving direction from one location to another
Information is data that has been organized into a meaningful context (to aid decision making). Eg . An up-to the minute traffic bulletin indicating traffic slowdown due to construction several km ahead
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Knowledge is the human capacity (potential & actual ability) to take effective action in varied and uncertain situations. Eg-awareness of alternative route
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Wisdom is a state of the human mind characterized by profound understanding and deep insight. It is often, but not necessarily, accompanied by extensive formal knowledge.
Meeker, Joseph, What is Wisdom, LANDSCAPE, Vol. 25, No. 1, Jan 1981.

Types of knowledge
Tacit Knowledge Tacit knowledge is implicit and is not necessarily or easily articulated in formal documents. The owner of this knowledge is aware that they have it and it is gained over a period of time from experiences and includes insights, emotions and the concept of 'how things are done around here'. People build up tacit knowledge during time spent in a role or within an organisation. New employees begin to build up tacit knowledge when the join a new organisation. It is often hard to share with others.

 Explicit Knowledge Explicit knowledge is the things that an individual knows and can easily write down. This type of knowledge often comes through learning by observation, reading or group discussion. Often this type of knowledge can be made into print or electronic guides or stored on an intranet or database. For example the exact sequence of steps that needs to be taken to check the receipt of journals within your information service.

Tacit versus explicit :

Tacit knowledge is knowledge stored semiconsciously and unconsciously in peoples brains and neural systems and it is uniquely personal and complex (Cole, 1998; Leonard & Sensiper, 1998 Explicit knowledge is codified and thus more easily accessible to other people (e.g., blueprints, description of best practice, manuals) Two views
explicit knowledge requires mastery of the associated tacit (Polanyi, 1966; Leonard & Sensiper, 1998) all tacit knowledge can in principle be articulated as long as the organization is willing to bear the costs of doing it (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995; Spender, 1996)

Knowledge Management
a useful definition

The systematic process of creating, maintaining and nurturing an organization to make the best use of knowledge to create business value and generate competitive advantage.
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KM - definitions
Knowledge management is the explicit and systematic management of vital knowledge and its associated processes of creating, gathering, organizing, diffusion, use and exploitation. It requires turning personal knowledge into organizational knowledge that can be widely shared throughout an organization and appropriately applied. David Skyrme, 1997

 Knowledge management is a process that helps organization s identify, select, organize, disseminate and transfer important information and expertise that are part of the organizations memory and typically reside within the organization in an unstructured manner.

Drivers of Knowledge Management

Making available increased knowledge content in the development and provision of products and services Achieving shorter new product development cycles Facilitating and managing organizational innovation and learning Leveraging the expertise of people across the organization Increasing network connectivity between employees and external groups with the objective of improving information flow Managing the proliferation of data and information in complex business environments and allowing employees to access appropriate information sources Managing intellectual capital and intellectual assets in the workforce (such as the expertise and know-how possessed by key individuals) as individuals retire and new workers are hired

KM Products
Vendors IBM/Lotus SAP PeopleSoft Oracle Siebel System Products Domino Platform QuickPlace and Sametime Discovery Server Learning Space