Knowledge

Management
Concepts and methods for delivering
knowledge in the digital age

Canadian Institutional Research and Planning

Association
L’Association canadienne de planification et de Jim Goho
recherche institutionnelle Red River College
Conference 2004, Montreal jgoho@rrc.mb.ca
.ppt available at www.rrc.mb.ca/researchplan
 Knowledge Management

© United Features Syndicate, Inc.

 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).
Sources: Petrides, L.A. & Nodine, T.R (2003). Knowledge management in education: Defining the landscape.
Edvinsson, L. & Malone, M.S. (1997). Intellectual capital: Realizing your company's true value by finding its hidden
brainpower. Ford, N. (1989). From information- to knowledge-management. Journal of Information Science
Principles & Practice.
 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.”
Source: GartnerGroup Research.
 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.” (Cuyahoga Community
College)
 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

Sources: Brown J.S. & Duguid, P. (1991). Organisational learning and communities-of-
practice. Organisational Science. .O’Dell C. & Grayson Jr., C.J. (1998). If only we knew what
we know. Stewart, T. (2002). The wealth of knowledge.
 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.
Source: Stewart T.A. (1997). Intellectual capital.
 Labour market employment
shift to a knowledge economy
Average annual rate of growth in Canadian
labour market sectors (%) 1971-1996

Overall 2.1
Production 0.6
Services 2.6
Data 2.2
Management 7.6
Knowledge 4.1

0 2 4 6 8
Source: Lavoie, M. & Roy, R. (1998). Employment in the knowledge-based economy.
 Digital Students
By age 21, the average college student
will have spent:
• 10,000 hours video games
• 200,000 emails
• 20,000 hours TV
• 10,000 hours cell phone
• Under 5,000 hours reading
Source: F. Prochaska, Students and Faculty Today: Inhabiting the Evolving Universe of
Teaching, Learning, and Technology, 2003.
 Why KM?

Source: Luan, J & Serban, A. (2002, June). Knowledge management concepts, models
and applications. Paper presented at Annual AIR Forum, Toronto.
 What is Knowledge?
• Knowledge is justified true belief. Ayer, A.J. (1956). The
Problem of Knowledge.

• Knowledge is a fluid mix of framed

experience, values, contextual information
and expert insight that provides a framework
for evaluating and incorporating new
experience and information. It originates and
is applied in the minds of knowers. In
organizations it often becomes embedded
not only in documents or repositories but also
in organizational processes, practices and
norms. Davenport, T.H. & Prusak, L (1998). Working Knowledge.
• Knowledge is information in action. O’Dell C. & Grayson
Jr., C.J. (1998). If only we knew what we know.
 Data, Information & Knowledge

Definition
Source: Luan, J & Serban, A. (2002, June). Knowledge management concepts, models and applications.
Paper presented at Annual AIR Forum, Toronto.

"We are drowning in information but starved for knowledge"

Naisbitt , J. (1984) Megatrends: Ten new directions transforming our lives.
 Two types of knowledge
Know-how & learning
Documented embedded within the
information that can minds people.
facilitate action.
Explicit knowledge Implicit (Tacit) knowledge
• Formal or codified
• Documents: reports, • Informal and uncodified
policy manuals, white • Values, perspectives &
papers, standard culture
procedures
• Databases • Knowledge in heads
• Books, magazines, • Memories of staff, suppliers
journals (library) and vendors

Knowledge informs decisions and actions.

Sources: Polanyi, M. (1967). The tacit dimension. Leonard, D. & Sensiper, S. (1998). The Role of Tacit Knowledge in
Group Innovation. California Management Review.
 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. Organizational for developing
• Cultural curriculum.
conventions • Corporate polices
known and and
followed procedures.
but not
Source: Luan, J & Serban, A. (2002, June). Knowledge management concepts, models and applications.

formalized.
Paper presented at Annual AIR Forum, Toronto.
 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.
Source: Clare Hart, President and CEO
Factiva, Knowledge Management London 4 April
2001
 What are USA companies doing?
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

Capture & share

best practices

Corporate learning
strategies

CRM

Competitive
intelligence
[Source: Milan, J. (2001) KM: A revolution waiting for IR. Paper presented at the 41st Annual AIR Forum.]

81% of businesses with KM solutions

see productivity improvements. [Malhotra, Y. (2001).
 If Statistics Canada
Measures KM It Must Exist.
Proportion of firms with dedicated spending
on KM practices

2,000 & more workers

500-1,999 workers
250-499 workers

50-249 workers
Less than 50 workers

0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

urce: Statistics Canada. (2002) Are we managing our knowledge?

 What are organizations doing
in Canada?
1. Knowledge capture and acquisition
• E.g., environmental scanning.
1. Developing strategies for implicit K
sharing:
• E.g., CoPs, virtual teams, list of experts &
mentoring.
1. Using technologies to store, analyze &
distribute explicit K.
• Corporate portals, business K base, process
control inventories, CRM.

urce: Statistics Canada. (2002) Are we managing our knowledge?

 Relevance to PSE
• Not on the agenda of most (Kidwell, Vander Linde &
Johnson, 2000).

• However, universities and colleges

are in the knowledge business.
• Many have KM organizational
initiatives (e.g., Washington State Univ., Jackson State Univ., Santa Barbara City College,
Cuyahoga Community College)

• Some use technology

• and some offer KM education.
• George Mason, Dominican Univ., Univ. of Washington, RRC
 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
 Campus Web Portals
(2003 National Survey of IT in US Higher Education)

28% of institutions have web-based

campus portals (21% in 2002)

Source: Green, K.C. The Campus Computing Project

 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.

Source: Green, K.C. The Campus Computing Project

 Characteristics of Web
Portals
• 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
Source: Green, K.C. The Campus Computing Project
 What’s KM in IR?
• Information authority.
• Spin doctor.
• Policy wonk.
• Scholar & researcher.
• Manager of knowledge.

Source: Serban, A.M. (2002). KM: The fifth face of IR.

 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

Source: Luan J. & Serban A.M. , (2002). KM: Building a competitive advantage in higher education.
 KM at RRC
• Learning about KM.
• Knowledge capture & acquisition.
• Knowledge sharing.
• KM strategy.
• ConnectRRC!
• Continuing Education program.
 IR and KM
• Documentation – data dictionary.
• Enrolment management (forecasting
model).
• Academic curriculum renewal – program
benchmarking – best practices.
• Strategic planning.
• Web deployment of IR.
 Environmental Scanning
• Formalized annual scanning process.
• Internal and external.
• Tested against knowledge of College Board,
leaders, faculty and staff.
• Face to face
• Web consultation.
• Used to inform strategic and operational
plans.
• Vision, mission, values, goals, and objectives.

www.rrc.mb.ca/researchplan
 Learner Management
• Go from reporting what happened to why it
happened to forecast what will happen.
• Graduate outcomes
• Employment – logistic and multinomial regression.
• Earnings – linear regression.
• Collapsing satisfaction questions – factor
analysis.
• Effectiveness of selection interviews – meta-
analysis.
• Goal – Forecast which prospective students
will be consistent donors as alumni.
 ConnectRRC!
• Community of interests.
• Will build for the future.
• Start at the grassroots level.
• Bring together people who have an interest in KM.
• Work together to connect and share.
• Promote an understanding and use of KM.
• Website: http://connect.rrc.mb.ca

Source: George Siemens, RRC.

 Activities
• Blogging/aggregation.
• New model innovation built on the unique
attributes of the Internet/
• Listserv.
• Face to face forums.
• Collaborate, e.g., RROC.

Source: George Siemens, RRC.

 Other things
- Sharepoint - small team collaboration -
already being used by several
committees, connect, instructors, etc..
• Informal knowledge sharing
• College-wide FAQs

Source: George Siemens, RRC.

 KM Courses
• Knowledge Management - An Overview .
• Organizational Culture – Adapting to Change.
• Knowledge Mapping an Organization.
• Training and Development.
• 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.

Source: Wilson, T.D. (2002). The nonsense of ‘knowledge management.’

Information Research, 8(1).
 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.
Source: Opening statement of the World Bank 1998/99 World Development Report: Knowledge for Development.

man history becomes more and more a race between education and catastrophe.
G. Wells.